Fear and Loathing Las Vegas WHOLE BOOK - Part 1

part-1 we were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold I remember saying something like I feel a bit lightheaded maybe you should drive and suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats all swooping and screeching and diving around the car which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas and a voice was screaming holy jesus what are these goddamn animals then it was quiet again my attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest to facilitate the tanning process what the hell are you yelling about he muttered staring up at the Sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses never mind I said it's your turn to drive I hit the brakes and aim the great red shark toward the shoulder of the highway no point mentioning those bats I thought the poor bastard will see them soon enough it was almost noon and we still had more than a hundred miles to go they would be tough miles very soon I knew we would both be completely twisted but there was no going back and no time to rest we would have to ride it out press registration for the fabulous mint 400 was already underway and we had to get there by 4:00 to claim our soundproof suite a fashionable sporting magazine in New York had taken care of the reservations along with this huge red Chevy convertible we've just rented off a lot on the Sunset Strip and I was after all a professional journalist so I had an obligation to cover the story for good or ill the sporting editors had also given me $300 in cash most of which was already spent on extremely dangerous drugs the trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab we had two bags of grass 75 pellets of mescaline five sheets of high-powered blotter acid a salt shaker half full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers downers screamers Laffer x' and also a quarter tequila a quart of rum a case of Budweiser a pint of raw ether and two dozen Emil's all this had been rounded up the night before in a frenzy of high-speed driving all over Los Angeles County from Topanga to watts we picked up everything we could get our hands on not that we needed all that for the trip but once you get locked into a serious drug collection the tendency is to push it as far as you can the only thing that really worried me was the ether there is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge and I knew we'd get into that rotten stuff pretty soon probably at the next gas station we had sampled almost everything else and now yes it was time for a long snort of ether and then through the next hundred miles in a horrible slobbering sort of [ __ ] stupor the only way to keep alert on ether is to do up a lot of Amos not all at once but steadily just enough to maintain the focus at 90 miles an hour through Barstow man this is the way to travel said my attorney he leaned over to turn the volume up on the radio humming along with the rhythm section and kind of moaning the words one toke over the line sweet Jesus one toke over the line one toke you poor fool wait'll you see those goddamn bats I could barely hear the radio slumped over on the far side of the seat grappling with the tape recorder turned all the way up on sympathy for the devil that was the only tape we had so we played it constantly over and over as a kind of demented counterpoint to the radio and also to maintain our rhythm on the road a constant speed is good for gas mileage and for some reason that important at the time indeed on a trip like this one must be careful about gas consumption avoid those quick bursts of acceleration that dragged blood to the back of the brain my attorney saw the hitch-hiker long before I did let's give this boy a lift he said and before I could mount any argument he was stopped and this poor okie kid was running up to the car with a big grin on his face saying hot damn I never rode in a convertible before is that right I said well I guess you're about ready huh the kid nodded eagerly as we roared off we're your friends said my attorney we're not like the others oh Christ I thought he's gone around the bend no more of that talk I said sharply or I'll put the leeches on you he grinned seeming to understand luckily the noise in the car was so awful between the wind and the radio and the tape machine that the kid in the backseat couldn't hear a word we were saying or could he how long can we maintain I wondered how long before one of us starts raving and jabbering at this boy what will he think then the same lonely desert was the last known home of the Manson family will he make that grim connection when my attorney starts screaming about bats and huge manta rays coming down on the car if so well we'll just have to cut his head off and bury him somewhere because it goes without saying that we can't turn him loose it reporters at once - some kind of outback Nazi law enforcement agency and they'll run us down like dogs Jesus did I say that just thinking was I talking did they hear me I glanced over at my attorney but he seemed oblivious watching the road driving our great red shark along at a hundred and ten or so there was no sound from the backseat maybe I'd better have a chat with this boy I've thought perhaps if I explained things he'll rest easy of course I leaned around in the seat and gave him a fine big smile admiring the shape of his skull by the way I said there's one thing you should probably understand he stared at me not blinking was he gritting his teeth can you hear me I yelled he nodded that's good I said because I want you to know that we're on our way to Las Vegas to find the American dream I smiled that's why we rented this car it was the only way to do it can you grasp that he nodded again but his eyes were nervous I want you to have all the background I said because this is a very ominous assignment with overtones of extreme personal danger hell I forgot all about this beer you want one he shook his head how about some ether I said what never mind let's get right to the heart of this thing you see about 24 hours ago we were sitting in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills hotel in the patio section of course and we were just sitting there under a palm tree when this uniformed dwarf came up to me with a pink telephone and said this must be the call you've been waiting for all this time sir I laughed and ripped open a beer can that foamed all over the back seat while I kept talking and you know he was right I've been expecting that call but I didn't know who it would come from do you follow me the boys face was a mask of pure fear and bewilderment I blundered on I want you to understand that this man at the wheel is my attorney he's not just some dingbat I found on the strip she'd look at him he doesn't look like you or me right that's because he's a foreigner I think he's probably Samoan but it doesn't matter does it are you prejudiced oh hell no he blurted I didn't think so I said because in spite of his race this man is extremely valuable to me I glanced over at my attorney but his mind was somewhere else I whacked the back of the driver's seat with my fist this is important god damn it this is a true story the car swerved sickeningly then straightened out keep your hands off my [ __ ] neck my attorney screamed the kid in the back looked like he was ready to jump right out of the car and take his chances our vibrations were getting nasty but why I was puzzled frustrated was there no communication in this car had me deteriorated to the level of dumb beasts because my story was true I was certain event and it was extremely important I felt for the meaning of our journey to be made absolutely clear we had actually been sitting there in the Polo Lounge for many hours drinking Singapore slings with mescal on the side and beer chasers and when the call came I was ready the dork approached our table cautiously as I recall and when he handed me the pink telephone I said nothing merely listened and then I hung up turning to face my attorney that was headquarters I said they want me to go to Las Vegas at once and make contact with the Portuguese photographer named Lacerda he'll have the details all I have to do is check into my suite and he'll seek me out my attorney said nothing for a moment then he suddenly came alive in his chair God hell he exclaimed I think I see the pattern this one sounds like real trouble he tucked his khaki undershirt into his white rayon bell-bottoms and called from more drink you're gonna need plenty of legal advice before this thing is over he said and my first advice is that you should rent a very fast car with no top and get the hell out of LA for at least 48 hours he shook his head sadly this blows my weekend because naturally I'll have to go with you and we'll have to arm our why not I said if a thing like this is worth doing at all it's worth doing right we'll need some decent equipment and plenty of cash on the line if only for drugs and a super-sensitive tape recorder for the sake of a permanent record what kind of a story is this he asked the mint 400 I said it's the richest off the road race for motorcycles and dune buggies in the history of organized sport a fantastic spectacle in honor of some fatback grouse arrow named el Webb who owns the luxurious mint hotel in the heart of downtown Las Vegas at least that's what the press release says my man in New York just read it to me well he said as your attorney I advise you to buy a motorcycle how else can you cover a thing like this righteously no way I said where can we get hold of a Vincent Black Shadow what's that a fantastic bike I said the new model is something like 2,000 cubic inches developing 200 brake horsepower at 4,000 I'm a guinea Xion frame with two styrofoam seats and a total kerb weight of exactly 200 pounds that sounds about right for this gig he said it is I assured him the [ __ ] not much for turning but it's pure hell on the straightaway it'll outrun the f-111 until take off take off he said can we handle that much torque absolutely I said I'll call New York for some cash to the seizure of $300 from a pig woman in Beverly Hills the New York office was not familiar with the Vincent Black Shadow they referred me to the Los Angeles Bureau which is actually in Beverly Hills just a few long blocks from the Polo Lounge but when I got there the money woman refused to give me more than $300 in cash she had no idea who I was she said and by that time I was pouring sweat my blood is too thick for California I have never been able to properly explain myself in this climate not with the soaking sweats wild red eyeballs and trembling hands so I took the $300 and left my attorney was waiting in a bar around the corner this won't make the nut he said unless we have unlimited credit I assured him we would use Samoans are all the same I told him you have no faith in the essential decency of the white man's culture Jesus just one hour ago we were sitting over there in that stinking baño Stone broke and paralyzed for the weekend when a call comes through from some total stranger in New York telling me to go to Las Vegas and expenses be damned and then he sends me over to some office in Beverly Hills where another total stranger gives me $300 raw cash for no reason at all I tell you my man this is the American Dream in action we'd be fools not to ride this strange torpedo all the way out to the end indeed he said we must do it right I said but first we need the car and after that the cocaine and then the tape recorder for special music and some Acapulco shirts the only way to prepare for a trip like this I felt was to dress up like human peacocks and get crazy then screech off across the desert and covered the story never lose sight of the primary responsibility but what was the story nobody had bothered to say so we would have to drum it up on our own free enterprise the American dream horatio alger gone mad on drugs in Las Vegas do it now pure gonzo journalism there was also the socio psychic factor every now and then when your life gets complicated and the weasels start closing in the only real cure is to load up on heinous chemicals and then drive like a bastard from Hollywood to Las Vegas to relax as it were in the womb of the Desert Sun just roll the roof back and screw it on grease the face with white tanning butter and move out with the music at top volume and at least a pint of ether getting hold of the drugs had been no problem but the car in the tape recorder were not easy things to round up at 6:30 on a Friday afternoon in Hollywood I already had one car but it was far too small and slow for desert work we went to a Polynesian bar where my attorney made 17 calls before locating a convertible with adequate horsepower and proper coloring hang on to it I heard him say into the phone we'll be over to make the trade in 30 minutes then after a pause he began shouting what of course the gentleman has a major credit card do you realize who the [ __ ] you're talking to don't take any guff from these swine I said as he slammed the phone down now we need a sound store with the finest equipment nothing dinky we want one of those new Belgian Helio watts with a voice-activated shotgun Mike for picking up conversations in oncoming cars we made several more calls and finally located our equipment in a store about five miles away it was closed but the salesman said he would wait if we hurried but we were delayed and rude when a stingray in front of us killed a pedestrian on Sunset Boulevard the store was closed by the time we got there there were people inside but they refused to come to the double glass door until we gave it a few belts and made ourselves clear finally two salesmen brandishing tire irons came to the door and we managed to negotiate the sale through a tiny slit then they opened the door just wide enough to shove the equipment out before slamming and locking it again now take that stuff and get the hell away from here one of them shouted through the slit my attorney shook his fist at them we'll be back he yelled one of these days I'll toss a [ __ ] bomb into this place I have your name on the sales slip I'll find out where you live and burn your house down that'll give him something to think about he muttered as we drove off that guy is a paranoid psychotic anyway they're easy to spot we had trouble again at the car rental agency after signing all the papers I got in the car and almost lost control of it while backing across the lot to the gas pump the rental man was obviously shaken say there you fellas are gonna be careful with this car aren't you of course well good god he said you just backed over that two-foot concrete abutment and you didn't even slow down 45 in Reverse and you barely missed the pump no I'm done I said I always test a transmission that way the rear end for stress factors meanwhile my attorney was busy transferring rum and ice from the Pinto to the backseat of the convertible the rental man watched him nervously say he said are you fellas drinking not me I said just fill the goddamn tank my attorney snapped we're in a hell of a hurry we're on our way to Las Vegas for a desert race what never mind I said we're responsible people I watched him put the gas cap on then I jammed the thing into low gear and we lurched into traffic there's another warrior said my attorney he's probably all cranked up on speed yeah you should have given him some Reds Reds wouldn't help a pig like that he said to hell with him we have a lot of business to take care of before we can get on the road I'd like to get hold of some priests robes I said they might come in handy in Las Vegas but there were no costume stores open and we weren't up to burglarizing the church why bother said my attorney and you have to remember that a lot of cops are good vicious Catholics can you imagine what those bastards would do to us if we got busted all drugged up and drunk in stolen vestments Jesus stayed castrate us you're right I said and for Christ's sakes don't smoke that pipe at stoplights keep in mind that we're exposed he nodded we need a big hookah keep it down here on the seat out of sight if anybody sees us they'll think we're using oxygen we spent the rest of that night rounding up materials and packing the car then we ate the mescaline and went swimming in the ocean somewhere around dawn we had breakfast in a Malibu coffee shop then drove very carefully across town and plunged onto the smog shrouded Pasadena Freeway heading east three strange medicine on the desert a crisis of confidence I am still vaguely haunted by our hitchhikers remark about how he'd never rode in a convertible before here's this port geek living in a world of convertible zipping past him on the highways all the time and he's never even ridden in one it made me feel like King Farouk I was tempted to have my attorney pull into the next airport and arrange some kind of simple common law contract whereby we could just give the car to this unfortunate bastard just say Here sign this and the cars yours give him the keys and then use the credit card to zap off on a jet to someplace like Miami and rent another huge fire apple red convertible for a drug-addled top speed run across the water all the way out to the last stop in Key West and then trade the car off for a boat keep moving but this manic notion passed quickly there was no point in getting this harmless kid locked up and besides I had plans for this car I was looking forward to flashing around Las Vegas in the bugger maybe do a bit of serious drag racing on the strip pull up to that big stoplight in front of the Flamingo and start screaming at the traffic alright you chicken [ __ ] wimps you pansies when this goddamn light flips green I'm going to stomp down on this thing and blow everyone gutless Punk's off the road right challenge the bastards on their own turf come screeching up to the crosswalk bucking and skidding with a bottle of rum in one hand and jamming the horn to drown out the music glazed eyes insanely dilated behind tiny black gold rim greaser shades screaming gibberish a genuinely dangerous drunk reeking of ether and terminal psychosis revving the engine up to a terrible high-pitched chattering whine waiting for the light to change how often does a chance like that come around to jangle the bastards right down to the core of their spleens old elephants limp off to the hills to die old Americans go out to the highway and drive themselves to death with huge cars but our trip was different it was a classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character it was a gross physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country but only for those with true grit and we were chock-full of that my attorney understood this concept despite his racial handicap but our hitchhiker was not an easy person to reach he said he understood but I could see in his eyes that he didn't he was lying to me the car suddenly veered off the road and we came to a sliding halt in the gravel I was hurled against the dashboard my attorney was slumped over the wheel what's wrong I yelled we can't stop here this is bad country my heart he groaned where's the medicine oh I said the medicine yes it's right here I reached into the kit bag for the Amos the kid seemed petrified don't worry I said this man has a bad heart and Jonah pectoris but we have the cure for it yes here they are I picked for a Moe's out of the tin box and handed two of them to my attorney he immediately cracked one under his nose and I did likewise he took a long snort and fell back on the seat staring straight up at the Sun turn up the [ __ ] music he screamed my heart feels like an alligator volume clarity bass we must have bass he flailed his naked arms at the sky what's wrong with us are we goddamn old ladies I turned both the radio and the tape machine up full bore you scurvy shyster bastard I said what's your language you're talking to a doctor of journalism he was laughing out of control what the [ __ ] are we doing out here on this desert he shouted somebody call the police we need help pay no attention to this swine I said to the hitchhiker he can't handle the medicine actually were both doctors of journalism and we're on our way to Las Vegas to cover the main story of our generation and then I began laughing my attorney hunched around to face the hitchhiker the truth is he said we're going to Vegas to croak a scag baron named savage Henry I've known him for years but he ripped us off and you know what that means right I wanted to shut him off but we were both helpless with laughter what the [ __ ] were we doing out here on this desert when we both had bad hearts Savage Henry has cashed his check my attorney snarled at the kid in the back seat we're gonna rip his lungs out and eat them I blurted that bastard won't get away with this what's going on in this country when a scum sucker like that can get away with sandbagging a doctor of