Doctor Who_ The City of the Dead - Lloyd Rose [72]
'Fair enough,' the Doctor conceded reluctantly. 'On the other hand,' he continued as they walked to the car, 'I leave you alone for a night and you turn into a grave robber.'
'It was a hunch. And I was right, wasn't I?'
The Doctor nodded. "That log was what's known as a "stock", a piece of wood
temporarily enchanted to look like a human being.'
"Think it could stand up to an autopsy?'
'Apparently it did.'
"That's the work of someone with real power, then?' The Doctor nodded again. 'From what you've said, this Acree bloke's the right age to be Delesormes Jnr'
'Yes.'
'And?'
'From what I last saw of him, I don't think I'm in any danger from Teddy.'
Fitz waited, but the Doctor declined to be more forthcoming. They drove back downtown in silence. Finally, as they entered the Quarter, Fitz said,
'Well, what next?'
'I think I'll take a walk,' said the Doctor.
Father Joel wasn't sure what to do about the man in the back pew. He had noticed him immediately because he had a face like something from a Renaissance altarpiece and because he wasn't praying, just sitting quietly.
Father Joel was young and new to the priesthood, but in his limited experience the people who didn't actively pray often wanted someone to approach and talk to them. Except when they didn't and became disgruntled because they couldn't even sit in quiet meditation without some busybody representative of the faith intruding on their thoughts. Father Joel examined his conscience, trying to separate his personal egotistical need to make things better from whatever he sensed the real needs of the man in the pew were. He had just decided that he was turning the situation into something all about himself and to leave the visitor in peace when, as he came up the aisle with some prayer pamphlets for the front table, the man spoke to him.
'This thing about prayer ' he said.
English, thought Father Joel. Or were you supposed to use 'British'? But that insulted the Irish, at least the southern Irish, and the man could be Irish, Father Joel's familiarity with accents not being particularly broad.
'Yes?' he said nervously.
'It seems to me that there ought to be something to it, don't you think so?
Forgive me, of course you do. But what I mean is: take the shrine next door. All those candles. Those little flames giving off their little heat. All the thoughts, all the feeling, that must have gone up in that place. Why shouldn't that have some sort of quantum reality? like gravity. It's not just some ethereal force. It took them decades finally to discover the graviton, but they knew it was there - Oh.' The man looked abashed. 'Have you discovered the graviton yet?'
'I don't know,' said Father Joel weakly.
'Actually, I don't think you have. Forget I said anything. But the point's the same. And then there's evil.'
Oh dear, thought Father Joel. He wished one of his superiors were there.
'Evil is, uh, quantum too?'
'Possibly,' said the man, interested. 'But that's not my question. It's the same old question, really - the one about moral responsibility. I think most people - Would you like to sit down?' He slid over to make room. Father Joel sat. 'Most people, whatever their stand on the existence of evil as an abstraction, believe certain actions are wicked. Deliberate cruelty.
Purposeless destruction. The abuse of the weak by the powerful. They change the definitions around for "cruelty" and "power" and "destruction" so that they can justify their own actions, but they really do believe in the wickedness of them. Otherwise they wouldn't have to lie to themselves about those definitions, would they?'
'No,' said Father Joel. He was feeling less anxious. So far the discussion was on a level he understood.
'My question is, at what point does responsibility begin for committing these sorts of actions? We except children, by and large. The law does, and the church does.'