Setting: A run down apartment with a variety of tenants is where Kimberly lives. The highway that Bob and crew are on is very busy, then they are back at Arctor’s house.

Character:
Arctor: After the events of the day, Arctor begins to realize that he’s starting to become paranoid and everything is becoming murky to him. He feels like he is starting to become a burned out head like Luckman and Barris. He now feels relief that the cameras are set up in his house so he can find out who’s out to get him.

Luckman: Luckman is much more normal than any other of Bob’s friends, besides Donna. He agrees with Bob that Barris is screwing with them and has a fair knowledge of different things like mechanical know how. He talks in a weird manner, but not in riddles like Barris.

Barris: Barris is looking more and more like a psycho and it’s becoming more apparent that he’s out to get Bob Arctor, though it’s not certain why. He will randomly do things without taking into account how other people will feel or react, it’s like everything is just one big game to him.

Plot: To allow his house to be bugged, Bob has to leave for long enough to let the agents do their job. He first goes to visit a friend, Kimberly, but while there Kimberly’s supplier comes and threatens to kill her. Arctor tries to help, but Kimberly soon freaks out and yells at Arctor to leave. Arctor, Luckman and Barris then drive to San Diego to pick up something and while driving, Arctor’s gas pedal breaks and they nearly crash. Once they pull over, Luckman finds the car’s been tampered with and they proceed to freak out about it. They all take some tabs of D and Arctor has a bad trip. He gets paranoid and starts yelling at Barris, how Barris is the one doing this, breaking is precious item, his car and now poisoning him. After calling a mechanic, they head home to where Barris has set up a video camera and left the door unlocked with a note, in an attempt to find out who’s trying to burn them. Once they find a warm joint in the ashtray they all freak out and think about selling the house, only to find that it was Donna in the house all along. The next day, he goes to work as Fred and talks to Hank about the cameras getting set up. After Hank tells him how to observe Arctor and where the station is to watch them, Arctor is told to go to room 203 for an examination. Two doctors proceed to do some testing which includes showing cards to Fred to see if he can determine the object. He gets the first one right, but screws up the second test. He asks what alerted them about him becoming an addict and they tell him it was the incident with the bicycle.

Theme: The theme seems to change during different sections of the book, while before it was more directed towards drug use and the lives between the straights and the users, now it’s become more deep. Arctor is starting to question who he is and which life he truly lives, that of Bob Arctor and that of Fred. The same could be said for everyone, it’s like we all put on masks (metaphorically) to hide who we are depending on the situation, but eventually these masks meld into one being and from there you no longer know which mask you are wearing, or if there were any masks in the first place. Paranoia slowly takes over the mind until only a puddle of thoughts is left in a person.