Haircut

‘If all six of us had a reliable and constant connection to the internet to learn, we could protect ourselves,’ said Xavier. ‘So we must find the others, create a hub and skill up without delay.’

‘Sounds easy when he says it like that,’ murmured Joe. ‘Just finding the others without being tracked by Ogee will be hard enough.’

‘Ogee? What are you talking about?’ said Kim.

‘I can’t keep saying Osborne and Griffiths each time. Makes them sound like a firm of wallpaper designers.’

Kim giggled. ‘It does, a bit. But seriously, how can we find the other three, given that communication could be dangerous and these other people are also trying to get to them?’

‘To start with, we need three devices - phones or tablets or something - and a VPN,’ said Xavier. 

‘I know what that is,’ said Kim, proud of her technical knowledge.

‘I think we all do, blossom,’ said Joe kindly. ‘You use yours for shopping and watching American TV. The rest of us are just avoiding the advertisers.

Xavier ignored this interchange but Kim thought Delphine and Emma looked wary, as though they were taking notes for future reference. Marital Point Scoring, Para 13-Y. She needed to lighten the atmosphere.

‘I’ll swap you a phone for a new haircut,’ she joked.

Xavier looked at her stony-faced. ‘I don’t understand.’