journalism nobody answered my attorney was cracking another a mold and the kid was climbing out of the back seat scrambling down the trunklid thanks for the ride he yelled a lot I like you guys don't worry about me his feet hit the asphalt and he started running back towards Baker out in the middle of the desert not a tree in sight wait a minute I yelled come back and get a beer but apparently he couldn't hear me the music was very loud and he was moving away from us at good speed good riddance said my attorney we had a real freak on our hands that boy made me nervous did you see his eyes he was still laughing Jesus he said this is good medicine I opened the door and reeled around to the driver's side move over I said I'll Drive we have to get out of California before that kid finds a cop [ __ ] that'll be ours said my attorney he's a hundred miles from anywhere so are we I said let's turn around and drive back to the Polo Lounge he said they'll never look for his there and I ignored him open the tequila I yelled as the wind scream took over again I stomped on the accelerator as we hurdle back onto the highway moments later he leaned over with the map there's a place up ahead called mescal Springs he said as your attorney I advise you to stop and take a swim I shook my head it's absolutely imperative that we get to the mint hotel before the deadline for press registration I said otherwise we might have to pay for our suite he nodded but let's forget that [ __ ] about the American dream he said the important thing is the great Samoan dream he was rummaging around in the kit bag I think it's about time to chew up a blotter he said that cheap mescaline wore off a long time ago and I don't know if I can stand the smell of that goddamn ether any longer I like it I said we should soak a towel with the stuff and then put it down on the floorboard by the accelerator the fumes will rise up in my face all the way to Las Vegas he was turning the tape cassette over the radio was screaming power to the people right on John Lennon's political song ten years too late that poor fool shoulda stayed where he was said my attorney punks like that just get in the way when they try to be serious speaking of serious I said I think it's about time to get into the ether and the cocaine forget ether he said let's save it from soaking down the rug in the suite but here's this your half of the sunshine blood just chew it up like baseball gum I took the blotter and ate it my attorney was now fumbling with the salt shaker containing the cocaine opening it spilling it then screaming and grabbing at the air as our fine white dust blew up and out across the desert highway a very expensive little twister rising up from the great red shark oh Jesus he moaned did you see what God just did to us God didn't do that I shouted you did it you're a [ __ ] narcotics agent I was onto your stinking act from the start you Pig you better be careful he said and suddenly he was waving of fat black 357 Magnum at me one of those snub nosed Colt pythons with the bevel cylinder plenty of vultures out here he said they'll pick your bones clean before morning yo [ __ ] I said when we get to Las Vegas I'll have you chopped into hamburger what do you think the drug Bund will do when I show up with a Samoan narcotics agent they'll kill us both he said Savage Henry knows who I am [ __ ] I'm your attorney he burst into wild laughter you're full of acid you fool it'll be a goddamn miracle if we can get to the hotel and check in before you turn into a wild animal are you ready for that check it into a his hotel under a phony name with intent to commit capital fraud and a head full of acid he was laughing again then he jammed his nose down toward the salt shaker aiming the thin green roll of a $20 bill straight into what was left of the powder how long do we have I said maybe 30 more minutes he replied as your attorney I advise you to drive at top speed Las Vegas was just up ahead I could see the strip hotel skyline looming up through the blue desert ground haze the Sahara the landmark the Americana and the ominous Thunderbird a cluster of grey rectangles in the distance rising out of the cactus 30 minutes it was going to be very close the objective was the big Tower of the mint hotel downtown and if we didn't get there before we lost all control it was also the Nevada state prison upstate in Carson City I had been there once but only for a talk with the prisoners and I didn't want to go back for any reason at all so there was really no choice we would have to run the gauntlet and acid be damned go through all the official gibberish get the car into the hotel garage work out on the desk clerk deal with the bellboy sign in for the press passes all of it bogus totally illegal a fraud on its face but of course it would have to be done till the body and the head will die this line appears in my notebook for some reason perhaps some connection with Joe Frazier is he still alive still able to talk I watched that fight in Seattle horribly twisted about four seats down the aisle from the governor a very painful experience in every way a proper end to the 60s Tim Leary a prisoner of Eldridge Cleaver in Algeria Bob Dylan clipping coupons in Greenwich Village both Kennedy's murdered by mutants owlsley folding napkins on Terminal Island and finally Cassius Ali belted incredibly off his pedestal by a human hamburger a man on the verge of death Joe Frazier like Nixon had finally prevailed for reasons that people like me refused to understand at least not out loud but that was some other era burned out and long gone from the brutish realities of this foul year of our Lord 1971 a lot of things had changed in those years and now I was in Las Vegas as the motor sports editor of this fine slick magazine that had sent me out here in the great red shark for some reason that nobody claimed to understand just check it out they said and we'll take it from there indeed check it out but when we finally arrived at the mint hotel my attorney was unable to cope artfully with the registration procedure we were forced to stand in line with all the others which proved to be extremely difficult under the circumstances I kept telling myself be quiet be calm saying nothing speak only when spoken to name rank and press affiliation nothing else ignore this terrible drug pretend it's not happening there is no way to explain the terror I felt when I finally lunged up to the clerk and began babbling all my well rehearsed lines fell apart under that woman stony glare hi there I said my name is Raoul Duke yes on the list that's for sure free lunch final wisdom total coverage why not I have my attorney with me and I realized of course that his name is not on the list but we must have that suite yes this man is actually my driver we brought this red shark all the way from the strip and now it's time for the desert right yes just check the list and you'll see don't worry what's the score here what the woman never blinked your rooms not ready yet she said but there's somebody looking for you no I shouted hi we haven't done anything yet my legs fell rubbery I gripped the desk and sagged toward her as she held out the envelope but I refused to accept it the woman's face was changing swelling pulsing horrible green jowls and fangs jutting out the face of a moray eel deadly poison I lunge backwards into my attorney who gripped my arm as he reached out to take the note I'll handle this he said to the more a woman this man has a bad heart but I have plenty of medicine my name is dr. gonzo prepare our suite at once we'll be in the bar the woman shrugged as he led me away in a town full of bedrock crazies nobody even notices an acid freak we struggled through the crowded Lobby and found two stools at the bar my attorney ordered to Cuba libres with beer and mescal on the side then he opened the envelope whose Lacerda he asked he's waiting for us in a room on the 12th floor I couldn't remember Lacerta the name rang a bell but I couldn't concentrate terrible things were happening all around us right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman's neck the carpet was a blood-soaked sponge impossible to walk on no footing at all orders some golf shoes I whispered otherwise we'll never get out of this place alive you noticed these lizards don't have any trouble moving around in this muck that's because they have claws on their feet lizards he said if you think we're in trouble now wait'll you see what's happening in the elevators he took off his Brazilian sunglasses and I could see he'd been crying I just went upstairs to see this man listen he said I told him we knew what he was up to he says he's a photographer but when I mentioned savage Henry well that did it he freaked I could see it in his eyes he knows we're on to him does he understand we have magnums I said no but I told him we had a Vincent Black Shadow that scared the piss out of him good I said but what about our room and the golf shoes we're right in the middle of a [ __ ] reptile zoo and somebody's given bones to these goddamn things it won't be long before they tear us to shreds Jesus look at the floor have you ever seen so much blood how many have they killed already I pointed across the room to a group that seemed to be staring at us holy [ __ ] look at that bunch over there they've spotted us that's the press table he said that's where you have to sign in for our credentials [ __ ] let's get it over with you handle that and I'll get the room for hideous music and the sound of many shotguns rude vibes on a Saturday evening in Vegas we finally get into the suite around dusk and my attorney was immediately on the phone - room service ordering for club sandwiches for shrimp cocktails a quart of rum and nine fresh grapefruits vitamin C he explained we need all we can get I agreed by this time the drink was beginning to cut the acid and my hallucinations were down to a tolerable level the room service waiter had a vaguely reptilian cast to his features but I was no longer seeing huge pterodactyls lumbering around the corridors and pools of fresh blood the only problem now is a gigantic neon sign outside the window blocking our view of the mountains millions of colored balls running around a very complicated track strange symbols and filigree giving off a loud hum look outside I said why there's a big machine in the sky some kind of electric snake coming straight at us should it said my attorney not yet I said I want to study its habits he went over to the corner and began pulling on a chain to close the drapes look he said you've got to stop this talk about snakes and leeches and lizards and that stuff it's making me sick don't worry I said worry Jesus I almost went crazy down there in the bar they'll never let us back in that place not after you were seen at the press table what seemed you bastard he said I left you alone for three minutes you scared the [ __ ] out of those people waving that goddamn Marlinspike around and yelling about reptiles you're lucky I came back in time they were ready to call the cops I said you were only drunken that I was taking you up to your room for a cold shower hell the only reason they gave us the press passes was to get you out of there he was pacing around nervously Jesus that scene straightened me right out I must have some drugs what have you done with the mescaline the kitbag I said he opened the bag and ate two pellets while I got the tape machine going maybe you should only eat one of these he said that acids still working on you I agreed we have to go out to the track before dark I said but we have time to watch the TV news let's carve up this grapefruit and make a fine rum punch maybe toss in a blotter where's the car we gave it to somebody in the parking lot he said I have the ticket in my briefcase what's the number I'll call down and have them watch the bastard get rid of that dust and grime good idea he said but he couldn't find the ticket well we're [ __ ] I said we'll never convince them to give us that car without proof he thought for a moment then picked up the phone and asked for the garage this is dr. gonzo and 850 he said I seem to have lost my parking stub for that red convertible I left with you but I want the car washed and ready to go in 30 minutes can you send up a duplicate stub what oh well that's fine he hung up and reached for the hash pipe no problem he said the man remembers my face that's good I said they'll probably have a big net ready for us when we show up he shook his head as your attorney I advise you not to worry about me the TV news was about the louse invasion a series of horrifying disasters explosions and twisted wreckage men fleeing in terror Pentagon generals babbling insane lies turn that [ __ ] off screamed my attorney let's get out of here a wise move moments after we picked up the car my attorney went into a drug coma and ran a red light on Main Street before I could bring us under control I propped him up in the passenger seat and took the wheel myself feeling fine extremely sharp all around me in traffic I could see people talking and I wanted to hear what they were saying all of them but the shotgun mic was in the trunk and I decided to leave it there Las Vegas is not the kind of town where you want to drive down Main Street aiming a black bazooka looking instrument at people turn up the radio turn up the tape machine look into the Sun set up ahead roll the windows down for a better taste of the cool desert wind ah yes this is what it's all about total control now tooling along the main drag on a Saturday night in Las Vegas - good old boys in a fire apple red convertible stoned ripped twisted good people great God what is this terrible music - Battle Hymn of lieutenant Callie as we go marching on when I reach my final campground in that land beyond the Sun and the great commander asked me what did he ask you rusty did you fight or did you run and what did you tell him rusty we responded to their rifle fire with everything we had no I can't be hearing this it must be the drug I glanced over at my attorney but he was staring up at the sky and I could see that his brain had gone off to that campground beyond the Sun thank Christ he can't hear this music I thought it had Drive him into a racist frenzy mercifully the song ended but my mood was already shattered and now the fiendish cactus juice took over plunging me into a subhuman funk as we suddenly came up on the turnoff to the mint gun club one mile the sign said but even a mile away I could hear the crackling scream of two-stroke bike engines winding out and then coming closer I heard another sound shotguns no mistaking that flat hollow boom I stopped the car what the hell is going on down there I rolled up all the windows and ease down the gravel road hunched low on the wheel until I saw about a dozen figures pointing shotguns into the air firing at regular intervals standing on a slab of concrete out here in the mesquite desert this scraggly little oasis in a wasteland north of Vegas they were clustered with their shotguns about 50 yards away from a one-story concrete block house half shaded by 10 or 12 trees and surrounded by cop cars bike trailers and motorcycles of course the mint gun club these lunatics weren't letting anything interfere with their target practice here were about a hundred bikers mechanics and assorted motorsport types milling around in the pit area signing in for tomorrow's race idly sipping beers in appraising each other's machinery and right in the middle of all this oblivious to everything but the clay pigeons flipping out of the traps every five seconds or so the shotgun people never missed the beat well why not I thought the shooting provided a certain rhythm sort of a steady bass line to the high-pitched chaos of the bike scene I parked the car and wander it into the crowd leaving my attorney in his coma I bought a beer and watch the bikes checking in many 405 huh spawners hi tuned Swedish fireballs also many Yamahas Kawasaki's a few 500 triumphs mykos here and there a cz a per saying all very fast superlight dirt bikes no hogs in this league not even a Sportster that would be like entering our great red shark in the dune buggy competition maybe I should do that I thought sign my attorney up is the driver then send him out to the starting line with a head full of ether and acid how would they handle it nobody would dare go out on the track with a person that crazy he would roll on the first turn and take out 4 or 5 doom buggies a kamikaze trip what's the entry fee I asked the desk man 250 he said what if I told you I had a Vincent Black Shadow he stared up at me saying nothing not friendly I noticed he was wearing a 38 revolver on his belt forget it I said my drivers sick anyway his eyes narrowed your driver ain't the only one sick around here buddy he has a bone in his throat I said what the man was getting ugly but suddenly his eyes switched away he was staring at something else my attorney no longer wearing his Danish sunglasses no longer wearing his Acapulco shirt a very crazy looking person half naked and breathing heavily what's the trouble here he croaked this man is my client are you prepared to go to court I grabbed his shoulder and gently spun him around never mind I said it's the black shadow they won't accept it wait a minute he shouted what do you mean they won't accept it have you made a deal with these pigs certainly not I said pushing him along toward the gate but you notice they're all armed were the only people here without guns can't you hear that shooting over there he paused listen for an instant then suddenly began running toward the car you'll cut suckers he screamed over his shoulder we'll be back by the time we got the shark back on the highway he was able to talk Jesus Christ how did we get mixed up with that gang of psychotic bigots let's get the [ __ ] out of this town those scumbags were trying to kill us five covering the story a glimpse of the press in action ugliness and failure the racers were ready at dawn fiying sunrise over the desert very tense but the race didn't start until 9:00 so we had to kill about three long hours in the casino next to the pits and that's where the trouble started the bar opened at 7:00 there was also a coffee and donut canteen in the bunker but those of us who had been up all night in places like the circus circus we're in no mood for coffee and doughnuts we wanted strong drink our tempers were ugly and there were at least 200 of us so they opened the bar early by 8:30 there were big crowds around the crap tables the place was full of noise and drunken shouting a bony middle-aged hoodlum wearing a Harley Davidson t-shirt boomed up to the bar and yelled God yeah what day is this Saturday more like Sunday somebody replied huh that's a [ __ ] ain't it the HD boomer shouted to nobody in particular last night I was out home in Long Beach and somebody said they were running the mint 400 today so I says to my old lady man I'm gone he laughed so she gives me a lot of crap about it you know so I started slapping her around and next thing I knew two guys I never even seen before it got me out on the sidewalk working me over Jesus he beat me stupid he laughed again talking into the crowd and not seeming to care who listen hell yes he continued then one of them says where are you going and I says Las Vegas to the mint 400 so they gave me 10 bucks and drove me down to the bus station he paused at least I think it was them well anyway Here I am and I tell you that was one hell of a long night man 7 hours on that goddamn bus but when I woke up it was dawn and here I was in downtown Vegas and for a minute I didn't know what the hell I was doing here all I could think was all Jesus here we go again who's divorced me this time he accepted a cigarette from somebody in the crowd still grinning as he lit up but then I remembered by God I was here for the mint 400 and man that's all I needed to know I tell you it's wonderful to be here man I don't give a damn who wins or loses it's just wonderful to be here with you people nobody argued with him we all understood in some circles the mint 400 is a far far better thing than the Super Bowl the Kentucky Derby and the lower Oakland Roller Derby finals all rolled into one this race attracts a very special breed and our man and the Harley t-shirt was clearly one of them the correspondent from life nodded sympathetically and screamed at the bartender says the man what is he needs bashed up with it I croaked why not five I smacked the bar with my open bleeding palm hell yes bring us ten I'll back it the life man screamed he was losing his grip on the bar sinking slowly to his knees but still speaking with definite authority this is a magic moment in sport he may never come again then his voice seemed to break I was did a triple crown he muttered for there was nothing like this the Frog eyed woman clawed feverishly at his belt stand up she