45 pages • 1 hour read
Paolo BacigalupiA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Maria and Sarah attempt to meet with their friend Toomie near the Taiyang Arcology to sell the water they’ve gathered cheaply at the relief pump. Damien, a thug for the Vet, asks Maria if she has the rent money. The Vet is the leader of a group of thugs who charge people in the area rent to live on the land. Maria tells Damien that her rent is in water until she can sell it that evening. Damian warns Maria that if she’s going to peddle water at the Taiyang, she needs to pay off Esteban, another of the Vet’s thugs. Esteban owns the turf around the Taiyang. Maria begins to protest, but Sarah urges Maria to see that this is the way things are.
Angel travels to the border at Lake Mead. Angel drops his Tesla off with a South Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) employee before crossing the bridge that spans the canyon. Arizona Border Patrol searches Angel and looks over his fake credentials. Once legally on Arizona soil, Angel locates another Tesla left for him. In the compartment under the seat is a SIG Sauer with three magazines of bullets. The car also contains a couple of different Arizona driver’s licenses with his picture on them and various badges for Phoenix PD, Arizona Criminal Investigations Division, and the FBI. Once Angel has taken possession of the Tesla and is headed toward Phoenix, Case calls him to ask about a man named Ellis, someone who helped set up several Nevada militias. Case wants to know if Ellis might take a payoff to go dark. Ellis was supposed to check in with Case, but she hasn’t heard from him. As Angel and Case talk, a dust storm interrupts their connection. Angel pulls into a truck stop to wait out the storm. Many of the people in the truck stop are people trying to escape Phoenix.
Maria sells her water outside the construction area of the Taiyang: “Two bucks a pour, one yuan a cup” (87). Toomie has a stand set up where he sells pupusas. Maria adds up the money she’s making in her head as customers line up for her water. Maria came to know Toomie after her father died; he had given her a pupusa for free when she was desperate. Sarah had urged Maria to try to kiss Toomie once, saying that Maria should show she was grateful for Toomie’s help. Ultimately, though, Toomie had refused Maria’s advances, saying, “This isn’t how it should be for you” (90). Sarah tells Maria that if all Toomie wants to do is look at her, then Maria has it easy. Sarah says, “Give him all the looks he wants. You got that man loyal for life” (91).
Toomie used to build homes before the construction business dried up. Toomie had tried to be a part of the Taiyang Arcology project, but he claims that the work was too complicated.
As the second lunch shift begins, a black truck pulls up with the Vet’s enforcers. Cato and Esteban walk over to Toomie, who immediately pays his tax. Cato begins shaking Maria down for tax money, saying she’s running her own little water business. Maria argues that she’s already paid Esteban her tax. Cato ends up taking all the money that Maria has made, telling her that she’ll make more. Toomie is silent during the entire exchange and avoids looking at Cato and Esteban. Maria doesn’t have enough water left for rent. Toomie chides Maria for arguing with Esteban and Cato, saying she doesn’t understand how things are. Toomie says, “You get worked up about what’s right and wrong, but that shit’s only in your head. Rules are what the big dogs say they are” (97).
Angel passes through the dark zones on the outer edges of Phoenix, looking out at all the refugees and campfires. As he nears the center of the city, Angel notes the nightlife.
In his hotel room, Angel surveys the disaster of the city. He notes that everything looks more dilapidated than the last time he was in Phoenix. A news report on TV shows a bunch of Colorado farmers on top of the Blue Mesa Dam “threatening to do whatever the hell Colorado farmers threatened to do when they were shit out of luck” (103). Another news story indicates that over 200 bodies were found out in the desert.
Julio meets Angel in his hotel room. Julio tells Angel about Alexander Vosovich, a “Zoner” Julio had recruited who worked as a hydrologic engineer inside the Salt River Project. Julio tells Angel that a water lawyer inside Phoenix Water was feeling out Vos, telling him that he had something Vos might want to buy. Julio believes that he’s probably been compromised after Vos’ torture and murder, because they had been working together for almost 10 years. Julio wants to be pulled out of Phoenix because “the cops ID’d my man by his fillings” (106). Angel tells Julio that they need to see Vos’ body in order to be thorough, despite Julio’s protests.
