The House of the Scorpion

Matt and Fidelito follow Guapo past graves dotted with golden flowers. Guapo shares that the flowers help the dead find their way home. As they fly through the city on Guapo’s hovercraft, Matt admires the beautiful houses and fireworks and enjoys the music. The hovercraft suddenly reaches a parade, where people are dressed up in costumes. Matt sees a costume of the “Vampire of Dreamland” followed closely by skull-faced eejits and realizes it is El Patrón. Fidelito panics when he sees Keepers in the crowd. Guapo evades them and drops the boys safely at the base of a hill leading up to the convent.

When Fidelito asks if this is where María lives, Matt’s heart sinks. He wants desperately to meet María but wonders if she will want to see him, especially with his acne-riddled face and scarred body. As they approach the convent, an awestruck Fidelito points out that the convent is actually a castle. When Matt is unable to find a door, a wall opens into a courtyard. Matt realizes the wall is just a hologram. Inside, they pass a statue of Saint Francis before reaching the hospital corridor. They ask a nurse to lead them to Chacho and María. She tells the two to be careful, as the Keepers are snooping around, before leading them to Chacho. She admits that she, too, is an orphan who once lived under the oppression of Keepers before leaving them at the door of Chacho’s room. Inside the room, nuns are arguing with Carlos and Jorge by the bed. Ton-Ton, who is slouched on the floor, mouths to the boys to run.

A nurse named Sister Inéz refuses to let the Keepers take Chacho—if he is moved, he will die. When Carlos threatens to take Chacho without permission, she and Matt say they will have to go through them. Jorge tries to grab Matt but stumbles over Ton-Ton. As Ton-Ton and Matt try to fight off the Keepers, a sharp voice commands them to stop. A physically small but fierce-looking woman who is addressed as Esperanza enters the room. Esperanza demands an explanation. When everyone starts talking at once, she asks Ton-Ton to explain. Without a single stutter, Ton-Ton shares the events of the last few days. Jorge insists that Ton-Ton is “mentally retarded” and Esperanza shouldn’t believe a word he says. Esperanza then asks if Jorge is suggesting the canings didn’t happen and that the boneyard is a myth. Though Esperanza nods her head as though she believes Jorge’s explanations, she continues to ask if the warehouse full of laudanum is also a myth. Jorge flinches as Esperanza shares that the Aztlán police have been investigating the saltworks and the Keepers will need to take a drug test. Police enter the room and carry Carlos and Jorge away. Esperanza shares that she has been trying to take down the Keepers for a long time, but she lacked evidence until now. They are interrupted by María, who shrieks with joy and throws herself into Matt’s arms.

Sister Inéz treats Matt and Chacho in the hospital. María visits Matt every day and shares every detail of her routine. Her joyful demeanor and spirit fill Matt with hope. One day, Esperanza accompanies María on one of her visits. Esperanza admits that she needs Matt to do something important. No one has heard from anyone in Opium since El Patrón’s death, and Opium has been on lockdown for more than three months; the security system blocks everything. Only El Patrón’s DNA and fingerprint can override the system, and only Matt has them. Esperanza thinks there is some kind of trouble; otherwise, the Alacráns wouldn’t have sealed themselves off. Matt wonders if the eejits or the Farm Patrol revolted, or if the Alacráns are fighting. Matt believes there is nothing he can do to help: As a clone, he has no power.

Esperanza explains to Matt that he isn’t a clone any longer. According to international law, there can’t be two versions of a person at the same time, so the copy is declared an unperson. However, when the original dies, the clone takes its place. Now, Matt really is El Patrón and the new Master of Opium. María asks if Matt is human, and her mother replies that he always was. Esperanza promises to do everything in her power to make him the new drug lord if he promises to destroy the Opium empire and tear down the barrier that separates Aztlán and the United States. Matt realizes that Esperanza cares less about her daughters and more about her desire to dismantle Opium. Matt knows he can’t refuse after all the evil and suffering that El Patrón spread, and he agrees.

Matt is flown to Opium in a hovercraft and is instructed to press his hand on an identity plate. Matt looks down to the estate where he grew up with new eyes. He searches the grounds for people and wonders where everyone is. No one comes to greet him other than a few servants and eejits outside. The pilot remains on standby as Matt enters the mansion. Esperanza instructed Matt to find the Alacráns and use his DNA to override the lockdown so the Aztlán and United States armies can invade and make Matt the new leader. Matt is wary of the Alacráns due to their past cruelty, but there is no one to be found. He hears the piano playing and finds Mr. Ortega, who runs away when Matt touches him. Matt sits down and begins to play, falling into a trance until Celia enters the room. She cries at how much he changed and hugs him ferociously. Matt asks about Tam Lin and why the Alacráns haven’t tried ending the lockdown. Celia apologizes for being unable to send a message and takes Matt to the computer room to explain. Mr. Ortega and Daft Donald sit at the computers as Celia reminds Matt that both things and people were a part of El Patrón’s dragon hoard—they all belonged to him.

Celia and Daft Donald share the events of the night Matt escaped. That night, everyone attended El Patrón’s wake. Celia didn’t because she was pretending to be an eejit, and Mr. Ortega didn’t hear about it. The Farm Patron and El Patrón’s bodyguards carried the old man’s gold coffin into his secret burial chambers, which were full of gold. After the eejits and Farm Patrol agents were sent away, the guests were left to enjoy the party. They discussed their hatred for El Patrón as Tam Lin brought out a special bottle of wine marked with a scorpion that El Patrón wanted to be served either at his 150th birthday or at his funeral. When the family raised their glasses, Tam Lin told Daft Donald not to drink. After Mr. Alacrán gave a toast to greed, everyone drank except for Daft Donald. Within a minute, everyone, including Tam Lin, fell down and died. Matt realizes that this must have been El Patrón’s plan all along—he never intended to let anyone inherit his kingdom.

Daft Donald laid out as many bodies as he could manage while crying before exploding the entrance. Tam Lin went along with the plan because it was the only chance to free the eejits and make up for his terrible crimes. Broken by Tam Lin’s sacrifice, Matt runs to the stables. He orders a Safe Horse from Rosa, rides through the poppy fields, and watches the eejits work. He wonders if it is possible to reverse the operation that makes people into eejits but knows it could take years. He curses Tam Lin for leaving him. Matt knows he will have to get rid of the Farm Patrol and hire less violent men to replace them because the eejits can’t exist without orders.

At the oasis, Matt rereads the letter Tam Lin wrote when he first left with El Patrón. Matt lights a fire and sits down to think. He decides to replace the poppy fields with normal crops and convince scientists to help him cure the eejits. When they are cured, he will reunite them with their lost children and give them the option to return home. He will invite Chacho, Fidelito, and Ton-Ton to live with him and wonders if María would come and help with the eejits. Matt sees something sparkling in the distance and runs towards it to find a drawing of a red scorpion. When he touches it, a door opens into a chamber full of gold. Matt knows that El Patrón’s coffin lies inside, surrounded by dead bodyguards, family members, and Tam Lin. Though Tam Lin said he had no choice but to go with El Patrón, Matt believes he could have said no. Matt sits by the campfire late into the night, thinking about the difficult job he will have to begin in the morning. Though undoing El Patrón’s empire won’t be easy, he is comforted knowing he won’t be alone.