in abundant sunlight a man carried paintings from a battered1 panel truck into the loft2 building across the street from me. He took canvas after canvas, about a dozen, gray every one with a white line down the middle. I turned back to Bohack, who occupied the center of the room, nodding into his Chinese beard, one foot up on a chair, the rest of him collapsing3 toward that point of support. He wasn't happy with me. His body showed it, swollen4 with exhaustion5. He knew I was no longer content to remain in this room, leading his band of janissaries progressively inward, conceding motion to each hour that passed. His large open face seemed to beam his disappointment across the room. We were ten minutes into our second silence. Bohack took out a handkerchief and delivered mucoidal noises into it. He remained in his standing6 crouch7, right foot set on the edge of the chair, elbow resting on right knee, his diffuse8 beard concealed9 by the handkerchief. He wasn't at all happy with me. I had betrayed our convergent10 destinies, reading the leer in the silvery eye of the first child to beckon11.
"I wondered if you'd get here in time," I said. "I'm due to leave in a matter of hours. They're sending a car for me."
"If you knew I was coming over, why didn't you leave ahead of schedule? Why didn't Bucky Wunderlick get out when he had the chance?"
"Dumb question," I said.
"I guess it is. Heck, I'm stupid sometimes. You half want this confrontation12. You half want to go to Essex Street with me."
"Who cut Azarian's throat? Did his people do that?"
"Longboy."
"What for?"
"Longboy's our throat man. When he was a medic in the Airborne he performed many a tracheotomy out in the field. Man with broken jaw13, blocked air passage, choking to death in the drop zone. Longboy would trake him right there. He traked maybe ten people all told. He got to know the throat. He's developed a feel for it. So we sent Longboy after Azarian's throat. We had a lot of trouble locating Azarian. We knew he was after the product but we couldn't get him located right."
"He was just bidding," I said. "He never had his hands on it. There was no point in killing14 him."
"We killed him because we found him," Bohack said. "It was a heck of a job. We put a lot of time and effort into it. After all that time and effort, we obviously had to kill him. If we didn't kill him, it would have been a total waste, all that time and effort. We knew he was in California, in L.A., most likely in Watts15. Finally we got street name and house number. That's when we sent out Longboy. He's our throat man."
"Dr. Pepper told you I was leaving. Is that right?"
"Right, Pepper told us. Pepper wanted me to arrange a get-together16 with Rex, Brandy, King, Bruno and the others. He knew about Happy Valley's interest in your retirement17 and he wanted to use the dog-boys to keep you permanently18 in this room. He was scared half to death of even approaching the dog-boys but he thought you'd cut him out of any chance at the product and this was his way of getting revenge. I was surprised, tell you the truth. I didn't think Pepper was that vindictive19. He came on like a spiteful kid who wakes up one morning and finds he has two poison fangs20 and it's just a question of who gets the first nip. But I could tell he expected heap big trouble if he got anywhere near the dog-boys. Fear and trembling. It might have been halfway21 funny to see Pepper with those lunatics but I finally told him it wasn't necessary. I told him we didn't need the dog-boys. Don't you want to know why? You're just standing there without any look on your face. Isn't Bucky interested? Doesn't he care about these things?"
"He cares deeply."
"The dog-boys aren't an independent pack. I control them. I run them back and forth22. They're not a separate faction23. They're just a lunatic fringe that we use for our own purposes. They're completely subordinate. There's only one Happy Valley Farm Commune. The dog-boys are the lunatic fringe. We use them to sow fear and confusion. People think Happy Valley's weak and disorganized when it's just the opposite. A nice touch, what do you think? Broadcasting dissension, what do you think? Not bad, right? Sowing fear. Sowing confusion. What's your opinion?"
"I need time to think about it."
"I gave them the names," he said. "Bruno, Rex, Corky and so on. What do you think? Nice touch, don't you think? Sense of humor. You need that."
"How heavy are you?"
