RUIDO: Polls don’t even tote their Kills for fear of the Keepers comin down on ’em.

HOSS: There’s one out there! I can feel him. I know he’s there. Meera nailed him cold.

RUIDO: You just got the buggered blues, man. You been whippin to the wrong pix. That Gazer got you stone scrambled.

HOSS: He’s the only one who caught it and I fired him for it. (calls off) Becky! Becky Lou! I gotta get him back here before he gits across the moat. Becky!

RUIDO: You need to git a headset. Put yer ears on straight. These Gypsies is committin suicide. We got the Power. If the Keepers whimsy it, all they do is scratch ’em out. Simple. They’re defeatee, man.

HOSS: They’re comin. They’re gonna turn the whole Game around on us. You watch. They are comin.

(BECKY enters with drinks.)

BECKY: Yaba, Honk Man.

HOSS: Where’s Meera?

BECKY: The Gazer Loop?

HOSS: Yeah. Git him back here. I need to sit him down.

BECKY: We cut him clean loose, Hoss. Your whimsy, remember?

HOSS: Yeah, I remember! Now I want him back! I need to study up on one of his auguries.

BECKY: He has way departed, Hoss. I mean—gone.

HOSS: Track him! Git him back to me, now!

BECKY: Kelpies took his head off. Severed. Me and Chaser climbed the wall to watch. Nasty pack slaughter.

HOSS: Chingaflack!

BECKY: I thought you said, shunt him out. That’s what we did.

HOSS: Gimme that!

(He grabs both drinks from BECKY, drains them both, then smashes the glasses against the back wall. RUIDO is starting to pack up his gear in earnest.)

RUIDO: I’m gonna shoobeedoo here, Hoss. I suss my function is on down the Pike.

HOSS: Not yet! I need some hint on this Gypsy Monger. Some clue.

RUIDO: I can’t amigo there. I’m just a Doo Wop Dee Jay Hoss. Old Shuffle. Future’s not my forte.

HOSS: Chinga Future! I’m talking Now! He’s out there! I can feel him. Real as Blacktop. He’s chalkin me! Right now. Throw me some pix up on that wall.

RUIDO: I got no channel. Nothin to send or receive on. All I got is a lot a stacked up Info-Data.

HOSS: Why is there this sudden breakdown in the information department!

BECKY: There’s nothing out there, Hoss. Nothin to come near to touchin your class.

RUIDO: Solamente uno.

HOSS: What do you know! We’re all so damn insulated here. Watching Kelpie kills from high walls. Damn, why’d I turn that Gazer loose! He was my main line!

BECKY: Tighten down now. Quit jumpin at shadows. You need to take a shuffle cruise or somethin.

RUIDO: Now, there’s a notion.

(Pause.)

HOSS: Yeah. Yeah, maybe that’s it. Just some scouting. I’m feeling squashed up in here. Chaser ready to roll?

BECKY: Always.