pleaded please stand up you'd be a very handsome man if you just stand up he laughed distractedly listen madam he snapped I'm damn near intolerably handsome down here where I am you go crazy if I stood up the woman kept pulling at him she'd been mooning at his elbows for two hours and now she was making her move the man from life wanted no part of it he slumped deeper into his crouch I turned away it was too horrible we were after all the absolute creme of the national sporting press and we were gathered here in Las Vegas for a very special assignment to cover the fourth annual mint 400 and when it comes to things like this you don't fool around but now even before the spectacle got underway there were signs that we might be losing control of the situation here we were on this fine Nevada morning this cool bright dawn on the desert hunkered down at some greasy bar in a concrete block house and gambling casino called the mint gun club about ten miles out of Vegas and with the race about to start we were dangerously disorganized outside the lunatics were playing they're motorcycles taping the headlights topping off oil in the forks last-minute bolt tightening carburetor screws manifold nuts etc and the first 10 bikes blasted off on the stroke of nine it was extremely exciting we all went outside to watch the flag went down and these ten poor buggers popped their clutches and zoomed in to the first turn altogether then somebody grabbed the lead a 405 Husqvarna as I recall and the chair went up is the rider screwed it on and disappeared in a cloud of dust well that's that somebody said they'll be back around in an hour or so let's go back to the bar but not yet know it was something like a hundred and ninety more bikes waiting to start they went off ten at a time every two minutes at first it was possible to watch them out to a distance of some 200 yards from the starting line but this visibility didn't last long the third brace of ten disappeared into the dust about a hundred yards from where we stood and by the time they'd sent off the first hundred was still another hundred to go our visibility was down to something like 50 feet we could see as far as the hay bales at the end of the pits beyond that point the incredible dust cloud that would hang over this part of the desert for the next two days was already formed up solid none of us realized at the time that this was the last we would see of the fabulous mint foreign my new knit was hard to see the pit area from the bar casino 100 feet away in the Blazing Sun the idea of trying to cover this race in any conventional press sense was absurd it was like trying to keep track of his swimming meet in an Olympic sized pool filled with talcum powder instead of water the Ford Motor Company had come through as promised with a press bronco and a driver but after a few savage runs across the desert looking for motorcycles and occasion finding one I abandoned this vehicle to the photographers and went back to the bar it was time I felt for an agonizing reappraisal of the whole scene the race was definitely under way I had witnessed the start I was sure of that much but what now rent a helicopter get back in that stinking Bronco wander out on that goddamn desert and watched these fools race past the checkpoints one every 13 minutes by 10 they were spread out all over the course it was no longer a race now it was an endurance contest the only visible action was at the start/finish line where every few minutes some geek would come speeding out of the dust cloud and stagger off his bike while his pit crew would gas it up and then launch it back onto the track with a fresh driver for another 50 mile lap another brutal hour of kidney killing madness out there in that terrible dust blind limbo somewhere around 11 I made another tour in the press vehicle but all we found were two dune buggies full of what looked like retired petty officers from San Diego they cut us off in a dry wash and demanded where is the damn thing beats me I said we're just good patriotic Americans like yourselves both of their buggies were covered with ominous symbols Screaming Eagles carrying American flags in their claws a slant-eyed snake being chopped to bits by a buzzsaw made of Stars and Stripes and one of the vehicles had what looked like a machine gun mount on the passenger side they were having a bang-up time just crashing around the desert at top speed and hassling anybody they met what outfit you fellows with one of them shouted the engines were all roaring we could barely hear each other the sporting press I yelled were friendlies hired geeks dim smiles if you want a good chase I shouted you get after that skunk from CBS News up ahead and the big black Jeep he's the man responsible for the selling of the Pentagon hot damn two of them screamed at once a black Jeep you say they roared off and so did we bouncing across the rocks and scrub oak cactus like iron tumbleweeds the beer in my hand flew up and hit the top and fell in my lap and soaked my crotch with warm foam you're fired I said to the driver take me back to the pits it was time I felt to get grounded to ponder this rotten assignment and figure out how to cope with it Lacerda insisted on total coverage he wanted to go back out in the dust storm and keep trying for some rare combination of film and lens that might penetrate the awful stuff Joe our driver II was willing his name was not really Joe but that's what we've been instructed to call him I had talked to the FO moco boss the night before and when he mentioned the driver he was assigning too as he said his real name is Steve but you should call him Joe why not I said we call him anything he wants how about zoom no dice said the Ford man it has to be Joe Lacerda agreed and sometime around noon he went out on the desert again in the company of our driver Joe I went back to the blockhouse bar casino that was actually the mint gun club where I began to drink heavily think heavily and make many heavy notes six a night on the town confrontation at the Desert Inn drug frenzy at the circus circus Saturday midnight memories of this night are extremely hazy all I have for guide pegs is a pocketful of key note cards and cocktail napkins all covered with scribbled notes here is one get the Ford man demand two Bronco for race observation purposes photos Lacerda call why not a helicopter get on the phone lean on the [ __ ] heavy yelling another says sign on Paradise boulevard stop 'less and topless bush-league sex compared to l.a pasties here total naked public humping in l.a las vegas is a society of armed [ __ ] gambling is the kicker here sex is extra weird trip for high rollers house [ __ ] for winners hand jobs for the bad luck crowd a long time ago when I lived in Big Sur down the road from Lion L LA I had a friend who liked to go to Reno for the crap shooting he owned a sporting goods store in Carmel and one month he drove his Mercedes highway Cruiser to Reno on three consecutive weekends winning heavily each time after three trips he was something like $15,000 ahead so he decided to skip the fourth weekend and take some friends to dinner at Nepenthe always quit winners he explained and besides it's a long drive on Monday morning he got a phone call from Reno from the general manager of the casino he'd been working out on we missed you this weekend said the GM the pit men were bored Chuck said my friend so the next weekend he flew up to Reno in a private plane with a friend and two girls all special guests of the GM nothing too good for high rollers and on Monday morning the same plane the casinos plane flew him back to the Monterey Airport the pilot lent him a dime to call a friend for a ride to Carmel he was $30,000 in debt and two months later he was looking down the barrel of one of the world's heaviest collection agencies so he sold his store but that didn't make the nut they could wait for the rest he said but then he got stomped which convinced him that maybe he'd be better off borrowing enough money to pay the whole wad mainline gambling is very heavy business in Las Vegas makes Reno seem like your friendly neighborhood grocery store for a loser Vegas is the meanest town on earth until about a year ago there was a giant billboard on the outskirts of Las Vegas saying don't gamble with marijuana in Nevada possession 20 years sale life so I was not entirely at ease drifting around the casinos on this Saturday night with a car full of marijuana and head full of acid we had several narrow escapes at one point I tried to drive the great red shark into the laundry room of the landmark hotel but the door was too narrow and the people inside seemed dangerously excited we drove over to the Desert Inn to catch the Debbie Reynolds Harry James show I don't know about you I told my attorney but in my line of business it's important to be hep mine too he said but as your attorney I advise you to drive over to the Tropicana and pick up on Guy Lombardo he's in the Blue Room with His Royal Canadians why I asked why what why should I pay out my hard-earned dollars to watch your [ __ ] corpse look he said why are we out here to entertain ourselves or to do the job the job of course I replied we were driving around in circles weaving through the parking lot of a place I thought was the dunes but it turned out to be the Thunderbird or maybe it was the Hacienda my attorney was scanning the Vegas visitor looking for hints of action how about Nikol Knicks slot arcade he said hot [ __ ] that sounds heavy 29 cent hotdogs suddenly people were screaming at us we were in trouble two thugs wearing red gold military overcoats were looming over the hood what the hell are you doing once screamed you can't park here why not I said it seemed like a reasonable place to park plenty of space I've been looking for a parking space for what seemed like a very long time too long I was about ready to abandon the car and call a taxi but then yes we found this space which turned out to be the sidewalk in front of the main entrance to the Desert Inn I had run over so many curbs by this time that I hadn't even noticed this last one but now we found ourselves in a position that was hard to explain blocking the entrance thugs yelling at us bad confusion my attorney was out of the car and a flash waving a five-dollar bill we want this car parked I'm an old friend of Debbie's I used to romp with her for a moment I thought he had blown it then one of the doormen reached out for the bill saying okay okay I'll take care of it sir and he tore off a parking stub holy [ __ ] I said as we hurried through the lobby they almost had us there that was quick thinking what do you expect he said I'm your attorney and you owe me five bucks I want it now I shrugged and gave him a bill this garish deep oralin carpeted lobby of the Desert Inn seemed an inappropriate place to be haggling about nickel dime bribes for the parking lot attendant this was Bob Hope's turf Frank Sinatra's Spiro Agnew's the lobby fairly wreaked of high-grade Formica and plastic palm trees it was clearly a high-class refuge for big spenders we approached the Grand Ballroom full of confidence but they refused to let us in we were too late said a man in a wine colored tuxedo the house was already full no seats left at any price [ __ ] seats said my attorney we're all friends of Debbie's we drove all the way from LA for this show were goddamn well going in the tux man began jabbering about fire regulations but my attorney refused to listen finally after a lot of bad noise he led us in for nothing provided we would stand quietly and back and not smoke we promised but the moment we got inside we lost control the tension had been too great Debbie Reynolds was yucking across the stage in a silver afro wig to the tune of Sergeant Pepper from the golden trumpet of Harry James Jesus creepin [ __ ] said my attorney we've wandered into a time capsule heavy hands grabbed our shoulders I jammed the hash pipe back into my pocket just in time we were dragged across the lobby and held against the front door by goons until our car was fetched up ok get lost said the wine tux man we're giving you a break if Debbie has friends like you guys she's in worse trouble than I thought we'll see about this my attorney shouted as we drove away you paranoid scum I drove around to the circus circus' casino and parked near the back door this is the place I said they'll never [ __ ] with us here where's the ether said my attorney miss mescaline isn't working I gave him the key to the trunk while I lit up the hash pipe he came back with the ether bottle uncapped it and then poured some into a Kleenex and mashed it under his nose breathing heavily I soaked another Kleenex and fouled my own nose the smell was overwhelming even with the top down soon we were staggering up the stairs toward the entrance laughing stupidly and dragging each other along like drunks this is the main advantage of ether it makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel total loss of all basic motor skills blurred vision no balance numb tongue severance of all connection between the body and the brain which is interesting because the brain contains used to function more or less normally you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way but you can't control it you approach the turnstiles leading into the circus circus and you know that when you get there you have to give the man two dollars or he won't let you inside but when you get there everything goes wrong you misjudge the distance to the turnstile and slam against it bounce off and grab hold of an old woman to keep from falling down some angry Rotarian shoves you and you think what's happening here what's going on then you hear yourself mumbling dogs [ __ ] the Pope no fault of mine watch out why money my name is Brinks I was born born get sheep overside women and children two armored car orders from captain's EEP ah devil ether a total body drug the mine recoils in horror unable to communicate with the spinal column the hands flap crazily unable to get money out of the pocket garbled laughter and hissing from the mouth always smiling either is the perfect drug for Las Vegas in this town they love a drunk fresh meat so they put us through the turnstiles and turned us loose inside the Circus Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing on Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war this is the sixth Reich the ground floor is full of gambling tables like all the other casinos but the place is about four storeys high in the style of a circus tent and all manner of strange County Fair polish carnival madness is going on up in this space right above the gambling tables the 40 flying cars Edo brothers are doing a high-wire trapeze act along with four muzzled Wolverines and the six nymphet sister from San Diego so you're down on the main floor playing blackjack and the stakes are getting high when suddenly you chance to look up and there right smack above your head is a half-naked 14 year old girl being chased through the air by a snarling Wolverine which is suddenly locked in a death battle with two silver painted pole locks who comes swinging down from opposite balconies and meet in midair on the Wolverines neck both Pollock sees the animal as they fall straight down towards the crap tables but they bounce off the net they separate spring back up towards the roof in three different directions and just as they're about to fall again they have grabbed out of the air by three Korean kittens and trap eased off to one of the balconies this Magnus goes on and on but nobody seems to notice the gambling action runs 24 hours a day on the main floor and the circus never ends meanwhile on all the upstairs balconies the customers are being hustled by every conceivable kind of bizarre shuck all kinds of fun house type booths shoot the pasties off the nipples of a 10-foot bull dyke and win a cotton candy goat stand in front of this fantastic machine my friend and for just 99 cents your likeness will appear 200 feet tall on a screen above downtown Las Vegas 99 cents more for a voice message say whatever you want fella they'll hear you don't worry about that remember you'll be 200 feet tall Jesus Christ I could see myself lying in bed in the mint hotel half asleep and staring idly out the window when suddenly a vicious Nazi drunkard appears 200 feet tall in the midnight sky screaming gibberish at the world Woodstock uber alles we will close the drapes tonight a thing like that could send a drug person careening around the room like the pong ball hallucinations are bad enough but after a while you learned to cope with things like seeing your dead grandmother crawling up your leg with a knife in her teeth most acid fanciers can handle this sort of thing but nobody can handle that other trip the possibility that any freak with a dollar 98 can walk into the circus circus and suddenly appear in the sky over downtown Las Vegas 12 times the size of God hauling anything that comes into his head no this is not a good town for psychedelic drugs reality itself is too twisted good mescaline comes on slow the first hour is all waiting then about halfway through the second hour you start cursing the creep who burned you because nothing is happening and then Zang fiendish intensity strange glow and vibrations a very heavy gig in a place like the Circus Circus I hate to say this said my attorney as we sat down at the merry-go-round bar and the second balcony but this place is getting to me I think I'm getting the fear nonsense I said we came out here to find the American dream and now that we're right in the vortex you want to quit I grabbed his bicep and squeezed you must realize I said then we found the main nerve I know he said that's what gives me the fear the ether was wearing off the acid was long gone but the mescaline was running strong we were sitting in a small round goal Formica table moving in orbit around the bartender look over there I said two women [ __ ] a polar bear please he said don't tell me those things not now he signaled the waitress for two more wild turkeys this is my last drink he said how much money can you lend me not much I said why I have to he said go yes leave the country tonight calm down I said you'll be straight in a few hours no he said this is serious George Metesky was serious I said and you see what they did to him don't [ __ ] around he shouted one more hour in this town and I'll kill somebody I could see he was on the edge that fearful intensity that comes at the peak of a mescaline seizure okay I said I'll lend you some money let's go outside and see how much we have left can we make it he said well I depends on how many people we [ __ ] with between here and the door you want to leave quietly I want to leave fast he said okay let's pay this bill and get up very slowly we're both out of our heads this is gonna be a long walk I shouted at the waitress for a bill she came over looking bored and my attorney stood up do they pay you to screw that bear he asked what he's just kidding I said stepping between them come on Doc let's go downstairs and gamble I got him as far as the edge of the bar the rim of the merry-go-round but he refused to get off until it stopped turning it won't stop I said it's not ever gonna stop I stepped off and turned around to wait for him but he wouldn't move and before I could reach out and pull him off he was carried away don't move I shouted you'll come around his eyes were staring blindly ahead squinting with fear and confusion but he didn't move a muscle until he'd made the whole circle I waited until he was almost in front of me then I reached out to grab him but he jumped back and went around the circle again this made me very nervous I felt on the verge of a freak out the bartender seemed to be watching us Carson City I thought twenty years I stepped on the merry-go-round and hurried around the bar approaching my attorney on his Blind Side and when we came to the right spot I pushed him off he staggered into the aisle another two hellish scream as he lost his balance and went down thrashing into the crowd rolling like a log then up again in a flash fists clenched looking for somebody to hit I approached him with my hands in the air trying to smile you fell I said let's go by this time people were watching us but the fool wouldn't move and I knew what would happen if I grabbed him okay I said you stay here and go to jail I'm leaving I started walking fast towards the stairs ignoring him this moved him did you see that he said as he caught up with me some son-of-a-bitch kicked me in the back probably the bartender I said he wanted to stomp you for what you said to the waitress good God let's get out of here where's the elevator don't go near that elevator I said that's just what they want us to do trap us in a steel box and take us down to the basement I looked over my shoulder but nobody was following don't run I said they'd