"I go two forty-five. Is that too heavy? I've got a big frame. With a big frame you need considerable poundage. My face is a round-type face but the rest of me is packed pretty solid."
"Are your parents big people?" I said.
"They're both normal size except my mother has the biggest thumbs I've ever seen in my Me."
"Any brothers or sisters?"
"Only child."
"Where do you buy your clothes?"
"Do you pay your rent with cash, check or money order?"
"Right now we owe four months."
"What are your plans for me?"
"It's a nice day," he said. "Let's go up to the roof."
We strolled among chimneys of various shapes and materials, crumbling25 brickwork, heavy metal painted black, aluminum26 peanut-whistles. The tar27 was hard. To north and south, towers grew out of crooked28 rooftops in the foreground. Bohack rested against the ledge29, eyes closed and face thrust upward, although the sun was at his back. It was one of those electrically blue days when every tall building set against the sky seems to drip silver. Bohack was looking at me now. His arms were folded. He wore crushed dented30 clothing that made him appear to ripple31 upward, a fountain of automobile32 parts and bland33 expressions.
"Your suicide should take place in a city like Tangier or Port-au-Prince or Auckland, New Zealand. Some semi-mysterious or remote place is probably best for your kind of suicide. That way the news is late, the news is garbled34, the news is full of contradictions. A doubt always lingers that way. Even when they produce your body, there's a doubt or a shadow of a doubt. Maybe it's somebody else. Maybe it's a look-alike provided by the local police. The perfect suicide is when people know you're dead on one level but refuse to accept it on a deeper level. It's the final inward plunge35, Bucky. It's what you owe us. It really is. We patterned our whole lives after your example. What happens? You decide to pull out. Just like that. You decide to step back into the legend. No good, Bucky. Not acceptable. Obviously it leaves us hanging. We're in the midst of an inward plunge and you suddenly just like that decide to sneak36 out into the open. Zero acceptability. Suicide's the best answer all around. I think you see that now."
"It's a good answer. But not the best."
"There's a definite second-best. But suicide's the best. How can I tempt37 you further? Can I say it's what everybody ultimately expects of you, right down to the littlest scribbler of fan mail? Should I say it's a life-affirming gesture for someone in your position? Do I put the whole thing in perspective by arguing that your life and work will draw off additional meaning from an act of this kind? How can I tempt you, Bucky? We're how high up — four stories? Not enough, is it? You want to be sure and I don't blame you one bit. Istanbul, that would be ideal. Better than Auckland, New Zealand, where chances are they do things in a neat tidy manner and we wouldn't have the proper mystery or doubt. Our building on Essex Street is five stories high. Add one for the roof. That's six, which is probably high enough."
"It's by far the best answer."
"Not by jumping though. That's no good at all."
"Let's discuss alternatives," he said.
"Many better methods."
"I'd be happy to discuss them with you. Anything you have to offer in the way of ideas is great with me. Gun's not bad. It's a right-there kind of thing. It's got a brutal39 purity other methods don't have."
"You're not being serious," I said. "If you were really bearing down on this, you wouldn't make dumb suggestions. It has to be more passive. But not drugs and not gas. An exotic poison maybe, A snake in a basket. Something that harks back to the great days when excess was the style. But I'll tell you the truth, Bo. We're just making noises up here. I have no real intentions. I'm not innocent enough for suicide."
"You have to teach by example, Bucky. Otherwise you're just a salesman."
"I've done things without understanding them fully40. This would be one more such thing. Besides I'm not innocent. I've ass-licked around the edges of some mean conceits41. You can't kill yourself when you're half-rotten with plague. Only the innocent are received. No suicide gets through unless he's free of attachment42. It's murder I've been burning to commit. I'm way beyond suicide."
"Who you plan to kill?"
"I guess nobody anymore. Not even in the vague way I meant it. Four ounces on the meat scale. That's all I'm told I weigh. I was thinking about that while T waited for you to get here. Whether to bother at all with limousines43 and planes or just take what Bohack's got in store."
