157    During a massive S & S enactment [Zippy the Dwarf, Lord Flail, White Priest, Klystron the Impaler, and Liason vs. Shekondar,] Flail/Steve is viciously attacked by giant sewer rats; Rats go after White Priest/Virgil, who discovers that his flashing scepter prop wards off rats, then sees heavily armed B-men annihilate a sewer rat and move a large cart-mounted cylinder into room where guys in yellow rain suits (or something similar) are working.

168    SUB steals the library's card catalog while something else (Bennett's Worm?) hits the computer catalog; People take the most desirable books hostage.

171    Casimir wants to rehearse his mass driver demonstration speech, goes to talk to Dex about his loud stereo but Dex is tripping balls, so Casimir does the demo cold; Krupp shows up late with a mystery man and asks a couple knowledgeable questions; Mass driver drives brass mass across lab into wooden momentum absorber; Mystery man Heimlich is on the AM Board of Trustees and asks Casimir if he can build a railgun; Says Krupp: "The money is endless if your research relates to defense/military."

February

178    Sarah had quit as SG president on Jan 1 [why not mention this is the Jan. chapter?] Terrorists close ranks re the two Fantasy Island Nite deaths, and are looking for woman who wore the clown costume; Bud wants to help; Sarah tells him why he can't.

179    Sarah & Hyacinth recuperate in a wading pool in Sarah's room discussing guns and justifiable homicide.

180    Sarah uneventfully takes care of herself, but another guy, sadly, was unable to take care of himself...

181    A MARS member analyses Casimir's mass driver work.

182    Klystron's name in the technological universe is Chris; Ponders the Plex and the occasional Central Bifucation between the Technical and Magical universes and incipient Breakdowns there-between; Klystron/Chris (alias: Fred Fine) feels his job is to minimize "Leakage" between the two universes, hopefully to prevent Breakdowns; Became aware of this "job" on food-fight day when he sensed the event moments before it erupted in the cafeteria; He noticed some instigators running away, but some remained to document the event; Cafeteria staff responded quickly; KlyFred sliced open a partition to escape, then analyzed the true intentions of the instigators (recon for some future attack?)

188    Sarah dines with ski-mask-wearing Airheads in the cafeteria (Food fight from Sarah's POV in the adjoining partition); Dean Forksplit vents loudly to Sarah (employing Yoda-like grammar & syntax) then sees KlyFred in the next partition slice it open and come through; Mari & Sarah debate assholitude of Terrorists, then Mari outs Sarah as the Clown Woman; Sarah concocts an absurd Mafia/KGB/Elopement story and sells it convincingly for Mari and KlyFred by giving them a glimpse of her pistol.

March

195    Massive neon "Big Wheel" sign to the east is turned on each evening [likely inspired by massive Citgo sign 1/3 mi. due east of BU's Warren Towers]; Hearers and Terrorist Superstars conference in D24E; Dex Fresser enters carrying Go Big Red fan (he got it the night it killed Fenrick in the shower, p139.) says Dex: "It spoke to me, now it speaks to all."

200    AM employees go on strike

201    Bud hosts a strike party; Fine drops by; Bud notes Fred Fine's indifference to Steve/Flail's death, and Klein's indifference to Fenrick's; LOOSE TRANSCRIPT OF BUD'S PARTY: AM goes downhill Ð someone should blow it up Ð what would it take? Ð music theory and vibrational frequency of E wing; Bud, Ephriam & Hyacinth step out leaving Sarah with Fred and Virgil; Fine asks Sarah about her gun, she leaves; Casimir asks Hyacinth about Sarah, he's dying inside over her; Ephriam & Bud measure hallway; Virgil asks Casimir about Project Spike; Fred concludes that Casimir's plutonium leak created a race of giant rats; Virgil outlines what is known and what must be done about it.

