Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas   ::   Thompson Hunter S.

Waitress: Well, why don't you come inside and sit down?

Duke: We're trying to getas much sun as we can.

Att'y: She's going to make a phone call to find out where it Is.

Duke: Oh. OK, well, let's go inside.

EDITOR'S NOTE (cont.):

Tape cassettes for the next sequence were impossible to transcribe due to

some viscous liquid encrusted behind the heads. There is a certain consistency

in the garbled sounds however, indicating that almost two hours later Dr.

Duke and his attorney finally located what was left of the “Old Psychiatrist's

Club"-a huge slab of cracked, scorched concrete in a vacant lot full of tall

weeds. The owner of a gas station across the road said the place had “burned

down about three years ago."»



10. Heavy Duty at the Airport… Ugly Peruvian Flashback…”No! It’s Too Late! Don’t Try It!”

»My attorney left at dawn. We almost missed the first flight to LA. because I couldn't find the airport. It was less than thirty minutes from the hotel. I was sure of that. So we left the Flamingo at exactly seven-thirty… but for some reason we failed to make the turnoff at the stoplight in front of the Tropicana. We kept going straight ahead on the freeway, that parallels the main airport runway, but on the opposite from the terminal… and there is no way to get across legally.

“Goddamnit! We're lost!" my attorney was shouting. What are we doing out here on this godforsaken road? The airport is right over there!" He pointed hysterically across the tundra.

“Don’t worry," I said. "I've never missed a plane yet." I smiled as the memory came back. "Except once in Peru," I added. "I was already checked out of country, through customs, but I went back to the bar to chat with this Bolivian cocaine dealer… and all of a sudden I heard those big 707 engines starting up, so I ran out to the runway and tried to get aboard but the door was right behind the engines and they’d already rolled the ladder away. Shit, those afterburners would have fried me like bacon… but I was completely out of my head: I was desperate to get aboard.

"The airport cops saw me coming, and they gathered into a knot at the gate. I was running like a bastard, straight at them. The guy with me was screaming: 'No! It's too late! Don't try it!'

"I saw the cops waiting for me, so I slowed down like maybe I'd changed my mind… but when I saw them relax, I did a quick change of pace and tried to run right over the bastards." I laughed. "Jesus, it was like running full bore into a closet full of gila monsters. The fuckers almost killed me.