HOSS: Cold white powder. Keep me from it. Sweet white poison. Beautiful flower. Don’t let me see. Please, don’t let me see.

(CHASER enters.)

CHASER: Song: “Kill Zone”

KILL ZONE

We stood together in the open field
And heard the secrets that the night revealed
Then we chased the lie
Racing through the sky

Can we untangle guilt or innocence
How hard we torture this ambivalence
Night will bring no dawn
Where has power gone

For I’ll steal your dreams while you are sleeping
And sell them for dust and cheap lust
And I’ll slit your hope while you are weeping
And wipe the blade clean with morphine
Be my queen

The night prowls the dark clouds
That shroud the storm at sea
I’m dropping at too great a speed

Come closer to me
On your hands and knees
Alone in the kill zone

How much is not enough how much is through
How long will I be getting over you
How much grief and sin
Til a heart caves in
Til a heart caves in
Til a heart caves in

(DOC enters.)

DOC: Hoss, we got a visitor. We just got tapped, Gypsy’s punched through Zone Five. He’s approaching the Moat. Full bore.

HOSS: Good. That’s good. What’s his ride?

CHASER: You’re not gonna believe this. ’58 black Impala; fuel-injected, bored and stroked, full-blown underneath.

HOSS: My kind a outfit.

CHASER: Similar.

HOSS: Handle?

CHASER: Calls himself Crow.

HOSS: Crow. I’m gonna like this honcho. Let him on through.

CHASER: All the way?

HOSS: Yeah. Brake him at the Moat and sound him on a Mind Train Duel.

(DOC exits.)

CHASER: Mind Train?

HOSS: Something wrong with that?

CHASER: He didn’t come all this way to fuck around in the argots. He’s gonna want some blood.

HOSS: I know what he came for. I know exactly what he came for. Blood’s too simple. No satisfaction. Cold slaughtered be just downright disappointing to both of us. Don’t you think? Kind of a letdown in the face of what’s at stake.

CHASER: I don’t know. I always found it kinda thrilling, myself.

HOSS: Thrilling but short-lived. I wanna leave a brand on this Gypsy. One way or the other I’m gonna leave him branded.

CHASER: Mind Train. All right. I hope he bites.

HOSS: He’ll bite. It’s my turf. Right up to the drop, it’s still my turf.

CHASER: I’ll sound him.

(CHASER exits.)

HOSS: Becky Lou—You were right about the Mind Train. How’d you know?

BECKY: I seen it comin.

HOSS: Just like Meera.

BECKY: Yeah.

HOSS: I’m glad it’s here. I’m glad it’s finally here. I’m just dying to see his face.

BECKY: You best rest up, Hoss. It won’t be long.

(BECKY exits. HOSS alone.)