New Characters
Officer Crams: a police officer called by Luba Luft to arrest Deckard.

Summary
Deckard arrives at the opera house in time to catch part of a rehearsal for "The Magic Flute." While listening, Deckard falls into deep introspection about his job. He concludes that he is actually expediting the inevitable end, or decay, of everything that now exists. Deckard eventually reaches the conclusion that he is a “part of the form-destroying process of entropy,” as a destroyer of androids, the very thing that the Rosen Association exists to create.

Deckard realizes that one of the main characters of the opera is Miss Luba Luft, his next target. He is pleasantly surprised at the quality of Luft’s voice and decides to wait until the end of the rehearsal so that he can approach her with the Voigt-Kampff Test in her dressing room. After the conductor announces a break, Deckard heads to Luft’s dressing room, where he finds her studying her part. Deckard introduces himself and announces that he is there to administer the Voigt-Kampff to her. She responds by claiming that she’s not an android, and that if there were an android in the cast she would be more than happy to help Deckard retire it. Deckard discusses androids with Luft while he sets up his test apparatus. Before Deckard can begin the test, Luft interrupts to ask if Deckard is willing to take the test. She explains that she is skeptical of Deckard’s claim to be a police officer and wants to be sure of who, or what, he is. Deckard declines and begins the test.

Luft avoids answering questions by making inquiries of her own. This inconclusive and confusing question and answer session ends when Luft accidentally knocks part of the apparatus away from her face. Frustrated, Deckard bends to retrieve the item from underneath a dresser and stands up to find that Luft is pointing a laser tube at his face. She claims she believes Deckard is a sexual deviant and, to Deckard’s relief, places a call to the police department.

A few minutes after Luft places the call, Officer Crams arrives. He requests Deckard’s identification and denies that he’s ever heard of Deckard or Deckard’s supervisor, Inspector Bryant. Deckard accuses the officer of being an android and reaches for the vidphone to make a call to Bryant. While Deckard is talking to Bryant on the vidphone, Crams questions Luft. Bryant requests that Deckard allow him to speak with Crams, but when the officer speaks into the vidphone, Bryant is gone. Now extremely suspicious of Deckard, Crams makes his own call to the police department to inquire about Deckard and his supervisor. After finishing with his call, Crams frisks Deckard and finds a recently fired handgun. Deckard explains that he has just retired an android and that the corpse is still in his hovercar on the roof. Crams escorts Deckard to his hovercar and examines the corpse inside, then takes Deckard in his patrol car to the Hall of Justice.

Deckard realizes that Crams is not heading to the same Hall of Justice on Lombard where Deckard works. Deckard questions where Crams is taking him and Crams explains that the new Hall of Justice is located on Mission and that the Lombard location has long been abandoned.

Analysis
Chapter Nine introduces the theme of entropy. Entropy is a significant aspect of the principles inherent in Mercerism, and the idea of entropy is significant to the role of the bounty hunter. The chapter opens with Deckard considering his role as a bounty hunter and its inherent contradiction...