Chapter 18
Ana-Lucia was sitting on the couch, using a makeshift cleaning rod to run a white cloth through the barrel of the disassembled gun. The other parts were strewn on the coffee table. She didn't look up when Sayid approached and sat in a chair across from her.
"When was the last time you cleaned this thing?" she asked.
"Charlie had it. Remember?"
Charlie had said he did not know where the guns were, and Sayid believed him. The Englishman must have taken one from the stash before Sawyer had moved it a second time. He hadn't told Sayid, and it had been Ana who first noticed he was carrying. That fact disturbed Sayid. Some time ago, after Boone's death, he had effortlessly identified that Locke had secreted a gun away. Why had he not observed Charlie's? His mind had been too preoccupied of late, and he must cleanse and refocus it.
"Yeah," Ana said.
"What did our prisoner say when I left?"
"Not much. He thanked me."
Sayid nodded with satisfaction. "That is a beginning. I suppose it would be too early to press your advantage now."
"I think so. Give him a day to sit and worry." She started reassembling the gun, snapping the parts together with a loud and angry flourish.
Sayid eyed her as she did so. "You need not be so rough."
"Why? Should I be coquettish like Kate while our fates hang in the balance?"
"I meant," he replied slowly, "with the gun. No need to force the parts."
"I think I can manage to handle a gun, Sayid. I was a cop." She finally looked up at him, and, after flipping up the safety, she placed the gun in her waistband.
Sayid leaned forward, his arms resting against his legs. "I believe you should return that to me."
She smiled sardonically. "Charlie had it," she echoed him. "Remember? It's not yours."
He leaned back again into the chair. He looked at the floor, as though he were contemplating whether to press the issue. And then he looked back up at her and said, "I am returning to the beach. Are you staying here?"
"Yeah." She shook her head. "I never would have been a prison guard. I always thought it was a thankless job. But I admired the people who had a skin thick enough to tolerate all that… It's got to be done."
When Sayid did not respond, she continued, "What are going to do if we have more of them? It isn't much of a prison, that vault. It isn't that big."
Sayid appeared confused. "More of them?"
"You know, once we start this…this war."
"It has already been started, but not by us. And there will not be more of them."
"Why do you say that? You don't think we can capture--"
Sayid interrupted her. "Once we know where they are and how many there are, once we pursue them…there will not be one left to imprison."
Ana looked at him wordlessly. She nodded her head ever so slightly, in reluctant agreement. Sayid rose and left the hatch.