"Vianca sat cross-legged on Tito's floor with his Sony plasma screen across her knees."
"Sometimes, if Brown were hungry at the end of the day, and is in a certain mood, they’d go to Gray Papaya for the Recession Special."
Chapter summaries (may contain plot and character teaser / "spoiler" information):
Chapter 25. SUNSET PARK
As he prepares to leave for Mexico City, Tito and his cousin Vianca scrub his room of any traces of his presence, all as dictated by systema / protocol. Tito thinks of his Aunt Juana and Ochun, the Great Queen, ruler of the world's sweet waters and youngest of the female orishas [Santieran gods]. [296 characters]
systema could be a reference to the the set of drills and practices in the adaptation of martial arts used by some Russian Spetsnaz military special forces, but it also hints at the professional paranoia of "Moscow Rules" practised by secret agents and couriers.
Chapter 26. GRAY'S PAPAYA
Over non-alchoholic pina coladas at the Gray's Papaya, Brown explains the history of Marxism in America to Milgrim. Milgrim enjoys the "sci-fi campiness" of imagining "Euro-commie star-spawn in tweed jackets and knit ties, breeding like Starbucks" Afterwards, Milgrim sees Gilbert and George, the "two Moorish Knights of the laundry" speed by in a yellow Hummer. [361 characters]
Gilbert and George are a pair of London based artists who often make pseudo stained glass window digital photo-montage paintings.