Savages

30

Chon sits in the black leather chair and watches the inauguration of the new president of the United States.

Who reaches out a hand to the Muslim world.

Chon gets that—he’s reached out to the Muslim world a few times himself.

It’s good Ben is coming back. The new prez agrees. He’s telling the thousands in attendance and the millions watching on television that the feeding frenzy at the trough is over, the orgy has been put on indefinite hiatus, the Third World is closer than you think, in both time and space.

Recession.

Depression.

Repression.

Whichever word you use, there’s a smaller pie to slice up and the knives are out. (See Clip, Video.) Layoffs, lop-offs, the market self-correcting. Companies becoming more efficient and the Baja Cartel is at the cutting edge (oof).

“How do you think we should respond?” Ben asks in the Skype session.

“Reach out to the Mexican world.”

“Violence is not necessarily the answer,” Ben says.

It’s not necessarily not the answer, either, Chon thinks.

This violent state of mind.

This violent state of mine.

As he watches the old president—aka the Sock Puppet—wave and get on the helicopter.

The last time someone tried to muscle Ben and Chonny’s it was a biker gang. Those boys picked up one of their retailers and beat him to death with a tire iron as a message that Ben and Chon could no longer do retail in the greater San Diego area.

Ben, natch, was off doing good somewhere, so this is how Chon took care of it.