"Second-best," he said. "There's a definite second-best."
He put his hands flat against his belly44 and slid them into his pants up to the knuckles45. Under his jacket, opened to the mild afternoon, he wore broad red suspenders. We passed a yawn between us. To the east a drilling crew was blasting rock apart at a construction site. I heard but could not see them. Each blast was preceded by the sound of whistles and followed by pigeons angling in panic to other abutments.
"You found Azarian," I said. "You found Pepper or he found you. You didn't find Watney. Did you find Hanes?"
"Hanes found us."
"That's what I thought."
"The kid finally got around to using his God-given intellect. He offered to do anything we wanted if we'd give him a guarantee for his safety. He couldn't have called at a better time. There was one important service nobody else was in a position to render for us. Hanes was the right man at the right time. I look at your face and see nothing. Isn't Bucky Wunderlick curious about these things? Doesn't he care how the machinery46 functions? Maybe it's just that the sun's in his eyes. He seems to be blank but it's only the sun."
"I thought I had you measured step by step," I said. "I even awarded myself one extra step. But I have to admit I don't know what service Hanes might be in a position to render Happy Valley. The sun's in my eyes. Otherwise you'd see curiosity lighting47 up my face."
"We want your silence. You know that. But even if you took your own life right now, we wouldn't have what we want. Why? Because of the mountain tapes. Because the tapes are about to be released. New legends, new sounds, new confusions. In the last few days there have been rumors48 about the tapes being released. Then Pepper told us you were going on tour. It all fitted together. The only thing we didn't know was how to get at the tapes. Where they were. Who had them. Silence is silence, Bucky. There's no silence with the tapes on the market. It would hurt us. It would cause psychological pain. So Hanes was the right man. We gave him the guarantee he wanted. In return he went through the confidential50 files at Transparanoia. According to him, it was easy. He had the answer in no time."
"Pittsburgh."
"Cincinnati."
"Just testing," I said.
"Hanes seemed eager to give you maximum knifage. To put the blade in six inches, withdraw it two inches, stick it in three more inches. Seven inches. Maximum knifage among the primitive51 blood cults52."
"I didn't help him when he was in the subways."
"He remembered."
"I see that."
"So Maje and two others are in a car right now on their way to the record plant in Cincinnati. They're carrying about twenty pounds of C-four. We have to play it safe. We don't know what stage of production the record's at. So we're blowing the whole plant. Silence has to be total if it's to be called silence. Am I right or not? In order to earn the name silence, the silence has to be total. I'd like to hear your views on that."
I took eight steps forward and hit him in the stomach, directing the blow at a point equidistant from his thumbs, which were still set against his belly, the only fingers outside his pants, about six inches apart, parallel to his belt line. I walked back to my spot at the brick chimney.
"What was that?" he said.
"Animal urge."
"What for?"
"I know what's ahead. Some dumb instinct made me hit you. No reason though. I walk step for step with you, Bo. It was an animal thing. I know what's ahead. I agree to it. But this animal urge made me hit you anyway."
"You get the faggot violence going. That's the only thing you accomplish with a move like that. The old faggot violence comes raging out of me. I turn bleary. I strike at anything that breathes. That's the meaningless inner faggotry everyone possesses. You roused my faggot-laden soul. Bad stuff, Bucky. No should do. Make nice-nice. No hit people. Heap big trouble."
"I agree to everything."
"It's a nice day," he said. "Let's go for a walk."
