Page 181 of The Examiner

Jonathan

Are you home safely? Not shaken up?

Gela

It would take more than that to shake me up. Whose house is it?

Jonathan

It’s rented. Temporary. Forget you were ever there.

Gela

AetherGen must have a lot of resources if they can afford to rent a house. Is it a short-term contract or an Airbnb?

Jonathan

Gela, you’re an art teacher, not a secret agent. We’re all clear now on Somerset and how the team will be organised. Thank you. All roads lead to Thorney Coffin.

RH WhatsApp group members Ludya Parak, Suzie Danners, Jonathan Danners and Gela Nathaniel, 6 December 2023:

Suzie

Your face, Luds! Couldn’t stop laughing.

Jonathan

You OK, Ludya?

Gela

Are you injured?

Ludya

A fellow student threw a piece of unfired clay the size of a conker at me. I’m not terminally ill.

Suzie

She got you right between the eyes and, to be fair, that’s dead impressive when you can’t see shit.

Ludya

Yeah, unprovoked violence is hilarious when you’re not the victim, Suze.

Gela

She was demonstrating something fascinating. Sound is multidimensional, so she can judge where your forehead is by the sound coming from your mouth. I wonder if her brain balances lack of sight by utilising a function we’ve forgotten we ever had, like echo-location? They say the body compensates for deficits in the senses.

Suzie

So in selecting a stooge who can’t see, you accidentally got us one with superpowers.

Gela

I didn’t say that. In fact it’s a problem for me that she doesn’t want to acknowledge her disability, because she has additional needs and we all want to accommodate them.

Ludya