like an excuse to shoot us he nodded seeming to understand we walked fast along the big indoor Midway shooting galleries tattoo parlors money changers in cotton candy booths then out through a bank of glass doors and across the grass downhill to a parking lot with a red shark waited you drive he said I think there's something wrong with me seven paranoid terror and the awful specter of sodomy a flashing of knives and green water when we got to the mint I parked on the street in front of the casino around a corner from the parking lot no point risking the scene in the lobby I thought neither one of us could pass for drunk we were both hyper tense extremely menacing vibrations all around us we hurried through the casino and up the rear escalator we made it to the room without meeting anybody but the key wouldn't open the door my attorney was struggling desperately with it those bastards have changed the lock on us he groaned they probably searched the room Jesus were finished suddenly the door swung open we hesitated then hurried inside no sign of trouble bolt everything said my attorney use all chains he was staring at two mint hotel room keys in his hand where did this one come from he said holding up a key with number 12 21 on it that's Lacerda srem I said he smiled yeah that's right I thought we might need it what for let's go up there and bless him out of bed with the firehose he said no I said we should leave the poor bastard alone I get the feeling he's avoiding us for some reason dog kid yourself he said that Portuguese son of a [ __ ] is dangerous he's watching us like a hawk he squinted at me have you made a deal with him I talked with him on the phone I said well you were out getting the car washed he said he was turning in early so he can get out there to the starting line at dawn my attorney was not listening he uttered an anguished cry and smacked the wall with both hands that dirty bastard he shouted I knew it he got hold of my woman I laughed that little blonde groupie with the film crew you think he's sodomized her that's right laugh about it he yelled you goddamn honkies are all the same by this time he'd opened a new bottle of tequila and was quaffing it down then he grabbed a grapefruit and sliced it in half the gerber mini Magnum a stainless steel hunting knife with a blade like a fresh home straight razor where'd you get that knife I asked room service sent it up he said I wanted something to cut the limes what limes they didn't have any he said they don't grow out here in the desert he sliced the grapefruit into quarters then into 8 then 16 then he began slashing aimlessly at the residue that dirty told bastard he groaned I knew I should have taken him out when I had the chance now he has her I remembered the girl we had a problem where there on the elevator a few hours earlier my attorney had made a fool of himself you must be a writer she'd said what classy you in class he snapped what the [ __ ] do you mean what are you ride she asked with a quick smile we're filming the race for a TV series maybe we can use you use me mother of god I thought here it comes the elevator was crowded with race people it was taking a long time to get from floor to floor by the time we'd stopped at 3 he was trembling badly five more to go I ride the big ones he shouted suddenly the really big [ __ ] I laughed trying to diffuse the scene the Vincent Black Shadow I said where were the factory team this brought a murmur of rude dissent from the crowd [ __ ] somebody behind me muttered wait a minute my attorney shouted and then to the girl pardon me lady but I think there's some kind of ignorant chicken sucker in this car who needs his face cut open he plunged his hand into the pocket of his black plastic jacket and turned to face the people crowded into the rear of the elevator you cheap honky [ __ ] he snarled which one of you wants to get cut I was watching the overhead floor indicator the door opened at 7:00 but nobody moved dead silence the door closed up to 8 then open again still no sound or movement in the crowded car just as the door began to closed I stepped off and grabbed his arm jerking him out just in time the doors slid shut and the elevator light dinged 9 quick into the room I said those bastards will have the pigs on us we ran around the corner to the room my attorney was laughing wildly spooked he shouted did you see that they were spooked like rats in a death cage then as we bolted the door behind us he stopped laughing god damn he said it's serious now that girl understood she fell in love with me now many hours later he was convinced that Lacerda the so-called photographer had somehow got his hands on the girl let's go up there and castrate that [ __ ] he said waving his new knife around in quick circles in front of his teeth did you put him on to her look I said you'd better put that goddamn blade away and get your head straight I have to put the car in the lot I was backing slowly towards the door one of the things you learn after years of dealing with drug people is that everything is serious you can turn your back on a person but never turn your back on a drug especially when it's waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eyes take a shower I said I'll be back in 20 minutes I left quickly locking the door behind me and taking the key to Lacerda srem the one my attorney had stolen earlier that poor geek I thought as I hurried down the escalator they sent him out here on this perfectly reasonable assignment just a few photos of motorcycles in dune buggies racing around the desert and now he was plunged without realizing it into the mall of some world beyond his Ken there was no way he could possibly understand what was happening what were we doing out here what was the meaning of this trip did I actually have a big red convertible out there on the street was I just roaming around these mint hotel escalators in a drug frenzy of some kind or had I really come out here to Las Vegas to work on a story I reached in my pocket for the room key 1850 it said at least that much was real so my immediate task was to deal with the car and get back to that room and then hopefully get straight enough to cope with whatever might happen at dawn now off the escalator and into the casino big crowd still tight around the crap tables who are these people these faces where do they come from they look like caricatures of used car dealers from Dallas but they're real and sweet Jesus there are a hell of a lot of them still screaming around these desert city crap tables at 4:30 on a Sunday morning still humping the American Dream that vision of the big winner somehow emerging from the last minute pre-dawn chaos of a stale Vegas casino big strike in Silver City beat the dealer and go home rich why not I stopped at the money wheel and dropped a dollar on Thomas Jefferson a $2.00 bill the straight freak ticket thinking as always that some idol instinct bet might carry the whole thing off but no just another two bucks down the tube you bastards no calm down learn to enjoy losing the important thing is to cover this story on its own terms leave the other stuff to life and look at least for now on the way down the escalator I saw the life man twisted feverishly into the Telegraph booth chanting his wisdom into the ear of some horny robot in a cubicle on that other coast indeed Las Vegas at dawn the racers are still asleep the dust is still on the desert $50,000 in prize money slumbers darkly in the office safe at Dell Webb's fabulous mint hotel in the bright heart of casino Center extreme tension and our life team is here as always with a sturdy police escort pause yes operator that word was police what else this is after all a life special the red shark was out on Fremont where I left it I drove around to the garage and checked it in dr. Gonzo's car no problem and if any of your men fall idle we can use a total wax job before morning yes of course just build the room my attorney was in the bathtub when I returned submerged in green water the oily product of some Japanese bath salts he picked up in the hotel gift shop along with the new am/fm radio plugged into the electric razor socket top volume some gibberish by a thing called Three Dog Night about a frog named Jeremiah who wanted joy to the world first Lennon now this I thought next we'll have Glen Campbell screaming where have all the flowers gone where indeed no flowers in this town only carnivorous plants I turned the volume down and noticed a hunk of chewed up white paper beside the radio my attorney seemed not to notice the sound change he was lost in a fog of green steam only half his head was visible above the water line you ate this I asked holding up the white pad he ignored me but I knew he would be very difficult to reach for the next six hours the whole blotter was chewed up you evil son of a [ __ ] said you better hope there's some Thorazine in that bag because if there's not you're in bad trouble tomorrow music he snarled turn it up put that tape on what tape the new one is right there I picked up the radio and noticed that it was also a tape recorder one of those things with a cassette unit built in and the tape surrealistic pillow needed only to be flipped over he had already gone through side one at a volume that must have been audible in every room within a radius of 100 yards walls and all white rabbit he said I want a rising sound you're doomed I said I'm leaving here in two hours and then they're gonna come up here and beat the mortal [ __ ] out of you with big saps right there in the tub I dig my own graves he said green water and the white rabbit put it on don't make me use this his arm lashed out of the water the hunting knife gripped in his fist Jesus I muttered and at that point I figured he was beyond help lying there in the tub with a head full of acid and the sharpest knife I've ever seen totally incapable of Reason demanding the white rabbit this is it I thought I've gone as far as I can with this water head this time it's a suicide trip this time he wants it he's ready okay I said turning the tape over and pushing the play button but do me one last favor with you can you give me two hours that's all I asked just two hours to sleep before tomorrow I suspect it's gonna be a very difficult day of course he said I'm your attorney I'll give you all the time you need at my normal rates forty-five dollars an hour but you'll be wanting a cushion so why don't you just lay one of those $100 bills down there beside the radio and [ __ ] off how about a check I said on the Sawtooth National Bank you won't need any ID to cash it there they know me whatever is right he said beginning to jerk with the music the bathroom was like the inside of a huge defective woofer heinous vibrations overwhelming sound the floor was full of water I moved the radio as far from the tubs it would go then I left and closed the door beyond within seconds he was shouting at me help you bastard I need help I rushed back inside thinking he'd sliced off an ear by accident but no he was reaching across the bathroom toward the white Formica shelf where the radio set I want that [ __ ] radio he snarled I grabbed it away from his hand you fool I said get back in that tub get away from that goddamn radio I shoved it back from his hand the volume was so far up that it was hard to know what was playing unless you knew surrealistic pillow almost note-for-note which I did at the time so I knew that white rabbit had finished the peak had come and gone but my attorney it seemed had not made it he wanted more back the tape up he yelled I need it again his eyes were full of craziness now unable to focus he seemed on the verge of some awful psychic orgasm let it roll he screamed just as high as the [ __ ] can go and when it comes to that fantastic note where the rabbit bites its own head off I want you to throw that [ __ ] radio into the tub with me I stared at him keeping a firm grip on the radio not me I said finally I'd be happy to ram a goddamn 440 volt cattle prod into that tub with you right now but not this radio it would blast you right through the wall stone dead in ten seconds I laughed [ __ ] they'd make me explain it drag me down to some rotten coroner's inquest and grill me about yes the exact details I don't need that [ __ ] he screamed just tell them I wanted to get higher I thought for a moment okay I said finally you're right this is probably the only solution I picked up the tape radio which was still plugged in and held it over the tub just let me make sure I have it all lined up I said you want me to throw this thing into the tub when White Rabbit Peaks is that it he fell back in the water and smiled gratefully [ __ ] yes he said I was beginning to think I was gonna have to go out and get one of the goddamn maids to do it don't worry I said are you ready I hit the play button and white rabbit started building again almost immediately he began to howl and moan another fast run up that mountain and thinking this time that he would finally get over the top his eyes were gripped shut and only his head in both kneecaps poked up through the oily green water I let the song build while I sorted through the pile of fat ripe grapefruit next to the basin the biggest one of the lot weighed almost two pounds I got a good vitae blue fastball grip on the [ __ ] and just his white rabbit peaked I lashed it into the tub like a cannonball my attorney screamed crazily thrashing around in the tub like a shark after meat churning water all over the floor as he struggled to get hold of something I jerked the AC cord out of the tape radio and moved out of the bathroom very quickly the machine kept on playing but now it was back on its own harmless battery power I could hear the beat cooling down as I moved across the room to my kit bag and fetched up the may scan just as my attorney ripped the bathroom door open and started out his eyes were still unfocused but he was waving the blade out in front of him like a man who meant to cut something mace I shouted you want this I waved the mace bomb in front of his watery eyes he stopped you bastard he hissed you do that wouldn't you I laughed still waving the bomb at him why worry you like it [ __ ] there's nothing in the world like a mace I forty five minutes on your knees with the dry heaves gasping for breath it'll calm you right he stared in my general direction trying to focus youichi punky son of a [ __ ] he muttered you do it wouldn't you why not I said hell just a minute ago you were asking me to kill you and now you want to kill me what I should do god damn it is called the police he sagged the cops I nodded yeah there's no choice I wouldn't dare go to sleep with you wandering around in this condition with a head full of acid and wanting to slice me up with that goddamn knife he rolled his eyes for a moment and tried to smile who said anything about slicing you up he mumbled I just wanted to carve a little Z on your forehead nothing serious he shrugged and reached for a cigarette on top of the TV said I menaced him again with the mace can get back in that tub I said eat some reds and try to calm down smoke some grass shoot some smack [ __ ] do whatever you have to do but let me get some rest he shrugged and smiled distractedly as if everything I'd said made perfect sense hell yes he said very earnestly you really need some sleep you have to work tomorrow he shook his head sadly and turned back toward the bathroom god damn what a bummer he waved me off try to rest he said don't let me keep you up I nodded and watched him shuffle back into the bathroom still holding the blade but now he seemed unaware of it the acid had shifted gears on him the next phase would probably be one of those hellishly intense introspection nightmares for hours or so of catatonic despair but nothing physical nothing dangerous I watched the door close behind him and I quietly slid a heavy sharp angled chair up in front of the bathroom knob and put the may scan beside the alarm clock the room was very quiet I walked over to the TV set and turned it on to a dead Channel white noise at maximum decibels a fine sound for sleeping a powerful continuous hiss to drown out everything strange 8 I quote from art Linkletter genius round the world stands hand in hand and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round I live in a quiet place where any sound at night means something is about to happen you come awake fast thinking what does that mean usually nothing but sometimes it's hard to adjust to a city gig where the night is full of sounds all of them comfortably routine cars horns footsteps no way to relax so drowning all out with the fine white drone of a cross-eyed TV set jam the bugger between channels and doze off nicely ignore that nightmare in the bathroom just another ugly refugee from the Love Generation some doom struck [ __ ] who couldn't handle the pressure my attorney has never been able to accept the notion often espoused by reformed drug abusers and especially popular among on probation that you can get a lot higher without drugs than with them and neither am i for that matter but I once lived down the hill from dr. blank on blank Road the names deleted at insistence of publishers lawyer a former acid guru who later claimed to have made that long jump from chemical frenzy to preternatural consciousness one fine afternoon in the first rising curl of what would soon become the great San Francisco acid wave I stopped by the good doctors house with the idea of asking him since he was even then a known drug Authority what sort of advice he might have for a neighbor with a healthy curiosity about LSD I parked on the road and lumbered up his gravel driveway pausing and rude to wave pleasantly at his wife who was working in the garden under the brim of a huge seating hat a good scene I thought the old man is inside brewing up one of his fantastic drug stews and here we see his woman out in the garden pruning carrots or whatever humming while she works some tune I failed to recognize humming yes but it would be nearly ten years before I would recognize that sound for what it was like Ginsberg far-gone in the own dr. blank was trying to hum me off that was no old lady out there in that garden it was the good doctor himself and his humming was a frantic attempt to block me out of his higher consciousness I made several attempts to make myself clear just a neighbor come to call and ask the doctor's advice about gobbling some LSD and my Shack just down the hill from his house I did after all have weapons and I like to shoot them especially at night when the great blue flame would leap out along with all that noise and yes bullets too we couldn't ignore that big balls of lead alloy flying around the valley at speeds up to 3,700 feet per second but I always fired in to the nearest hill or failing that into blackness I meant no harm I just like the explosions and I was careful never to kill more than I could eat kill I realized I could never properly explain that word to this creature toiling here in its garden had it ever eaten meat could it conjugate the verb hunt did it understand hunger or grasp the awful fact that my income averaged around $32 a week that year no no hope of communication in this place I recognize that but not soon enough to keep the drug doctor from humming me all the way down his driveway and into my car and down the mountain road forget LSD I thought look what it's done to that poor bastard so I stuck with hash and rum for another six months or so until I moved into San Francisco and found myself one night in a place called the Fillmore auditorium and that was that one gray lump of sugar and boom in my mind I was right back there in the doctor's Garden not on the surface but underneath poking up through that finely cultivated earth like some kind of mutant mushroom a victim of the drug explosion a natural Street freak just eating whatever came by I recall one night in the matrix when a road person came in with a big pack on his back shouting anybody wants some L s D all the makings right here all I need is a place to cook the manager was on him at once mumbling call it call it come on back to the office I never saw him after that night but before he was taken away the road person distributed his samples huge white spansules I went into the men's room to eat mine but only half at first I thought good thinking but a hard thing to accomplish under the circumstances I ate the first half but spilled the rest on the sleeve of my red pendleton shirt and then wondering what to do with it I saw one of the musicians come in what's the trouble he said well I said all this white stuff on my sleeve is LSD he said nothing really grabbed my arm and began sucking on it a very gross tableau I wondered what would happen if some Kingston Trio young stockbroker type might wander in and catches in the act [ __ ] him I thought with a bit of luck you'll ruin his life forever