BEg2 chapter 13 brief summary

[Michael Bailey]

Airport
Tail ‘Em and Nail ‘Em
Omega Diner on 72nd
Days later at the Deseret
Pizza joint downtown

At the airport, Maxine has ridden along to say goodbye to her sons and to
Horst as they leave for their multipurpose visit to parts West.
They’ll be flying to Chicago for some sightseeing then renting a car for
visiting Horst’s parents in Iowa and then touring the “Midol West,”
Maxine’s name for the part of the country that makes her feel like she’s on
her period.
Saying it aloud doesn’t awaken me to a joke or pun, so perhaps this is
something a female friend may have shared with Pynchon. Probably a New
Yorker - like that Talking Heads song about flyover states, The Big Country
- “I wouldn’t live there if you paid me…nosiree!”
https://youtu.be/b640fKk45J8


After the guys walk away, only Otis looking back, Maxine sees Vyrva and
Justin on their way to DEFCON in Las Vegas, which was July 13-15 in 2001. —
quite a bit of time since the story began on the first day of spring.
They expect quite a bit of interest in DeepArcher.

Back at the office, Daytona the receptionist is watching on the
Afro-American Romance Channel (ARCH) a movie that sounds a lot like “Jerry
Maguire” without the Jerry Maguire character - eliminate the middleman?

During a commercial she gives Maxine a message to call Gabriel Ice. When
she does, their conversation escalates into a clash that culminates in his
hanging up on her. But not before warning her to stay away from Tallis. Oh,
and asking her how much she thinks he would have to pay March Kelleher to
lay off hashslingrz on her blog, which he probably knows she will answer
that that’s not buyable.

Rocky Slagiatt “checks in, as usual bringing no luggage.”
Little double take on my part - it’s a play on checking in to a motel/
checking in by phoning.
Never connected those before.
Applying the “no luggage” modifier to the phone call, probably means
“aroused suspicion in her.”

They meet up at the (not currently on Google) Omega Diner on 72nd, and he
introduces her to Igor Dashkov and his two young sidekicks Misha and
Grisha. Misha and Grisha (affectionate Russian nicknames for Michael and
Gregory) are just out of “zona,” Russian prison.

Igor asks her about Bernie Madoff and, after a look at some printouts he
gives her, she tips him off that it’s a Ponzi scheme.

Big mitzvah, we can expect some gratitude later.

Days later, she goes to the Deseret for a swim, but a bit of Magical
Realism in the form of an anthropomorphic elevator takes her not to the
pool, but to an unfamiliar floor where she meets up with Reg Despard.
He’s been fired (and his apartment ransacked) (although he saved some of
his footage by hiding it) from the Hashslingrz documentary project after he
started following some of their people to the Deseret.
He tells her Gabriel Ice is one of the owners of the Deseret.
They stealthily leave the building & ride a bus downtown to 8th Street. At
a pizza joint’s sidewalk table she has a “flulike” feeling in her fingers
giving rise to a suspicion that Despard’s ransackers might be people even
more dangerous than Gabriel Ice.
She warns him to be careful.