We went south on the Bowery without a word. Gray cats slept in the sun among men thawing53 against the sides of buildings, seated there for a parade of visored riot cops and their whores in snowshoes, or asleep as if in baskets, their bodies shaped against the revolt of bone. I had a yawning seizure54 then. It was fear, I knew, that caused it — the mechanism55 in the body that covers up fear in this whimsical way, yawn after yawn. The seizure lasted all the way to the Salvation56 Army Memorial Hotel, accompanied by popping sounds in my cheekbones. I was suddenly hungry. We stopped at a frankfurter cart on Chrystie Street and I ate three chili57 dogs and drank Coke and orange soda58. I felt sick and tossed the empty Coke bottle over my shoulder, hearing it break politely in the gutter59. Bohack never spoke60 or touched me. People seemed to know him here, although no words were exchanged. We went east into the market streets. I vomited62 on a parked car. Bohack waited at the distance deemed correct in the etiquette63 of vomiting64. There were no metaphysical testimonies65 to be made in clarification of this episode. I was traveling a straight line to the end of an idea. It seemed simple arithmetic. For years I'd been heading this way, moment by moment, along a perfectly66 true line. We reached Essex Street and walked south past the basement companies that manufactured skullcaps. We entered a tenement67 and started to climb stairs. There were no lights in the hallway. I smelled babies and lush garbage. The tile steps were worn at the edges. Bohack climbed behind me, about three steps back, breathing evenly into the dimness. Great Jones Street, Bond Street, Chrystie Street, Essex Street. It was sixteenth-century London we'd been slouching through in our hands-in-pockets way. I reached the final landing. Puke. Vomit61. Splat. Bohack slipped past me and unlocked one of the four metal doors on the top floor, using three keys in the process.
Inside he led me along a narrow hall to a large kitchen. A man and two young girls were painting the walls a gun-metal color, using pans and rollers. Bohack gave me a glass of water and told one of the girls to clean up the mess on the landing. I followed him through another room where two men with sledgehammers were knocking down a wall. They stood in sunny ruins, clothes and bodies chalked with plaster. The third and last room looked east. It was a small room, filled with plants, feverish69 in the heat of three floodlights. The lone70 window had no curtains or blinds. Steam came clouding out of an adjacent bathroom where hot water ran in the shower. Bohack placed me in an unpainted blocklike chair and then left the room.
Plants covered the floor around the perimeter71 of the room and were crowded together on shelves and grew in white plastic pots hung from the ceiling and in clay pots attached to the walls with metal clips. I noted72 many kinds, those huge and hooded73 and furled on long sticks, enclosing the springs of their own alertness, or drowsy74 and pouched75, nocturnal orchids76, vines and ivies78, showering ferns, palms in their rectitude, or those murky79 and velvet80, or redolent of the limpness of old summers, or pale as lizards81. A small man entered the room. He said his name was Chess. He wore flannel82 trousers, glazed83 with age, and a matching vest over a striped shirt and tie. Vest lacked a button and the tie was not centered.
"Plants are scary things," he said.
He carried an old briefcase84. His hair was blondish, combed sideways almost ear to ear. He closed the door behind him, wincing85 at the sound of the sledgehammers.
"It's like a prison here," he said. "I don't know why they stay. People leave and then come back. Some leave twice and come back twice. You watch, I say to myself. So-and-so will leave for good next time. But they're all right here. Just like I'm right here. I'm in this room same as you. I'll tell you something about Bohack. He's not smart and he's not stupid. He doesn't have any special magnetism86. His ideas just miss being interesting ideas. For a long time I couldn't figure out what made him so indispensable. Why him? What's so special? I finally figured it out. It's because he's so big. He's the biggest one. People respond to his bigness."
"Where is he?" I said.
"He's making the four o'clock check. He checks the whole floor three times a day. Tells people what to do and how to do it. Somebody has to give orders and he's the biggest. Let me ask you something. That bridge out there. Is that the Brooklyn or the Williamsburg? I've never been able to muster87 enough courage to ask anyone. But I feel comfortable somehow with you. There's a chemistry with you. Let me rub away some of this steam on the window and you can get a better look."
"It's the Manhattan."