Lucy arrives at the morgue as bodies are being piled up after being dug up from the ditches in the desert. Lucy meets her friend, Timo, who works as a photographer. Timo was one of the first Phoenix locals to work with Lucy and eventually their working relationship strengthened into a friendship. Timo busies himself taking pictures of all the bodies and the sobbing victims’ families. Lucy doesn’t know what’s going on, and Timo tells her, “They found half of Texas buried out there in the desert!” (109). These people had hired “coyotes” to help guide them illegally across the Colorado River. Instead of helping them, though, the coyotes took their money and buried them in the desert.
Lucy meets with the medical examiner, Christine Ma. She tells Christine that she wants to see Jamie. Christine warns Lucy about seeing Jamie’s body, because he’s been tortured. Christine tells Lucy that Jamie was probably killed several times and then revived. Jamie had adrenaline injected into his body. Lucy notes that Jamie had bitten off his own tongue. Lucy asks Christine for Jamie’s things. When Lucy goes through Jamie’s wallet, she finds a chip-and-pin anoncard, “gold laminated, with a bloody slash logo: Apocalypse Now!” (115). Lucy thinks that the card doesn’t fit with Jamie, that it wasn’t his style to carry a card like that. As Lucy is considering the card, two men posing as plainclothes detectives interrupt her. She notices “one guy was short, with a bit of a gut, a trim goatee, and knowing smirk. The other one was tall. Serious, angular, and weathered” (115). The two men question Christine and Lucy about Jamie and Vos. Christine shows them Vos’ body, which is tortured in a similar way to Jamie’s body. Lucy tells the two men that she doesn’t know anything about Vos. After their interrogation, Lucy begins to realize that the two men aren’t police—they are Angel and Julio, unbeknownst to Lucy at this point. Angel tells Julio that Lucy is a “blood rag journo” and tells her to leave. Lucy is surprised by this and leaves.
Angel watches Lucy go, almost instantly regretting his decision. Angel believes he’s getting soft, but he was also worried about Julio being a part of their conversation. Julio alerts Angel to a couple of men making their way through the crowd flashing badges. Angel identifies them as a couple of “Calies,” agents who work for the state of California. Julio decides to leave immediately, not wanting the Calies to identify him. Angel decides to hang around for a minute to watch them. While he waits, Angel talks with Timo as Timo keeps photographing the dead bodies in the morgue. Timo tells Angel about Lucy: “She’s not blood rag. Woman’s got Pulitzers” (123). Angel watches the Calies talk to the medical examiner, who then points out Angel to them. Angel makes a run for it. As the Calies pursue Angel, one of them gets tangled up in the crowd of families and mourners. Angel catches the other Cali as he comes around a corner, putting him in a headlock and dragging him down a hallway. Angel makes his way back to Julio in the parking lot. As the two pull out of the parking lot, Angel tells Julio he wants to talk to Lucy.
These chapters reveal Maria’s vulnerable side. She sells her water alongside Toomie, a “big strong guy who could protect his business, a tower of strength that also shaded Maria as she poured water” (87). Maria trusts Toomie, and he gives her a semblance of safety. Maria attempts to attach herself to Toomie to reclaim some of the stability she lost with the demise of her father. It becomes clear in these chapters that Maria’s main character drive is to find something stable and real, not just the illusion of safety or happiness.
Angel continues to play the role of hardened spy, especially when he meets up with his old partner, Julio. Julio becomes a foil to Angel. Julio is paranoid, afraid, and doesn’t care about fulfilling a mission for Case. He wants to save his own skin. Angel, at this point, still seems calm and confident in his grasp of the situation. He has everything under control. That is, until he meets Lucy at the morgue. This is where Angel begins to doubt himself and question whether he’s becoming soft. He lets Lucy go at the morgue, not wanting Julio to question her, knowing how Julio can be with people. We begin to see more development in Angel’s human side at this point and see him less as just a water knife.
By Paolo Bacigalupi