"Alastair Reynolds - Signal to Noise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

that long train ride to Stockholm.

“I hope it works out for you,” Mick said.

Joe patted the correlator again. “I’ve got a good feeling about this
one.”

That was when one of Joe’s undergraduates came up to them. To
Mick’s surprise, it wasn’t Joe she wanted to speak to.

“Doctor Leighton?”

“That’s me.”

“There’s somebody to see you, sir. I think it’s quite important.”

“Someone to see me?”

“They said you left a note in your office.”
 “I did,” Mick said absent-mindedly. “But I also said I wouldn’t be gone
long. Nothing’s that important, is it?”

But the person who had come to find Mick was a policewoman. When
Mick met her at the top of the stairs her expression told him it wasn’t good
news.

“Something’s happened,” he said.

She looked worried, and very, very young. “Is there somewhere we
can talk, Mister Leighton?”

“Use my office,” Joe said, showing the two of them to his room just
down the corridor. Joe left the two of them alone, saying he was going
down to the coffee machine in the hall.

“I’ve got some bad news,” the policewoman said, when Joe had
closed the door. “I think you should sit down, Mister Leighton.”

Mick pulled out Joe’s chair from under the desk, which was covered in
papers: coursework Joe must have been in the process of grading. Mick
sat down, then didn’t know where to put his hands. “It’s about Andrea, isn’t
it.”

“I’m afraid your wife was in an accident this morning,” the
policewoman said.

“What kind of accident? What happened?”

“Your wife was hit by a car when she was crossing the road.”