Choppers, pearls: teeth
Chopper squad/trouble boys: hired guns
Climb your thumb: go to hell
Clip/smoke/rub out/plug: kill
Clip joint: high-class nightclub
Coot/codger: old man
Crab: cash out
Crooner: male singer
Crop: everything, all there is
Daisy: effeminate man
Dame/moll/dish/looker: nicknames for a woman, usually an attractive one
Darb: good, excellent, high quality
Datacom: a tiny earpiece synched to the holoband and used to make phone calls
Down on the ups: when life sucks
Dormy/laying dormy: laying low, hiding out
Dibcard: a preloaded card for transferring dibs from one account to another
Dibs: currency
Dive/can house: low class restaurant or nightclub
Drop a dime/sing/squeal: Snitch to the cops
Duck soup/lead pipe cinch: easy
Egg/noodle: head
Evaporator: machine that instantly dries clothing, usually installed in doorways
Elbows checked: arrested
Feed the fishes/swim with the fishes: drowned or tossed in the river after death
Floater: flying automobile
Flogger: trench coat
Floozy/hussy/skater: a dame who likes to spread it around.
Flophouse: hideout
Frail: old woman
Gasper/smoke: cigarette
Gems/peepers: eyes
Giggle juice, hard juice: alcohol
Glad rags: expensive clothing
Gonzo/jingle-brained: crazy
Goon/dropper/hardhead: hired thug
Grift: con
Grifter: con artist
Grill/tighten the screws: interrogate
Haven: city-sized constructs built to preserve life during the Cataclysm
Hophead: drug addict
Hosers/sky hosers: fire floaters deployed to extinguish flames
Heap/can: vehicle, usually a wheeler
Heat: pressure, usually from the brass.
Heater/bean shooter/cannon: firearm
Healed: packing a gun
Heel-toe/dust out/breeze/rotate heels: leave, exit
High pillow/high hat: high society, top dog, filthy rich
Holoband: computerized instrument worn around the wrist, uniquely synched to the person and powered the body’s energy. All personal information is stored in its databanks.
Hunter-killer/HK: flying drone deployed to lock on a target and destroy it
Jaw/bump gums/gab/: talk
Labcoat: scientist
Large: a thousand dibs, someone who’s loaded with cash
Lead/slugs/heat: bullets
Lead poisoning: to get shot
Meat locker/slammer/cooler: jail
Mech gun: mechanized firearm that fires specialized rounds
Mug: man, or a man’s face
Nance: effeminate man
New Haven Blues: death
New Haven trench coat: coffin
Nimrod/triggerman: bounty hunter and assassin rolled into one
Nix: cancel, quit
No kick: no problem –I got no kick with that
On the square: dependable, trustworthy
Oyster fruit: pearls
Picjector: holographic entertainment system
Pipe that: do you understand?
Plug/clip/throw lead/clap/spit lead/fog/haze/hose/spray/squeeze off: shoot a gun
Pro skirt/chippy/skater: prostitute, although ‘skater’ can also refer to a dame who gives it up easy
Rags: clothes, outfit
Rube/mark/sap: sucker or patsy, someone easily rolled up on, although ‘mark’ can also mean a clue
Scattergun: mech-powered shotgun
Score: loot, payoff, important info
Shamus: detective, usually an inept one
Shoot the woo: sexual relations
Shylock: loan shark
Skate around: sex with multiple partners
Skel: short for ‘skeleton’. Reference to a good for nothing rube who is marked for death.
Skimmer: hovercraft automobile
Stiff: corpse, body
Stoolie: snitch that takes bribes for info
Streetsweepers: android storm troopers deployed to indiscriminately kill everything at a pinpointed location.
Synoid: synthetic humanoid
Tesla cells: electromagnetic fusion battery units
Thompson: mech-powered Tommy gun
Ticker: heart
Tip your mitts/spill: show your hand, give up the info
Trip for biscuits: waste of time
Troubleshooter: freelance operator. Duties vary, from investigation to protection to generally getting folks outta jams
Wheeler: automobile
Wire: information, news
Yard: a hundred dibs
You got the wire by now, right? Now get your mug onto the story before you get flimflammed into some jingle-brained grift and end up catching a case of the New Haven Blues, see?
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The Troubleshooter: New Haven Blues Page 19