Prodigal Sun

nna!" Came a doddering retort from Majo

Asked Riley. "Hello?" He s

o reply fro

outed. "Come on men, let's take a c

to it. The hatch was somewhere on top, out of sight. Wilkins reached over and grabbed a fish. It was warm and quite dead, probably partly cooked – perhaps well done even, and fe

then!" He muttered, satisfied,

eir anchorage, watching casually. "Think that's wise?" H

down to wash it in the river. There was a spla

now!" He muttered. "Damn! Could

t could happen in five seconds with this bunch – anything from remembering something that happened thirty years ago, arguing about what happened thirty minutes ago – in between frequent toilet breaks. Sometimes even the seemingly small task of getting them to throw grenades in the same di

to amuse some tourists. 'It's amazing', Smythe had been heard to remark many times since,

cka-snoek. Most were lucky enough to go back home again, with all their bits attached and no more harm suffered than a trip to the doctor to remove bits of shrapnel from their derrière's – or to the local dentist. Their fees were modest and it was kind of fun watching the greenh

and delayed Jordan from behi

uddenly there was a deep holl

loud thud, allowing a faint light to stream out the opening like a vague searchlight. There followed the sounds of somebod

e-hole!" Ri

at the pod. With uncanny and wholly improbable precision, it dropped neatly through the hatch, lan

d BANG! – and a stunned silence from the rest of the Club, who were probably trying to calculate the odds of

lief. The canoes bobbed slightly as they rode the little ripples as the wake slowly moved away from the pod and pass

now?" Someone muttered audibly

n a sedative – it was a necessity when hanging around with this bunch, although the pills he was taking seemed to be losing t

mythe muttered in a still, audible voice laced