The Lord of Opium

4

CIENFUEGOS

Celia was sitting at the kitchen table with a man Matt had never seen before. He was thin to the point of emaciation, and his skin was the same color as a coyote. His eyes were pale brown and watchful. He was cleaning a stun gun of the kind used to subdue Illegals, or sometimes to kill them.

“Matt!” cried Celia, springing up, but she stopped herself before she hugged him. “Oh, dear, I can’t call you Matt anymore. It isn’t dignified.”

“You need a title,” said the strange man, sighting along the stun gun. “This place is like a time bomb. The sooner we establish you as the master, the better.”

“He needs a name suitable for a drug lord,” said Celia.

“How about El Tigre Oscuro, the Hidden Tiger? Or El Vengador, the Avenger?”

“I don’t want a new name,” said Matt.

“You’re going to have enough trouble controlling El Patrón’s empire,” the man explained. “You need a title that inspires fear, and you need to back it up with random acts of violence. I can help you there.”

“Who are you?” Matt asked, instinctively on his guard.

“Oh! I forgot you’d never met,” Celia apologized. “This is Cienfuegos, the jefe of the Farm Patrol. He’s responsible for law and order. You haven’t seen him before because he spends most of his time in the fields or at the other house.”

“Other house?” said Matt. The Farm Patrol was responsible for trapping Illegals so they could be turned into eejits. They were vicious and dangerous, and Matt wondered why Celia, who had every reason to hate them, tolerated this one.

“The hacienda in the Chiricahua Mountains,” said Cienfuegos. “It’s where El Patrón went on vacation. It’s a very fine place. I’m surprised you never went there.”

“Until recently my job was to wait around until he needed a heart,” Matt said coldly. “Heart donors don’t get vacations.”

Celia caught her breath, but Cienfuegos smiled. It made him look even more like a hungry coyote. “Muy bravo, chico. I hope you have what it takes to step into El Patrón’s shoes.”

Matt remembered one of El Patrón’s most important rules: Always establish your authority before anyone has a chance to question it. “No one is better qualified to run Opium than I,” he told the jefe. “I kept my eyes and ears open when El Patrón discussed the business with his heirs. I know the trade routes, the distribution points, who to bribe, and who to threaten. El Patrón himself taught me how to intimidate enemies and how to recruit bodyguards from distant countries because they wouldn’t be as likely to betray you.”

“¡Hijole! You looked just like the old vampire when you said that,” exclaimed Cienfuegos. “Maybe we aren’t screwed after all. Celia, get us some pulque. We need to drink to the new ruler of Opium.”

“Matt doesn’t drink alcohol,” Celia said.

“But I do,” said Cienfuegos. He leaned back in his chair and put his boots up on the kitchen table. Matt was shocked. If anyone else had tried that, Celia would have thrown him out the door. But Cienfuegos looked perfectly comfortable, as if he’d been doing it all his life.

Presently, Celia returned with orange juice for herself and Matt, and a bottle of pulque for the head of the Farm Patrol. Cienfuegos took a long drink, and the acrid smell of fermented cactus juice wafted across the table. “Now, I don’t want to be disrespectful, young master,” he said, “but I’m certain El Patrón didn’t tell you everything about the trade. He had more secrets than a coyote has fleas. Tell me what you want to do with this country you’ve inherited.”

Matt hesitated. One of the first things he wanted to do was disband the Farm Patrol. He couldn’t reveal that. In fact, he didn’t want to reveal anything to someone he’d just met and didn’t trust. He wanted to uproot the opium—or most of it, anyway. That would automatically throw Cienfuegos out of work. With Esperanza Mendoza’s help, Matt hoped to shut down the drug distribution network. He remembered the thousands of dealers who depended on it for their livelihood. They wouldn’t like their jobs taken away one bit.

The boy felt overwhelmed by the size of the problem he’d inherited. El Patrón’s empire was made up of many interlocking parts, and if he removed one piece, the rest might collapse into chaos. He badly needed advice, and he couldn’t get it from Celia. She was wise and trustworthy, but she wasn’t an expert in this area.

One thing stood out in Matt’s mind as most important. “The implants have to be taken out of the eejits’ brains,” he said.

“That’s impossible,” Cienfuegos instantly responded.

“You don’t know that for sure. If I can cure the eejits, they could be asked to stay on as paid workers.”

The jefe laughed. “Have you seen what they do, mi patrón? No one could stand that job without an implant.”

“People have farmed for thousands of years,” argued Matt. “They weren’t zombies. I’d like to see other crops planted—corn, wheat, tomatoes. I’d like cattle as well.” He thought for a moment, carefully gauging the effect of his next suggestion. “I want to end the lockdown. Esperanza Mendoza, the UN representative, wants to negotiate opening the border.”

Cienfuegos wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. “¡Esa víbora! I don’t know where to begin with that snake.”

“Why don’t you take Matt for a ride?” suggested Celia. “Let him be seen as El Patrón’s heir. You can explain the situation to him on the way.”

* * *

“Can you ride a horse?” said Cienfuegos. They were at the stables, and the odor of fresh hay prickled Matt’s nose.

