The Water Knife

Maria and Angel jump down the waterfall in the Taiyang. After they hit the surface of the water below them, Angel opens a grate that leads to the water-treatment systems. The Calies follow behind them. Angel lifts Maria out of the water and onto a walkway. He rushes Maria down the catwalks along the rivers, telling her that they need to get out of the building before security shuts the whole place down. Angel and Maria enter a huge cavern where the aquifer is. Maria is stunned by the amount of water. Finally, Maria and Angel make their exit and arrive outside the Taiyang. Angel’s Tesla is parked outside. Inside the car, Maria notices the copy of Cadillac Desert she brought with her is soaked. Angel drives Maria back to the construction site near the Taiyang so she can meet with Toomie. As she is getting out of the car, Angel hands her a considerable amount of money for her trouble. When Maria asks Angel why he decided to save her, Angel recounts a time from his childhood when he saw a man with “Jesus” tattooed on his knuckles murder someone. He tells Maria that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Before she leaves, Maria tells Angel that one of the killers in Ratan’s apartment had a tattoo.

Maria tells Angel that one of the men who killed Ratan had a tattoo on his hand that was “like a snake tail. It went around his hand and up under his jacket sleeve. I saw it. It was a snake tail” (221). Angel asks Maria if it could have been a dragon tail that she saw. Maria tells Angel that the tattoo was red and gold. Angel knows immediately whom the tattoo belongs to. He gives Maria the rest of the money in his wallet and dials Julio’s number on his phone. The call goes straight to voicemail. Angel thinks that Julio might have Lucy in one of his safe houses somewhere in the dark zone of Phoenix. He speeds off to find Julio and Lucy.

Angel finds Julio’s truck parked outside of one of the Las Vegas safe houses. Angel is irritated by Julio’s arrogance, parking in plain sight in front of the house. As Angel enters the house, he hears Lucy screaming. When Angel steps through the door, Julio raises his gun. Angel fires first and kills the cholobi who had ducked behind Lucy. Julio shoots Angel in the shoulder, and Angel can’t raise his gun again. As Julio fires a second time, Lucy throws herself, still tied to the chair, into Julio, bringing him crashing to the floor. Angel manages to transfer his gun to his left hand and fires into Julio just as Julio’s gun is coming up. Angel tries to get information from Julio as he’s dying, but Angel can’t hear what he’s saying. Angel turns his attention to Lucy and frees her from the chair. Lucy tells Angel that Jamie had never intended on selling the water rights to Las Vegas. Lucy bandages Angel’s wounds from the gunfight. Lucy and Angel talk as she bandages him up, and Angel realizes that “he wanted her. He wanted her like he’d never wanted another woman” (231).

Lucy explains that the water rights had originally belonged to a Native American tribe called the Pima. The Pima had made a deal with Phoenix to shift all their tribal water rights over to the city. It turns out that the rights that the Pima sold to Phoenix also included water from the Colorado River. The water rights would trump California’s claim to the water from the Colorado. Angel and Lucy decide to lay low while they try to track down the water rights that Ratan had.

Lucy’s friend Charlene puts Angel and Lucy up in one of her squat tenements. She even provides Lucy with a car to get around, but “it’s got Texas plates still, so don’t thank me too much” (238). Lucy notes how well Angel blends in to his new surroundings. She thinks about how she used to report about the people living around her and how she had become one of them. Angel is often paranoid while waiting around the squat. He discusses with Lucy a bit about his past in Mexico. Ultimately, he gives up trying to crack the security on Ratan’s laptop and asks Lucy if she knows anyone who does security work. Lucy suggests Timo.

Maria waits at Toomie’s doorstep for him to come home. When he returns, Toomie seems to already understand that things hadn’t worked out for her. Maria tells Toomie that Sarah is dead, and Toomie doesn’t seem surprised by the news. Maria feels ashamed for the way she’s dressed and for “playing Sarah’s game” (246). She also feels guilt over Sarah’s death. Toomie apologizes to Maria. The two of them commiserate on Toomie’s front step. Finally, Maria asks Toomie if she could stay with him. She offers to do anything he wants. Toomie tells Maria, “I want you to have a future. And a life. I want you to get out” (249). He decides that he’ll let Maria stay with him because it’s the right thing to do.

Lucy finds Timo at a club shooting. Texans had done the shooting, and there is talk all over the dark zones about the Texans fighting back and creating militias. Lucy and Timo don’t know what the Texans want to fight back against; it seems like they want to stand in solidarity with each other. Lucy asks Timo if he could crack the hard drive on the computer that she brought with her. After looking it over, Timo can’t get in, but he has a friend who might be able to make a fake key. Lucy is reluctant to let the computer out of her sight but allows Timo to take it away.