Chapter 79 of 99 · Book 8, A Parade of Horribles

Chapter 79 — 715 deals; Britney in Carl's mind; the Nothing in quotes

Book: A Parade of Horribles · Part: Horrible One · Previous: Chapter 78 — Damien's announcement; under a thousand · Next: Chapter 80 — The final heat: the lobby · Floor: Floor 10 — Don't Come in Last · Series: the series

Opening

» Osvaldo: Fuck off, Carl.

Summary

'Fuck off, Carl […] Filipe and I aren’t going anywhere' — but Filipe is taking a deal, talked into it by Donut, sworn to silence until he is inside. Of 989 crawlers in 353 teams, 715 will enter the Outreach Guild and not return, stripping their vehicles and adding a spell each to the Book of Voodoo by Milk's method; 274 crawlers in 103 teams remain; twenty-one heats with two crawler teams, two where all three refuse. Carl and Donut face Sparkles and Flamengo; Imani and Elle face the 'Tracksuit Troika' (three Russians in a Cadillac) and the Minister's Wienermobile. Florin and Lucia, Chris and the Erins, Prepotente and Jurgen are each sole survivors of their heats; Louis and Britney have one slot. Chris stays for Imani and sends the Erins out; Lucia refuses, Jurgen working on her. Pontiff, kept on payroll, goes into the Desperado Club after the strippers. Britney comes out of the club, eyes red-rimmed: Elle wants them to run, Louis will not, nor will she. Carl remembers Chris under Maggie My on the fifth; Mordecai, Imani and Rosetta want to understand it before confronting her; after Dong, Carl fears time. She presses a hand to his chest — Don’t worry about me, Carl. You just need to survive. Do you understand? — spoken in his mind, rawer than Imani's or Katia's. Pontiff: the new guards are former assassins and wall rats; the Wheel of Fortune now has 'Nothing' on it, in suspicious quotes, and Pontiff thinks the strippers steered Carl wrong. The casino plan recalled: hit the Nothing spot, the portal drops into a holding area from which Herot could pull people, as NPCs are plucked for the seventeenth; Carl fears outside interference, Rosetta thinks the showrunners now want everyone out by any means and the AI is the danger. The queue is gone; Prepotente: 'less than three hundred of us left […] A somber day indeed'; Osvaldo has not gone. 'I have analyzed your plan […] this final race will be a nonevent.' Donut, with love: 'please kindly shut the fuck up.' 'Let’s do our good-race hug.'

Characters

• Carl — Osvaldo refuses; Britney's voice in his head; 'I have a bad feeling about all of this.'
• Princess Donut — Talked Filipe into a deal; 'please kindly shut the fuck up.'
• Osvaldo — 'Filipe and I aren’t going anywhere.'
• Filipe L — Takes a deal in secret.
• Imani — The chart of matchups; 65–70 final heats.
• Elle McGibbons — The Tracksuit Troika.
• Chris — Stays; sends the Erins out.
• The Erins — Leave.
• Florin — Sole survivors with Lucia.
• Lucia Mar — Refuses a deal.
• Jurgen — Works on her.
• Prepotente — Collects last items from the queue; 'A somber day indeed'; 'a nonevent.'
• Louis and Firas — One open slot; Louis to jockey the gecko.
• Britney Proskurina — Red-eyed from the club: 'Don’t worry about me, Carl. You just need to survive.'
• Pontiff — Into the club; 'Nothing' in suspicious quotes.
• Rosetta Thagra — Holding areas exist; the AI is the danger.
• Herot — Could pull people from the holding area.

Locations

• Hungry Eyes Village — The queue at the Outreach Guild.
• The Desperado Club — New guards, former assassins and wall rats.
• The Nothing — Back on the wheel, in quotes.

Motifs

• The deal — 715 of 989.
• The crawler count — 274 in 103 teams.
• The Filthy Little Crawler's Book of Voodoo — A spell each from the leavers, by Milk's method.
• Ysalte — Something in Britney accelerating.
• The Pineapple Cabaret — The casino route recalled.
• Carl's family — The good-race hug.