Twice.
So much for self-correction.
“You’re going to have to get better at this,” Chon says.
Recalling what his SEAL instructors said:
The more sweat on the training ground …
. . . the less blood on the battleground.
134
Well, O thinks
I got my own reality show, anyway
She looks up at the mounted video camera, high on the wall, that monitors her twenty-four seven.
The episode descriptions on the MTV website:
O gets DPed
O gets kidnapped
O is threatened with decapitation (or maybe O meets Jason)
O in captivity
Hostage O
Pretty much the first season.
Then set up the season-ending cliffhanger—
Will O survive or will O
Be eliminated?
135
Esteban is intrigued by the girl.
Of course he is, are you kidding?
Anglo chick,
She’s a
No, don’t get it wrong, Esteban isn’t in love with her. Would his dick like to get up that? Sure—dicks have minds of their own. But he’s in love with Lourdes, faithful to her and her swollen belly.
But he can’t see her.
He can call her, but now Lado has him down here, taking care of the
Doesn’t know how he’d deal with that, he’s still trying to get that other thing out of his head, the thing with that lawyer, squirming on the floor, begging, crying. Esteban can still see his own hand pulling the trigger, that lawyer’s brains and hair blowing out the backside—he still wants to cry every time he thinks about that, which is a lot.
So he sure hopes Lado don’t want him to do something to this girl.
She seems nice.
136
Elena is somewhat intrigued by O herself.
Sometimes she sits at the computer and tunes in to the camera and watches her.
The girl has such a distinct, if odd, sense of style. Very personal, much too brave, the tattoo is bizarre but you have to admire the courage, the independence.
Elena truly hopes that she won’t have to kill her.
137
Option one is Play and Obey, so—
Ben’s first meeting with his new employers takes place in a room at the Surf & Sand, pricey but still cheaper than the Montage.
Alex and Jaime arrive accompanied by napalm.
That is, the smell of victory.
Smug, cloying, sickly, and obnoxious.
They come with something else: a middle-age Mexican they don’t introduce by name but instead as the Man, the BC’s CEO in the OC.
Ben is sorry Chon isn’t there because he would fucking love that.
The BCCEOOC doesn’t say anything, just looks at Ben as A&J explain that everything they are about to tell him comes directly from the BCCEOOC, who has a pair of the coldest eyes that Ben has ever seen outside a hostage video.
Specifically the one starring O.
And this guy, whom Ben recognizes as Mr. Chain Saw.
It is explained to Ben that:
He will give them the locations of his grow houses and
Inform them, through Alex, of when a crop is ready, at which time
The BC will send a crew to pick it up, with
The agreed-upon payment and in the meantime
Ben should start contacting his customers to acquaint them with the changes and make sure that they comply with the new order of things and
If Ben has any problems he should contact
Alex or Jaime, but it is sincerely hoped that Ben will
BC have any problems with Ben, but if they do he will be contacted by Jaime or Alex and the problem will be quickly resolved or
He will see Mr. Chain Saw again, who
Does Ben understand?
Ben does: Ben is to be the object of prison love, repeatedly, for three years or twenty million dollars. He gives them the location of a grow house with a harvest due date two days away.
This should give him time to plan.
138
A three-year sentence
O contemplates
Unless her boys come up with the Monet.
(O flunked Art History twice, partially because of her inability to distinguish Monet from Manet, partially because of her inability to get to class.) She does know money from Monet, though, enough to know that twenty mil is a lot of either, and while the boys wouldn’t hesitate to fork it over if they have it, she doesn’t think they have
