A Mutually Beneficial Swap

Having secured his three snails and finished his dinner, Doctor Moussalli goes back to the sick bay.

He picks up the portable saltwater aquarium and goes looking for Katherine.

He soon finds her.

She is reading aloud from a book to two tiny pebbles, who are listening intently.

Hello Katherine, says Doctor Moussalli. Good book?

Shocking, says Katherine. Oh, I see you have brought back the Twitcher's aquarium. Thank you.

The least I could do, says Doctor Moussalli. Your Twitcher helped me recover three of my snails.

Well done the Twitcher, says Katherine. It's the first useful thing he has done.

Unfortunately, says Doctor Moussalli, he ate the other two. This leaves me two snails short of my consignment for the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo.

You can hardly blame the Twitcher, says Katherine. You let your snails out, I presume.

As you let your cuttlefish out, says Doctor Moussalli.

What are you saying? says Katherine. It's our fault? Gaius! Did you hear that?

Gaius looks up from his notebook.

What I'm suggesting, says Doctor Moussalli, is a mutually beneficial swap. You give me the Twitcher....

What do we get? says Gaius.

You have already got them, says Doctor Moussalli. The two snails that your Twitcher just ate.

Of course Doctor Moussalli does not expect to be taken too seriously. But Gaius is only too pleased to get rid of the Twitcher.

Done, says Gaius. You can have him as soon as we find him. I am supposed to be taking him to Kas to broaden the gene pool, but no doubt that can be accomplished just as well in Dubai.

We'll need to have a chat with him first, says Katherine. His heart is set on a particular lady cuttlefish in Kas.

Of course, of course, says Gaius. We'll have a chat with him first.

I must return to my seat, says Doctor Moussalli. I shall leave the aquarium here.

He returns to his seat, and his snails, and his thoughts...... what has he let himself in for?