The Last Book In The Universe

Spaz runs until he’s spent and finds himself far from home. It’s late at night and unsafe to be in an unfamiliar part of the Urb. He sees enforcers, or “block guardians” (38), armed with blades and guns and worries whether they’ll know he’s “almost down with the Bangers” (37). He makes it home by creeping through the shadows to reach the Crypts. Someone is in his cube, a runner bent on keeping his identity secret; he’s only there to deliver a message that Bean is dying and wants to see him before she goes. After the messenger is gone, Spaz considers the situation and how there are three warring latches between himself (in Billy Bizmo’s latch) and his old family unit, in the latch from which he was banished.

In the morning, Spaz feels a sense of hope that Billy might help him gain safe passage and goes to see him, forgetting another of his rules, which is that Billy must come to see you, not the other way around. When he arrives at the Bangers’ headquarters on the bottom level of the Crypts, Spaz is unwelcome and is beaten up by Billy’s henchmen before being brought to him.