thinking that just behind some narrow door and all his favorite bars men in red pendleton shirts are getting incredible kicks from things he'll never know would he dare to suck a sleeve probably not play it safe pretend you never saw it strange memories on this nervous night in Las Vegas five years later six it seems like a lifetime or at least a Maine era the kind of peak that never comes again San Francisco in the middle 60s was a very special time and place to be a part of maybe it meant something maybe not in the long run but no explanation no mix of words or music or memories can touch that sense of knowing that you were there and alive in that corner of time in the world whatever it meant history is hard to know because of all the hired [ __ ] but even without being sure of history it seems entirely reasonable to think that every now and then the energy of a whole generation comes to a head in a long fine flash for reasons that nobody really understands at the time and which never explained in retrospect what actually happened my central man Marie of that time seems to hang on one or five or maybe forty nights or very early mornings when I left the Fillmore half-crazy and instead of going home aimed the big six fifty lightning across the bay bridge at a hundred miles an hour wearing LL Bean shorts and a beaut sheepherders jacket booming through the Treasure Island tunnel at the lights of Oakland and Berkeley and Richmond not quite sure which turnoff to take when I got to the other end always stalling at the toll gate to twist it to find neutral while I fumbled for change but being absolutely certain that no matter which way I went I would come to a place where people were just as high and wild as I was no doubt at all about that there was madness in any direction at any hour if not across the bay then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda you could strike sparks anywhere it was a fantastic Universal sense that whatever we were doing was right that we were winning and that I think was the handle that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil not in any mean or military sense we didn't need that our energy would simply prevail there was no point in fighting on our side or theirs we had all the momentum we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave so now less than five years later you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back nine no sympathy for the devil news men tortured flight into madness the decision to flee came suddenly or maybe not maybe I planned it all along subconsciously waiting for the right moment the bill was a factor I think because I had no money to pay it and no more of these devilish credit card reimbursement deals not after dealing with Sidney Zion they seized my American Express card after that one and now the bastards are suing me along with the diners club in the IRS and besides the magazine is legally responsible my attorney so did that we signed nothing except those room service tabs we never knew the total but just before we left my attorney figured we were running somewhere between 29 and 36 dollars per hour for 48 consecutive hours incredible I said how could it happen by the time I asked this question there was nobody around to answer my attorney was gone he must have sensed trouble on Monday evening he ordered up a set of fine cowhide luggage from room service and told me he had reservations on the next plane to LA we would have to hurry he said and on the way to the airport he borrowed $25 through the plane ticket I saw him off then I went back to the airport souvenir counter and spent all the rest of my cash on garbage complete [ __ ] souvenirs of Las Vegas plastic fake Zippo lighters with a built-in roulette wheel for $6.95 JFK half-dollar money clips for $5.00 each 10 apes that shook dice for 750 I loaded up on this crap then carried it out to the great red shark and dumped it all in the backseat and then I stepped into the driver's seat in a very dignified way the white top was rolled back as always and I sat there and turned the radio on and began thinking how would Horatio Alger handle this situation one toke over the line sweet Jesus one toke over the line panic it crept up my spine like the first rising vibes of an acid frenzy all these horrible realities began to dawn on me here I was all alone in Las Vegas with this goddamn incredibly expensive car completely twisted on drugs no attorney no cash no story for the magazine and on top of everything else I had a gigantic goddamn hotel bill to deal with we had ordered everything into that room that human hands could carry including 600 bars of translucent Neutrogena soap the whole car was full of it all over the floors the seats the glove compartment my attorney had worked out some kind of arrangement with the mestizo maids on our floor to have this soap delivered to us 600 bars of this weird transparent [ __ ] and now it was all mine along with this plastic briefcase that I suddenly noticed right beside me on the front seat I lifted the [ __ ] and knew immediately what was inside know Samoan attorney in his right mind is going to stomp through the metal detector gates of a commercial airline with a fat black 357 Magnum on his person so he had left it with me for delivery if I made it back to LA otherwise well I could almost hear myself talking to the California Highway Patrol what this weapon this loaded unregistered concealed and maybe hot 357 Magnum what am I doing with it well you see officer I pulled off the road near mescal Springs on the advice of my attorney who subsequently disappeared and all of a sudden while I was just sort of walking around that deserted waterhole by myself for no reason at all when this little fella with the beard came up to me out of nowhere and he had this horrible than oleum knife in one hand and this huge black pistol in the other hand and he offered to carve a big X on my forehead in memory of lieutenant Calley but when I told him I was a doctor of journalism his whole attitude changed yes you probably won't believe this officer but he's sudden that knife into the brackish mescal waters near our feet and then he gave me this revolver right he just shoved it into my hand but first and then he ran off into the darkness so that's why I have this weapon officer can you believe that no but I wasn't about to throw the bastard away either a good 357 is a hard thing to get these days so I figured well just get this bugger back to Malibu and it's mine my risk my gun it made perfect sense and if that Samoan Pig wanted to argue if he wanted to come yelling around the house give him a taste of the bugger about midway up the femur indeed 158 grains of 1/2 jacketed LED alloy traveling 1,500 feet per second equals about 40 pounds of Samoan hamburger mixed up with bone splinters why not madness madness and meanwhile all alone with the great red shark in the parking lot of the Las Vegas Airport to hell with this panic get a grip maintained for the next 24 hours this matter of personal control will be critical Here I am sitting out here alone on this [ __ ] desert in this nest of armed loonies with a very dangerous carload of hazards horrors and liabilities then I must get back to LA because if they nail me out here I'm doomed completely [ __ ] no question about that no future for a doctor of journalism editing the state pen weekly better to get the hell out of this atavistic state at high speed right but first back to the mint Hotel in cash a $50 check then up to the room and call down for two club sandwiches two quarts of milk a pot of coffee and a fifth of Bacardi and yaho rum will be absolutely necessary to get through this night to polish these notes this shameful diary keep the tape machine screaming all night long at top volume allow me to introduce myself I'm a man of wealth and taste sympathy not for me no mercy for a criminal freak in Las Vegas this place is like the army the shark ethic prevails eat the wounded in a closed society where everybody's guilty the only crime is getting caught in world of thieves the only final sin is stupidity it is a weird feeling to sit in a Las Vegas hotel at 4:00 in the morning hunkered down with a notebook in a tape recorder in a $75 a day suite and a fantastic room service bill run-up in 48 hours of total madness knowing that just as soon as dawn comes up you were going to flee without paying a [ __ ] penny go stomping out through the lobby and call your red convertible down from the garage and stand there waiting for word with a suitcase full of marijuana and illegal weapons trying to look casual scanning the first morning edition of the Las Vegas Sun this was the final step I had taken all the grapefruit and other luggage out to the car a few hours earlier now it was only a matter of slipping the noose yes extremely casual behavior Wild Eyes hidden behind these Saigon mirror sunglasses waiting for the shark to roll up where is it I gave that evil pimp of a car boy $5.00 a prime investment right now stay calm keep reading the paper the lead story was a screaming blue headline across the top of the page trio rearrested in beauty's death an overdose of heroin was listed as the official cause of death for pretty Diane Hamm b19 whose body was found stuffed in a refrigerator last week according to the clark county coroner's office investigators of the sheriff's homicide team who went to arrest the suspect said that one a 24 year old woman attempted to fling herself through the glass doors of her trailer before being stopped by deputies officers said she was apparently his hysterical and shouted you'll never take me alive but officers handcuffed the woman and she apparently was not a GI drug deaths claimed Washington AP House subcommittee report says illegal drugs killed 160 American GIs last year 40 of them in Vietnam drugs were suspected it said in another 56 military deaths in Asia and the Pacific Command it said the heroin problem in Vietnam is increasing in seriousness primarily because of processing laboratories in Laos Thailand in Hong Kong drug suppression in Vietnam is almost completely ineffective the report said partially because of an ineffective local police force and partially because some presently unknown corrupt officials in public office are involved in the drug traffic to the left of that grim notice was a four column centered page photo of Washington DC cops fighting with young anti-war demonstrators who staged a sit-in and blocked the entrance to Selective Service headquarters and next to the photo was a large black headline torture tales told in war hearings Washington volunteer witnesses told an informal congressional panel yesterday that while serving as military interrogators they routinely used electrical telephone hookups and helicopter drops to torture and kill Vietnamese prisoners one army intelligence specialist said the pistol slaying of his Chinese interpreter was defended by a superior who said she was just a slope anyway meaning she was an Asiatic right underneath that story was a headline saying five wounded near NYC tenement by an unidentified gunman who fired from the roof of a building for no apparent reason this item appeared just above a headline that said pharmacy owner arrested in probe a result the article explained of preliminary investigation of a Las Vegas pharmacy showing a shortage of over 100,000 pills considered dangerous drugs reading the front page made me feel a lot better against that heinous background my crimes were pale and meaningless I was a relatively respectable citizen a multiple felon perhaps but certainly not dangerous and when the great scorer came to write against my name that would surely make a difference or would it I turned to the sports page and saw a small item about Muhammad Ali his case was before the Supreme Court the final appeal he'd been sentenced to five years in prison for refusing to kill slopes I ain't got nothing against them Viet congs he said five years ten Western Union intervenes a warning from mr. keen new assignment from the Sports Desk and a savage invitation from the police suddenly I felt guilty again the shark where was it I tossed the paper aside and began to pace losing control I felt my whole act slipping and then I saw the car swooping down a ramp in the next-door garage deliverance I grasped my leather satchel and moved forward to meet my wheels mr. Duke the voice came from over my shoulder mr. Duke we've been looking for you I almost collapsed on the curb every cell in my brain and body sagged no I thought I must be hallucinating there's nobody back there nobody calling it's a paranoid delusion and feta means psychosis just keep walking towards the car always smiling mr. Duke wait well why not many fine books have been written in prison and it's not like I'll be a total stranger up there in Carson City the warden will recognize me and the con boss I once interviewed them for the New York Times along with a lot of other cons guards cops and assorted hustlers who got ugly by mail when the article never appeared why not they asked they wanted their stories told and it was hard to explain in those circles that everything they told me went into the wastebasket or at least the dead-end file because the lead paragraphs I wrote for that article didn't satisfy some editor 3,000 miles away some nervous drone behind a gray Formica desk in the bowels of a journalistic bureaucracy that no con in Nevada will ever understand and that the article finally died on the vine as it were because I refused to rewrite the lead for reasons of my own none of which would make much sense in the yard but what the hell why worry about details I turned to face my accuser a small young clerk with a big smile on his face and a yellow envelope in his hand I've been calling your room he said then I saw you standing outside I nodded too tired to resist by now the shark was beside me but I saw no point in even tossing my bag into it the game was up they had me the clerk was still smiling this telegram just came for you he said but actually it isn't for you it's for somebody named Thompson but it says care of Raoul Duke does that make sense I felt dizzy it was too much to absorb all at once from freedom to prison and then back to freedom again all in 30 seconds I staggered backwards and leaned on the car feeling the white folds of the canvas top beneath my trembling hand the clerk still smiling was poking the telegram at me I nodded barely able to speak yes I said finally it makes sense I accepted the envelope and tore it open urgent speed letter hunter s Thompson care of Raoul Duke soundproof suite 1850 mint Hotel Las Vegas call me at once repeat at once we have a new assignment beginning tomorrow also Vegas don't leave stop the National Conference of District Attorney's invites you to their 4-day seminar on narcotics and dangerous drugs at dunes hotel stop rolling stone called they want 50,000 words massive payment total expenses including all samples stop we have reservations at Hotel flamingo and white caddy convertible stop everything is arranged call immediately for details urgent repeat urgent stop dr. gonzo holy [ __ ] I muttered this can't be true you mean it's not for you the clerk asked suddenly nervous I checked the register for this man Thompson we don't show him but I thought he was part of your team he is I said quickly don't worry I'll get it to him I tossed my bag into the front seat of the shark wanting to leave before my stay of execution ran out but the clerk was still curious what about dr. gonzo he said I stared at him giving him a full taste of the mirrors he's fine I said but he has a vicious temper the doctor handles our finances makes all our arrangements I slid into the driver's seat and prepared to leave the clerk leaned into the car what confused us he said was dr. gonzo signature on this telegram from Los Angeles when we knew he was here in the hotel he shrugged and then to have the telegram addressed to some guests we couldn't account for well this delay was unavoidable you understand I hope I nodded impatient to flee you did the right thing I said never try to understand a press message about half the time we use codes especially with dr. gonzo he smiled again but this time it seemed a trifle odd tell me he said when will the doctor be awake I tensed at the wheel awake what do you mean he seemed uncomfortable well the manager mr. heme would like to meet him now his grin was definitely malevolent nothing unusual mr. heme likes to meet all our large accounts put them on a personal basis just a chat in a handshake you understand of course I said but if I were you I'd leave the doctor alone until after he's eaten breakfast he's a very crude the clerk nodded wearily but he will be available perhaps later this morning I saw what he was getting at look I said that telegram was all scrambled it was actually from Thompson not to him Western Union must have got the names reversed I held up the telegram knowing he'd already read it what this is I said is a speed message to dr. gonzo upstairs saying Thompson is on his way out from LA with a new assignment a new work order I waved him off the car see you later I snapped I have to get out to the track he backed away as I ease the car into low gear there's no hurry he called after me the race is over not for me I said tossing him a quick friendly wave let's have lunch he shouted as I turned into the street right oh I yelled and then I was off into traffic after a few blocks in the wrong direction on Main Street I doubled back and aimed south towards LA but with all deliberate speed keep cool and slow I thought just drift to the city limits what I needed was a place to get safely off the road site and ponder this incredible telegram from my attorney it was true I was certain to that there was a definite valid urgency in the message the tone was unmistakable but I was in no mood or condition to spend another week in Las Vegas not now I had pushed my luck about as far as it was gonna carry me in this town all the way out to the edge and now the weasels were closing in I could smell the ugly brutes yes it was definitely time to leave my margin had shrunk to nothing now idling along Las Vegas Boulevard at 30 miles an hour I wanted a place to rest and formalize the decision it was settled of course but I needed a beer or three to seal the bargain and stupefy that one rebellious nerve n that kept vibrating negative it would have to be dealt with because there was an argument of sorts for staying on it was treacherous stupid and demented in every way but there was no avoiding the stench of twisted humor that hovered around the idea of a gonzo journalist in the grip of a potentially terminal drug episode being invited to cover the National district attorney's conference on narcotics and dangerous drugs there was also a certain vent appeal in the notion of running a savage burn on one Las Vegas hotel and then instead of becoming a doomed fugitive on the highway to LA just wheeling across town trading in the red Chevy convertible for a white Cadillac and checking into another Vegas hotel with press credentials to mingle with a thousand ranking cops from all over America while they harangue each other about the drug problem it was dangerous lunacy but it was also the kind of thing a real connoisseur of edge work could make an argument for where for instance was the last place the Las Vegas police would look for a drug-addled fraud fugitive who just ripped off a downtown hotel right in the middle of a national district attorney's drug conference and an elegant hotel on the strip arriving at Caesar's Palace for the Tom Jones dinner show in a flashing white Coupe DeVille at a cocktail party for narcotics agents and their wives at the dunes indeed what better place to hide for some people but not for me and certainly not for my attorney a very conspicuous person separately we might pull it off but together no we would blow it too much aggressive chemistry in that mix the temptation to run a deliberate freakout would be too heavy and that of course would finish us they would show us no mercy to infiltrate the infiltrators would be to accept the fate of all spies as always if you or any member of your organization is apprehended by the enemy the Secretary will deny any knowledge etc no it was too much the line between madness and masochism was already hazy the time had come to pull back to retire hunker down back off and cop out as it were why not in every gig like this there comes a time to either cut your losses or consolidate your winnings whichever fits I drove slowly looking for a proper place to sit down with an early morning beer and get my head together to plot this unnatural retreat 11 oh mama can this really be the end down and out in Vegas with amphetamine psychosis again Tuesday 9:00 a.m. now sitting in Wild Bill's cafe on the outskirts of Las Vegas I saw it all very clearly there is only one road to LA