Chapter 6 (pages 86-102) Summary

A Union station mechanic has fixed Bob Arctor's car for thirty dollars. As Arctor drives, he thinks that the way for a drug dealer to exact revenge on a nark like him would be to poison him with a bad batch of drugs. He ruminates about the relationships between dealers and narcotics agents. Some narcs become so rich as drug dealers that drug dealing becomes their real job, and some drug dealers become narks to burn their enemies.

Arctor wonders whether his car broke down on its own, or whether someone tampered with it. He thinks that the best way to harm one's enemies is to foul up workflow with seemingly careless mistakes. For instance, a wad of gum left in a Xerox machine could effectively destroy a top-secret document. Similarly, his ex-wife would stage such mishaps as a...