Savages

freaking happens,” Ben says, warming to the subject, “guys get their freaking heads cut off, blood’s going to flow, all right.”
    But Elena is smart—she grew up in the drug trade, there’s nothing she hasn’t seen before, so she does a cold-blooded analysis and sees she’s going to lose in a war with El Azul and Sinaloa.
    A recent analysis, written by Dennis, suggests that the Elena/Hernan section of the BC is allied with a group called Los Zetas.
    “The vid-clip boys,” Chon says.
    Los Zetas recently have branched out across the border into California and formed a subgroup called Los Treintes. DEA doesn’t seem to know much about them, but they appear to be headed up by a former Zeta named Miguel Arroyo Salazar, aka “El Helado”—“Stone Cold.”
    Ben shows Chon the old photo in the file showing a Baja State Police officer. They pull up the recording of the hostage video and look at the man with the chain saw standing next to O.
    “Same guy?” Ben asks.
    “Looks like it.”
    “Same guy I met with today,” Ben says. “Our new boss—Miguel Arroyo Salazar.”
    “He’s a dead fucker,” Chon says. Sooner or later, he’s going.
    So, Ben continues, Elena recruits Zeta—pays them well, gives them their own turf to use, and tells them, “Go forth and prosper.” Go north, young men, and take California (back).
    “Why?” Ben asks rhetorically.
    “Because that’s where the money is,” Chon answers rhetorically.
    Or is it something else? Ben ponders.
    He lets that slide, though.
    First things first and the first thing is to get O back alive.
    Buy her back.
    “We have enough here to move on,” Chon says.
    Fuck context.
    Let’s get to con
tent.

143
     
    We have to be careful, Ben thinks.
    We have to be beyond careful. If the BC gets one whiff that we’re using their own money to pay them, they’ll kill O.
    So—

144
     
    They find the address in one of Dennis’s files.
    Way out in the new eastern housing developments that hug the mountains.
    Cougar country.
    Not the
new
kind of cougar, the
old
kind of cougar, actual big cats.
    Dennis has had it under watch for months. Rented by one Ron Cabral, a known associate, etc.
    Now Ben and Chon have it up.
    They watch the cars come and go, late at night or early in the morning, usually before dawn. They get a sense of when the runs are made, when deliveries come in, go out, how many men.
    Stash house.
    Where money is kept until it’s packed up and delivered south.
    Or not, as the case may be.

145
     
    Chon parks the Mustang two miles away and hikes in through the thick chaparral on the hillsides.
    Feels almost good to be humping it again.
    He plops his ass down, gets out the nocs, and scopes the terrain until he finds what he’s looking for—a sharp curve in the road away from the houses. Takes a mental snapshot and stores it.
    I-Rock-and-Roll, Stanland, SoCal.
    An ambush is an ambush.
    Is an ambush.

146
     
    They go over it a gazillion times.
    In Ben’s opinion.
    Not enough in Chon’s.
    “It’s no fucking game,” Chon says.
    “Didn’t say it is,” Ben responds. “What I’m saying is I got it. It’s in my head.”
    Yeah, but Chon knows it goes out of your head the second the action starts and the adrenaline kicks in. Then it’s all muscle memory that comes from repetition, repetition, repetition.
    So they go over it again.

147
     
    O makes the rounds of the talk shows.
    O-prah, of course.
    OPRAH
. . . a story of courage, of … inspiring … dignity. Please welcome O.
    The audience applauds. A few stand. O, demure in a gray dress, walks out, shyly acknowledges the applause, and sits down.
    OPRAH
What a truly amazing experience. What did you learn? What did you take away?
    O
Well, Oprah, you know, when you’re alone that long you have no choice but to confront yourself. I think you gain a self-knowledge. You really learn about yourself.
    Oprah looks to the women in the audience and smiles. “Isn’t this girl amazing?” She turns back to O.
    OPRAH
    (softly)
What did you learn?

    O
How strong I really am. How strong a woman …
an inner strength that I hadn’t fully realized …
    Applause.
    OPRAH
Next, a truly awe-inspiring example of courage under pressure—O’s mother, Paqu.
    O moves on to Ellen.
    ELLEN
Give it up for MTV’s O!
    O, in a jaunty sleeveless T-shirt that displays her tattoos, breaks out a few dance moves and then plops down in the guest chair.
    ELLEN
You’ve had quite a time of it, haven’t you?
    O
Oh