Savages

in Spanish. Living where she lives she should know some Spanish but other than a little slang and taco stand items she doesn’t. But the ugly Mexican is nodding and saying something that looks like “I understand, I understand,
sí
, I understand.”
    Then he puts the phone down and picks up the chain saw.

114
     
    Do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls.
    The little
bong
on the computer announces e-mail.
    Ben opens it and clicks on the provided link.
    Streaming video. Podcast.
    O, alive, cuffed to the same wooden chair.
    Her head slumped as she sobs.
    A big man, hooded sweatshirt and shades, stands behind her with the chain saw, one hand on the starter cord.
    “We did what you said!” Ben yells.
    “Shut up,” Chon says quietly.
    “We did what you said, let her go!”
    “Now that we have learned a lesson, we’re ready to move ahead in our relationship. Our demands are nonnegotiable. You will continue to grow your product and sell it to us at a price that we will set for a period of three years, commencing immediately. You will also provide certain services for us as we might require them. At the end of that contractual period, your obligations will be considered discharged.”
    “Three years,” Ben says before he thinks to stop himself.
    “It’s been done.”

115
     
    No shit it’s been done.
    To Chon, for example.
    When Chon was ten, his father’s partners kidnapped and held him for almost four months until Dad came up with the jack he owed them on a major marijuana shipment.
    It wasn’t so bad. They took him to some ranch they had way the hell out near Hemet and he watched television and played video games all day and most of the night. Let him shovel down Cap’n Crunch and Coca-Cola. They even let him drive around on this ATV they had until he went Steve McQueen on it and nearly plowed down a barbed-wirefence in an escape attempt.
    They took
Penthouse
away from him for a week. Seriously bummed him out.
    Anyway, Big John coughed the cash and got Little Johnny back. With the words “See how much I love you? Four hundred K.”
    Always nice to know your worth.

116
     
    Ben, because he’s Ben, comes up with another option.
    (Ben is a big believer in Win-Win negotiations.)
    He says, “Figure out the profit you would realize over those three years, come up with a number, and we’ll pay it for her immediate release.”

117
     
    “It’s an interesting offer,” Elena says.
    “He’s no dummy,” Jaime observes.
    Elena says—
    “We’ll get back to you.”

118
     
    Because at the end of the day that’s what it’s all about.
    The numbers.
    They pencil or they don’t.
    Jaime gets on it. Very simple projection to make, based on present sales, market predictions, adjust for inflation, mix in a float for currency variations …
    Anyone want to play
The Price Is Right
?
    Come on down!
    The price of three years of indentured servitude plus the life of one slightly messed up Laguna girl … without going over … is …

119
     
    Twenty million dollars.

120
     
    “It’s a deal.”
    “I want to be sure we understand each other—you will work for us, and the girl will be our guest for three years or until you remit a flat payment of twenty million dollars. Correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “Deal?”
    “Deal,” Ben says.
    “And how about Mr. Fuck You?”
    Chon nods.
    “I want to hear you say it.”
    It’s on the tip of his tongue
    It is, it is.
    He tries to control it, tries to stop it but
    Chon says …

121
     
    We have a deal.

122
     
    A new vid-clip runs through O’s head.
    A continuous loop—she can’t stop it, can’t shut the auto-replay off. Can’t change the settings.
    It replays and replays and replays.
    In the vid-clip she sees herself
    Tied to a chair—
    A chain saw at her neck
    She feels the terror, the pure fear
    She sees
    The blade come toward her
    She knows
    Her own death
    She hears
    Herself scream.
    Replay.
    Blindfolded, it’s worse because she can
only
see into her own head. Can’t move around the multiplex until she finds a movie she likes, she’s just stuck with this one. She’s always been “the crazy girl,” but now she’s seriously afraid she’s going to become the
crazy
girl.
    One thought keeps her half sane.
    Her men are coming for her.
    She knows they are.

123
     
    His baditude tamed
    Chon nevertheless has a gun in his hand as he stands on the deck, looks out at the ocean, and doesn’t really see it.
    What he sees instead is
    —himself killing