His Deadly Syringe

For a moment, Kobo hopes that the Gypsy Moth will have to make an emergency landing.

Down there on an unsubmerged runway of coral.

Rip rip rip rip. Urrrrkkkk!

And they would all clamber out of the Gypsy Moth.

And Tom McDonald would tinker to fix it.

And this would take hours and Humboldt would hand him the spanners.

meanwhile she would gaze into the waters
at the now less than colourful corals
and the blue yellow and orange tropical fishes
ruefully darting among the crown of thorns starfish
which are nibbling on the corals
blissfully unaware that.....
the RANGERBOT is coming!

and their eyes meet
she tumbles into the water
narrowly escaping the point of his
deadly syringe

into his arms
which are yellow

But this is not destined to happen, because the Gypsy Moth recovers.

Tom McDonald wheels in the air and heads towards Weipa.

.........

Meanwhile Gaius is heading in the same direction, in a Qantaslink de Havilland Bombardier Dash-8 twin-engined medium range turboprop airliner, seated next to Terence who is trying to encourage Pinky to sit on his lap.

Pinky: No thanks. I don't want to.

Ageless: Heh-heh!

Gaius: Terence, she doesn't want to. Now listen. What if I were to give you a responsibility?

Terence: What?

Gaius: Take charge of my pencils. You'll be like Arthur.

Terence: Arthur has a knife.

Gaius: Yes and Arthur is not here at the moment. But Arthur can always be relied upon to come up with a pencil, or a knife for that matter, but a knife is out of the question just now.

Terence: Okay. I want the pencils.

Gaius gives Terence the pencils. He hopes he has done the right thing.

Terence: You can go to sleep now.

Gaius (closing his eyes): I might just do that. It's been a long journey.....

Terence (taking out a pencil): Come here Pinky. I've got something for you.

Pinky: What is it?

Terence: A new face. Keep still, I'll be really careful.

Ageless: You'll ruin her.

Terence: No, I won't.

Pinky (to Ageless): He won't ruin me. Not if he licks the pencil first.

Ageless: I don't think he's a licker. But I am.

Pinky: Okay, you lick the pencil.

But Ageless has a better solution.