Henceforth he never loses: winning by psychic default

texture · UNDATED (~B.S. tour years)

• When: the remainder of his tour run (~B.S. 2000-01)
• What: After Reat, Clipperton never loses. He materializes alone at ever-higher-level tournaments with "Ind." by his name, plays with the Glock at his left temple while opponents refuse to sacrifice their hostage (barely trying, going for impossible angles, talking on mobile phones), and gets booed by galleries just as much as they dare; at the odd-game breaks he sits hefting the 17-shot clip, clicking the brass-jacketed 9-mm. cartridges together ruminatively, and trying "little Western-gunslinger triggerguard-spins." The gun makes tossing a hassle on his serve — endnote n.159 has him eventually perfecting the same-hand toss-and-serve maneuver pioneered by the South African doubles specialist Colin van der Hingle after a propeller accident took van der Hingle's right arm. He mows through the lackadaisical Brigade round by round to win each tournament "by what is essentially psychic default," then vanishes "like the ground itself inhaled him."