Part II: Chapter 3 Summary

Thompson proceeds to his suite in the Hotel Flamingo, musing on the temerity of his upcoming task. Rather than being a passive observer in a crowd of strange personalities as during the Mint 400, Thompson must now be an active participant among a homogenous group whose values, ethics, and lifestyle run completely counter to his own.

Arriving at his room, Thompson finds his attorney—thoroughly under the influence, of course—with a young woman, also drugged. The girl is a runaway, a would-be artist who paints only portraits of Barbra Streisand. The attorney has picked her up, fed her narcotics, and used her drug-induced state to take advantage of her sexually. When Thompson enters the room, she is tense and nervous, teetering on the edge of violence. The attorney calms her by talking about her art, and lies to her...