Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Chapter 14 - 16

Chapter Fourteen

Jason is back in LA, in what seems to be early morning. The Las Vegas pols hand Jason and Ruth over to the LA pols and scram. As they are taken inside, Jason is trying to think about what he can say to the police general that does not sound like a lie or insanity.

Jason and Felix meet. Felix is a well dressed, nice as in friendly looking dude in his mid 50s with grey hair and expensive looking glasses. Felix puts Ruth aside for now and lets Jason into his office suite, which surprises Jason in its luxury. Felix says that it doesn't show up in photos, but guesses Jason is a Six. This is pretty thunderous to Jason, who asks if Felix is also a Six; Felix grinning holds up seven fingers.

Chapter Fifteen

We swap perspectives to Felix, who is feeling pretty smug. When surprised to be dealing with a Six, the lie that Felix is a Seven somehow always works. In the relation of power, this is necessary, as anybody not a Six's equal is an inferior, an "ordinary." But for some reason, the lie that Felix is a step *above* a six somehow works. He briefly remembers a conversation he and Alys had about this. I think there's also a reference to Kathy's kind of thinking, as Alys dismisses the whole thing - and somehow, this dislike causes the whole idea to stop existing as far as Alys is concerned.

Back in the General's plush office, he sells the lie a bit. Then Felix asks for breakfast to be brought in, then asks the question: how the hell did Jason wipe out all of his records?

(Note: I'm not skipping details any more than I usually do; the chapters have just gotten really short.) 

 Chapter 16

Jason been asked The Question by General Felix. He's fallen for the 7 thing, so his first impulse is to just tell the whole insane story...

But surprisingly, Jason suddenly feels angry. He doesn't want to tell Felix anything.

Given silence, Felix starts to speculate about a conspiracy of sixes, which gets Jason to volunteer that the only Six he knows is Heather Hart - and she thinks he's a twerp fan.

Felix is pleased; he had no idea Hart, famous singer and media personality, was a six. He suggests bringing Hart in to "consult" with the police on this - to which Jason responds, "sure, whatev, throw her in a labor camp." This is amusing to Felix. OK, so apparently all this genetic augmentation stuff was genetic engineers being funded by....the aristocrats. Y'see, the aristocrats apparently thought they were aristocrats by virtue of actually being better people, better breeding, etc. When they began to lose power, they started funding genetic engineering to "enhance" this superiority. So, despite being wrong about themselves, they ended up creating what they thought they were: genetically enhanced people. The scheme didn't work at all, because all these genetically enhanced people couldn't stand each other, and would flip on each other in a heartbeat in the type of situation Jason is in.

(New Deus Ex: here's your plot)

General Felix gets some swank cigars, and offers Jason one. Jason actually responds like a human, saying "I've never smoked a quality cigar, and if I got out of that..." Felix wants to know if he means got out of jail. Whatever rapport the two men were on the verge of is killed. Despite being a six, Jason is on the edge of exploding at Felix. Once again the General asks if Jason is well known to the literally underground intellectuals, and asks about musical strata. Jason says "not any more." Felix asks "have you ever made a record?" and Jason responds through clenched teeth "not here." He just doesn't answer when Felix asks "then where?"

Sensing he's getting nowhere, Felix presses his intercom and asks for Kathy to be brought in. Felix gets Jason to admit most of the info he had Kathy forge was real. Suddenly, somehow, Felix intuits that Jason didn't wipe out his data; he didn't have any to start with. Jason tells Felix that he doesn't exist, and doesn't really know how any of this is possible.

General Felix asks Jason to join him for breakfast ("c'mon, you got the munchies anyway."). A Grey uniform pol women brings in breakfast: eggs, pancakes and breakfast meat. Somehow the topic gets around to kids, and the General shows Jason a 3d of his son (a boy of about six, trying to get a kite off the ground.) Unfortunately, the boy's in Florida, and so he never did. The General and his wife live in LA. And because it is Jason's fate, the general gets around to the love of children. His wife says you can forget anything, except your love for a child. Also if something goes badly wrong, a death, a divorce, it sticks with you forever. For the second time in 24 hours, Jason concludes love just isn't worth it then. This actually gets the General a bit angry, Jason's lack of understanding. Felix blames it on Jason being a Six. But soon he settles, and says that the food in the Cafeteria at the police HQ is frequently poisoned; "I guess lots of the cafeteria staff have family in internment camps" Felix says, laughing. (And Felix directs the breakfast order from a "new" place; holy shit, he's exactly like trump, he's convinced without anonymity people will try to poison him "and that's why he always gets his McDonald's through the drive through")

The general informs Jason he's free to go. Being a police general, he cancels any crimes Jason might have committed. Like Kathy and the psychic hotel clerk, General Felix is satisfied Jason is actually telling the truth, as nonsensical as that is. He does say that now Jason is permanently under surveillance, and "if someday Jason finds out WTF, so will the police at the same time."