u.s. interstate 15 a straight run with no back roads or alternate routes just a flat-out high-speed burn through Baker and Barstow bird ooh and then on the Hollywood Freeway straight into frantic oblivion safety obscurity just another freak in the Freak Kingdom but in the mean time for the next five or six hours I'd be the most conspicuous thing on this god damn evil Road the only fire apple red shark convertible between butte and tijuana blazing along this desert highway with a half-naked hillbilly mental case at the wheel is it better to wear my purple and green Acapulco shirt or nothing at all no way to hide in this monster this will not be a happy run not even the Sun God wants to watch he has gone behind a cloud for the first time in three days no Sun at all the sky is gray and ugly just as I pulled into Wild Bill's backstreet half-hidden parking lot I heard a roar overhead and looked up to see a big silver smoke trailing dc-8 taking off about 2,000 feet above the highway was Lacerda aboard the man from life did they have all the photos they needed all the facts had they fulfilled their responsibilities I didn't even know who'd won the race maybe nobody for all I knew the whole spectacle had been aborted by a terrible riot an orgy of senseless violence kicked off by drunken hoodlums who refused to abide by the rules I wanted to plug this gap in my knowledge at the earliest opportunity pick up the LA Times and scour the sports section for a mint 400 story get the details cover myself even on the run the grip of a serious fear I knew it was Lacerda in that plane heading back to New York he told me last night that he meant to catch the first flight so there he goes and Here I am with no attorney slumped on a red plastic stool and Wild Bill's tavern nervously sipping a Budweiser in a bar just coming away to an early morning rush of pimps and pinball hustlers with a huge red shark just outside the door so full of felonies that I'm afraid to even look at it but I can't abandon the [ __ ] the only hope is to somehow get it across 300 miles of open road between here and sanctuary but sweet Jesus I am tired I'm scared I'm crazy this culture has beaten me down what the [ __ ] am I doing out here this is not even the story I was supposed to be working on my agent warned me against it all signs were negative especially that evil dwarf with the pink telephone in the Polo Lounge I should have stayed there anything but this oh mama can this really be the end no who played that song did I actually hear that [ __ ] thing on the jukebox just now at 9:19 on this filthy gray morning and Wild Bill's tavern no that was only my brain some long-lost echo of a painful dawn in Toronto a long time ago half-mad in another world but no different help how many more nights and weird morning's can this terrible [ __ ] go on how long can the body and brain tolerate this doom struck craziness this grinding of teeth is pouring of sweat this pounding of blood in the temples small blue veins gone amok in front of the ears 60 and 70 hours with no sleep and now that is the jukebox yes no doubt about it and why not a very popular song like a bridge over troubled water I will lay me down boom flashing paranoia what kind of rat bastard psychotic would play that song right now at this moment has somebody followed me here does the bartender's know who I am can she see me behind these mirrors all bartenders are treacherous but this one is a surly middle-aged fat woman wearing a muumuu and iron boy overalls probably Wild Bill's woman Jesus bad waves of paranoia madness Fear and Loathing in tolerable vibrations in this place get out flee and suddenly it occurs to me some final flash of lunatic shrewdness before the darkness closes in that my legal hotel checkout time is not until noon which gives me at least two hours of legitimate high-speed driving to get out of this goddamn state before I become a fugitive in the eyes of the law wonderful luck by the time the alarm goes off I can be running full bore somewhere between needles and Death Valley jamming the accelerator through the floorboard and shaking my fist up at Efrem Zimbalist jr. swooping down on me and his FBI screamin eagle helicopter I once saw a warning to smack dealers on a bulletin board in Boulder Colorado you can run but you can't hide [ __ ] you Ephram bad wisdom cuts both ways as far as you and the mint people know I am still up there in 1850 legally and spiritually if not in the actual flesh with a Do Not Disturb sign hung out to ward off disturbance the maids won't come near that room as long as that sign is on the doorknob my attorney saw to that along with six hundred bars of Neutrogena soap that I still have to deliver to Malibu what will the FBI make of that this great red shark full of Neutrogena soap bars all completely legal the maids gave us that soap they'll swear to it or will they of course not those goddamn treacherous maids will swear they were menace by two heavily armed crazies who threatened them with a Vincent Black Shadow unless they gave up all their soap Jesus creeping God is there a priest in this tavern I want to confess I'm a [ __ ] sinner venal mortal carnal major minor however you want to call it Lord I'm guilty but do me this one last favor just give me five more high-speed hours before you bring the hammer down just let me get rid of this goddamn car and off of this horrible desert which is not really a hell of a lot to ask Lord because the final incredible truth is that I am NOT GUILTY all I did was take your gibberish seriously and you see where it got me my primitive Christian instincts have made me a criminal creeping through the casino at 6:00 in the morning with a suitcase full of grapefruit and mint 400 t-shirts I remember telling myself over and over again you are not guilty this is merely a necessary expedient to avoid a nasty scene after all I made no binding agreements this is an institutional debt nothing personal this whole goddamn nightmare is the fault of that stinking irresponsible magazine some fool in New York did this to me it was his idea Lord not mine and now look at me half crazy with fear driving 120 miles an hour across Death Valley in some car I never even wanted you evil bastard this is your work you'd better take care of me Lord because if you don't you're gonna have me on your hands twelve hellish speed grappling with the California Highway Patrol mano a mano on highway 61 Tuesday 12:30 p.m. Baker California into the Ballentine ale now zombie drunk and nervous I recognize this feeling three or four days of booze drugs Sun no sleep and burned-out adrenaline reserves a giddy quavering sort of high that means the crash is coming but when how much longer this tension is part of the high the possibility of physical and mental collapse is very real now but collapse is out of the question as a solution or even a cheap alternative it is unacceptable indeed this is the moment of truth that fine and faithful line between control and disaster which is also the difference between staying loose and weird on the streets we're spending the next five years of summer mornings playing basketball in the yard at Carson City no sympathy for the devil keep that in mind buy the ticket take the ride and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind well maybe chalk it off to forced consciousness expansion tune in freak out get beaten it's all in Kesey's bible the far side of reality and so much for bad gibberish not even Kesey can help me now I have just had two very bad emotional experiences one with the California Highway Patrol and another with a phantom hitchhiker who may or may not have been who I thought it was and now feeling right on the verge of a bad psychotic episode I am hunkered down with my tape machine in a beer bar it is actually the backroom of a huge hardware barn all kinds of plows and harnesses and piled up fertilizer bags and wondering how it all happened about five miles back I had a brush with the CHP not stopped or pulled over nothing routine I always Drive properly a bit fast perhaps but always with consump and a natural feel for the road that even cops recognize no cop was ever born who isn't a sucker for a finely executed high speed controlled drift all the way around one of those cloverleaf freeway interchanges few people understand the psychology of dealing with the highway traffic cop your normal speeder will panic and immediately pull over to the side when he sees the big red light behind him and then we will start apologizing begging for mercy this is wrong it arouses contempt in the cop heart the thing to do when you're running along about a hundred or so and you suddenly find a red flashing CHP tracker on your trail what you want to do then is accelerate never pull over with the first siren howl mash it down and make the bastard chase you it speeds up to 120 all the way to the next exit he will follow but he won't know what to make of your blinker signal that says you're about to turn right this is to let him know you're looking for a proper place to pull off and talk keep signaling and hope for an off-ramp one of those uphill side loops with a sign saying max speed 25 and the trick at this point is to suddenly leave the freeway and take him into the chute at no less than a hundred miles an hour he will lock his brakes about the same time you lock yours but it will take him a moment to realize that he's about to make a hundred eighty degree turn at this speed but you will be ready for it braced for the Gees and the fast heel-toe work and with any luck at all you will have come to a complete stop off the road at the top of the turn and be standing beside your automobile by the time he catches up he will not be reasonable at first but no matter let him calm down he will want the first word let him have it his brain will be in a turmoil he may begin jabbering or even pull his gun let him unwind keep smiling the idea is to show him that you were always in total control of yourself and your vehicle while he lost control of everything it helps to have a police press badge in your wallet when he calms down enough to ask for your license I had one of these but I also had a can of Budweiser in my hand until that moment I was unaware that I was holding it I had felt totally on top of the situation but when I looked down and saw that little red silver evidence bomb in my hand I knew speeding is one thing but drunk driving is quite another the cop seemed to grasp this that I'd blown my whole performance by forgetting the beer can his face relaxed he actually smiled and so did I because we both understood in that moment that my Thunder Road moonshine bomber act had been totally wasted we had both scared the piss out of ourselves for nothing at all because the fact of this beer can in my hand made any argument about speeding beside the point he accepted my open wallet with his left hand then extended his right toward the beer can could I have that he asked why not I said he took it then held it up between us and poured the beer out on the road I smiled no longer caring it was getting warm anyway I said just behind me on the back seat of the shark I could see about 10 cans of hot Budweiser and a dozen or so grapefruits I'd forgotten all about them but now they were too obvious for either one of us to ignore my guilt was so gross and overwhelming that explanations were useless the cop understood this you realize he said that it's a crime - yeah I said I know I'm guilty I understand that I knew it was a crime but I did it anyway I shrugged [ __ ] why argue I'm a [ __ ] criminal that's a strange attitude he said I stared at him seeing for the first time that I was dealing with the bright-eyed young sport around 30 who was apparently enjoying his work you know he said I get the feeling you could use a nap he nodded there's a rest area up ahead why don't you pull over and sleep a few hours I instantly end student what he was telling me but for some insane reason I shook my head a nap won't help I said I've been awake for too long three or four nights I can't even remember if I go to sleep now I'm dead for 20 hours good god I thought what if I said this bastard is trying to be human he could take me straight to jail but he's telling me to take a [ __ ] nap for Christ's sake agree with him yes officer of course I'll take advantage of that rest area and I can't tell you how grateful I am for this break you want to give me but no here I was insisting that if he turned me loose I would boom straight ahead for LA which was true but why say it why push him this is not the right time for a showdown this is Death Valley get a grip on yourself of course get a grip look I said I've been out Las Vegas covering the mint 400 I pointed to the VIP parking sticker on the windshield incredible I said all those bikes and dune buggies crashing around the desert for two days have you seen it he smiled shaking his head with a sort of melancholy understanding I could see him thinking was I dangerous was he ready for the vicious time-consuming scene that was bound to come if he took me under arrest how many off-duty hours would he have to spend hanging around the courthouse waiting to testify against me and what kind of monster lawyer would I bring in to work out on him I knew but how could he okay he said here's how it is what goes into my book as of noon is that I up really for then the next rest area your stated destination right where you plan to take a long nap he hung his ticket pad back on his belt did I make myself clear he asked as he turned away I shrugged how far is Baker I was hoping his out there for lunch that's not in my jurisdiction he said the city limits are 2.2 miles beyond the rest area can you make it that far he grinned heavily I'll try I said I've been wanting to go to Baker for a long time I've heard a lot about it excellent seafood he said with a mind like yours you'll probably want the land crab try the majestic diner I shook my head and got back in the car feeling raped the pig had done me on all fronts now he was going off to chuckle about it on the west edge of town waiting for me to make a run for LA I got back on the freeway and drove past the rest area to the intersection where I had to turn right into Baker as I approached the turn I saw great Jesus it's him the hitchhiker the same kid we'd picked up and terrified on the way out to Vegas our eyes met as I slowed down to make the corner I was tempted to wave but when I saw him drop his thumb I thought no this is not the time god only knows what that kid said about us when he finally got back to town acceleration get out of sight at once how could I be sure he'd recognized me but the car was hard to miss and why else would he back away from the road suddenly I had two personal enemies in this godforsaken town the CHP cop would bust me for sure if I tried to go on through to LA and this goddamn rotten kid hitchhiker would at me hunted down like a beast if I stayed holy jesus Sam Mary is that guy the kid told us about he's back either way it was horrible and if these righteous outback predators ever got their stories together and they would it was inevitable in a town this small that would cash my check all around I'd be lucky to leave town alive a ball of tar and feathers dragged onto the prison bus by angry natives this was it the crisis I raced through town and found a telephone booth on the north outskirts between a Sinclair station and yes the majestic diner I placed an emergency collect call to my attorney in Malibu he answered at once they've nailed me I shouted I'm trapped in some stinking desert crossroads called Baker I don't have much time the [ __ ] are closing in whoo he said you sound a little paranoid you bastard I screamed first I got run down by the CHP then that kid spotted me I need a lawyer immediately what are you doing in Baker he said didn't you get my telegram what [ __ ] telegrams I'm in trouble you're supposed to be in Vegas he said we have a suite at the Flamingo I was just about to leave for the airport i slumped in the booth it was too horrible here I was calling my attorney in a moment of terrible crisis and the fool was deranged on drugs a goddamn vegetable she worthless bastard I groaned a [ __ ] your ass for this all that [ __ ] in the car is yours you understand that when I finished testifying out here you'll be disbarred you brainless scumbag he shouted I sent you a telegram you're supposed to be covering the National district attorney's conference I made all the reservations rented a white Cadillac convertible the whole thing is arranged what the hell are you doing out there in the middle of the [ __ ] desert suddenly I remembered yes the telegram it was all very clear my mind became calm I saw the whole thing in a flash never mind I said it's all a big joke I'm actually sitting beside the pool at the Flamingo I'm talking from a portable phone some dwarf brought it out from the casino I have total credit can you grasp that I was breathing heavily feeling crazy sweating into the phone don't come anywhere near this place I shouted foreigners aren't welcome here I hung up and strolled out to the car are well I thought this is how the world works all energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet what a fool I was to defy him he knew he knew all along it was he who sacked me in Baker I had run far enough so he nailed me closing off all my escape routes hassling me first with the CHP and then with this filthy phantom hitchhiker plunging me into fear and confusion never cross the great magnet I understood this now and with understanding came a sense of almost terminal relief yes I would go back to Vegas slip the kid and confound the CHP by moving east again instead of West this would be the shrewdest move of my life back to Vegas and sign up for the drugs and narcotics conference me and a thousand pigs why not move confidently into their midst register at the Flamingo and have the white caddy sent over at once do it right remember Horatio Alger I looked across the road and saw a huge red sign that said beer wonderful I left the shark by the phone booth and reeled across the highway into the hardware barn a Jew loomed up from behind a pile of sprockets and asked me what I wanted Valentine al I said a very mystic longshot unknown between Newark and San Francisco he served it up ice-cold I relaxed suddenly everything was going right I was finally getting the brakes the bartender approached me with a smile where are you headed young man Las Vegas I said he smiled a great town at Vegas you'll have good luck there you're the type I know I said I'm a triple Scorpio he seemed pleased that's a fine combination he said you can't lose I laughed don't worry I said I'm actually the district attorney from McMurdo County just another good American like yourself his smile disappeared did he understand I couldn't be sure but that hardly mattered now I was going back to Vegas I had no choice part two about 20 miles east of Baker I stopped to check the drug bag the Sun was hot and I felt like killing something anything even a big lizard drill the [ __ ] I got my attorneys 357 Magnum out of the trunk and spun the cylinder it was loaded all the way around long nasty little slugs 158 grains with a fine flat trajectory and painted Aztec gold on the tips I blew the horn a few times hoping to call up an iguana get the buggers moving they were out there I knew in that goddamn sea of cactus hunkered down barely breathing and every one of the stinking little bastards was loaded with deadly poison three fast explosions knocked me off balance three deafening double action blast from the 357 in my right hand Jesus firing at nothing for no reason at all bad craziness I tossed the gun into the front seat of the shark and stared nervously at the highway no cars either way the road was empty for two or three miles in both directions fine luck it would not do to be found in the desert under these circumstances firing wildly into the cactus from a car full of drugs and especially not now on the lam from the Highway Patrol awkward questions would arise well now mr. Duke you understand of course that it is a league to discharge a firearm of any kind while standing on a federal highway what even in self-defense this goddamn gun has a hair-trigger officer the truth is I only meant to fire once just to scare the little bastards a heavy stare then speaking very slowly are you saying mr. Duke that you were attacked out here well no not literally attacked officer but seriously menaced I stopped to piss in the minute I stepped out of the car these filthy little bags of poison were all around me they move like greased lightning with this story hold up no they would place me under arrest then routinely searched the car and when that happened all kinds of savage hell would break loose they would never believe all these drugs were necessary to my work that in truth I was a professional journalist on my