"Scary," he said. "I didn't know there was a bridge called the Manhattan Bridge. All this time not knowing. Oh that's so scary. What do you think of my plants? People are usually surprised by the plants. People forget we started out as an earth-family in a completely rural and rustic88 environment. Interdependence of man, plant and animal. That idea still has beauty for me. So what do you think of my plants? It's dry out today so I've got the hot shower going to get some humidity in here. Plants need that. Usually I just turn on the humidifier but Spot keeps peeing in it so I've had to put it away until Bohack gets him re-toilet-trained. That's the power of names. People act in response to their names. There's a tiny sector89 of the human brain where the naming mechanism is located. Spot pees in my humidifier and Rex plays with a little rubber Santa Claus that goes squeak-squeak a mile a minute. Dog behavior and dog play. But don't worry, this room is sacrosanct90. We don't have to be concerned about anybody coming in here who isn't authorized91 to do so. The orchid77 is a cuntlike plant. Don't you think? Menacing in its beauty. Some plants just stand there. The orchid lures92 a person. It draws a person inward. This room is a good room for meditation93 and inward thinking. It's the most inward room we have. That's as good a reason as any as to why you're here."
The door opened and Longboy stood there, left hand in his back pocket, all his weight on one leg, the left, his body slack against the door frame. Chess raised his eyebrows94 and Longboy responded with a series of gestures too complex to unravel95. Then he backed out of the room, pulling the door closed. Chess took some clippings out of his briefcase. The window was fogged to the point of total opaqueness96. I felt a sickly light sweat all over my body.
"Where's Bohack?" I said. "Is the package with him? I know you've got the damn thing."
"Pepper told us you were going on tour. Hanes told us where the record plant is."
"Hanes also turned over the product. You wouldn't have guaranteed his safety without that."
"Hanes turned over the product and Pepper agreed to test it for a straight fee. Hell probably never get paid but I doubt if he cares. He was overjoyed at this late date merely to find out what's been in that package these many weeks that's reduced us all to such deviant behavior. That begonia needs cutting back. Funny I hadn't noticed earlier."
I picked up the plant he'd indicated and threw it against the wall, using a windmill motion. Chess looked briefly97 at the cracked clay, leaves still embedded98 in lumps of earth. Then he leaned over in his chair and spread the newspaper clippings on the floor between his feet.
"Everybody's searching, you know. Everybody's trying to make the journey. But they're going about it wrong. They're seeking the wrong kind of privacy, the old privacy, never again to be found. Now here's an item about a seventy-year-old man who's sailing from Cape99 Hatteras to England in a skiff that's only nine feet long. It says he plans to practice yoga at sea. This one is about a Bloom-ington housewife who's flying from Minnesota to Australia in a balloon. Evidently she has relatives in Australia. That's the ostensible100 reason for the journey. We both know the real reason. A group of Methodists from Pittsburgh are setting out next month for the Sinai Desert where they intend to pray and fast for forty days and nights. It says they're being urged by their bishop101 to take along some kind of rations102 besides water but it says the group thus far has resisted the idea. Woman, sixty-two, circles world in single-engine plane. Now here's a Norwegian man who sat for two hundred and two hours in a window box on his terrace, breaking the world record by thirty-some-odd hours. We both know he wasn't interested in records. A man in Missouri spent a hundred and sixty-one days in a deep cavern103. Missouri abounds104 in caverns105. He ate canned food, he drank water, he burned over nine hundred candles. He said it's the first time in his life he wasn't bored. Sensory106 overload107. People are withdrawing from sensory overload. Technology. Whenever there's too much technology, people return to primitive feats108. But we both know that true privacy is an inner state. A limited environment is important. Yes, yes. But you can't fly off in a balloon and expect to find the answer.
The will has to urge itself to this task. The mind has to level itself across a plane of solitude109. We're painting this whole floor of the building a dark gray. Not the plant room. No, no. The plant room stays white. Everything else gets painted gray."
"I just had a thought."