Jason thanks the General for the meal. He's composing himself again, now that terrible unknown consequences are not offering him cigars. Absolved of his sins, Jason is staying the night (OK, maybe its midnight or 2 AM? I thought it was almost dawn in Las Vegas) because it is police procedure not to let people go at night, but come the morning, Jason is walking out the front door of the HQ a free man.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Chapter 12-13

 Chapter 12

We're with whatever police unit has been methodically searching the entire apartment complex in Las Vegas. Despite apparently being able to detect a male fitting Jason's profile, either this is another vague sensor or the boots on the ground never got that info. They've searched every apartment except two by now. One is owned by a Ruth Gomen, and the other by an Allen Mufi. Naturally they pick Mufi's.

And ha, this group of police was ringing the bell to get people to let them in. If you were assuming they were once again, a bunch of combine soldiers doing breech-bang-clear thirty or so times, I don't blame you. This does explain how the police were so quiet as to not be heard by Jason, I suppose. This time, the police corporal in front tries Mufi's door before ringing, and finds it unlocked. The police sneak in with flashlights, and find everything dark and quiet, with the debris of a party lying around.

quote:

[The police corporal] trod across wall to wall carpet, which depicted in gold Richard M. Nixon's final ascent into heaven, amid joyous singing above and wails of misery below. At the far door he trod on God, who was smiling a lot as He received his second only begotten son back into his bosom, and pushed open the bedroom door.

Mr. Mufi is asleep as a bunch of pols enter his bedroom. Mufi then wakes up, bolts to a drawer naked, and grabs some scissors, threatening to kill himself with them. To the pols this seems a bit of an overreaction, and they haul the blanket off of Mufi's bed, noticing someone else there. It is a naked thirteen year old boy.

This is naturally horrifying to the pols, but it gets worse because the nameless pol we're with asked if the boy can prove he is thirteen, the age of consent. So funny thing: as long as the boy is thirteen and voluntarily there, this is no longer a crime. The other pols are disgusted by this, but the corporal informs them that "victimless crimes" are being removed from the books, and this is one of them. Mufi is a legal sex predator, colloquially known as a 'scan. Bear in mind, this is still abhorred, and the corporal threatens to reveal Mufi's secret at work (he's a used Quibble dealer.) This doesn't make much impact with Mufi, where he moves from terror to excuse making to smugness when he realizes the cops are just gonna leave, so the Corporal spits in his face and departs.

The pols are completely disgusted, not to mention horrified that they had to see that and were unable to do anything. They take formation in front of Ruth's door, hoping this apartment is better.

Chapter 13

Jason is still in the apartment, and is literally just theorizing on how he has 24 hour minimum, up to 48 before the cops come calling. He then notices that it is quiet, too quiet. Jason suddenly realizes he's about to get got.

The doorbell rings. Jason opens the door. The cops place Taverner into protective custidy, along with Ruth. She asks if she can get a jacket, and one of the pols grabs her and hauls her out of the apartment. Ruth is sniveling that she's going to a gulag, and Jason says "nah, they'll probably just kill you", which gets a "well you're a nice guy" from one of the arresting pols.

Jason and Ruth are taken to the police van/quibble and searched, then put aboard. Both are being taken back to LA, to the police HQ. Ruth is somewhat understandably freaking out, and the pols are actually trying to console her, saying she's just being taken back to Los Angeles, chill. Ruth says she hates LA. The pol riding in the back with them says "so do I - but we must learn to live with it; it's there."

As Ruth continies to have a little breakdown, thinking of the pols ransacking her apartment (Jason responds to this with "Yup.") Jason asks the pol with them who they are being taken to, McNulty? The pol responds with Psalm 69 (lol) and says, no, it sounds like General Felix Buckman himself wants to talk to you. The pol then quotes another verse, Isaiah 65:13, 17. Then kinda on a roll:

quote:

"All flesh is like grass," the jesus freak Pol intoned. "Like low-grade roachweed, most likely. Onto us a child is born, onto us a hit is given. The crooked shall be made straight and the straight loaded."

"Do you have a joint?" Jason asked him.

"No, I've run out." The Jesus freak pol rapped on the forward metal wall. "Hey, Ralf, can you lay a joint on this brother?"

