45 pages • 1 hour read
Paolo BacigalupiThe Water Knife
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 12-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
Maria visits the Vet’s gated compound to talk to the Vet personally about the money that was taken from her. The Vet has “claimed an entire neighborhood, turning it into his own gated community” (127). Maria can hear the laughs of the hyenas that the Vet keeps as she approaches the compound. Maria hadn’t made enough money selling water after Cato took most of her money. She had thought briefly about running, but decided against it. Sarah refuses to go back to the compound after a traumatic experience at a previous all-night party there: The Vet had released the hyenas from their cages, and the animals hunted down a couple in front of Sarah.
Maria can see the Vet feeding the hyenas raw meat in their pens. Maria complains to Damien that Esteban had taken her money and that she was short for rent because of him. Damien isn’t surprised to hear this, and Maria realizes that Damien and Esteban had worked together to set her up to be short on rent. Maria decides to get the Vet personally involved. Maria tells the Vet that she had money for rent but that Damien had Esteban take it from her. As she talks to the Vet, Maria realizes that he “wasn’t a person at all. He was something else. A demon, climbed up out of the earth” (130). The Vet asks Maria why she doesn’t work for him, selling her body on street corners. Maria tells him she just wants to sell her water. As they talk, the Vet alludes to his hyenas and what they could do if he were to set them free. Afterward, the Vet gives Maria an extra day to make the money she owes Damien.
Chapter 13 Summary
Back at his hotel, Angel runs searches for Lucy. While he searches, Angel watches episodes of his favorite television show, Undaunted. Angel especially likes the actor Tau Ox, who plays the show’s main character, Relic Jones. Julio and Angel discuss Lucy and the possible connection between Jamie and Vos. Julio tells Angel, “If you’re smart, you’ll get out of here with me” (137). Angel sees Julio as “a beaten dog, eager to cower and flee” (139). After Julio leaves, Angel researches the books Lucy has written. Angel enjoys how Lucy spent a good amount of time profiling Case and the SNWA in one of her books. Lucy’s second book catches Angel’s attention: “Before, she’d been on the outside, reporting. Now it was personal” (140). Angel believes that he feels a connection with Lucy because she’s “someone who’d seen too much” (141).
Chapter 14 Summary
Lucy wonders about the Apocalypse Now! card that she found in Jamie’s wallet. She doesn’t think the card is Jamie’s style, and the presence of the card “stood out like a flaring beacon” (142). Apocalypse Now! is a club on a Phoenix strip called the Golden Mile: “The Golden Mile had been Phoenix’s attempt to build a Las Vegas south of the river” (142). Lucy goes to the club to investigate, but security immediately turns her away at the front door. In the back alley, though, Lucy talks to a bartender who identifies Jamie’s photo. The bartender tells Lucy that Jamie was there with a group of fivers and was dancing with a man who works for Ibis.
Lucy asks Timo to help her find information on the man the bartender identified inside the club. She tells Timo that the man’s name is Ratan, and she thinks he works for California. Lucy wants Timo to help track Ratan down and possibly find an address. If Lucy is willing to front the money, Timo knows a woman who does the records for Taiyang utilities, and they might be able to locate Ratan if his bills are in his name.
Chapter 15 Summary
Sarah guides Maria through a club and gives her a squeeze tube of “bubble,” a popular drug. Sarah tells her to take some because “it makes it easier. Makes this fun” (149). As the drug begins to take its effect, Maria feels good dancing in the club with Sarah. Maria wants to touch and be touched by other people in the club, but most of all, she finds herself wanting to touch Sarah the most. Maria and Sarah begin dancing with Sarah’s regular, the fiver named Ratan. Ratan wants to party and is willing to pay more than enough. Sarah begins kissing Maria, and Maria “was surprised that she didn’t mind” (151). The three leave the club and head back to Ratan’s apartment where they have sex. Maria is focused entirely on Sarah and allows Ratan to do whatever he wants to her as long as she has Sarah there. During this, Sarah keeps assuring Maria that Ratan will pay.
Chapter 16 Summary
Angel arrives at Lucy’s house and waits for her to come outside. He’s sure that she probably doesn’t want him there and isn’t in a rush to try to enter her home. When Lucy does come outside, she’s aggressive toward Angel. Angel just wants to talk, but Lucy points a pistol at him. Angel attempts to make himself as passive and harmless as possible. He assures Lucy that he wasn’t the one who killed Jamie. Eventually, after much persuading, Lucy tells Angel to come inside to talk.
Once inside, Angel inspects Lucy’s house. He notices a copy of Cadillac Desert on her bookshelf. Angel says that the book shows that “this mess isn’t an accident. We were headed straight to Hell, and didn’t do anything about it” (160). Lucy asks Angel if he’s a water knife working for Case, but he doesn’t answer her directly. Angel speculates that it was people working for California who killed Jamie. Lucy recounts the time an Ibis executive bribed her to stop writing about California in her stories. She tells Angel, “That’s how California plays the game. Catherine Case can have as many secret agents as she wants, but when it comes down to it, California sets the rules” (168). Lucy gets a phone call during their conversation. She picks up the phone and has a brief conversation about a fiver. Lucy eventually tells Angel that he needs to leave and that if she ever sees him again, she’ll shoot him.
Chapter 17 Summary
As Lucy drives to the Taiyang, Timo tells her the apartment number of Ratan. Lucy makes sure that Angel isn’t following her before proceeding inside the building. Immediately, the security guards in the public atrium stop her. Lucy tries to figure out a way to make it to Ratan’s apartment, 5-11-10—fifth residence tower, 11th floor, apartment 10. However, the security guards notice Lucy lingering too long and begin to escort her out of the building.
Chapters 12-17 Analysis
In Chapters 12-17, Lucy is becoming part of the story that she is reporting on. Things are personal for Lucy now, and it appears she’s finally crossed the threshold of perceived safety. Lucy takes it upon herself to investigate Ratan on her own. She meets with Angel and holds him at gunpoint in her home. She’s transitioning from outside observer to a native of the desert. Angel notes Lucy’s hardened look when he talks with her in her home. It’s apparent from their conversation that Lucy doesn’t trust Angel even though Angel wants her trust. Angel only confirms all of Lucy’s theories about Las Vegas water knives and Case.
These chapters also mark a turning point for Maria. She is given one more day to make up the money she owes to Damien. Now, she attempts to play Sarah’s game by sleeping with a fiver for money. Previously, she had been unwilling to do this. She wanted to earn money her own way. However, she’s backed into a corner and is willing to do whatever it takes to survive. When Sarah gives Maria the drug, “bubble,” in the club with Ratan, Maria enters into an illusory sense of happiness. She’s found a feeling that she knows can’t last, but for the present moment she is willing to stop thinking about the severity of her situation.
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