Flow My Tears, the Policeman said, Chapter 19

The quibble lands on a round asphalt spot in front of the General's mansion. This is confusing: the craft lands in the great lawn in front of the house, but then the house is surrounded by a wall, with a fence guarded by a brown-suited private police. So it is really unclear if the quibble landed in a public or private space. Alys waves Jason through. Jason, of course, wants to know how the hell do you know me. Alys as per her character refuses to respond directly, saying she's been a big fan for years. When they reach the house, Alys asks if he recognizes the place. Jason says no, and Alys says "Really? You've been here before." This is another depth charge on Jason's leaky submarine of sanity. Because while he's not at his best, he's really sure he's never been to this house before now.. The house is modern and tastefully appointed, with soft carpets and egregious use of space as a demonstration of luxury.

Finally getting to a sunken living room, Alys offers Jason a cap of mescaline.

I might have shut my eyes and looked away from the book at this point. Aside from one other point we'll get to, this might be the most fucked up part of the entire book, IE that Jason would choose to do some psychedelic drugs, when he's been made an unperson in a way that makes no rational sense, pursued by police for this, almost gulag'd, then thanks to a General of Police is OK, but is now over at the General of Police's house, with his sister, who is also his incest wife, who for no stated reason knows him for who he was. That's a crush-depth level of stress stone sober.

So naturally Jason takes a cap of...something. It comes out of a special box with markings that say it came from Switzerland, when Alys assures him that this was light, high quality stuff that would give him color trails.

Alys declines this drug as she is already spaced. "Since you don't know me I guess you wouldn't be able to tell."

Alys brings Jason along, already past the edge of the desert when the drugs begin to take hold, to a Room, with a big desk in it. Actually, several big desks, antiques. The room is a libriary, with many large, presumably valuble books in shelves, along with glass cases contianing early chess sets, tiny, cups, tarot card decks....

Alys tells Jason to zip it while she fishes out that special stamp Felix gave her. Using a magnifying glass and some philatelic tongs, Alys carefully places the stamp on the edge of the desk. While Alys gushes about its engraving, Jason is unimpressed. Quote Alys: "he gave it to me because he loves me, because he says I'm good in bed." While Jason is a few decades too soon to wonder if the mind can vomit, Alys flips over the stamp and finds a tiny flaw in the back. Alys treats this like Felix got a trick over on her, as he promised a perfect stamp. She immediately decides to open the safe containing Felix's stamp collection. If he has one of these, she'll switch it on him, see if he notices. "Don't mention to Felix, he doesn't know I know the combination." A duplicate of the stamp isn't there, but Alys fumes that he probably has hidden it somewhere. Jason reports he's feeling the mescaline, as he's getting a characteristic leg ache. He manages to find a sofa in this room to flop down in before his legs give way.

Alys is asking him if he'd like to see the General's ornate antique snuffbox collection. Jason asks how nobody else knows who he is. "Because they've never been there." "Where?" No answer. "How did I get here?" Alys is doing some stuff with her face that suggests she's barely paying attention, like the drug has asserted itself with her, too. "I'm not sure I should tell you."

"Why not" Jason manages to shout, as if in a dream.

TL;DR Jason has had a long day thanks to her asshole brother, the police general. Her face is a mask of revulsion when she thinks of Felix. Then she flits from the couch and invites Jason onto that "phone-grid transex network" mentioned briefly at the book's start, which just to refresh your memory is internet porn, except virtual, and people libidos are all amplified to a monstrous degree and can be highly addictive and can cause permanent brain damage. So internet porn.

Amazingly, Jason says no. She offers what I think is music and then food, but Jason wants to know where he is. "Can't you just be happy?" Alys asks.