VV(7) 2

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II.

Gouvernour ("Roony")Winsome, part of the Whole Sick Crew, is presented for 
further knowledge by our gentle readers.  His attempts to find unusual sounds 
for Outlandish records brings him to the attention of the CIA (one of the 
very first references in American Literature to that interesting government 
agency, I'm sure).  He was looking for a nuclear explosion to record.  
Winsome's wife Mafia is an "authoress" who believes that the world can only 
be saved by Heroic Love.  She uses the device in her many novels.  We are 
privy at this point to Winsome's quasi-jealous ruminations.  More grist for 
the Ayn Rand controversy? Charisma is wandering around the apartment wearing 
only a blanket.  Has he been doing the nasty with Mafia?  There is a phone 
call from Rachel Owlglass.  She is looking for Paola Maijistral, assuming 
she's with Stencil.  
When the phone call ends, we are in Rachel's apartment.  Fu and an AWOL Pig 
Bodine show up as Esther leaves wearing Rachel's raincoat.  Rachel does not 
approve of her trysts with Dr. Scoenmaker.  Pig is seeking Paola, too.  Just 
looking her up for old Pappy Hod.  "What do you think of Sartre's thesis that 
we are all impersonating an identity?" he asks.  Just something he overheard 
at the Rusty Spoon?  I think not.  We hear Fu tell a Chinese joke.  A phone 
call from Stencil informs the Crew that he's been shot.  Instantly, our 
paranoia rises.  Wha?  Shot?  But history is repeated only in farce when we 
find that he has been shot in the ass by the ricochet of Benny's shotgun 
blast.  But what was Stencil doing in that tunnel?  Searching for V. of 
course.  No alter kocker he!