"Here." A crushed pack of Goldies appeared by way of a grey-sleeved hand and arm.

"Thanks" said Jason as he lit up. "You want one?" he asked Ruth Rae.

"I want Bob" she whimpered. "I want my husband."

Silently, Jason sat hunched over, smoking and meditating.

"Don't give up," the Jesus-freak pol said beside him, in the darkness.

"Why not?" Jason said.

"The forced labor camps are not that bad. In basic orientation they took us through one; there's showers, and beds with mattresses, and recreation such as vollyball, and arts and hobbies; you know ----- crafts, like making candles. By hand. And your family can send you packages, and once a month they or your friends can visit you." He added "and you get to worship at the church of your choice."

Jason said sardonically, "The church of my choice is the free and open world."

After that there was silence, except for the noisy clatter of the quibble's engine, and Ruth Rae's whimpering.

Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said; Chapter 11

Jason finds Ruth smoking a cigarette in the living room, lit only by the lights of urban night outside. (Oh, apparently cigarettes are *rationed*, not illegal (because they give you cancer) and so of course the black market provides extra cigs, and Ruth in fact has a lung-shaped ashtray. She asks Jason if she loved Monica Buff.

Jason says yes, qualifying it by saying there are many kinds of love. Ruth tells a story of a bunny rabbit a childhood friend once owned. Raised with cats, it always wanted to bring the cats back to a little nest the rabbit made out of cat fur. Cats being cats did not do this. Then one day it decided to play tag (which it always played with the childhood friend and the cats) with a German Shepard that was with another friend. The dog not knowing the rules (or who this strange rabbit was) bit and held the rabbit by its hindquarters, until people got him off. After that, the rabbit was terrified of dogs, but still kept trying to be a cat, because it wasn't very smart. This is why Ruth divested herself of animals entirely: their lives are short and then they die, and that hurts.

Jason asks what the point of love is, then. From his experience people will just leave as they got a better offer on the love market, leaving you holding the bag of emotions. Ruth has a fairly long monolog on what love is, saying it's completely irrational and against most human instincts, which is survival. But survival always fails, in the end. No instinct can defeat death. So love is the thing that goes on; not with you, but with others, and that's why it alone gives the true peace and contentment.

Jason's repost is that since love inevitably is irrational and leads to badness, you could cut it out of your life entirely. Ruth responds that saying that grief - this is really what is being talked about - is the thing that allows love its special value, as love with grief would be under or unappreciated. Ruth shares a ghost experience she had with the family dog. Grief as experiencing death for a time, then gradually you return to life.

Jason plans to stay till morning at Ruth's apartment. He thinks it unlikely that the Police would turn on him that quickly. He ends on the disquieting thought that in this situation, he is the rabbit; something that doesn't understand the rules of the people around him.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Chapter 10

We're back with General Felix, and it's difficult to tell what time it is. Either this is a continuation of the phone call we left off on, or this is the second call Felix has made to McNulty. McNulty has just told the General that Jason has just destroyed his last tracker dot. Felix is convinced now that Jason is someone deeply sinister who must be apprehended. His evidence is the total lack of police records on Jason. McNulty thinks Jason split Los Vegas the instant he found the tracker dot; General Felix says no; he's betting Jason is still there. He also orders McNulty who is most def home, high, and ready for bed to take a pill and return to HQ. As McNulty hangs up, Felix is irritated by McNulty's drug use. (Once again, quite likely perfectly legal.)

Alys (who is reading McNulty's police file) says Felix should consider that maybe Jason is broadly who he says he is. She points out skill-and-appearance wise at least, his story fits what Kathy has told police. This is also irritating to Felix who tells Alys to GTFO. She unperturbed, speculates he might be the singer who sang the latest pornochord hit----

Felix cuts her off with a bribe. If she just GTFO at this juncture, she can have a perfectly centered one-dollar black U.S. Trans-Mississippi stamp. For stamp collectors, it is a holy grail. Alys, who like her brother is super into stamps, is kind of blown away by this and agrees, and leaves for the roof. Felix got it in a trade with a somebody heading to a forced labor camp; a stamp for freedom. By himself, Felix gets introspective about why he finds Alys so disturbing. Even as the Police General in a dystopian police state plays by the rules, he thinks. Hypothetically, no police general would have somebody killed if they did the state a favor first. But Alys: she doesn't play by the rules. If you try to force her, she just becomes more chaotic and even less rule bound. Felix is terrified of this. He half expects to get home and find Alys burned the stamp, just to demonstrate her chaos-ness.