211    The Strike. Picketers work inside the Plex, mostly. Those outside had to deal with Teamsters who threatened violence if not allowed to deliver beef cargo; Inside, some younger folks lose it; After a week, Krupp closes the school and fires all staff; Students in the towers largely ignore Krupp and harass anyone who tries to leave; Bud and Lucy are not surprised to see AM's wheels coming off, and decide to visit the sewers,

218    MARS's full membership meets in sewers; Plexor history; "These are dire times...behold!" Parade of mutant rats follows a flapping bat [re p94] past the MARS contingent; Klystron uses giant mutant rats to motivate MARS's Grand Army: "It's time to begin final preparations."

222    Bud and others continue their well-armed tour of societal decay; Rats attack them on a stairwell from below. They bag the rat for future study; Fred Fine points out real and magical landmarks, and the others determine that he's batshit insane; An ultrasonic alarm tone is detected, the rats love it; A barrier of light is reached, beyond which is a hazardous waste disposal dump; Upon dissection: the rats have no hearts; At midnight, it's April Fool's Day "Anything could happen now."

April

230    E13S hosts a Great Partiers party at which Dex drugs out, then announces that the Big Wheel tells us to prepare for war.

233    Bert Nix hoards trash then incinerates himself.

234    Hazardous waste area is located at NE corner of Plex; Virgil hides in a large orange crate at the Hazardous Waste Area, two Crotobaltislavonian B-men hide in a neighboring fake nuclear waste cylinder; [Narrator Bud's last name is revealed to be Redfield, if one wades through Magrov's thick accent;] Virgil watches elevator platform lower cylinders and men down though the floor; B-men take over subterranean Hazardous Waste dump; Virgil emerges from crate, destroys the HW dump's surveillance cameras and microphones; Virgil's Eleven Point Rationale For Filling The Dump's Elevator Shaft With Load After Load Of Concrete.

241    Bud leads Krupp and two other administrators on a tour of E Tower; This group of four is ambushed in an elevator; Krupp and Bud climb through the elevator car's ceiling and emerge on the 13th floor where a machine gunner attacks them; Krupp caps him with his .44 and takes the guy's AK-47; While Bud & Krupp weigh tactical and strategic options they are fired upon by a Terrorist; Bud & Krupp escape down a stairwell where they pass Casimir on his way up to see Sarah; At floor 5 Bud & Krupp leave the stairwell as a grenade dropped down the stairwell detonates though the open 5th floor door, taking out three armed B-men in the floor 5 lobby; Bud sees a small tank approach from the cafeteria.

248    The war began in the cafeteria, SUBs vs. TUGs; Both groups target the kitchen; Klystron/Fred is in the cafŽ when war breaks out, readies for battle, takes the elevator down; Burrows Guard Army has APPASMU (All Purpose Plex Armed Stife Mobile Unit, the golf-cart-tank Bud saw on p248); KlyFred in the mini-tank, sets out for E Tower to rescue Krupp, and after being hindered by a massive tetrazzini spill in the kitchen, enters a dining bay where he neutralizes a SUB bunker; KlyFredÕs tank encounters Bud & Krupp.

255    Terrorists fling a corpse through SarahÕs window to flush her into the hall, but she doesnÕt bite, instead summoning Hyacinth, who arrives well-armed; The two women repel the Terrorist ambush and hop in an elevator to escape.

257    CASIMIRÕS POV: Casimir has blind spots now (and what sounds like a nascent brain tumor) perhaps triggered by the radiation heÕs been working with [ya think?]; Casimir passes Krupp and Bud in the stairwell, and when he reaches E12S sees Sarah & Hyacinth with guns, being chased by Terrorists; He goes to SarahÕs vacated room, learns about SarahÕs relationship with Hyacinth, is pulled back into the hall by Terrorists and is about to be tortured with a friggin' hammer when he experiences a tingly acquisition of super powers and repels his would-be torturer; Casimir then goes to the Locksmith Shop, climbs the wall and waits above the shop door; Casimir accosts the Locksmith to gain entry, but they each quickly determine that the other is a good and honorable man; A Terrorist shoots the Locksmith from the doorway and is promptly dispatched by Casimir; With his last breath, the Locksmith bequeaths the PlexÕs master keys to Casimir.