way to Las Vegas to cover the National District Attorney's conference on narcotics and dangerous drugs just samples officer I got this stuff off a road man for the Neo American church back in Barstow he started acting funny so I worked him over would they buy this no they would lock me in some hellhole of a jail and beat me on the kidneys with big branches causing me to piss blood for years to come luckily nobody bothered me while I ran a quick inventory on the kit bag the stash was a hopeless mess all churned together in half crushed some of the mescaline pellets had disintegrated into a reddish-brown powder but I counted about 35 or 40 still intact my attorney had eaten all the Reds but there was quite a bit of speed left no more grass the coke bottle was empty one acid blotter a nice brown lump of opium hash and six loose anals not enough for anything serious but a careful rationing of the mescaline would probably get us through the four-day drug conference on the outskirts of Vegas I stopped at a neighborhood pharmacy and bought two quarts of gold tequila two-fifths of Shiva Sri --gel and a pint of ether I was tempted to ask for some Amos my angina pectoris was starting to act up but the druggist had the eyes of a mean Baptist hysteric I told him I needed the ether to get the tape off my legs but by that time he'd already rung the stuff up and bagged it he didn't give a [ __ ] about ether I wondered what he would say if I asked him for 22 dollars worth of Roma law and a tank of nitrous oxide probably he would have sold it to me why not free enterprise give the public what it needs especially this bad sweaty nervous talking fella with tape all over his legs and this terrible cough along with angina pectoris and these god-awful and Urist ik flashes every time he gets in the Sun I mean this fella was in bad shape officer how the hell was I to know he'd walk straight out to his car and start abusing those drugs how indeed I lingered a moment at the magazine rack then got a grip on myself and hurried outside to the car the idea of going completely crazy on laughing gas in the middle of a DA's drug conference had a definite warped appeal but not on the first day I thought save that for later no point getting busted and committed before the conference even starts I stole a review journal from a rack in the parking lot but I threw it away after reading a story on page one surgery uncertain after eyes removed Baltimore UPI doctor said Friday they were uncertain whether surgery would succeed in restoring the eyesight of a young man who pulled out his eyes while suffering the effects of a drug overdose in a jail cell Charles in its junior 25 underwent surgery late Thursday at Maryland General has but doctors said it may be weeks before they could determine the outcome a statement issued by the hospital reported that Ennis had no light perception in either eye prior to surgery and the possibility he will ever have light perception is extremely poor Ennis son of a prominent Massachusetts Republican was found in a jail cell Thursday by a turnkey who said Ennis had pulled out his eyeballs Ennis was arrested Wednesday night while walking nude through a neighborhood near where he lived he was examined at Mercy Hospital and then placed in a jail cell police and one of innocents friends said he had taken an overdose of animal tranquilizer police reported the drug was pcp a parke-davis product not sold for human medical purposes since 1963 however a spokesman for Park Davis said he thought the drug might be available on the black market taken alone the spokesman said PCP effects would not last more than 12 to 14 hours however the effects of PCP combined with an hallucinogen such as LSD were not known in its told a neighbor last Saturday the day after he first took the drug that his eyes were bothering him and that he could not read Wednesday night police said in a seem to be in a deeply depressed state and so impervious to pain that he did not scream when he pulled out his eyes - another day another convertible and another hotel full of cops the first order of business was to get rid of the red shark it was too obvious too many people might recognize it especially the Vegas police although as far as they knew the thing was already back home in LA it was last seen running at top speed across Death Valley on Interstate 15 stopped and warned in Baker by the CHP then suddenly disappeared the last place they would look for it I felt was in a rental car a lot at the airport I had to go out there anyway to meet my attorney he would be arriving from LA in the late afternoon I drove very quietly on the freeway gripping my normal instinct for bursts of acceleration and sudden lane changes trying to remain inconspicuous and when I got there I parked the shark between two old airforce buses in a utility lot about half a mile from the terminal very tall buses make it hard as possible for the [ __ ] a little walking never heard anybody by the time I got to the terminal I was pouring sweat but nothing abnormal I tend to sweat heavily in warm climates my clothes are soaking wet from dawn to dusk this worried me at first but when I went to a doctor and described my normal daily intake of booze drugs and poison he told me to come back when the sweating stopped that would be the danger point he said a sign that my body's desperately overworked flushing mechanism had broken down completely I have great faith in the natural processes he said but in your case well I find no precedent we'll just have to wait and see then work with what's left I spent about two hours in the bar drinking Bloody Marys for the v8 nutritional content and watching the flights from LA I'd eaten nothing but grapefruit for about 20 hours and my head was adrift from its moorings you better watch yourself I thought there are limits to what the human body can endure you don't want to break down and start bleeding from the ears right here in the terminal not in this town in Las Vegas they kill the weak and deranged I realize this and kept quiet even when I felt symptoms of a terminal blood sweat coming on but this past I saw the cocktail waitress getting nervous so I forced myself to get up and walk stiffly out of the bar no sign of my attorney down to the VIP car rental booth where I traded the Reg Arkan for a white Cadillac convertible this goddamn Chevy has caused me a lot of trouble I told them I get the feeling that people are putting me down especially in gas stations when I have to get out and open the hood manually well of course said the man behind the desk what you need I think is one of our Mercedes 600 town cruiser specials with air conditioning you can even carry your own fuel if you want we make that available do I look like a goddamn Nazi I said I'll have a natural American car or nothing at all they called up the White Coupe DeVille at once everything was automatic I could sit in the red leather drivers seat and make every inch of the car jump by touching the proper buttons it was a wonderful machine ten grand worth of gimmicks and high-priced special effects the rear windows leaped up with a touch like frogs in a dynamite pond the white canvas top ran up and down like a roller coaster the dashboard was full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I would never understand but there was no doubt in my mind that I was into a superior machine the Caddy wouldn't get off the line quite as fast as the red shark but once it got rolling around 80 it was pure smooth hell all that elegant upholstered weight lashing across the desert was like rolling through midnight on the old California Zephyr I handled the whole transaction with a credit card that I later learned was canceled completely bogus but the big computer hadn't mixed me yet so I was still a fat gold credit risk later looking back on this transaction I knew the conversation that had almost certainly ensued hello this is VIP car rentals in Las Vegas we're calling to check on number eight seven five zero four five six one six B just a routine credit nothing urgent long pause at the other end then holy [ __ ] what pardon me yes we have that number it's been placed on emergency redline status call the police at once and don't let him out of your sight another long pause well you see that number is not on our current red list and number eight seven five zero four five six one six B just left our Lawton a new Cadillac convertible no yes he's long gone totally insured where I think he said st. Louis yes that's what the card says Raoul Duke left fielder and batting champion of the st. Louis Browns five days at $25 per + 25 cents a mile his card was valid so of course we had no choice this is true the car rental agency had no legal reason to hassle me since my card was technically valid during the next four days I drove that car all over Las Vegas even passing the VIP agency's main office on Paradise Boulevard several times and at no time was I bothered by any show of rudeness this is one of the hallmarks of Vegas hospitality the only bedrock rule is don't burn the locals beyond that nobody cares they would rather not know if Charlie Manson checked into the Sahara tomorrow morning nobody would hassle him as long as he tipped big I drove straight to the hotel after renting the car there was still no sign of my attorney so I decided to check in on my own if only to get off the street and avoid a public breakdown I left the whale in a VIP parking slot and shambles self-consciously into the lobby with one small leather bag a handcrafted custom-built satchel that had just been made for me by a leathersmith friend in Boulder our room was at the Flamingo in the nerve center of the strip right across the street from Caesar's Palace and the dunes site of the drug conference the bulk of the conferees were staying at the dunes but those of us who signed up fashionably late were assigned to the Flamingo the place was full of cops I saw this at a glance most of them were just standing around trying to look casual all dressed exactly alike in their cut-rate Vegas casuals plaid Bermuda shorts Arnie Palmer golf shirts and hairless white legs tapering down to rubberized beach sandals it was a terrifying scene to walk into a super stakeout of some kind if I hadn't known about the conference my mind might have snapped you got the impression that somebody was going to be gunned down in a blazing crossfire at any moment maybe the entire Manson family my arrival was badly timed most of the National DA's and other cop types had already checked in these were the people who now stood around the lobby and stared grimly at newcomers what appeared to be the final stakeout was only about 200 vacationing cops with nothing better to do they didn't even notice each other I waded up to the desk and got in line the man in front of me was a police chief from some small town in Michigan his agnew style wife was standing about three feet off to his right while he argued with the desk clerk look fella I told you I have a postcard here that says I have reservations in this hotel hell I'm with the district attorney's conference I've already paid for my room sorry sir you're on the late list your reservations were transferred to the moonlight Motel which is out on Paradise Boulevard and actually a very fine place of lodging and only 16 blocks from here with its own pool and your dirty little [ __ ] call the manager I'm tired of listening to this [ __ ] the manager appeared and offered to call a cab this was obviously the second or maybe even the third act in a crew drama that had begun long before I showed up the police chief's wife was crying the gaggle of friends that he mustered for support were too embarrassed to back him up even now in this showdown at the desk with this angry little cop firing his best and final shot they knew he was beaten he was going against the rules and the people hired to enforce those rules said no vacancy after 10 minutes of standing in line behind this noisy little [ __ ] and his friends I felt the bile rising where did this cop of all people get the nerve to argue with anybody in terms of right and reason I had been there with these fuzzy little [ __ ] and so I sensed had the desk clerk he had the air of a man who'd been [ __ ] around in his time by a fairly good cross-section of mean-tempered rule crazy cops so now he was just giving their argument back to them it doesn't matter who's right or wrong man or who's paid his bill and who hasn't what matters right now is that for the first time in my life I can work out on a pig [ __ ] you officer I'm in charge here and I'm telling you we don't have room for you I was enjoying this whip song but after a while I felt dizzy bad nervous and my impatience got the better of my amusement so I stepped around the pig and spoke directly to the desk clerk say I said I hate to interrupt but I have a reservation and I wonder if maybe I could just sort of slide through and get out of your way I smiled letting him know I'd been digging his snake bully act on the cop party that was now standing there psychologically off-balance and staring at me like I was some kind of water rat crawling up to the desk I looked pretty bad wearing old Levi's and white Chuck Taylor All Star basketball sneakers and my 10 peso Acapulco shirt had long since come apart at the shoulder seams from all that road wind my beard was about three days old bordering on standard why no trim and my eyes were totally hidden by Sandy bull Saigon mirror shades but my voice had the tone of a man who knows he has a reservation I was gambling on my attorneys foresight but I couldn't pass a chance to put the horn into a cop and I was right the reservation was in my attorney's name the desk clerk hit his bell to summon the bag boy this is all I have with me right now I said the rest is out there in that white Cadillac convertible I pointed to the car that we could all see park just outside the front door can you have somebody drive it around to the room the desk clerk was friendly don't worry about a thing sir just enjoy your stay here and if there's anything you need just call the desk I nodded and smiled half watching the stunned reaction of the cop crowd right next to me they were stupid with shock here they were arguing with every piece of leverage they could command for a room they'd already paid for and suddenly their whole act gets sideswiped by some crusty drifter who looks like something out of an Upper Michigan hobo jungle and he checks in with a handful of credit cards Jesus what's happening in this world three savage Lucy teeth like baseballs eyes like jellied fire I gave my bag to the boy who scurried up and told him to bring a quart of Wild Turkey and two-fifths of Bacardi on yaho with a knight's worth of ice our room was in one of the farthest wings of the Flamingo the place is far more than a hotel it is a sort of huge underfinanced Playboy Club in the middle of the desert something like nine separate wings with interconnecting causeways and pools a vast complex sliced up by a maze of car ramps in driveways it took me about 20 minutes to wander from the desk to the distant wing we'd been assigned to my idea was to get into the room except the booze and baggage delivery then smoke my last big chunk of Singapore gray while watching Walter Cronkite and waiting for my attorney to arrive I needed this break this moment of peace and refuge before we did the drug conference it was gonna be quite a different thing from the mint 400 that had been an observer gig but this one would need participation and a very special stance at the mint 400 we were dealing with an essentially simpatico crowd and if our behavior was gross and outrageous well it was only a matter of degree but this time our very presence would be an outrage we would be attending the conference under false pretenses and dealing from the start with a crowd that was convened for the stated purpose of putting people like us in jail we were the Menace not in disguise but stone obvious drug abusers with a flagrantly cranked up act that we intended to push all the way to the limit not to prove any final sociological point and not even as a conscious mockery it was mainly a matter of lifestyle a sense of obligation and even Duty if the pigs were gathering in Vegas for a top level drug conference we felt the drug culture should be represented beyond that I'd been out of my head for so long now that a gig like this seemed perfectly logical considering the circumstances I felt totally meshed with my Karma or at least I was feeling this way until I got to the big gray door that opened into many suite 1150 in the far wing I rammed my key into the knob lock and swung the door open thinking ah home at last but the door hit something which I recognized at once as a human form a girl of indeterminate age with the face and form of a pitbull she was wearing a shapeless blue smock and her eyes were angry somehow I knew that I had the right room I wanted to think otherwise but the vibes were hopelessly right and she seemed to know - because she made no move to stop me when I moved past her and into the suite I tossed my leather satchel on one of the beds and looked around for what I knew I would see my attorney stark naked standing in the bathroom door with a drug-addled grin on his face you degenerate pig I muttered it can't be helped he said nodding at the Bulldog girl this is Lucy he laughed distractedly you know like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds I nodded to Lucy who was eyeing me with definite venom I was clearly some kind of enemy some ugly intrusion on her scene and it was clear from the way she moved around the room very quick intense on her feet that she was sizing me up she was ready for violence there was not much doubt about that even my attorney picked up on it Lucy he snapped Lucy be cool god damn it remember what happened at the airport no more of that okay he smiled nervously at her she had the look of a beast that adjustment tossed into a sawdust pit to fight for its life Lucy this is my client this is mr. Duke the famous journalist he's paying for this suite Lucy he's on our side she said nothing I could see that she was not entirely in control of herself huge shoulders on the woman and a chin like Oscar Bonavena i sat down on the bed and casually reached into my satchel for the May scan and when I felt my thumb on the shoot button I was 10 to jerk the thing out and soak her down on general principles I desperately needed peace rest sanctuary the last thing I wanted was a fight to the finish in my own hotel room was some kind of drug crazed hormone monster my attorney seemed to understand this he knew why my hand was in the satchel no he shouted not here we'll have to move out I shrugged he was twisted I could see that and so was Lucy her eyes were feverish and crazy she was staring at me like I was something that would have to be rendered helpless before life could get back to whatever she considered normal my attorney idled over and put his arm around her shoulders mr. Duke is my friend he said gently he loves artists let's show him your paintings for the first time I noticed that the room was full of artwork maybe 40 or 50 portraits some in oil some charcoal all more or less the same size and all the same face they were propped up on every flat surface the face was vaguely familiar but I couldn't get a fix on it it was a girl with a broad mouth a big nose and extremely glittering eyes a demoniacally sensual face the kind of overstated embarrassingly dramatic renderings that you find in the bedrooms of young female art students who get hung up on horses lucy paints portraits of Barbra Streisand my attorney explained she's an artist up in Montana he turned to the girl what's that town where you live she stared at him then at me then back at my attorney again then finally she said Kalispell way up north I drew these from TV my attorney nodded eagerly fantastic he said she came all the way down here just to give all these portraits to Barbara we're going over to the America konna hotel tonight and meet her backstage lucy smiled bashfully there was no more hostility in her I dropped the mace can and stood up we obviously had a serious case on our hands I hadn't counted on this finding my attorney whacked on acid and locked into some kind of preternatural courtship well I said I guess they've brought the car around by now let's get the stuff out of the trunk he nodded eagerly absolutely let's get this stuff he smiled at Lucy we'll be right back don't answer the phone if it rings she grinned and made the one finger Jesus Freak sign god bless she said my attorney pulled on a pair of elephant leg pants and a glazed black shirt then we hurried out of the room I could see he was having trouble getting oriented but I refused to humor him well I said what are your plans plans we were waiting for the elevator Lucy I said he shook his head struggling to focus on the