BEg2 ch28 quick summary

[Michael Bailey]

Horst bets the boys a pizza on the Colts who do win over the Jets.

They go to Tom’s Pizza on Columbus - (looks like it actually closed in 1994
https://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/24/nyregion/neighborhood-report-upper-west-side-one-last-slice-the-end-nears-for-pizzeria.html
)

Back home, Horst notices unusual numbers of put options on United and
American Airlines & mentions it - sharing his work with his sons - Ziggy is
cognizant enough to speculate it’s insider trading.

Vyrva calls & wants to bring Fiona over. She said Justin and Lucas are
freaked about a random number generator going non-random, and being
paranoid & argumentative about it, which is making their living space, like
the iconic poster sez about war, “not healthy for children and other living
things.”

They relax with some tv, Vyrva upon phone-checking in at home learns that
Justin & Lucas are through fighting, but now bonding. Since for Vyrva
that’s “even worse,” she accepts Maxine’s invitation to stay over.

(“Horst won’t be home tonight [bunking downtown with a friend & planning to
in the morning head to his office in the WTC from there], plenty of room.”)

Next day is 9-11, she learns about it in a corner smoke shop where she’s
picking up a newspaper, has to bring the boys home early from school.

Everyone calls.

Except Horst.

March calls & theorizes it’s a political act like the Reichstag fire.
Maxine and March realize the Stinger DVD wasn’t veracious - “we got
snookered”

Windust calls, invites her to call him, hangs up. She speculates he may be
lowlife enough to be hypothesizing some sort of crisis response in her that
would make her amenable to getting laid.

Goes to bed & dreams she’s a mouse in a sophisticated trap.

Wakes up & finds Horst snoring in the spare room. He and his buddy slept
late, got evacuated & put in a motel.

He informally associates that good fortune with the way he knows when to
buy & sell stuff.

But when Maxine lays it out - do you think it’s the same talent - he can’t
admit to thinking it is.

Then he reminisces about thinking of Maxine to the point of having
imaginary conversations with her in the succession of motel rooms
(supposedly his happy place) in which he’s been living.

Next morning he walks along with Maxine & Ziggy & Otis to Kugelblitz.
There’s a bigger crowd of parents than usual.

March quotably rants a bit on her blog. In conversation with Maxine she
speculates that the rooftop action was a backup in case plane hijackers
changed their minds - they would shoot them down.
Seems labyrinthine.

Horst notices unusual “put” action on WTC tenants prior to the thingie.

Maxine goes to her parents’ place, everyone is talking about it of course.
Brooke’s mad when Maxine goes a little afield in wondering about weirdness
in the media coverage - for Brooke any deviation from the official line is
offensive.

Ernie reminisces about JFK’s assassination, and the weirdness around that.
His gravitas is sufficient that hyper-patriot Brooke doesn’t interrupt
Ernie from speculating gently about if it was an inside job.

Maxine mentions 4360 kHz - supposedly a Mossad frequency - being unusually
busy before the atrocity. Brooke and Avi kind of erupt indignantly.

Maxine privately shares with Ernie that she did talk with Windust who
thinks Avi might be a Mossad agent - she tells Ernie she does notice Avi
never talks about work, & that whatever Avi is doing, he’s well compensated.

The chapter closes with Maxine predicting that Avi will buy Ernie and
Elaine a Mercedes.
Ernie calls on old emotions, referring to Mercedes as a Nazi car, and says
he’ll sell it.