The Numbers Game
Prologue – Buns and Bees
Cambridge had been buzzing with the news for a week now. A proof of the infamous Dietrich Hypothesis had been discovered by a Cambridge man who had been trawling the great mathematicians encrypted notes. Arden, a fellow of Trinity, had found a partial proof of Dietrich's hypothesis in an old diary. He'd polished it off, written it up and was about to publish. Before he could manage that, however, a great American industrialist, O'Connor, had offered a thousand guineas to have first sight of the proof. The mathematical community waited on tenterhooks for the publications.
Adam Wood looked at his fingers. His knuckles were glowing red but the tips were waxy, turning blue. They hurt! Adam thought about putting them in his mouth but settled for sticking them into the pockets of his greatcoat. His fingers curled around a coin, and at that moment, a cab tuned the corner of the street. Not stopping to thing why a cabbie thought there would be sufficient business to come out in Cambridge at five thirty on a winters morning, Wood hailed it. Penury here I come he thought, It's just too cold.
The tall, sleight student clambered into the cab. "King's Parade, please." He said, leaning out towards the heavily muffled cabbie. The horses began to move and Adam slumped back into the seat. His face reddened as his thoughts turned to the previous night.
Wood had been dining with a book when a neat, handsome man sat down next to him. He was a commanding charismatic seeming man with a manner that men obeyed and a smile that could make women weep. There was something about this man that made Wood want to impress him. He was a total stranger.
"I'm told your a mathematician."
"Not yet, sir, I'm an undergraduate."
"With hopes then? Are you as excited as the rest of them?"
"About the Dietrich hypothesis?"
"Yes" said the older man.
Remembering this, Wood blushed. He still couldn't fathom why he should have replied as he did. The man was bound to have thought him an idiot.
"I've seen the proof!" He hadn't of course. What a stupid lie to tell! The moment he had spoken he regretted the words.
"Oh really! I thought there was an embargo."
"No Don," Wood had said in a desperate hope of concealing his falsehood. "finds it easy to hide his success, Arden has been dropping hints all over Cambridge! It seems Dietrich relied heavily on Andre Weil, which is certainly a break with tradition." The conversation went on rather awkwardly with the stranger trying to tease out whether Wood's claim was genuine. The, increasingly embarrassed, younger man tried desperately to hide his deception in vague half truths. He was left in the certainty that his companion thought him at best an idiot.
As Wood came out of his reverie it became clear that he had been travelling much further than the few minutes journey he had expected. He leaned over to look out of the window. The scene outside was the outskirts of Cambridge leaving town.
"Excuse me!" The Cabbie showed no sign of hearing him. "I say!" Adam tried to open the door. It was locked. Nervously he sat back in the cab deciding the safest thing to do was to let himself be abducted quietly for the rest of the journey. It wasn't long before the sound of horses hooves stopped and Adam heard the driver jump of his perch. Adam balled his fists and prepared to fight.
The cabbie's muffled face appeared at the window. He opened the door and stood outside. Adam staid in the cab wondering how to play this. He was just about to step out of the vehicle when he was hit from behind with a heavy blunt instrument. 'Idiot!' He thought as he slipped into unconsciousness.
When Adam woke up, he was colder than he'd ever been. His head throbbed and his fingers were numb. Internally he cursed whoever had brought him here. He was lying in a barn. The young man stood up, brushed straw out of his hair and off his clothes. He stepped outside.
The barn faced onto a neatly swept courtyard, surrounded by a range of other out-buildings. In the middle of the courtyard there was what looked like a tea-tray. Adam walked over towards it and looked in bemusement at its contents. On the tray lay thirteen currant buns and seventeen dead bumble bees arranged in neat rows. There was also a note. "You'll find him in London" was all it said.
Sighing Adam picked up the note and a couple of buns and began walking back towards the distant town.