Scene 15

A few steps away from the bulls lay the point that had been inscribed on the banknote describing the coordinates. There, hanging on a tree was a plastic bag that bore the name of the French mustard producer, «Maille». Santa Lemusa's best secret agent found a blue T-shirt and little black cap inside the bag – both were embossed with the caption «Port Williams», cheap souvenir articles. Once again V-man Aral was displaying his extraordinary sense for mischievous humour.

Back in his shelter, Maille found another message in the bag that bore his name. On an Argentinian 2-peso note was penned: «Find yourself on the shores of Lago Argentino» – with date, time and further GPS coordinates. For a second he felt an intense sense of displeasure at having perforce to rise to the bait yet again. But definitely the end of the world was not the right place at which to decline further travel-movements. He would wait for a better opportunity to go on strike – in Paris perhaps, in Singapore or, even better, in London, where there were a myriad restaurants and shops and where one could travel through the entire world on the strength of a fork or a pair of chopsticks.

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