"Sí, fifty dollars to the campesino who grows them and carries them on his back." Alejandro lit a cigarette. "So, in the pit is the coca leaves. They put in kerosene, sulfuric acid, lime. Then they put you in, to tramp on the leaves."

"What's this got to do with—"

"Silencio, el Inglés! You ask me why I like my job, why I kill for el Patrón? So, I am telling you, okay?"

He puffed furiously at the cigarette and went on. "In that pit you got no shoes; who has shoes? You tramp those leaves in the hot, hot sun. You steal a leaf and you chew it, your feet sting so bad. You ever bathe your feet in hot sulfuric acid? By dark, that hundred pounds of coca leaves is ten pounds of coca paste. What you pay for ten pounds of paste?"

"Off the freighter here? Perhaps five hundred dollars."

"Sí. You know what I got? Me, who made that paste?"

"A dollar an hour?"

"A dollar a day, el Inglés—if I don't get shot by a Leopard drug policeman from a U.S. Army helicopter. my skin stays on my feet so I can climb out of the pit. If the sun don't bake the brains from out of my head. One dollar every day, el Inglés, whether I and my poor old mamacita need it or not." He spat on the sidewalk. "All so some norteamericano kid can suck it up his nose." He regarded his cigarette, glanced at his Rolex, and grinned. "Yes, I like my new job, es verdad."

"I see," said Hoagie softly.

"And I will gladly kill you and your friends." He flicked the cigarette toward the street. It spun in an arc in the bright sunlight. "So where is your 'factory,' and how do we get there?"

Romeo's Cadillac slid to the curb. Hoagie got up and paid his bar bill.

"Just come with us, my friend."

***

Ellen Brody and Thea checked the equipment spread out on her bed off Carla's studio: a beach towel to sit on while they watched the swimming races; a Styrofoam ice chest for Cokes and Goombay Punch; dark glasses for herself; camera and film; Thea's sand shovel for when the child got bored with the festivities and wanted to dig a hole to China.

Coppertone. Sun block. Beach bag. Straw hat for herself and a baseball cap for Thea, which would certainly be lost.

Umbrella; folding chair for the unveiling in case nobody had reserved one for her in the stands. Binoculars from Neptune's Folly to watch the Windsurfer races and the Aquatic Parade. What else?

"What have we forgotten?" Ellen asked, brushing the hair from her eyes.

"We don't have a bucket!" Thea announced.

Oh, God, not that again...