question [ __ ] he said finally I met her on the plane and I had all that acid he shrugged you know those little blue barrels Jesus she's a religious freak she's running away from home for something like the fifth time in six months it's terrible I gave her that cat before I realized [ __ ] she's never even had a drink well I said it'll probably work out we can keep her loaded in pedal her ass at the drug convention he stared at me she's perfect for this gig I said these cops will go 50 bucks ahead to beat her into submission and then gang [ __ ] we can set her up in one of these backstreet motels hang pictures of Jesus all over the room then turn these pigs loose on her hell she's strong she'll hold her own his face was twitching badly we were in the elevator now descending to the lobby Jesus Christ he muttered I knew you were sick but I never expected to hear you actually say that kind of stuff he seemed stunned I laughed hit straight economics this girl is a godsend I fixed him with a natural Bogart smile all teeth [ __ ] we're almost broke and suddenly you pick up some muscle-bound loony who can make us a grand a day no he shouted stop talking like that the elevator door opened and we walked toward the parking lot I figure she can do about four at a time I said Christ if we keep her full of acid that's more like two grand today maybe three you filthy bastard he sputtered I should cave your [ __ ] head in he was squinting at me shielding his eyes from the Sun I spotted the whale about fifty feet from the door there it is I said not a bad looking car for a pimp he groaned his face reflected the struggle that I knew he was having in his brain with sporadic acid rushes bad waves of painful intensity followed by total confusion when I opened the trunk of the whale to get the bags he got angry what the hell are you doing he snapped this is in Lucy's car I know I said it's mine this is my luggage the [ __ ] it is he shouted just because I'm a goddamn lawyer doesn't mean you can walk around stealing stuff right in front of me he backed away what the hell is wrong with you we'll never beat a rap like this after much difficulty we got back to the room and tried to have a serious talk with Lucy I felt like a Nazi but it had to be done she was not right for us not in this fragile situation it was bad enough if she were only what she appeared to be a strange young girl in the throes of a bad psychotic episode but what worried me for more than that was the likelihood that she would probably be just saying enough in a few hours to work herself into a towering Jesus based rage at the hazy recollection of being picked up and seduced in the Los Angeles International Airport by some kind of cruel samoan who fed her liquor in LSD then dragged her to a Vegas hotel room and savagely penetrated every orifice in her body with his throbbing uncircumcised member I had a terrible vision of Lucy crashing into Barbra Streisand's dressing room at the Americana and laying this brutal story on her that would finish us they would track us down and probably castrate us both prior to booking I explained this to my attorney who was now in tears at the idea of sending Lucy away she was still powerfully twisted and I felt the only solution was to get her as far as possible from the Flamingo before she got straight enough to remember where she'd been and what happened to her Lucy while we argued was lying on the patio doing a charcoal sketch of Barbra Streisand from memory this time it was a full faced rendering with teeth like baseballs and eyes like jellied fire the sheer intensity of the thing made me nervous this girl was a walking bomb god only knows what she might be doing with all that miswired energy right now if she didn't have her sketch pad and what was she gonna do when she got straight enough to read the Vegas visitor as I just had and learned that Streisand wasn't due at the Americana for another three weeks my attorney finally agreed that Lucy would have to go the possibility of a Mann Act conviction resulting in disbarment proceedings and total loss of his livelihood was a key factor in his decision a nasty federal rap especially for a monster Samoan facing a typical white middle class jury in Southern California they might even call it kidnapping I said straight to the gas chain like jesseman and even if you managed to beat that they'll send you back to Nevada for rape and consensual sodomy no he shouted I felt sorry for the girl I wanted to help her I smiled that's what fatty Arbuckle's said and you know what they did to him oh never mind I said just picture yourself telling a jury that you tried to help this poor girl by giving her LSD and then taking her out to Vegas from one of your special stark-naked back rubs he shook his head sadly you all right they probably burned me at the goddamn stake set me on fire right there in the dock [ __ ] it doesn't pay to try to help somebody these days we coax Lucy down to the car telling her that we thought it was about time to go meet Barbara we had no trouble convincing her that she should take all her artwork but she couldn't understand why my attorney wanted to bring her suitcase along I don't want to embarrass her she protested she'll think I'm trying to move in with her or something no she won't I said quickly but that was all I could think of to say I felt like Martin Bormann what would happen to this poor wretch when we cut her loose jail white slavery what would dr. Darwin do under these circumstances survival of the fittest was that the proper word had Darwin ever considered the idea of temporary unfitness like temporary insanity could the doctor have made room in his theory for a thing like LSD all this was academic of course Lucy was a potentially fatal millstone on both our necks there was absolutely no choice but to cut her adrift and hope her memory was [ __ ] but some acid victims especially nervous Mongoloids have a strange kind of idiot savant capacity for remembering odd details and nothing else it was possible that Lucy might spend two or more day in the grip of total amnesia then snap out of it with no memory of anything but our room number at the Flamengo I thought about this but the only alternative was to take her out to the deserts and feed her remains to the lizards I wasn't ready for this it seemed a bit heavy for the thing we were trying to protect my attorney it came down to that so the problem was to work out a balance to aim Lucy in a direction that wouldn't snap her mind and provoke a disasters backlash she had money my attorney had ascertained that at least $200 he'd said and we can always call the cops up there in Montana where she lives and turn her in I was reluctant to do this the only thing worse than turning her loose in Vegas I felt was turning her over to the authorities and that was clearly out of the question anyway not now what kind of goddamn monster are you I said first you kidnap the girl then you rape her and now you want to have her locked up he shrugged it just occurred to me he said that she has no witnesses anything she says about us is completely worthless as I said he stared at me I could see that his head was clearing the acid was almost gone this man that Lucy was probably coming down to it was time to cut the cord Lucy was waiting for his in the car listening to the radio with a twisted smile on her face we were standing about 10 yards off anybody watching us from a distance might have thought we were having some kind of vicious showdown argument about who had rights to the girl it was a standard scene for a Vegas parking lot we finally decided to make her a reservation at the Americana my attorney ambled over to the car and got our last name under some pretense then I hurried inside and called the hotel saying that I was our uncle and that I wanted her to be treated very gently because she was an artist that might seem a trifle high strung the room clerk assured me they give her every courtesy then we drove her out to the airport saying we were going to trade the white whale in for a Mercedes 600 and my attorney took her into the lobby with all her gear she was still unhinged and babbling when he led her away I drove around a corner and waited for him ten minutes later he shuffled up to the car and got in take off slowly he said don't attract any attention when we got out on Las Vegas Boulevard he explained that he'd given one of the airport cab Hasler's a ten dollar bill to see that his drunk girlfriend got to the Americana where she had a reservation I told him to make sure she got there he said you think she will he nodded the guy said he'd pay the fare with the extra five bucks I gave him and tell the cabbie to humor her I told him I had some business to take care of but I'd be there myself in an hour and if the girl wasn't already checked in I'd come back out here and rip his lungs out that's good I said you can't be subtle in this town he grinned as your attorney I advise you to tell me where you put the goddamn mescaline I pulled over the kit bag was in the trunk he fetched out two pellets and we each ate one the Sun was going down behind the scrub Hills northwest of the city a good Kristofferson tune was croaking out of the radio we cruised back to town through the warm dusk relaxed on the red leather seats of our electric white Coupe DeVille maybe we should take it easy tonight I said as we flash past the Tropicana right he said let's find a good seafood restaurant and eat some red salmon I feel a powerful lust for red salmon I agreed but first we should go back to the hotel and settle in maybe I have a quick swim and some rum he nodded leaning back on seed and staring up at the sky night was coming down slowly for no refuge for degenerates reflections on a murderous junkie we drove through the parking lot of the Flamingo and around the back through the labyrinth to our wing no problem with parking no problem with the elevator and the suite was dead quiet when we entered half dark and peacefully elegant with big sliding walls opening out on the lawn and the pool the only thing moving in the room was the red blinking message light on the telephone probably room service I said I ordered some ice and booze I guess it came while we were gone my attorney shrugged we have plenty he said but we might as well get more held yes tell him to send it up I picked up the phone and dialed the desk what's the message I asked my light is blinking the clerk seemed to hesitate I could hear paper shuffling ah yes he said finally mr. Duke yes you have two messages one says welcome to Las Vegas from the National District Attorneys Association wonderful I said and the other he continued says call Lucy at the Americana room 1600 what he repeated the message there was no mistake holy [ __ ] I muttered excuse me said the clerk I hung up my attorney was doing the big spit again in the bathroom I walked out on the balcony and stared at the pool this kidney shaped bag of bright water that shimmer it outside our suite I felt like Othello here I'd only been in town a few hours and we'd already laid the groundwork for a classic tragedy the hero was doomed and he had already sown the seed of his own downfall but who was the hero of this filthy drama I turned away from the pool and confronted my attorney now emerging from the bathroom and wiping his mouth with a towel his eyes were glazed and limpid this goddamn mescaline he muttered why the [ __ ] can't they make it a little less pure maybe mix it up with Rolaids or something Olo used Dramamine I said he nodded hanging the towel around his neck as he reached out to flip on the TV set yeah I heard about those remedies your man Fatty Arbuckle used olive oil Lucy called I said what he sagged visibly like an animal taking a bullet I just got a message from the desk she's at the Americana Room 1600 and she wants us to call he stared at me and just then the phone rang I shrugged and picked it up there was no point trying to hide she had found us and that was enough hello I said it was the room clerk again mr. Duke yes hello mr. Duke I'm sorry we were cut off a moment ago but I thought I should call again because I was wondering what I sense things closing down on us this [ __ ] was about to spring something on me what had that crazy [ __ ] said to him I tried to stay calm we're watching the goddamn news I screamed what the [ __ ] are you interrupting me for silence what do you want where's the goddamn ice I ordered where's the booze there's a war on man people are being killed killed he almost whispered the word in Vietnam I yelled on the goddamn television oh yes yes he said this terrible war when will it end tell me I said quietly what do you want of course he said snapping back to his desk clerk tone I thought I should tell you because I know you're here with the police convention that the woman who left that message for you sounded very disturbed he hesitated but I said nothing I thought you should know this he said finally what did you say to her I asked nothing nothing at all mr. Duke I merely took the message he paused but it wasn't that easy talking to that woman she was well extremely nervous I think she was crying crying my brain had locked up I couldn't think the drug was taking over why was she crying well she didn't say mr. Duke but since I knew the nature of your work I thought I know I said quickly look you want to be gentle with that woman if she ever calls again she's our case study we're watching her very carefully I felt my head unwinding now the words came easily she's perfectly harmless of course there'll be no trouble this woman has been into laudanum it's a controlled experiment but I suspect we'll need your cooperation before this thing is over well certainly he said we're always happy to cooperate with the police just as long as there won't be any trouble for us I mean don't worry I said you're protected just treat this poor woman like you'd treat any other human being in trouble what he seemed to be stuttering ah yes yes I see what you mean yes so you will be responsible then of course I said and now I have to get back to the news thank you he muttered send the ice I said and hung up my attorney was smiling peacefully at the TV set good work he said they'll treat us like goddamn leper after that I nodded filling a tall glass with Shiva Sri go there hasn't been any news on the tube for three hours he said absently that poor fool probably thinks were plugged into some kind of special Cup channel you should call back and ask him to send up a 3000 watt sensing capacitator along with the ice dela Mars just burned out you forgot about Lucy I said she's looking for you he laughed no she's looking for you me yeah she really flipped over you the only way I could get rid of her out there in the airport was by saying you were taking me out through the desert for a showdown that you wanted me out of the way so you could have her all to yourself he shrugged [ __ ] I had to tell her something I said she should go back to the Americana and wait to see which one of us came back he laughed again I guess she figures you won that phone message wasn't for me was it I nodded it made no sense at all but I knew it was true drug reasoning the rhythms were brutally clear and to him they made excellent sense he was slumped in the chair concentrating on mission impossible I thought for a while then stood up and began stuffing things into my suitcase what are you doing he asked never mind I said the zipper stuck momentarily but I yanked it shut then I put on my shoes wait a minute he said Jesus you're not leaving I nodded you goddamn right I'm leaving but don't worry I'll stop at the desk on my way out you'll be taken care of he stood up quickly kicking his drink over okay god damn it this is serious where's my 357 I shrugged not looking at him as I crammed the Shiva Striegel bottles into my hand satchel I sold it in Baker I said I owe you 35 bucks Jesus Christ he shouted that thing cost me a hundred and ninety goddamn dollars I smiled you told me where you got that gun I said remember he hesitated pretending to think oh yeah he said finally yeah that punk out in Pasadena then he flared again so it cost me a goddamn grand that [ __ ] shot a narc he was looking at life [ __ ] three weeks in court and all I got was a [ __ ] sick you're stupid I said I warned you about dealing with junkies on credit especially when they're guilty you're lucky the bastard didn't pay you off with a bullet in the stomach my attorney sagged he was my cousin the jury found him innocent [ __ ] I snapped how many people is that junkie bastard shot since we've known him six eight that evil little [ __ ] is so guilty that I should probably kill him myself on general principles he shot that narc just as sure as he killed that girl at the Holiday Inn and that guy in Ventura he eyed me coldly you better be careful man you're into some heavy slander I laughed tossing my luggage together in a lump at the foot of the bed while I sat down to finish my drink I actually intended to leave I didn't really want to but I figured that nothing I could possibly do with this gig was worth the risk of getting tangled up with Lucy no doubt she was a beautiful person if she ever got straight very sensitive with a secret reserve of fine karma underneath her pitbull act a great talent with fine instincts just a heavy little gal Oh unfortunately went ston crazy somewhere prior to her 18th birthday I had nothing personal against her but I knew she was perfectly capable under these circumstances of sending us both to prison for at least 20 years on the strength of some heinous we would probably never even hear until she took the stand yes sir those two men over there in the dock are the ones who gave me the LSD and took me to the hotel and what did they do then Lucy well sir I can't rightly remember indeed well perhaps this document from the district attorney's files will refresh your memory Lucy this is the statement you made to officer Swain shortly after you were found wandering naked in the desert near Lake Mead Lucy why don't you read this statement to the jury I don't know for sure what they done to me but I remember it was horrible one guy picked me up in the Los Angeles Airport he's the one who gave me the pill and the other one met us at the hotel he was sweating real bad and he talked so fast that I couldn't understand what he wanted no sir I don't recall exactly what they did to me at that point because I was still under the influence of that drug yes sir the LSD they gave me and I think I was naked for a long time maybe the whole time they had me there I think it was evening because I remember they had the news on yes sir Walter Cronkite I remember his face all through no I was not ready for this no jury would doubt her testimony especially when it came stuttering out through a fog of Tears and obscene acid flashbacks and the fact that she couldn't recall precisely what we had done to her would make it impossible to deny the jury would know what we'd done they would have read about people like us in the to dollar and ninety five cent paperbacks up to the hilt and only skin-deep and seen our type in the five-dollar [ __ ] flicks and of course we couldn't possibly risk taking the stand in our own defense not after they'd cleaned out the trunk of the whale and I'd like to point out your honor that our prosecution exhibits a through Y are available to the jury yes this incredible collection of illegal drugs and narcotics which the defendants had in their possession at the time of their arrests and forcible seizure by no less than nine officers six of whom are still hospitalized and also exhibit Z sworn testimony by three professional narcotics experts selected by the president of the National district attorney's conference which was seriously embarrassed by the defendants attempts to infiltrate disrupt and pervert their annual convention these experts have testified that the drug cache in the possession of these defendants at the time of the arrests was enough to kill an entire platoon of United States Marines and gentlemen I used the word kill with all due respect for the fear and loathing I'm sure it provokes in every one of you when you reflect that these degenerate rapists use this galaxy of narcotics to completely destroy the mind and morals of this once innocent teenager this ruined and degraded young girl who now sits before you in shame yes they fed this girl enough drugs to scramble her brain so horribly that she can no longer even recall the filthy details of that orgy she was forced to endure and then they used her ladies and gentlemen of the jury for their own unspeakable ends

Channel: Karin Mathews

Views: 355,781

Rating: 4.8266811 out of 5

Keywords: hunter s. thompson, fear and loathing, audiobook, hunter

Id: g8hlNOavHjQ

Length: 219min 29sec (13169 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 21 2018

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