Chapter Twenty-Eight

Leap of Faith

Startled, El didn't move. He believed him.

"Give me the gun in your hand. Now." Sands held out his hand.

"Sands, listen. Come away with me. I can get you out of here."

Sands fired into the ground at El's feet. El couldn't help but jump.

"Give me your gun."

Unnerved, El handed over the gun.

"Now do not move."

El considered carefully how likely it was that Sands would know if he went for another gun. He decided against trying it. The man was unstable, trigger-happy, and hurting. He could shoot El for imagining he heard El disobey. El stayed very still.

"You keep making the mistake of assuming I'm on your side," Sands said. He came forward carefully, and removed El's other weapons, tossing them away.

"Then why didn't you stop me from killing him?" El asked. The cables still twisted and danced, spitting sparks whenever they rose above the surface of the liquid.

"You're not the sharpest crayon in the box, are you, El? Why do you think I let you kill him? Delgado won't suspect that I could have stopped you. And he'll be very pleased with me when I give you to him. Dead or alive, El, it doesn't matter much." Sands's tone changed. "God, I wish he'd get back here."

"Sands, we can escape," El said.

"I can't, El." Pain shimmered in the man's every word. "You know I can't. I'd fuck a cow right now for a fix. Delgado is bringing the stuff, and I follow the cocaine."

"I have cocaine. You can have it. Come with me."

"You're lying. How stupid do you think I am?"

"If you could see, I'd show it to you. But you'll just have to trust me."

"It's a stupid trick from a stupid man."

"You think I want you along that badly? Keep the gun and kill me later if I'm lying. But first we have to get away from here."

"Like you would want to help me. You just want to get away."

"I want to get away, and I also want to help you. I am one of the - what did you say - white hats. You have to take the chance."

"It's too big a chance. I need it now. Right now, El. I know Delgado has the shit."

In truth, under these bright lights, El could easily see signs of Sands's withdrawal pains. He was surprised the man was holding together as well as he was.

"Do you think the Delgados will survive and keep feeding you? Or do you plan to beg for your fix from the Colombians?"

"Give it to me, then." Sands didn't believe him, he could tell by his disinterested tone.

El swallowed. He had talked himself into a very dangerous position. If he gave Sands a sample, nothing at all would stop the man from shooting him for the rest of it. Nothing. At. All. He had to make Sands believe him without triggering a junkie's fit, which one of them, probably El, would not survive.

"Later. You have to trust me and come with me."

Sands snorted. "Give it to me now, or I'll take it off your corpse."

El's mouth went very dry. There was no winning this either way. Only Sands himself could make the choice of a possible fix and possible freedom over a certain fix and certain slavery. Sands could decide to make him a cooperative corpse just at the suggestion that he might have cocaine on him. What the fuck had he done?

"You are the sharp crayon," El said carefully, though he thought the man used the oddest metaphors. "You know why I dare not prove to you that I have cocaine."

Sands said nothing to that.

El made himself take a breath. "You know why. I swear on Carolina's grave I will give you cocaine as soon as we are out of here. But I can not give you any while you hold a gun on me and if you kill me, you will never be free. Trust me, Sands."

Sands's hand holding the gun began to shake.

"I . . . can't."

"Yes, you can. I am your only chance." Suddenly El realized something. "This is why you sent for me."

Sands stiffened, as if he'd just heard an unwelcome truth.

In slow motion, El saw his death coming. It started with the straightening of Sands's arm, and then the tension in the gun hand, followed by the pulling of the trigger finger. And he could not react in time.

Sands moved his arm off-line, and shot into a propane tank. Then he shot a second one. In quick succession, both tanks exploded into brilliant fireballs, hurting El's ears.

"Let's go," said Sands.