"The concept of a captive lunatic fringe within an organization is mine alone, my concept alone, despite what you may have heard to the contrary. Irrationality110 can be managed to great effect. There's power and intimidation111 behind every event the dog-boys are made to stage."
"Are you Dr. Pepper?" I said. "You're not, are you?"
"I'm Chess and these are my plants. Pepper is at least four inches taller than I am. You know that. Voice aside. Color of eyes aside. The man is four inches taller than I am. Pepper's feats in the realm of disguise are well known and well documented but the man can't hide four inches of muscle, bone and tissue. I'm Fred Chess, ordinary American. I used to be a theatrical112 producer. I went into photo offset113 work after that Nothing seemed to be panning out. Look, if I were Pepper, it would mean I knew all along what kind of drug was in the package. Any long-standing intimate connection between Pepper and Happy Valley would mean that I, as Pepper, had knowledge of the drug from the very beginning. You'd have to revise everything that's happened. It would mean that I managed not only Bohack but also Hanes and Watney. If I'm Pepper, it means everything's been a lie up to now. I managed the whole thing, it means. I guided the product from hand to hand. It was my circle, point by point, the product originating at Happy Valley and ending there. It would mean that you've been the victim of the paranoid man's ultimate fear. Everything that takes place is taking place solely114 to mislead you. Your reality is managed by others. Logic49 is inside out. Events are delusions115. If I were Pepper, it would mean I knew the nature of the product, I had it delivered to you, I planned and followed its course, I fabricated a Toronto meeting between Hanes and Watney, I assigned the informer to Azarian, I planted Hanes in the subway, I had Watney leave the bubble gum cards, I had Bohack bring you over here — the straight line intersecting the circle. It would mean I managed Opel."
"But there's the difference in height," I said.
"Of course there is," he said. "There's no feasible way a man can subtract four inches, is there? Not to mention eye color, voice, skin pigmentation, size of genitals and so forth. I'm Fred Chess is who I am. Fact is I have no particular respect for Dr. Pepper. The man's always been a cunt-hair away from outright116 quackery117."
He went into the bathroom and turned off the shower, saying ow twice, apparently118 because the tap was hot. Then he opened the door and stepped into the hall. Soon the pounding stopped. Chess came back inside, followed by Bohack, Longboy and three others, men at the beck of the strongest hand, two wearing lumber119 jackets like mine. Beyond these six, others were gathering120 in the hall, male and female, standing at rest, pardonably devoid121 of any sign of gloom. At the edge of every disaster, people collect in affable groups to whisper away the newsless moments and wait for a messenger from the front. A small wet belch122, like a child's, rippled123 from my lips. The window began to clear, gradually, in long vertical124 patches.
"It's a mind drug," Chess said. "Mind drugs affect different people different ways. They're notorious for that. Highly unpredictable. Dr. Pepper thought this stuff was atropine at first. Atropine diminishes the killer125 impulse. No market for that. No street market anyway. But by the time he was finished he knew it was something else. It's a drug that affects one or more areas of the left sector of the brain. Language sector. Still no market for this product. Street or otherwise. It damages the cells in one or more areas of the left sector of the human brain. Loss of speech in other words."
"I know all this. This is boring."
"Pepper was nice enough to dissolve the chemical powder with a sterile126 something-or-other and prepare an ampule for us. But you know what's hard to figure? Why U.S. Guv was fooling around with this stuff in the first place. Maybe they have a language warfare127 department. Maybe they think the best way to silence troublemakers128 is literally129. That would be funny as hell if that were true. Glub, glub, glub. Or maybe Pepper was right the first time. Atropine. A tranquilizer for the killing site. But I doubt it. The man knows his dope. I give him that. Dope's his home away from home. I'm sure he was right with his second analysis."
"He'd fucking well better be right."
