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company left with the holdings to cover a claim on a dented bumper; and the phones at AAA had been playing the same recorded apology for nearly a year now: "We regret that membership services have been suspended indefinitely."
    Suspended indefinitely.
    Thinking about those words, Park had a sudden mental image of the world, its activity and life frozen, paused, suspended indefinitely, waiting while this overlay of the world reeled about, aping the original.
    At some point this interlude would expire, and that true world would resume from where it left off, transition seamless, strange interruption erased.
    The partner slapped his face with the zippered wallet of useless paper.
    "He's at liberty, at liberty to get his face fucked up if he fucking moves again."
    He tossed the wallet back in the car.
    "Nothing else in here."
    The plainclothes yanked on the cuffs that locked Park's hands behind his back.
    "'Kay, fuckstick, let's go to jail."
    He pulled Park up, frog-walked him to the unmarked, and pushed his head low as he shoved him into the backseat.
    "Try not to piss yourself."
    He slammed the door, slid behind the wheel.
    "And away we go."
    The partner climbed in on the passenger side.
    "Off to see the wizard."
    The Crown Victoria pulled from the curb, leaving behind the small crowd of rubberneckers that had surrounded the scene right after the unmarked had screeched up to where Park was idling at Highland and Fountain and the two cops had jumped out, guns first. They must have hung about to watch the old-fashioned novelty of a drug bust. It may or may not have occurred to any of them that this was a suspiciously frivolous use of law enforcement resources in a time of pandemic, economic collapse, and general social upheaval, but if they did notice, no one chose to speak out.
    What would they have said?
    Unhand that man.
    Go do your job somewhere.
    Tell the Fed to go back on the gold standard.
    Put more resources into alternative energy sources.
    Begin talks with the NAJis.
    Find a cure.
    Nothing the cops were doing was going to make that big a difference, anyway, so why not stand around and watch the bust?
    Still, it was odd.
    Except to Park.
    The plainclothes started a low machine gun mutter of curses and hit the grille lights and siren.
    "Fucking civilians. Fucking bulletins on the fucking TV, radio, fucking Internet, they still gotta get in their fucking cars and come out on the road. Tell them, straight up, the alert level is fucking black. Black! What is that, subtle? We got to change it to alert level everyone fucking dies? Mean, no one saw the news? No one knows the NAJi blew up forty-something people last night? What do they think, it's a rumor? Government plot to keep them safe at home? Motherfucker!"
    He jerked the steering wheel to the left, using the heavy bumper of the Crown Vic to shove a wheezing Focus farther into the left turn lane, making room for himself, gunning to beat the light at Sunset.
    "Got to be just about the only functioning street light in the city, and no one pays it any mind. Fucking assholes."
    He jabbed an elbow at his partner.
    "So what the fuck, Kleiner?"
    Kleiner was spilling pills from one of the brown bottles into his palm.
    "Valium."
    "No fucking."
    The plainclothes shot Park his eyes in the rearview.
    "Who the fuck is buying Valium? That's bullshit. That's your bullshit stash, isn't it? Mean, no one wants Valium. Where's your fucking ups?"
    Park braced his feet against the back of the front seats as the plain-clothes slammed the brakes to make the sharp right onto Franklin.
    "It's for a sleepless guy."
    "For a sleepless? Don't give me that shit. Valium does shit for sleepless. All they take is ups."
    He wrenched the wheel, cutting across southbound traffic on Western, carving his own path onto Los Feliz Boulevard, gunning up the hill, past the fire-gutted hulk of the American Film Institute, where Park and Rose had once been invited by a friend to watch Some Like it Hot, Rose's favorite