Part 13 (1/2)

'Then instead of arguing with him, why don't you just shoot him with one of the pellets from your umbrella? And tell him to change his mind. It's got to be easier.'

The Doctor stopped walking so suddenly that Ace almost walked into him.

'While it is true,' he said, 'that Teller is a very stubborn man, there is no way I would ever do anything like that to him.'

'Why not? You just did it to old Henbest.'

'Henbest was not a world-cla.s.s brain whose special abilities are poised to be deployed at one of the most critical moments in human history. I would never dream of interfering in such a fas.h.i.+on. With Teller I am going to limit myself to trying to convince him through mathematical argument. Anything else would be a very bad idea. In fact, I don't think it was a very good idea doing what I did to Henbest.'

'Then why did you do it?' They were near the pond now and Ace could smell the water. She tried to locate the place where they had been fired upon, where Rosalita had been killed, but found that in the dark everything looked very different.

'I was angry,' said the Doctor.

Ace giggled and looked at the shadowy figure beside her, swinging his umbrella. 'Were you? Because of what he did to me?'

'Yes. Of course I was.'

'Good,' said Ace. 'I'm glad you were angry. I'm glad you've stood up for me.

I've had a terrible day. I've been shot at, I've been drugged and interrogated, I had that awful Professor Apple write me that creepy note. . . '

'And you saw a dead rat.'

'Yeah, and that. So the way I see it, the least you can do is give me some straight answers.'

'Very well,' said the Doctor patiently.

'If changing Teller's mind about the chain reaction is one of our main objectives, then what are the others? The other objectives?'

'To keep a close eye on our friend Cosmic Ray. And I see that chiefly as your task. For the rest of our brief stay here I must devote most of my time to Teller.81.

You will have to look after Ray.'

'No way.'

'Ace, please.'

'Not unless I know more about him. I don't know whether to like him and trust him or hate him and fear him.'

'It's a complex universe,' said the Doctor, with a note of amus.e.m.e.nt in his voice.

'Let's try and make it a little less complex, eh? Just tell me, is Ray one of the bad guys or what?'

'Ray is not one of the bad guys.'

'Good.'

'But Ray is in league in league with the bad guys.' with the bad guys.'

'Oh, what?'

The Doctor sighed. 'I said it was a complex universe. Ray does not mean anyone any harm. But he is being coerced by sinister forces who might just manipulate him into having a hand in an unimaginable catastrophe.'

'Coerced? Manipulate? So you think he's an innocent p.a.w.n in their game, kind of thing?'

'Precisely.' The Doctor reached the fork in the road that led to the Fuller Lodge, but he kept walking in the other direction.

'Where are you going?'

'To check on the aforementioned Ray.'

'But you said that was my job.'

'I thought you'd had a long day and were tired.'

'No,' said Ace, hurrying after him.

They found Ray sitting on the floor of his front room, fat bare thighs jutting from chequered black-and-white shorts, rotund torso shrouded in a red-and-black Hawaiian s.h.i.+rt depicting bamboo, a black beret on his head, which dipped and nodded in time to the music. On the floor he had pieces of paper on which he would occasionally jot a note. There was a deep blue stain under the pocket on his s.h.i.+rt, where he returned his fountain pen every time he stopped writing, only to retrieve it again a moment later.

It was a warm night and the windows were open. Ray, of course, was listening to a record, which he had put on just as they walked through the door of his apartment, apparently left open for the breeze. Ace recognised the sensual, sardonic voice of the singer on the record, even though she'd only heard it once before, and then briefly. 'Lady Silk,' she said. Ray looked up at her and the Doctor standing there. He didn't seem surprised to see them.

'Yeah, man,' he said. 'She's put new words to an old standard, and it's cool.

Baby, I got to say it's cool.'82.

'Major Bulldog would throw a fit if he knew we were listening to this,' said Ace.

Cosmic Ray chuckled and shook his head. 'Bulldog? I like that. But you know what the Major's problem is? Lack of soul. He couldn't dig this music in a million years.' The voice on the record rose and fell in seductive song, caressing the listener, toying with every syllable.

'You said she put new words to an old standard.'

'Yeah man.'

'What was that old standard?'

'It's called ”Nagasaki”.'

Ace and the Doctor looked at each other. The music came to an end and the needle hissed in the groove. Ray got up and went to the record player, lifting the tone arm and removing the record. 'I see,' said the Doctor. 'And what are these notes?' He indicated the papers lying on the floor, covered with Ray's blotchy sprawl in bright blue ink.

'Those, man?' Ray carefully returned the record to its sleeve. 'Notes I took while I was listening to the song. It's how they communicate with me.'

'Communicate with you?' said Ace.

'Yeah, they're sending me coded messages in the songs, baby.'

'You mean Butcher's crazy idea was right?'

'It made my blood run cold when he said it, man. The other day when he was here. Like he'd seen right into my soul. But he hadn't man. It was just a lucky guess.'

'I'm not so sure. The Major is more shrewd than you think.'