Savages

could.
    CUT TO:

214
     
    Yeah, they
could
—doesn’t mean they
should.
    What they probably should do is realize that they’ve been very lucky and gotten away with a whole lot of shit that they shouldn’t have gotten away with, that’s what they probably should do.
    They
should
—doesn’t mean they
will.

215
     
    It’s the baditude.
    “It will be bloody,” Chon says.
    Ben doesn’t care anymore.
    One big score.
    Irresistible.
    It’s been six weeks since they took her, and now they’re one last big score from getting O back. From ending this nightmare. (Sure, but can he end the night
mares
? He doesn’t know.) From getting the hell out of the hell and starting a new life.
    Pull this off, get away with it, they’re free and clear.
    If people get hurt, they get hurt, Ben thinks. And a lot fewer people will probably get hurt if they hit a car than if they hit the house where they have O, even if they can find it. And these motherfuckers? After what they did to those three kids? And Alex? And O? After what they’ve turned me into?
    Fuck ’em.
    But be honest. You turned yourself into what you are now.
    Okay, so fuck me.

216
     
    Fuck ’em.
    Okay, but how?
    It’s the Wild West out there with the BC Civil War raging north of the border.
    So new regs on all shipments—cash, dope, or both.
    Lado’s Rules:
    Three cars—the cargo car, one in front, one in back. All porcupines, bristling with guns and gunmen.
    So how you gonna beat that?
    They used to call it “guerrilla warfare,” now they call it something else—“non-symmetrical conflict.”
    You gotta love guys who can come up with language like that.
    Non-symmetrical conflict.
    Different name, same thing.
    The small versus the big.

217
     
    Your strengths are your weaknesses.
    The more you try to protect something, the more vulnerable youmake it.
    To wit:
    Lado pulls his stash houses from the suburbs to rural locations that he can protect.
    Makes fewer cash runs with more protection.
    They go in the day instead of at night.
    Fine but
    Rural means isolated.
    Fewer runs mean more cash per run, and day means
    Chon doesn’t have to buy a nightscope.
    And they know where the concentrated stash houses are, so it’s just a matter of surveillance to know when and where the cash convoys are going to roll out.
    Knowing is one thing.
    Doing another.
    “We’re going to need more ordnance,” Chon tells Ben after literally scoping out the stash house in the desert.
    Fine, Ben says.

218
     
    Chon rides the pony down to Calexico, right on the border.
    Etymology obvious:
    California
    Mexico
    Calexico.
    The name reflects the reality. You take a walk in old downtown Calexico you aren’t sure which country you’re in. Truth is, you’re inneither and both.
    Chon goes to see this man he knows. You meet some interesting people around the edges of the elite forces thing. Guys who dig the scene, probably a little too much, for a lot of different reasons. And probably more of these guys cluster around the border, again for a whole lot of reasons.
    Some of them see themselves as Davy Crockett.
    Except this time they keep the Alamo.
    You look at Barney, you don’t think elite forces. You think pudgy Smurf with bottle glasses, bad breath, and lung cancer.
    Anyway, Barney is happy to see Chon.
    “What can I do you for?”
    “A Barrett.”
    That is, a Barrett Model 90. A humongoid sniper rifle that can send a .50-cal bullet into a target with accuracy from a mile away.
    “Jesus, who are you going to shoot with that?” Barney asks.
    “Cans,” Chon answers truthfully.
    “My
man
,” Barney says.
    Yeah, it’s that kind of world.
    Chon buys the Barrett and a 10X Leupold M-type scope to go with it.

219
     
    O writes Paqu:
    Dear Mommy
,
Rome is GR8. The Colisiam is awesome. Everyone rides around on motor scooters and the men are beautiful. So are the women. So is the food. I mean, you think you’ve had pasta until you’ve been here, but you haven’t. (Don’t worry, I’m not eating too much of it.)
    I miss you.
    How RU?
    Ophelia

220
     
    Ben goes to Home Depot, Radio Shack, and HobbyTown USA.
    With Chon’s shopping list.
    Because …

221
     
    Chon’s going Sunni on them.
    IED.
    You don’t have bombers, missiles, and drones, so you come up with Improvised Explosive Devices. Plant them by the side of the road, hitthe remote trigger device as the convoy comes by.
    It takes Chon three days to build them.
    Happy hours on the old dining room table.
    “You’re