"No," said Ozburn. "She's not the woman I knew. I'll admit there's something wrong with both of us. Big wrong. The list of ailments goes on and on. The latest is, I can't feel my feet sometimes. And sometimes, I can't feel anything below my knees. Can't walk or even stand when that happens. Don't get any big ideas, Hood, because they feel just fine right now. And everything I see is green. You're green right now. The whole house, the whole world."
"Well, no shit, Oz-your nervous system is filled with the rabies virus. So is hers."
Ozburn wiped his face with his free hand, and when his hand passed over his eyes they were still fixed on Hood. "Okay. Okay. I've thought this through, Charlie. Whether what you say is true or not, Seliah is where she belongs right now. She can make it. She's strong and good."
"And you?"
"I'm right where I belong, too. I chose this path and I'm staying on it. I'm going to deliver ninety of these Loves to Blowdown. And you're going to take down some nasty Mara Salvatruchas in L.A. and a hundred and fifty-seven grand in cash. It'll be the best bust I've ever made. It's the proof of my training and my skill and my value. It's the reward for the last fifteen months. It justifies what I've become. After that? Well, I'm not spending the rest of my life in prison for taking out a few of our enemies. You wouldn't. Which brings me to a proposal."
"Propose, Sean."
"Why should I surrender? ATF needs me now more than ever. I do things you regular agents won't do. I've crossed every line that can be crossed except for one-I've stayed loyal to my cause and my people. If I know Soriana, he hasn't gone upstairs with those videos of me in action. He can't afford the fact that one of his best special agents has gone upriver and taken out some bad guys. If that got public, it would damage ATF. Badly. Soriana knows this. So, tell him to destroy the videos and fire me. They'll have to put me on a cash payroll but they'll never see me again. You'll be my contact. We'll talk in the ether. I can nurse Seliah back to health. For ATF, I'll be the guy who does what it takes for you to win. I'll be the black agent. When you need to cut a deal with the devil, you send in Oz. Makes sense, doesn't it? Doesn't it, Charlie?"
Hood considered. The wind rushed the house and the sand ticked at the windows. He looked at Ozburn in the lamplight of the living room and saw a dead man. "It makes no sense that I can see."
"Tell Soriana."
"I'll tell him."
"I've got some interesting news. Herredia wants to deliver the guns to me in California."
Hood thought about this. "Why?"
"El Tigre says the U.S. is safer than Mexico. He'll use his drug supply lines to move the weapons. He must feel solid in California."
"After two safe houses get blitzed?"
"I'm not complaining," said Ozburn. "Saves me a run from south to north with ninety new machine guns in my truck. I'm taking it as good luck."
Hood was caught short at the blunt irony of this: guns going not south, but north. Guns made in Mexico by an American businessman. Was the union now complete? Were they one now, the United States and Mexico, joined and made identical by drugs, money and guns?
"When?"
Ozburn stared into his face for a long beat. "None of your concern, Charlie. I'll deliver the guns to the Gulf people sometime after. That's when Blowdown sweeps in. That's when I give myself up to you. If that's what ATF wants."
"I'm supposed to believe that?"
Ozburn looked at Hood for a long moment. "A deal's a deal, Charlie. Don't you forget that. I'll e-mail or call you when I've got the units."
Hood heard the wind rise up outside and saw the ocotillo shivering in the moonlight.
"Why did you come here, Sean?"
"I want my things from Seliah."
"There are two bags in the extra bedroom. Foot of the bed."
Ozburn stood. "Let's get them. You go first. Move slow, Charlie. I'm feeling kind of hyped up right now and I'd hate to have an accident."
"Roger."
Hood led the way to the hall, flicked on the light, and walked to the first bedroom. He turned on a light there, too, and stepped in. There was a loaded revolver under the bed pillow but the pillow was a long way away and Hood wasn't sure what he'd do with it. He went to the foot of the bed and took a bag in each hand, then turned to face Ozburn.
"Good, Charlie. Back out slow now and we'll go back in the living room."
Ozburn stepped aside and let Hood go back down the hallway ahead of him. Hood held up a heavy reusable shopping bag and set it next to Ozburn's chair. "Here are your guns."
"Excellent."
"Then, also…"
Hood took a knee and brought out the items one at a time and set them on the floor: the ring boxes first, then the bundle of love letters, the journal. He hesitated on the items that Seliah had given to him to keep, but only for a moment, then set them out, too. "And here's a bottle of wine she was saving for a special occasion, and Daisy the horse and Betty the doll, and the pressed leaves in this book, and a lock of your hair. She wanted those last things scattered with her ashes if she doesn't come through this."
Ozburn stared at the things for a long moment. "Okay. Well. I never thought… this."
"I can have you up to UCI Medical Center in a little over two hours, Oz. They'll knock you out, too, and try to let you fight off the virus. You'll be with her."
"And if I'm lucky enough to live through that, it's off to prison for this fine agent. No, thanks, Charlie. I won't do that. And I've got a job to finish."
"I hope you're clear on this, Oz. You've got a lethal virus multiplying itself in your brain. You're going to die very soon if you don't let those doctors treat you."
"Clear."
Ozburn waved Hood away with one of the guns, then picked up the two ring boxes. He opened them both, then closed them and tossed them one at a time to Hood. "If Seliah doesn't make it, make sure these rings go with her ashes. I've got no use for them without her to wear them."
Outside the wind lashed the house. In between gusts coyotes yipped from the dark distance. Ozburn knelt and swept Seliah's offerings into the bag with his big hands, going strictly by feel as he stared at Hood. When he was done he swung one of the machine pistols to his side and picked up both bags with one hand. He lifted the back of his gun hand to his face and wiped a rope of saliva from his chin. He bared his teeth at Hood and growled. Hood looked at Ozburn's horrific face. Then movement outside caught his eye and he saw the lights of Beth Petty's car coming up the rough gravel road.
"Company," said Ozburn. "You didn't hit a panic button, did you?"
"It's Beth."
"That right? I'd like to meet her, Charlie."
"Gotta stay on your good behavior, Oz."
"Never lecture a man with two machine guns."
"She's innocent of all this."
"So was Seliah. God, I miss her. You wouldn't believe how much good old-fashioned lust builds up when you got whatever in hell I have."
"I read that."
"Seliah tell you about it?"
"No."
"I thought she might have been coming on to you the night you put her in handcuffs."
"She put herself in them, Sean."
"Like Juan Batista."
"Like him, yes."
"The sex is like nothing you ever felt. It goes from pleasure to pain to something much bigger and stronger. You can't get enough. There isn't any word for that feeling. I can't even describe it."
Hood watched the headlight beams swing across the window glass and go out. He saw Beth, wrapped in her long knit sweater coat, a brown bag in the crook of one arm, coming up the walkway toward the front door.