Fate Hangs In The Balance

You can't kill a cuttlefish that speaks for itself.

You can't kill him anyway, if you haven't any iced water, or that special tool, or an esky.

That's what everyone in the tinny is thinking, including the cuttlefish.

You may as well throw me back in, says the cuttlefish.

No, says Gaius. You are my prize.

Bandy heads the tinny back to the landing. Everyone gets out.

Now what? says Jazzman. I vote we swing by the pub. It's only nine thirty.

Good idea, says Gaius.

Cool, says Sweezus.

All right, says Arthur.

Yeah, good one, says Bandy.

Excellent, says Snook.

I'm in, says the very large cuttlefish. Thanks for the invite. You chaps can call me Houdini.

Houdini, says Arthur. Did you just make that up?

Yes, says the cuttlefish. Does it suit me?

Yes, says Arthur. It does. How would you like to travel?

By foot, says Houdini. But I know that's impossible.

I'll fix it, says Arthur.

He picks up Houdini and forces him under the zipper top of Bandy's cool bag. Houdini drops in with a thud.

I'll carry that for you, says Arthur, to Bandy.

Good on you, says Bandy.

........

At the Wallaroo Hotel, Dan Monceaux is holding the floor. He is talking about the State Government's approval of the Lucky Bay Common User Export facility and the possible effects of spillage, sound and bottom disturbance on the marine environment.

The Mayor is just drifting off  into a mid-meeting torpor, when Gaius and party come in.

It's Gaius! cries Brenda. You came!

Gaius! says Beverley. We heard what happened to the Twitcher. We think it's lovely.

She shoots a dark look at Tony Bramley, and Dan Monceaux.

Impossible, says Gaius. My report is here in my backpack. And I fail to see, even if someone has leaked it, how what happened could be thought of as lovely.

A romantic tryst on the transparent sands of Kas, says Brenda. Hundreds of progeny, and then gently expiring...

Sweezus recognises the scenario.

Arthur does too.

Dan Monceaux stops talking, and comes over.

What's up? says Dan Monceaux. Gaius? Can you confirm your report?

Not till I've given it, says Gaius. I don't know what nonsense.......

Now every single person is listening.

You might think that the fate of the Sepia Apama population in the Upper Spencer Gulf hung in the balance.