“So enchanting well I shall be on my way o wait look here is my friend Rita Langstrumpf she is as you see quite elegant—”

“Banjo I will fuck you up. Hello I did not catch your name madame I am—”

“Ow gosh you have sharp nails Madame Langstrumpf—”

“QUITE SOME LOVELY FISHING TALE—”

“I am so sorry they are part of my jouissance I did not mean to scratch—”

“O MY! BABY WHAT A WHALE—”

“Yes I quite see o goodness it is hot in here I feel quite—”

“Darling are you quite all right you look faint—”

SLOOSHTHUD

“We will need medical attention I must call the manager—”

“BABY BABY FISHY DISHY—”

“That will not be necessary Herr Oscar here you sit Madame Langstrumpf is indeed a doctor in her working day please be discreet on that score obviously FischFisch is not entirely reputable in the wider community—”

“O of course o o in fact I also feel a little…”

THONK

“Charlie you could not catch his head?”

“I thought there was a pillow this divan has one of those stupid boards—”

FISHERMAN SO STRONG AND BOLD—

“Is he alive?”

“Of course it’s a board not a spike he’s not even gonna have a bruise—”

“Very well then let us help Elena out of here.”

We are helpful. We are solicitous.

We are good citizens. That is a very Swiss thing to do. And that is how you do a kidnapping in a fish fucker club.

WANT YOU IN MY CARGO HOLD—

Which is fine.

Until we are leaving and we are away from the music—at last AT LAST my God one more line and I was going to—and someone squashes into my arm with what feels like the upper surface of a mostly naked breast and says all breathy:

“O Mr. Telemark I am so glad to meet you your art—it moves me—it touches me deeply Mr. Telemark truly it does—”

“O well thank you so much madame I do—”

I am paying attention to the breast area and I do not notice the hands and TINK the cuff closes tight like tight. I look round and—

Agent Hannah is wearing a clever disguise something in a Nunatsiavut fall style cut real short like to the—you know groinal region—so that you can tell those are not regular cop undies they are something impractically tiny and appropriate to the venue but I am not looking because VERY professional. She’s grinning her sexy Aryan dolphin grin. Agent Hannah is totally the winner in this moment but at the same time she is not thinking properly because she’s smug about this and because she is used to working in a pantsuit, which is where things get—

—a little weird—