Location Location

The Brain Institute is closed.

This is unacceptable.

Gaius raps on the door.

A tall woman looks through a glass panel.

What is it? mouths the tall woman.

May we come in? mouths Gaius, waving his notebook.

The door opens a crack.

I was hoping to observe the mantis shrimps in your collection, says Gaius.

Sorry, says the tall woman. The prof is on holiday. No one sees the mantis shrimps without his permission. Come back this time next week.

She closes the door.

.......

Gaius and Dries sit on the grass in front of the Brain Institute.

Should we get a hotel? asks Dries.

No need, says Gaius. The weather is fine. We'll camp here.

What about Terence and baby B-B? asks Dries.

Yes, says Gaius. What about them? Where are they?

Indeed. Where are they?

They have both disappeared.

........

Terence and baby B-B have snuck round the back of the Brain Institute.

They have found a way in.

They have made their way to the biological sciences research lab, located the mantis shrimp aquarium, and tapped on the glass.

The mantis shrimps, of which there are several, have come up to the glass and stared out.

Outraged, they become aggressive, and punch the glass with bullet-like force.

The glass breaks, and the mantis shrimps gush out.

Ha ha, laughs Terence.

The mantis shrimps can't hear Terence, but they can detect baby B-B.

A small bird with one cement finger, emitting circular polarised light....

.......

On the grass outside the Brain Institute, Gaius and Dries make a shopping list.

Bread, milk, coffee, scooter.

How kind.

The scooter will be for Terence.

And the coffee for baby B-B.

.......

Around the corner of the Brain Institute, stomps Terence.

There you are, says Gaius.

Where's baby B-B? asks Dries.

Close your eyes, says Terence. Now open them. Da-dah!

Baby B-B flies round the corner with one mantis shrimp between his claw and his finger.

Where are the other ones? says Terence. Did you eat them?

No, says baby B-B. They wouldn't come.

Let me see, says Gaius. Don't tell me you two have broken into the Brain Institute and captured a mantis shrimp for me?

Yes....... begins Terence.

I said don't tell me, says Gaius. Less said the better. Bring it here.

He bends over the mantis shrimp, which is undergoing a spasm.

Marvellous, says Gaius. Perhaps we'll get a hotel after all.

.......

Inside the Brain Institute the tall woman sees runnels of water in the passage. She follows the water. She enters the lab.

Four mantis shrimps attack her feet angrily.

It is so unexpected. She stamps on the mad mantis shrimps. Stamp stamp stamp stamp.

Then she calls Professor Marshall.

The professor is in Port Stephens, on holiday.

He has just climbed up Tomaree Head. He is right at the summit.

He answers his phone.