"Oh shit mate; are they still tailing you?" Hector asked.
"They emerge from their cocoon every other day to remind us how excellent their absence was. But I can't go on like this. I'm thinking about hiring some ruffians to, to ruffie them up."
"Just give the go," Hector laughed. "I'll get some mates to ruffie them good and proper." Kit, who'd been checking out the long-haired guys at all the other tables behind the Feds, patted Enzo's arm and queried, "How can you know so many Dean-things in the one place?"
"Woo," Hector noted. "It'd be good if that question made sense. You been smoking something funny, O'Malley?"
"Don't be silly, Hector." She pointed. "There's a hundred hippies sitting back there."
"Uh-uh," Hector shook his head. "I refuse to look."
Enzo did however; turning back to Kit with an expression that said he'd only just noticed the strangeness of the crowd. "They're Thespians," he said, as if that explained everything.
"They're blokes, Enzo," Kit stated.
"Th, th, thespians Kit, not lespians," Enzo grinned. "They belong to Foreplay, and they're doing a gay Godspell."
"Why?"
"Because they can, darling."
"I am so not going to look," Hector stressed, widening his baby-blues until Kit's now-curious inspection of him, made him put on his uneasy face. "What?" he asked, cautiously.
"Hector. You've had all your hair cut off. And you're all wet."
"Really, O'Malley? And, oh it's pissing down outside."
"Hmm," Kit noted. "Should I assume from that somewhat patronising tone, Hector, that you've been without ponytail for longer than, say, today? And if so, why didn't I notice?"
"I had it cut yesterday, O'Malley, so you're not completely unobservant." Hector ran his ringers back and forth through his brown, now nape-length locks. "Why you didn't notice when I was sitting here earlier though, I don't know; but then why would you?"
"Why wouldn't I?"
"You don't notice things like that."
"Yes I do. I just did."
"She hasn't noticed your tips, I'll wager," Enzo commented.
True. So? Kit thought, admiring the blonde bits now they'd been pointed out to her.
Hector turned to Enzo. "Last week I watched Lillian perform acrobatics in her kitchen to draw O'Malley's attention to her new hairdo. Did she notice the do or the show? No."
"I assure you I noticed," Kit said. "I just didn't comment on her latest variation of the same thing. Unlike my hair, which Mum is partly responsible for, hers always looks good."
"Yours is wonderful, Kit; it has character," Enzo proclaimed.
Kit laughed. "Thank you Enzo, but my hair looks like some mini-yous - as in tiny Scotsmen, not sheep - are flinging Highland-like through it, on speed. Now, do you guys think we could get down to business? Please."
Enzo responded immediately, with an eloquent flourish of his right hand that delivered an envelope into Kit's. She opened it and pulled out two official invitations to...
"Oh no, what on earth is a Metro Blaazt?" she asked.
"You're kidding!" Hector exclaimed, excitedly and with demonstrative wriggling. "It's only the coolest nightclub in Melbourne, O'Malley." He almost snatched the gold-embossed cards from her hand, but decided to lean over the table to ogle them instead. "Oh, mate! These are for the grand opening; they're for then, for that, for..."
"For you, Hector," Kit smiled. "One of them is, anyway; so don't say I never give you anything. I'm not even going to ask how a place yet to be grandly opened, can already be the coolest in town. But Enzo," she groaned, "when you said 'an opening' I thought you meant an art gallery. I hate nightclubs."
"Honeylamb," Enzo shrugged, "these invitations are not unlike hen's teeth. The junior-duke Gregor and his lady-love Vanessa, will be at this Blaazted thing, because come Sunday it will be the place to be. As I've no desire to be within miles of a thing so gauchely straight, I figured you and your sideshoot could trot along there and spy on our star-spangled lovers."
"If they're so rare how did you get them?" Kit queried.
"Comrade Tereshenko himself gave them to me yesterday, when I lunched with him, his paramour, and her Mummy-not-so Dearest."
"I feel like I'm in a daytime soap," Hector said morosely; whereon Kit and Enzo filled him in on their job for Sarah Boyes-Lang.
"Cool," Hector said, turning the invitation over and over to check for extra perks or hidden agendas. "Now, I have something for you, O'Malley. Hold your hand out."
Kit did as she was told and Hector dropped a tiny clear plastic doodad into it. "Oh, that's lovely Hector, but you shouldn't have."
"Stick it in your ear, O'Malley."
"Really? Or is that like an insult?" she asked, putting the logical end of the extra-soft thing in her right ear... "Thank you Enzo, but my hair looks like some mini-yous - as in tiny Scotsmen not sheep..." Kit's own voice said to her.
"Whoa!" she pulled the doodad out of her ear and stuck it in Enzo's. "Where's the mike?"
Hector drummed his fingers on the table. "Is this a ring you see before you?"
"Good god," Enzo said, raising his hand to his auricle.
"No such thing, Lorenzo," Kit sighed. "So where's the tape recorder?"
Hector unclipped a beeper-sized device from his belt and handed it to Kit. "It's a mini-disc not a tape, O'Malley. The mike to recorder range is about fifteen metres, so you can either wear it like this and get in close like I've been; or you can hide the recorder nearby, even outside a window. You place this bit," he pulled a tiny silver device from the centre of his ring to demonstrate, "in the best spot for picking up whatever it is you want.
"It's noise activated and will pick up immediate-vicinity dialogue with ripper clarity. It'll also record voices or sounds for up to a five-metre radius from the mike, as long as there's no ambient noise like music, or too many voices like there are here. As you heard, our chat was crystal clear but we couldn't pick up Spick and Span over there."
"I'm full of amaze," Kit grinned. "And so glad I've got you to find and understand all this stuff for me, Hector. So I don't ever have to. In fact, I'm officially retreating to the O'Malley Investigations Techno Vacuum, coz in this area I have no skills and I fear I'm one step away from future-phobia. Except, of course, that the future is sitting on this table."
Hector squinted at her. "Did someone beam your mind out, O'Malley? You can't be future-phobic, you're an science fiction fan."
"Yeah, in the abstract," Kit agreed. "As in the fi part, not the sci stuff; as in warp speed and transporters, not as in how TVs or mobiles work. And as for this, this spooky stuff of yours - or, you know, electricity..." She pointed at a small leather-cased thing, "Like I thought that, which is huge by comparison, was your new 'little' listening toy."
Hector grinned, unzipped the case and pulled out a sleek silver thing, no bigger than a pack of cards . "This, my Captain, is my new little watching toy. It a digital video camera."
"Okay, that's it. I'm going to live in a cave."
"It's so cute," Enzo laughed. "Ooh, do me a favour and take a picture of Ding and Dong."
"Haven't you done that yet?" Hector asked,
"No. Why would I? I'm the one being investigated."
Hector ran his thumb along one sleek, narrow side, flipped open the world's tiniest screen and placed the camera next to