HOSS: Maybe that’s just the ticket. Shake these Banshees off. No action. Just a little cruise. I need to lay back—put my feet up on the dashboard.

BECKY: There ya go.

RUIDO: Shuffle off to Buffalo.

HOSS: That Gazer was half rambic anyhow. Every day he’d sift down a notch.

BECKY: You got that right.

HOSS: Didn’t it seem that way to you?

BECKY: Absoloo.

HOSS: Every day he’d get to spinnin some weird Shinola. Probably had some inside hand with the El Caminos.

BECKY: No doubt.

HOSS: Spy Tout. Bet yer booty. Scumraker. Wish I’d sat on that wall with you. Took his head clean off, huh?

BECKY: At the collar.

(CHASER enters and stops.)

HOSS: Chaser.

CHASER: Boss.

HOSS: Musta heard us ticking. How ’bout we take us a little Cruise Shuffle. Merc’s all open throat?

CHASER: I’d scotch that up for now, Hoss.

HOSS: Why’s that?

CHASER: We just got word that Eyes sussed, somebody marked you.

(Pause.)

HOSS: What? Marked me? Who?

CHASER: One a the Gypsy Trash.

RUIDO: I’m adios, Hoss. It’s been jammin. Somehow, I got me a deep yearnin for the Old Radio Days, now. Tennessee Ernio. I suppose it’ll pass. It’s been jammin.

(RUIDO exits. Pause.)

HOSS: (to CHASER) A Gypsy’s marked me?

CHASER: That’s the word from Eyes.

HOSS: Where is he? This Gypsy.

CHASER: Phoenix, from what we know.

HOSS: Phoenix?

CHASER: That’s what the Screen showed.

HOSS: Mojo! That must be it. He’s hired a Gypsy to off me clean.

CHASER: Nope, he’s Solo. We checked that through the horn. Total Renegade Solo.

BECKY: Horn’s not the final note. Could easy be the Root-Force slipstreamin his time. Takin Hoss’s marks and hirin dabblers to rub him out. It’s a gang shot.

HOSS: Git Little Willard! Git ahold a Little Willard.

BECKY: Now don’t fly off, Hoss. You’re safe here.

HOSS: Safe! Safe and amputated from the neck down! I’m a Marker, not a cuff snapper! Get me Little Willard on the high line. Shake it! He’ll remember the true-born days. We’ll partner up.

(BECKY exits. HOSS alone with CHASER.)

HOSS: Now the tube tightens. I can stake it up. Draw to the straight outside or in.

CHASER: Cuidado, man.

HOSS: Phoenix is mine! It belongs in my back pocket. The West is mine. I’ll just go and take on the Keepers. How’s that? Live outside the Code altogether. Outside the whole shot.

CHASER: That’s Gypsy scam. You’re a King Marker, knockin at the top.

HOSS: Top a what? Nobody’s playin by the Code no more. We been suckers to the Code for too long now. I say we get Little Willard, put a short fleet together. Then we roll right through this Gypsy and on to Phoenix. Mojo won’t even know what hit him.