"Note this," Chess said. "You'll be perfectly healthy. You won't be able to make words, that's all. They just won't come into your mind the way they normally do and the way we all take for granted they will. Sounds yes. Sounds galore. But no words. No songs. You watch, I said to myself. We'll get him here and then hell refuse to cooperate. But so far you've cooperated beautifully. It took us a great deal of time and trouble to get the drug back into our possession. Therefore we're compelled to use it. We have the drug so we're forced to administer it. Anything to say? Last words? Oh yes, we hope you'll continue to stay on Great Jones Street. We like having you nearby, yes, absolutely. Any last words?"
"Pee-pee-maw-maw," I said.
Chess eked130 out laughter — a petty tremble of his lips that slowly grew into a radical131 whining132 body-sound, all parts surrendering themselves to glee. Soon we were all laughing, every one of us, those in the plant room and those in the hallway, all but Bohack who stood quietly amid the vegetation, one plant touching133 his shoulder at the crest134 of its ascent135. His eyes were focused and perfectly clear but it was hard to tell what he was looking at. His presence was such that only stillness could fully accommodate the cavernous power his body engendered136. The room seemed to contract about him, our laughter soaking dolefully into his skin, all becoming quiet now. A phone rang in one of the other rooms. Cincinnati, I thought. All gone my mountain songs. Something in Bohack shivered invisibly at the sound of the phone and I began to realize his captivity137 was stricter even than mine. The news of tapes in flames brought him no joy. As the phone was answered he chose in fact not even to remain for the final stifling138, in motion suddenly toward the door, crashing past two men, the lumber jacket wearers, one of them doing a little roundelay at the end of Bohack's lunge. All watched in unconnected manner this destruction of the placid139 air around us. He began wading140 through people in the hallway and soon was gone, metal door closing hard behind him as (in my mind) he stepped daintily over the vomit stain in the outer hall. Quiet returned then, a hurried calm accumulating in a kind of regional pattern, far hallway first, moving inward toward the center of the plant room. They were young, all those people gathered beyond the doorway141, but haggard and slow to move, handymen, woodworkers, seamstresses, possessed142 of a rueful nostalgia143, perhaps for the prairie womb common to them all, that land too bleak144 for song to live. Chess examined Longboy's fingernails for dirt and then counseled him on the proper angle of insertion, according to Dr. Pepper, forty-five to sixty degrees. Manhattan, soberest of bridges, was restored to the window in dwindling145 mist, never less plain, arm and broadsword of the sky. Longboy opened his medic's kit68 and lifted a hypodermic syringe to the pale light.
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battered
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loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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collapsing
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| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
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swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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exhaustion
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| n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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crouch
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diffuse
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concealed
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convergent
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beckon
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| v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤 | |
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confrontation
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| n.对抗，对峙，冲突 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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14
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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15
watts
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| （电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 ) | |
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16
get-together
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| n.(使)聚集；(使)集合 | |
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17
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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18
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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19
vindictive
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| adj.有报仇心的，怀恨的，惩罚的 | |
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20
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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21
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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22
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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23
faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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24
orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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25
crumbling
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| adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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26
aluminum
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| n.(aluminium)铝 | |
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27
tar
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| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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28
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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29
ledge
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| n.壁架，架状突出物；岩架，岩礁 | |
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30
dented
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| v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
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31
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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32
automobile
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| n.汽车，机动车 | |
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33
bland
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| adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的 | |
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34
garbled
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| adj.（指信息）混乱的，引起误解的v.对（事实）歪曲，对（文章等）断章取义，窜改( garble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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35
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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36
sneak
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| vt.潜行(隐藏,填石缝)；偷偷摸摸做；n.潜行；adj.暗中进行 | |
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37
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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38
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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39
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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40
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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41
conceits
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| 高傲( conceit的名词复数 )； 自以为； 巧妙的词语； 别出心裁的比喻 | |
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42
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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43
limousines
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| n.豪华轿车( limousine的名词复数 )；（往返机场接送旅客的）中型客车，小型公共汽车 | |
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44
belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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45
knuckles
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| n.（指人）指关节( knuckle的名词复数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝v.（指人）指关节( knuckle的第三人称单数 )；（指动物）膝关节，踝 | |
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46
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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47
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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48
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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49
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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50
confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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51
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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52
cults
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| n.迷信( cult的名词复数 )；狂热的崇拜；（有极端宗教信仰的）异教团体 | |
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53
thawing
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| n.熔化，融化v.（气候）解冻( thaw的现在分词 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化 | |
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54
seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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55
mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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56
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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57
chili
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| n.辣椒 | |
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58
soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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59
gutter
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| n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟 | |
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60
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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61
vomit
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| v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物 | |
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62
vomited
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63
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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64
