BEg2 ch21 quick summary

[Michael Bailey]

Ch 21
Maxine and Heidi go shopping in Lower Manhattan & then are looking for a
bar (Vodkascript) in the East Village where Driscoll from the hwgaahwgh
office is singing with a band called Pringle Chip Equation

 (so Maxine and Driscoll’s exchange of contact info back in Fabian’s Bit
Bucket wasn’t just for show to throw their pursuers off)

Conkling Speedwell the Private Nose shows up with his Naser, fresh from a
sting gone awry that did require him to use it.

Heidi takes a shine to Conkling.

The police show up with a corporate Nose, Moskowitz, who schmoozes with
Conkling in an incongruous-considering-his-name Irish accent.

Conkling knows the way to Vodkascript & comes with them, getting closer to
Heidi.

Driscoll, to Maxine’s surprise decked out in a Little Black Dress, sings a
nicely metered lyric about the decline of Silicon Alley.

Conkling treats them to his theory of Hitler’s cologne, culminating with a
supposed picture of the bull goose Nazi holding a big bottle of the stuff,
which he admits to having bought at a Nazi paraphernalia swap meet.

Despite Driscoll’s expert opinion that it’s photoshopped, Conkling still
hopes for some shred of authenticity - maybe it was photoshopped by Nazis -
and oddly enough Heidi still has designs on the guy.

At work the next day Maxine hears from Axel at the tax office, works on
Uncle Dizzy’s case, and finds Conkling in her waiting room.

He warns her that one of his colleagues whose nose is sensitive to smells
from the future has detected some horrible upcoming stench of destruction.

He also pumps Maxine for information about Heidi, and accepts her insincere
apology for not “getting with” him - he can smell that she’s more
interested in Horst, so he backed off.