What The Cateye Saw

It's dark on the road from Emu Bay to Kingscote.

Dr Yu Liu has a powerful bike light. He switches it on.

Wow, says Irene, from behind him. That's a powerful bike light.

Yes, says Dr Yu Liu. It's a German Airstream Supernova. One of the few that can operate while being recharged from a USB port.  I bought it in Munich.

Munich? says Irene. When were you there?

I work there, says Dr Yu Liu. In the Department of Biology at LMU.

So you're not a Chinese government spy, says Irene.

No more than you are, says Dr Yu Liu.

Terence thinks I am, says Irene.

Shu thinks I am, says Dr Yu Liu.

Shu's not who he says he is, says Irene. Nor is that Jacques Cousteau.

I know, says Dr Yu Liu.

The Flying Pigeon creaks on towards Kingscote......

........


Some distance behind them, Gaius and Shu are also bicycling back to Kingscote.

Terence is in Gaius's back pack, with the grasshopper in the cucumber jar.

An interesting day, but unproductive, says Gaius.

Perhaps if you'd done some digging, says Shu.

Arthur would have found something, says Gaius.

I found something, says Shu.

Why didn't you say so, says Gaius. What is it?

Shu feels in his pockets. Brings out the flat stones.

He holds them out towards Gaius, who wobbles alarmingly in his efforts to see in the darkness.

Hey! says Terence. You're freaking out my grasshopper!

Let's stop for a moment, says Gaius. Hold those stones up in front of my bike light.

The bike light is a cheap Cateye, but it's powerful enough for Gaius to see that Shu has unearthed two well preserved visual surfaces of the eyes of Anomalocaris.

Excellent find! says Gaius. Why didn't you show them to Dr Yu Liu?

Because he thinks he's a spy, says Terence.

Dr Yu Liu isn't a spy, says Gaius. He's a respected biologist and paleontologist, who collaborates in interdisciplinary research projects on paleo-neuroanatomy and paleo-ecology in Germany, the US and China.

Irene's a spy! says Terence.

Oops! Now he's told them.

It was a secret.

Ha ha! laughs Gaius. She is simply a kind-hearted lady.

Why do you think so? asks Shu. Perhaps she is good at dissembling.

What does that mean? asks Terence.

It means seeming to be other than what you are, says Gaius. Did she ask you a lot of questions?

YES! says Terence. She asked me to throw away my parrot's head, because it was smelly.

That's wasn't a question, says Shu.

It certainly wasn't, says Gaius. Did she ask about us, for example?

She asked why I said double no, says Terence.

In answer to what? asks Gaius.

(This is like trying to winkle the last pickled cucumber out of a jar!).

Was Jacques Cousteau my grandpa? says Terence.

And you said double no, says Shu. How did she understand that?

She didn't, says Terence. But she turned something on in her pocket. It went click and whirr.

What? says Shu. How did it sound exactly?

CLICK! and WHIRR!

Everyone knows what that means.

Even the grasshopper.