“Only Safe Horses,” he admitted. He could instantly tell the difference between the animals in the stalls. The Safe Horses stood quietly, tamed by the microchips in their brains. The Real Horses put their noses over the gates and begged for attention. They watched eagerly to see whether they would be taken for a run.

“Pity. You won’t make a good impression until you know how to ride. When he was young, El Patrón was a fantastic horseman. He could break a wild mustang without even using a saddle.”

“That must have been a long time ago,” said Matt. El Patrón had been 146 years old when he died.

“The memory is kept alive in narcocorridos,” said Cienfuegos.

“Narcocorridos?”

“It’s an old-fashioned word for personal ballads. Now they call them gritos.”

“Ah!” Matt understood. He had endured many hours of tuneless yowling from bands hired to celebrate drug deals or spectacular murders. These were politely listened to by El Patrón when drug lords came to visit. The old man had his own praise singers, but they were top-of-the-line guitarists from South America and Portugal.

“I use the old word because that was the term El Patrón preferred,” Cienfuegos explained. “He had a fine ear for music. He hired the best composers in the world, and his corridos will never die.”

“You sound like you admire him,” said Matt.

“I do. I know he was evil, but I’m no cherub myself,” said Cienfuegos. “Well, if you can’t ride, we’d better go by car. You can sit in the back and look menacing.”

Matt followed the jefe to the garage. Daft Donald was polishing El Patrón’s long, black touring car. It had once been owned by someone called Hitler and had a top that could be folded back. Matt had always admired it but until now had not been allowed inside.

Daft Donald nodded silently in greeting. Long ago he and Tam Lin had been Scottish terrorists together and had set a bomb to blow up the prime minister of England. Unfortunately, a school bus had pulled up at the last minute. The explosion killed twenty children and left Daft Donald with a wound that almost severed his throat and had destroyed his ability to speak.

What a fine collection of followers I’ve inherited, Matt thought. Citizens of Opium and not a cherub among them.

Daft Donald grinned and got into the driver’s seat. He looked as eager as the horses to be taken for a run. Matt reminded himself that the man, in spite of his evil past, had always been kind. And he was a friend of Tam Lin, which counted for a lot.

Cienfuegos and Matt sat in the back, with Matt on a pillow to make him look taller. “Remember, don’t smile,” the jefe warned him. “You’re here to rule, not make friends.”

Spring arrived early in Opium, and sand verbenas were already putting out lavender blooms. Desert lilies poked through the warming soil. In the vast gardens of the hacienda, a haze of bees moved over beds of sweet alyssum, and a white-winged dove called who-cooks-for-you? from a paloverde tree.

In spite of Cienfuegos’s warning, Matt couldn’t help smiling. This was his home and his country. It wasn’t full of clanking machines and noxious air like Aztlán—except for the eejit pens, he quickly reminded himself. They were kept out of sight at the bottom of shallow valleys, and it was all too easy to forget about them.

Water from the Colorado River was purified for drinking. The residue, a toxic mix that smelled like rotten fish, excrement, and vomit, was pumped into sludge ponds next to the eejit pens. On still nights the air from the ponds overflowed and poisoned whatever it came in contact with. Then the Farm Patrol ordered the eejits to sleep out in the fields.

The gardeners waved and shouted, “¡Viva el patroncito!” as Hitler’s old car went by. Matt raised his hand to wave back.

“Don’t encourage them,” hissed Cienfuegos. “If they start calling you ‘the little boss,’ they’ll never show respect.”

Matt put his hand down.

They left the green lawns of the estate and came to the first poppy field. Lines of eejits bent and slashed in a mindless rhythm, and a Farm Patrolman monitored them from the back of a horse.

“¡Hola! Angus!” shouted Cienfuegos. “Come and see the new patrón!”

Daft Donald stopped the car and Angus rode up, tipping his hat. “It’s a fine day when we have a new drug lord,” he said. “Good fortune to you, sir.” He was a bluff, red-faced Scotsman with the same lilting accent as Tam Lin. The man bent down confidentially and said to Cienfuegos, “You might put a word in his ear about the eejit pellets. We’ve had to cut rations again.”

“I’m getting to it,” said the jefe.

Angus shot a quick look at Matt and bent down again. “Begging your pardon, sir, but doesn’t he look like—”

“It’s hardly surprising. El Patrón was the original model.”

“You don’t say! I’ll be burning an extra candle tonight.” Angus tipped his hat again and rode off.

“Eejit pellets?” Matt asked as Daft Donald started the car.

“We get their food from a plankton factory in Aztlán,” explained Cienfuegos. “With the border closed, we’ve had to depend on reserves.”

“Can’t you open it?” said Matt.

“The controls only recognize certain people. The Alacráns activated the lockdown before they went to El Patrón’s funeral, and now they’re all dead. The system is programmed to kill anyone who isn’t authorized. I’m hoping that doesn’t include you.”

Me too, thought Matt. The old man had booby traps planted all over to keep enemies from gaining control.

Cienfuegos leaned forward and told Daft Donald to take them to the armory.