Titans of Chaos

Some were magnificently dressed: The men were in black tie and tails, the women in flimsy silks ofsable or scarlet, or clinging short dresses of peach hue, which left their arms and long legs bare tothe cool night air, the ladies had gems at their wrists and throats, or winking in their hair. Otherslooked like day laborers, longshoremen, or criminals, with tattered dungarees, wild dreadlocks,caps on backwards, T-shirts with tails untucked. I stared in fascination at one smiling womanwhose teeth had been studded with diamonds.

There was an honest-to-goodness red carpet leading from the curb to the tall glass doors. Thewalls beyond were green and lit with olive lights, giving the building an unearthly look, and atopthe central tower was, I kid you not, a giant-size Robin Hood hat, complete with five yards offeather.

The garish neon sign spelled out archer's bull's-eye. In smaller letters beneath: the place to score.

We had circled the block once and twice, trying to get a view from all angles, but other buildings,including a discotheque and a restaurant, blocked approach from the rear. Now we joined theline. The scent of perfume from many bodies hung in the air, and the tang of cigarette smoke,along with the endless mutter of traffic from the street, and the dimly heard banging of the musicfrom the club. When the wind blew, droplets from the fountains fell among us, refreshing.

Colin nudged me. "Hey! There she is! I wrote her a letter. Why is there another guy with her? Ithought I was supposed to have mind-control powers or something. What's the point of mindcontrol if your girls date other guys? What's up with that?"

Vanity said, "She's not your girl because you wrote her a love letter."

Colin muttered, "If I had mind-control powers, she would be!"

Quentin said mildly, "I've seen that guy on TV. Funny, I thought he was done with computers."

I started to look "past" the walls of the building, but Vanity hissed, "Stop!"

"What?" I said.

"Your eyes turn red when you do that, and they seem to be, sort of, further away than your headis."

"Well..."

Colin said, "I'll handle it."

Without another word, he jumped over the velvet rope separating one part of the line fromanother. He was speaking to a young woman with long chestnut hair that brushed her hips. Herhair was longer than her dress, which almost did not make it all the way from her armpits to thetop of her legs. Whatever he said, he was making her laugh, and I noticed he touched her bareshoulder when he spoke.