He also puts on some classical music and muses about poetry, thinking at last that the reason he is right about Jason sticking in Las Vegas, is because he can think like the enemy, not like a cop (viz. McNulty, who assumes that Jason is always acting rationally.) Jason might be huge, but he was revealed apparently through a fuckup of some sort. If you assume he's this important sinister dude, how did he end up in a fleabag hotel with no papers, and then get papers through the desperate stratagem of bribing the guy at the desk? Put on the one hand what it takes to vanish entirely from the databanks, and this amateur hour stuff on the other, 10 to 1 this was some sort of blunder. I mean: why not just stay in the hotel? What was so important that he had to wander around the edge of Watts with a PI?

Herb (General Felix's Lt.) points out it is only by mistakes that they have any chance of catching the really sophisticated people - otherwise they would be an unknowable metaphysical entity. But now the General has noticed him, dum dum dum dum

General Felix checks in with Las Vegas. He ordered Las Vegas to conduct a sweep of the upscale apartment complex Jason signal was last detected at. (Somewhat hilariously compared to today's tech, the dot only returns a signal accurately enough to say Jason is in this building.) So of the 36 or so units, 30 have been searched. No Taverner, though. Feeling vaguely disappointed, Felix rings off, telling the uniform to call him direct when they bag him. Waiting for McNulty to get to his desk and for the police squad to find Jason, he worries about the idiots doing the sweep and their noisy goddamn ways. (If you're picturing a bunch of Half-Life overwatch soldiers or a SWAT team, that actually seems a bit off. Written in 1972, SWAT was brand new, and these appear to be just a mob of uniform police.) Herb tries to make a bet with the General: five gold Kriegerands that they bag Taverener but this yields nothing. Intrigued, the general bets $1000 dollars that this opens a whole new vista of sinister....bad....guys for the police. Herb is nonplussed by this, because he frankly doesn't have that kind of money.

New call for Felix, the police captain in Vegas reports radar/thermal imaging has detected a male about Taverner's reported size in one of the un-searched apartments. Felix orders the surrounding apartments be quietly cleared out, then move in to capture.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said; Chapter 9

So Jason and Ruth were fucking, and Jason is amazed by how big her apartment is, the dog breeder man she married must have (or had) serious cash. Ruth smokes cigarettes, which is very very expensive, and also the only vice that is explicitly described as illegal. Jason is actually censoring his own thoughts as to how old Ruth looks, changing "prune face" to "weathered". I dunno, I think as far as showbiz goes, Dick knows of what he writes here. Hollywood wrote off Natalie Wood past 35 FFS

Ahem. Anyway, Jason asks if Ruth remembers Monica Buff. Ruth does, as she was her sister-in-law for six years. She sounds like a catch: mentally ill with what sounds like schizophrenia, rarely washes, can go for days at a time saying literally nothing, would steal from anybody (like Ruth) if the opportunity arose. Naturally Jason had a "brief but intense affair with her" She was 19, he was 37. She spent all her days shoplifting so she could feed students (IE the bad literally underground rebels.) Despite being an unmedicated schizophrenic, she beat the police system entirely. Any time her paranoia said "pols gonna run a spot check" she would call the police about a man beating on her door, and then she'd maneuver whatever refugee she was keeping out of the house, and then lock the door on them. The police would show up and find a student beating on her door. No more police problems! She also wandered off and vanished, and is probably dead now.

While Ruth is trying to understand what Jason saw in a mentally ill teenager who stank, Jason remembers "hey, didn't McNulty ask about who planted the tracking dot?" Jason then spends an intense half hour in the bathroom, looking for the translucent purple dot and eventually finding it. Not only has this whole fucking ruse been for nothing, now Ruth's life might be in danger too.

Bummer. Jason asks for coffee, which Ruth gets out of her automat/replicator thing, in a big mug that says "keep on Truckin'" on it. After wolfing it down, tooth pain be damned, He then explains he has to leave, he doesn't know if the pigs are on his tail, but getting an innocent person police hassle is a sin he doesn't want, and besides, you're too old

Ruth looks like "a warped, stomped doll", then runs to the kitchen and runs back with a stoneware platter with souvenir of knotts berry farm written on it. She at a run tries to cave Jason's head in with the platter, and Jason only just manages to intercept with his elbow. The platter shatters into three pieces, one slashing a deep gouge in Jason's arm.

There's a pause.

Ruth says she's sorry. Jason says he's sorry, too. Ruth asks why Jason said that to her, Jason says "because of my own fears of age. Because they are wearing me down, what's left of me." Jason does some first aid and wonders where Ruth has gotten to. If it's to get the police, after what I said, Jason thinks, he couldn't blame her.