(The following tri-via-logue and tri-verse are restricted
to eighteen years and over. Any resemblance to
characters would be coincidental.)
(The characters names are hashed from a dice cup
loaded with alphabet blocks (babel), and the oriental
dialects of the virtual metropolis Mehetelo are
hashed in the same way. From Takanabe Z I've
generated the names Velepeci Y and Wikiqido X.)
Act 1 Scene 1
(The phone tap basement room of the rotten borough
precinct building.)
Velepeci - I've never had a head for numbers or music,
I tell you.
Wikiqido - It's much simpler than that - fire sale
elevator music. Those idiot wiseguys have concentration
spans of mites on blowflies - sometimes stoned or
drunk, it always gets them in the mood for their dirty
work. Send me in under cover and you'll bust the lot
in under a week.
Velepeci - I can't let you join the yakuza under pretext,
it's a one way ticket. We've lost two officers already,
entrapment doesn't even come into it.
Wikiqido - Afterwards I could burn off the picture
postcard gang tattoos with laser treatments. We need
a beachhead in the wider battle against organised crime.
Velepeci - If the ancestor gods of Ciqqa only offer us
small time scab crooks, so be it. You need to find yourself
a sweet wife, and worry about worthwhile things. All you do
is eat, drink and breathe yakuza, I'd hate to see you burn
out, Wikiqido. I clocked you out last night, you're getting
so tired and forgetful. I order you to clock out.
Wikiqido - Very well, chief. We'll talk some more.
(Wikiqido shuffles out. Velepeci turns up the volume on
the phone tap equipment, croons to the background
instrumental, and dances a jig.)
Velepeci -
Newt's legs are severed through,
Yet seem intact, as new,
Defy deft swordblade stabs,
Regrow, rejoin, no scabs;
A snake leaves his first moult,
A snitch leads past his vault.