vomiting
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| 吐 | |
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65
testimonies
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| （法庭上证人的）证词( testimony的名词复数 )； 证明，证据 | |
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66
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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67
tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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68
kit
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| n.用具包，成套工具；随身携带物 | |
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69
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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70
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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71
perimeter
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| n.周边，周长，周界 | |
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72
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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73
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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74
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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75
pouched
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| adj.袋形的，有袋的 | |
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76
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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77
orchid
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| n.兰花，淡紫色 | |
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78
ivies
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| 常春藤( ivy的名词复数 ) | |
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79
murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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80
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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81
lizards
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| n.蜥蜴( lizard的名词复数 ) | |
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82
flannel
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| n.法兰绒；法兰绒衣服 | |
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83
glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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84
briefcase
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| n.手提箱，公事皮包 | |
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85
wincing
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的现在分词 ) | |
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86
magnetism
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| n.磁性，吸引力，磁学 | |
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87
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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88
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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89
sector
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| n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形 | |
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90
sacrosanct
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| adj.神圣不可侵犯的 | |
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91
authorized
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| a.委任的，许可的 | |
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92
lures
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| 吸引力，魅力（lure的复数形式） | |
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93
meditation
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| n.熟虑，（尤指宗教的）默想，沉思，（pl.）冥想录 | |
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94
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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95
unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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96
opaqueness
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| [化] 不透明性，不透明度 | |
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97
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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98
embedded
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| a.扎牢的 | |
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99
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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100
ostensible
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| adj.(指理由)表面的，假装的 | |
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101
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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102
rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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103
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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104
abounds
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| v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的第三人称单数 ) | |
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105
caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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106
sensory
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| adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的 | |
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107
overload
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| vt.使超载；n.超载 | |
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108
feats
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| 功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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109
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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110
irrationality
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| n. 不合理，无理性 | |
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111
intimidation
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| n.恐吓，威胁 | |
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112
theatrical
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| adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的 | |
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113
offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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114
solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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115
delusions
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| n.欺骗( delusion的名词复数 )；谬见；错觉；妄想 | |
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116
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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117
quackery
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| n.庸医的医术，骗子的行为 | |
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118
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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119
lumber
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| n.木材，木料；v.以破旧东西堆满；伐木；笨重移动 | |
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120
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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121
devoid
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| adj.全无的，缺乏的 | |
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122
belch
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| v.打嗝，喷出 | |
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123
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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124
vertical
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| adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置 | |
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125
killer
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| n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者 | |
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126
sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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127
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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128
troublemakers
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| n.惹是生非者，捣乱者( troublemaker的名词复数 ) | |
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129
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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130
eked
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| v.（靠节省用量）使…的供应持久( eke的过去式和过去分词 )；节约使用；竭力维持生计；勉强度日 | |
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131
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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132
whining
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| n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚 | |
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133
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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134
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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135
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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136
engendered
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| v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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137
captivity
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| n.囚禁；被俘；束缚 | |
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138
stifling
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| a.令人窒息的 | |
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139
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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140
wading
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| （从水、泥等）蹚，走过，跋( wade的现在分词 ) | |
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141
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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142
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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143
nostalgia
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| n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧 | |
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144
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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145
dwindling
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| adj.逐渐减少的v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的现在分词 ) | |
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