Dear reader, tragically we return to our saga.  In which our heroes, Ces and Quent are just about at the end of the line? Who’s line? 

The Thin red line, the one that separates ‘Us”-sia from Russia, cos kleptocracy aside,  democracy aint all that flash at the moment either. 

She was in a word Furious..

Dutto had denied her a carve-up of spoils post Scomo, and the worst was that Angus had gone soft-cock on the Murray Darling. Turns out he wasn’t interested in capitalising on rivers global. Instead he was just content with local river systems . For Sophie this was the most serious rebuttal of all. For being ex member for INDI,  she HATED parochialism. 

World water resources was what she had her eye on. And in this respect (dear reader,) she was one eyed!

Whilst ‘Benny-Boy’ was paying out the Aldis lamp chord, counting the yards out, (it was a pre decimal Aldis lamp cord and keeping abreast of measurements, imperial versus metric was of vital importance) Sophie, steam literally radiating off her rebuffed hair- do, stormed towards us.  And turning one last time put another clip into the MP40 and sprayed the Special Response Vehicle one more time for good measure. 

‘Fuck you DUTTO” we heard her scream. As a Fair Work Commissioner, she had a command of language.

We pretended to be oblivious, as the seconds ticked by, hoping that with all his training and professional acumen, ‘Benny-Boy’ may find a way out. Our only option as any Ukrainian President would tell you was to stall.  Stall for time and hope against all hope that something might turn up. You thought wed say ‘Micawber- like’, but in the current idiom we’ll choose a more salient phrase, that something may go “GOGOL-LIKE’ for us. 

As she got closer we became aware of two things, the sound of bellicose and echoed laugher from within the turret of the Special Response Vehicle, and the heavy breathing of Sophie. She’d been miffed in business, and now, (dear reader) she meant “Business’. 

‘Shhhh’! I said to Ces, ‘this is it, pretend we’ve been thinking of how much fun it is to be on her side, as against Dutto and this may mellow her, as we take our chance’. 

‘Good to see you Sophie’, Ces corrected himself; “ exalted member of the Fair Work Commission’. How do it go’? 

‘Whaddayou fucken reckon, that man is thicker than a fuckin sack of potatoes, and the worst bit is, he thinks he’s fucken clever. Nothing worse than an ambitious Queenslander, they’re up to here with self-belief yet, they, believe that the world is flat and that Santa Claus is real. Or at least a fat bastard with an interest in nickel mining and democracy’!

We drew this as an oblique reference to Clive and decided to ignore it, for as we know , even for Sophie, trying to be too clever was a certain execution warrant. So we acted as all in her thrall. ‘Dumber than Dumb’. 

‘Does this mean the trip to Queensland and Warner Brothers World is off’?

‘Off’?  You’ll be lucky to get to ‘Wobbies World’ by the time Ive finished with you’!

Taking the mood of the moment none of us had the heart to mention to Sophie that Wobbies had been long closed.  We understood her feeling and, like a fair basic wage, which we knew was a complete Furphy we left it at that. 

“Well you showed him’! Offered Quent

‘Showed him He’s only just learnt the anger, the righteous anger of the unrequited. He doesn’t know it but after all is said and done I have the code’!

‘The code’? We asked, 

‘Yeah, the code, 

And wanna know something’? 

‘What’s that your Fair Work Commissionership’?

‘You’re gonna use the code to get us all outta here’.

‘That’s nice ‘offered Ces, 

‘Does that mean we can go free’?

Sophie looked at is, we could see her face galvanised by emotion, and from within, as a neutron star pulses with gravitational activity imperceptive to the naked eye, she began to erupt. 

Erupt with laughter, 

What began as a snigger became a guffaw, and the from the guffaw came a belly laugh that rolled and rolled until convulsed by laughter, she erupted in lachrymose laughter. Licentious laughter.  Levitational and lackadaisical laughter of such force, we decided it would be good for out health if we laughed along too. After a minute or two we all stopped laughing. 

Sophie then smirked, ‘allright then boys. You’re gonna help me out. See that Victoria Police Special Response Unit? When I say ‘Go’, you run for it’!

‘And You’?

She pointed to Benny, ‘When I say Fire, You fire those smoke flares, and we run for it. 

Get me’?

What could we do? It seemed like a plan. And if we did what we were told, perhaps we’d be spared. 

‘That sounds like a pretty sound plan Sophie’; Benny proffered, “yes I’ve got the flares, you tell me when and i’ll attach them to this rifle propelled grenade, Dutto will have no idea what hit him’!

‘Good then, Im glad someone amongst you knows how to get things done. 

When I say’!

We all three nodded, 

Benny tapped us on the shoulder, a slight tap, not as forceful as the one he gave to the Afghani peasant before helping him play roly-poly down the hill in Tarren Kowt, but forceful enough to know what he meant.  He then whispered “when I say now, you blokes hold onto the chord, and use these, (he handed us a pair of welding gloves), and abseil down the line, we’ll leave Sophie up here with Dutto. When the smoke clears we’ll be gone.  Get Me’?

It was the second time we had to respond to Get me’’ . We obliged. 

Sophie oblivious to the plan, put another clip onto her MP 40. ‘Now boys, Benny  when I give the word’ She put on a camouflage jacker, and held the MP40 tightly, and thumbed the war surplus potato masher grenade thrust into her belt. 

We waited, the guffawing of Dutto just audible above the silence. 

What will happen next,? Will Sophie give the order. Are orders just orders, or do they come from a higher order,? In order?

Find out in our next orderly episode; ‘ Is that an order in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me’?  or “ Order of the Bath, was never so immersive’