Savages

time, sits her up, and says, “You did the right thing. You did what any woman would, to protect her children.”
    Men teach us how to treat them.

277
     
    Ben and Chon find the pull-off by the junction.
    They pull over and blink their lights twice.
    An answering signal comes out of the darkness and then a black SUV comes forward and stops about ten yards in front of them.
    Chon can smell a night ambush and he smells it now, along with the creosote bush and Indian tobacco, the soft desert scents even on this chill night.
    “They here?” Ben asks.
    “Oh yeah,” Chon says. “Both sides.”
    Doubtless they’re lying in the brush next to the pull-off and on the other side of the road.
    “The second you get O,” Chon repeats, “hit the ground and stay flat.”
    “Yup.”
    “Ben?”
    “Yeah?”
    “It’s been a ride.”
    “Yes, it has.”
    Ben tucks a pistol into the back of his belt, takes Magda, and leads her out of the car.
    Chon reaches in back and grabs the two ARs.

278
     
    Lado sticks a pistol in his own belt, walks around to the passenger side, and pulls O out of the car.
    The little cunt is still out of it.
    Her legs wobbly.
    They should be, Lado thinks, after what I gave her.
    He walks toward the
gueros’
car.

279
     
    Elena gets out of the Land Rover.
    Hernan at her side.
    She sees one of the bastards walking with Magda in front of him.
    Thank God, thank God, thank God.
    As soon as he releases her, the men know to open up.
    “Let her go!” Lado shouts. “Send her my way!”
    “You, too!” Ben answers.
    He gives Magda a gentle push toward Lado.
    Lado does the same with O.
    As soon as Magda is out of Ben’s reach, Elena nods her head.

280
     
    The night lights up.
    Bright red muzzle flashes from twelve guns, all trained on
    Lado.
    As Elena shouts,
“Dido!”
    Informer.
    What Delores told her.

281
     
    Lado does a Wicked Witch of the West.
    Melts in front of Dorothy O as
    Ben rushes forward, tackles her, and presses her to the ground and they watch
    Lado dance a funny little jig
    Light on his feet, as they say, for a big man, he tiptoes back toward his car like he still thinks he can get in and drive away from this, but then he trips on himself and falls face-first on the hood then slides down, his blood leaving a smear on the shiny black paint.
    A shooter comes out of the darkness, grabs him by the hair, and jerks his neck back.
    The machete is a silver flash in the moonlight.

282
     
    Then it’s quiet.
    Save for Magda, screaming under her gag, stumbling into her mother’s arms.
    Who says
    “Kill them.”

283
     
    The world erupts in fire.
    Ben presses O deeper into the ground but she squirms out from under him and
    Scrambles across the desert floor, grabs Lado’s pistol from the ground, and starts to fire and so Ben
    Starts shooting as

284
     
    One rifle cradled in front of him, the other looped over his back, Chon belly-crawls toward Ben and O, shooting as he moves. He aims at each muzzle flash and the
sicarios
don’t know enough to fire and move.
    Flashback.
    Night ambushes in the Stan but
    He knows he’s fighting now for Ben and O
    They are
    His country.

285
     
    Suddenly it’s quiet.
    Cautiously, Chon gets up to see
    Bathed in moonlight, Elena sits on the ground, her back against the grill of the Land Rover. Two dead
sicarios
, neatly shot through the forehead, lie beside her like sleeping guard dogs.
    Elena calls, “Magda! Magda!”
    Chon sees the girl stumble in the greasewood and brush, trying to get away from the scene.
    Thinks, there will be time for her later.
    He points his rifle at Elena’s head.
    She looks up at him and says, “Do it. You already killed my son.”
    O is standing at his shoulder.
    Blood—black in the silver light—runs down her tattooed arm like a jungle waterfall. It flows from the mermaid’s mouth and winds down the undersea vines.
    Chon tries to raise the gun but his wounded shoulder won’t let him. His arm goes numb and the rifle falls into the dirt.
    Says, “I can’t.”
    Elena smiles at O. And says, “You see,
m’ija
? You see what men are?”
    O picks up Chon’s fallen rifle.
    Says, “I’m not your fucking daughter.”
    And pulls the trigger.

286
     
    Chon catches up with Magda, in shock, stumbling around the desert, and grabs her wrist.
    He knows what he needs to do, if they’re to get away. They all knowit—if they let this girl live, they run tonight and can never come home again.
    Chon looks over.
    O shakes her