The Water Knife

Lucy returns to the squat and Angel accidently scares her. He’s been hiding and keeping an eye out on things. Angel doesn’t like the feel of the place; it “feels like a forest fire’s about to start” (267).

Angel tells Lucy more about his life in Mexico, about how narcos came after his family and killed his mom and sisters, and how his dad took him and fled north. His father put him in the trunk of the car to get him across the border. Lucy notices Angel wincing from the pain of his wounds. As she helps to clean them, Angel and Lucy end up having sex in the squat.

Esteban and Cato show up to Toomie’s house to get their money from Maria. Maria hides inside the house while Esteban and Cato beat up Tommie outside. Maria watches on the video monitor as Esteban puts a gun to Toomie’s knee and pulls the trigger. Esteban tells Maria that if she doesn’t come outside, he’s going to kill Toomie and still come after her anyway. Toomie tells Maria to run, but eventually Maria surrenders and comes outside. She gives what little money she has to Esteban and Cato. She doesn’t have enough money so she agrees to come with Esteban and Cato if they spare Toomie’s life.

Maria goes with Cato and Esteban to the Vet’s compound to pay her dept. The Vet is angry with Maria for trying to run away. He tells her, “I would have let you earn your way across the river, girl. Don’t you understand that?” (278). The Vet has Cato and Esteban haul Maria to the hyena cages and force her hand through the fence. Maria begins to scream as the hyenas eat away at her fingers. 

Lucy is sick and tired of waiting around, waiting to hear back from Timo. She’s worried and wants to leave the squat but Angel is against the idea. Angel seems content to wait around. He watches his favorite TV show, Undaunted. Lucy wonders why Angel likes the show so much. Angel tells Lucy his philosophy on how people will do anything they are pushed to do. As they continue to watch Undaunted together, Lucy tells Angel that the show is actually propaganda from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees: “They wanted to make Texas refugees more relatable to Americans in the Northern States” (284).

Timo finally calls Lucy and tells her to meet him at the Hilton in the bar. When Lucy asks if Timo has cracked the hard drive on the laptop, Timo replies, “Yeah, I cracked it […] But you aren’t going to like what I got” (285). When Lucy meets with Timo, he tells her that people from Ibis paid him a visit and that they know she has the laptop. Timo tells Lucy that if he knew this was a “water thing,” he would have used someone else to crack the hard drive. It turns out that Timo has set Lucy up. Timo leaves and another man replaces him, Kota, the man who had originally warned Lucy about writing stories critical of California. Kota tells Lucy that the computer doesn’t have anything on it. Lucy is confused. She thought the laptop had the water rights on it. Kota doesn’t quite believe that Lucy doesn’t know where the water rights are. He arranges a deal with Lucy: If she delivers Angel to them, he won’t hurt her sister Anna and her family in Vancouver. Lucy reluctantly agrees.

When Lucy returns to the squat, she becomes paranoid that Angel knows she’s sold him out. She tells Angel that Ratan was keeping the water rights at a Cali safe house.

Maria lies in a cage on the Vet’s compound, nursing her wounded hand. Damien visits her and tries to get her to eat something but Maria initially refuses. Maria tries to persuade Damien to help her escape. She tells him he could get the keys for her that night without anyone knowing. It seems as though Damien considers this for a moment, but then he tells Maria he can’t do it. Damien offers to get Maria some bubble so that she won’t feel much when she’s fed to the hyenas. 

Lucy drives the car to a beat-up gas station, the place she’s agreed to deliver Angel to for the Calies. Angel comes inside with Lucy to buy some candy. When he attempts to pay at the register, his card is declined; Angel is worried. As Angel is sitting in the car, two black pickup trucks pull up behind him and open fire. Angel is shot but manages to jam the car into drive and wrecks it as bullets keep coming. Angel crawls away from the wreck and tries to pull his gun, but his hand is slippery with blood. As he continues to crawl, Angel imagines the sicario from his childhood speaking to him. Angel shoots a man behind him, and the sicario’s voice in his head congratulates him. Angel fights the urge to lie down and die. In the distance he can hear gunfire. He eventually makes his way to the backyard of an abandoned house and collapses in the empty swimming pool there. The sun beats down on him, and Angel sees the shadow of death looming over him.

Lucy watches as the pickup trucks pull up behind Angel and open fire. Everyone inside the gas station hits the floor. Lucy begins to cry, realizing what she’s done. Two men at the gas station have drawn their guns. One of them is talking on his cell phone. The other man gives Lucy a wink and tells her, “Don’t worry, sweetheart […] We ain’t going to let this pass. When they go after one of us, they go after all of us” (303). Lucy realizes that the men have mistaken her as a Texan because of the Texas license plate on her car. A firefight erupts between the Texans and the assassins. Across the street, some of the Merry Perrys open fire on the assassins as well. As Lucy exits out of the back of the gas station, she hears one of the gas pumps blow up. More Texans arrive, looking for payback. They believe that Angel was one of their own.

Lucy follows the trail of blood to track down Angel, hoping that he’s still alive. She finds his body at the bottom of the swimming pool. Lucy briefly considers ending his life in order to protect herself and her family. Instead, she decides to save him. Lucy drags Angel out of the pool and begins to haul him out of the backyard. The fire from the gas station has spread everywhere, surrounding them. Lucy finds a wheelbarrow with a flat wheel and places Angel inside of it. Lucy had interviewed firefighters in the past. They described how they had burned the land in front of them to destroy fuel for wildfires. Lucy attempts to do the same thing by setting fire to the surrounding houses.