The Austrian Aroma (LSD, #5)

13. Don't Stop, Go Your Own Way

Don't Stop, Go Your Own Way

[Saturday, 27-1-2018 (Cancer): Don't doubt yourself but check all information you gather twice. Return to issues that are difficult and demanding when you feel that you can push through.]

The Twilight Zone is not big enough to house fifteen inhabitants and six staff, but the triplets have found the perfect solution. The six members of the Sieben Gänge gang work from 08:00 to 20:00, while ten inhabitants sleep through the day until dinner. After dinner, at 20:00, the staff retires to the empty bedrooms and the ten old folks start to party until 08:00 the next morning. It works splendidly. Dancing is an entertaining training, and the three healthy meals each day (they eat breakfast at 20:00 and dinner at 08:00) with lots of fruits and vegetables, giving them all the energy they need.

And energy they need, in large quantities, because the safety of the world is at stake and our troops take their responsibility seriously. The best gossip and other confidential information come from lips that loosen after a night of partying, and our Bond boys and girls are there, all night long, with the eyes of a fox and the ears of a night owl, to record and remember everything... Well, almost everything because some stories do have a few missing links here and there; when Doctor Alzheimer makes them forget to turn on the Permanent Voice Recorder app and Doctor Hearing Earring remains on their nightstand, some of our spies have to rely on their senses, which doesn't always give us all the information we're after.

Report during breakfast-for-us, dinner-for-them is a breathtaking example of professionalism and efficiency: they all talk at once to avoid losing precious time. For the record, I record everything, but not even my spiPhone can keep up with the world record of sharing confidential information: "There's a rumour that Pac Man has escaped. He runs around in homes for the elderly and eats their socks at night. He goes by the name Alzheimer..." "Shut up, Frans. Your socks are in the laundry. I can smell them from here." "There are lots of rumours about change." "Most come from the Town Hall." "Others come from the government." "They all confirm that politics finally will take action." "I've heard they are sick and tired of all the sick and tired people." "I agree. I'm also sick and tired of being sick and tired." "A recent investigation showed that people get sick from smoking, so they're going to raise the taxes on tobacco." "A more recent investigation showed that drinking is bad for our health too, so they're going to raise the taxes on alcohol." "There are rumours about marijuana and hard drugs being legalised, so they can tax them." "Stress is the number one killer in the world, so they're going to raise the taxes on coffee." "Eating chocolate gives a feeling of happiness, and it's a scientific fact that happy people don't spend money, which is bad for the economy, so they're solving that problem by raising the taxes on chocolate." "All these 'problems' are about what people consume when they have fun." "And the only solution is to raise the taxes on that consumption." "I've heard rumours that the real problem might just be politics itself." "I heard that society has already found a solution to our biggest problem of the everyday higher taxes. We buy more on the black market." "Where can I find that black market?" "I don't know. The battery of my hearing device dropped dead when they told me."

If our information is correct, Irish Coffee, our last member of the Sieben Gänge gang, handles the coffee, the chocolates, the liqueur and the smokes, the last dish of a seven-course dinner. When taxes make those after-dinner desires too expensive on the white market, the black market takes over. To find the criminal who dominates this black market, we have to start with finding the market itself.

This morning's Tarot card showed The Devil. Shirley explained it stands for material things that lead to addiction or obsession, and for sexual desires. The Devil is strongly connected with Capricorn and a leader, an indication that makes sense, but it's also an Earth sign that points towards Taurus and Virgo.