BEg2 chapter 6 confrontations

[Joseph Tracy]

Chapter 6

 Research, confrontation, deception , fear, - 

We meet March Kelleher, she offers 2nd hint in BE of secretive US arab conections  ( first was Driscoll “Some took the deal, some split town. They enroll you in a course out in Queens where you learn Arabic and how to write Arabic Leet.”) 

“Mom, did you know that the Bush family does business with Saudi Arabian terrorists?”
 “Oil business, you mean.” “I
 think that’s what she meant, but . . .” 
“What” 
“Like there was something else. Something she wanted to say but not in front of a kid audience.” Very perceptive, I assume Ziggy.

Maxines’s memories of March start a series of confrontations of varying seriousness about what happens when power gets challenged, questioned, investigated.
 1st) confrontation with landlords over abusive and theoreticlly illegal rent practices. mixed results

2nd) Elaine and Ernie arrested over Raygun support for right wing coups in Nicaragua& El Salvador  “It wasn’t till years later that they felt comfortable about sharing their memories of plastic handcuffs, pepper spray, unmarked vans, the Finest doing what cops do best.” 

3rd) confrontation of Robert Moses and high culture to take over Puerto Rican neighborhood ( reminiscent of disposession of black families from coastal LA in IV)
big money wins with little public fuss. Race and real estate major themes in P

4th) Eric Outfield finds atman z stuff, digs deeper, sees evidence of secret archive, tries hacking..   “A message came up immediately written in Leet characters along the lines of “Congratulations noob you think you made it in but all you’re really in now is a world of deep shit”  He also gets rumor from Reg of  hz employee who leaked code and disappeared. He is paranoid enough to only meet Reg on public bus.

5th) Reg is scared for Eric and self and after inquiry from Maxine discloses that after conversation with wife and inner fantasies of violence is thinking about moving to Seattle. 
i place this as confrontation because it is coming out of Regs conflicts with hz and in personal life.

6th)  Maxine challenges Rocky Slagiatt “Are you upset by unwelcome attention, Mr. Slagiatt?” 
    “Ain’t like we’re loan sharks here. Look up on that shelf.” She looks. “You . . . have a company bowling team.”  

7th) Silly confrontation in Italian resuraunt over pronunciation of pastafazool/pasta e fagiola ending in RS singing on key

8th) there is also a slight confrontation over Mafia/Italian/ CIA connection dating back to Cuba and Kenndy killing.  RS says it is old history and nothing to do with him. Perhaps nothing to do with RS but important connections to the story line . A hint of where things may go.

I think the chapter  and its varied confontations is showing that something big is up ( on the scale of El Salvador/Nicaragua) , that the rubber is starting to meet the road in Maxine’’s investigation and that there may be serious danger ahead.

 OT question  -penguin piss- Any ideas why Eric sent message that  the disc he sent was blessed with penguin piss?( reference to Linus Torvald- Linux kernel , advocate of open source)