Doctor Who_ Wooden Heart - Martin Day [46]
Abbas wondered – just for a moment – if he could gain any insight from looking at his father’s life, but he quickly discounted the notion. His own father had been a bully and a cheat; it was a happy family only on the surface, with each of them playing set roles with the skill of trained actors. Any dissent, any honesty even, had been beaten out of them with simple precision.
Abbas was going to have to sort this out for himself. He was on his own. He smiled. Just like the old days…
He called out for Gabby Jayne – habit, as much as anything else. He knew she was on a shoot until evening, and their son was safely tucked up at the nursery until four. So, time to get the evening meal on – and time to think.
Abbas wandered into the kitchen with a bag of vegetables, arranging them across the work surface once the automatic lights had flickered on. He turned to operate the control pad in the arched doorway, switching on the under-floor heating and making sure the screen in the wall was on the news channel.
He paused for a moment, letting the white noise of babbling voices wash over him, trying to force himself to relax, to get a grip on his emotions. OK, so she’d been spotted on the arm of that good-looking young actor with the famously unruly hair. It didn’t amount to anything, did it? Perhaps Gabby Jayne was just doing what she was told, putting her face about a bit for the paparazzi – by all accounts, the boy was a rising star, and the soap in which he appeared had been the number one show for months. Not that Abbas had ever seen it, of course – he had better things to do with his time than watch fictional people betray and humiliate each other. He got enough of that in real life.
Still, perhaps it was time for a peace offering – one of his special lasagnes normally did the trick. ‘Diplomats from the Pacific Rim Cooperative have told reporters that they hope that the leaders of the sub-Saharan autonomies will listen to their plans for a cessation of violence. World Minister Cho stated that the nations “need a period of peace, for the good of all our peoples”.’
Abbas snorted, thinking still of Gabby Jayne. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘That’s what we need. Peace.’
As he began slicing an onion – the control panel chirruped, offering to prepare the vegetables for him, but Abbas preferred to do it the old way – the reporter handed back to the studio.
‘Thanks, Benoit,’ said the male anchor, turning to the camera with a well-practised smile. ‘And now, other news… Scientists working at the New Rome Institute have announced that they are continuing with their controversial Chimera Project, despite opposition from human rights activists and prison reform groups. The project, which aims to rehabilitate dangerous offenders through extreme psychological processes, has been criticised for legitimising torture, and for its unusual methodology.’
Abbas reached for another onion. Though his eyes were streaming, he could just make out some sort of space station on the screen set into the wall; it spun on its axis against a milky background of bright stars and interstellar gas.
Despite everything, despite all these attempts to get Gabby Jayne out of his mind, Abbas’ mind was bursting with images of her: when they first met, their honeymoon of unseasonal rain and midnight encounters in deserted restaurants, her first big break and all the joy that had brought them… His fingers almost slipped off the knife he was using.
Blasted onions!
The newsreader continued reading the autocue as smoothly as if the words were only now occurring to him. ‘Concern has also been expressed as the research station Castor, and the Chimera Project it houses, is effectively beyond Earth jurisdiction. The station currently