I tell myself Agent Hannah is having some similar dialogue with herself vis-à-vis her own thighs and now that is in my head and—but she is all business now she slips into a pair of gray sweatpants and a blue cop jacket as we get in the car and I am hooked to the chassis in the back. Half-inch steel hoop like for military-grade croquet.

I am so totally going to Swiss jail.

I actually to be honest I do not think that will be all bad.

I mean it is Swiss jail I am sure there is great dental and all kinds of due process and Doc will get me out in two shakes of seal’s—

We do not talk about that now.

Swiss jail will almost certainly feature minimalist neutral design palettes and basic comforts and hygiene I figure also acceptably nutritious food and punctilious attention to prisoner well-being and reform. Because this is not fucking Louisiana this is the canton of Bern.

I’m guessing maybe a selection of educational and morally improving TV channels like maybe I can find out that whole deal with the ducal hat.

And you got to remember I am Banjo Telemark quite demonstrably and Jack Price is dead and the money dear LORD the money and the lawyers which will fall in a great appalling crash upon this situation…I got maybe three or four hours of this shit to deal with.

So I stare out of the window at the river and the mountains and I close my eyes and think about swimming in the cloudy blue-green water in the moonlight and how cold and sharp that would be and saunas with burning yellow lights and cutting a hole in the snow and Doc rising up naked out of the river as Agent Hannah passes by on her way in—wait not passes by, passes through as if they are both made of molasses—they ripple through one another and stop and then—

Then I open my eyes and see the truck.

—

I said that Eiger would phone a friend and he has. Of course he has. And who has he called? He has called François Leclerc of course that was always the plan. He has said—brash and loud to the bad people we do not like and in their language because he needs them to believe he is their man here their guy on the ground their absolute solid rock in the Canton of Bern—he has said: I have a hippie infestation boys there is a long-hair jerking my chain will you come deal with it for me?