262    Sarah, Hyacinth and Lucy regroup in Bud's room, then step out of the window and head across the Tar City roof toward the Women's Center; They get to the kitchen, encounter some TUGgies, squeeze past the Tetrazzini blob and enlist four other women; After passing many club offices down in the Student Union bloc, they reach the Women's Club but Yllas Freedperson won't let them enter, and in fact captures them and hands them over to SUB, who lock them into racquetball court "cells;" They escape easily through the upper spectators window and let other captives free.

266    Sarah & Hyacinth's group encounters KlyFred on 4; Shekondar tells KlyFred "She's the one!" launching KlyFred into a hilarious fantasy narrative!; KlyFred assigns a platoon of GASF soldiers to help Sarah's group get to the Burrows.

268    [continued from p. 255] Bud goes to Emeritus Row and finds Prof. Forthcoming crying into his desk blotter because he's left his lecture notes in the library; Bud talks him into leaving; It's business largely as usual in the Burrows, they welcome Bud & Forthcoming into the haven of the Science Shop.

271    The big players hold the Towers (SUB Axis has E & F, GASF has D, Admin. has B & C & TUG has A, H & G) while smaller groups hold sections of the Plex base; Bats overwhelm the upper floors of E Tower; A group of twenty people occupy the Burrows Science Shop; Bennett's Worm surfaced on March 31; Virgil, using a slew of computers to split up one program and to fool the Worm into NOT thinking he's focusing on any one task, proceeds to flush any and all American Megaversity data from its servers, the last thing Bennett expected Virgil—or anyone—to do.

274    Reunion in the Science Shop; Ephriam Klein and Sarah debate agency and personal responsibility re societal pressures.

277    Prof. Forthcoming pesters Bud for the lecture notes, so Bud leads a detail of eight to fetch them from the library; Encounter with mid-western gang; They are joined by a camera crew in the mailroom; Bud questions the crew (the old "Can't you drop the camera and help" question that journalists always get); They reach Bud's academic department where it seems life is good, until Bud reminds them of the bats and rats; Professors bicker so Bud slips out. His detail gets to the Pre-med center, the medical library, then sees a relief effort guarding the library proper. On the way up to Forthcoming's study they meet Embers and two friends warming themselves with a book fire. A couple paragraphs of Embers' fatuous fiction later, they get the notes, dump Forthcoming and return to the Science Shop.

284    Casimir gets totally ARMORED UP.

285    Casimir crashes through the admin lounge window where a trustees meeting is in progress; Casimir demands answers; Heimlich explains why AM has a nuclear waste dump; Krupp: "We have to mask our massive profits"; Bert Nix was trustee Pertinax Rushforth; Casimir lays out his terms to Krupp: 1) We need control of the campus radio station, and 2) get ready to flip the Big Wheel sign on & off when we say. We'll get rid of the Terrorists, stay out of our way.

292    Synchronized flashing Tower lights freak out Terrorists in E & F Towers; Big Wheel is dark! Sarah on the radio manipulates Fresser and Terrorists to obey, and scares journalists with threat of rat plague; Rats attack journalists; All are now conditioned to evacuate the Plex when necessary; Railgun is bolted into sewer floor; Ephriam Klein drags Bud to the chapel where Bert Nix is playing the organ maniacally.

300    Railgun is tested and prepped; Worm/Bennett fruitlessly taunts Virgil; Virgil runs his program, explosives are placed...all that's left to do is wait for Sarah's radio program to start.

May

303    On the air Sarah tells all: "The Big Wheel wants you to go visit it! Evacuate now!" Bert and Ephriam sit tight while Fine, Bud and Casimir go forward; Railgun is fired into waste dump spraying chaos and rats; Bert and Ephriam play the organ loud enough to induce sympathetic vibrations in the Tower halls (p208)...and that's it for the Plex. Virgil has data on disks. The fan spins on.