She waited until he was in the other room before she picked up the gun. She positioned the chair so she could rest her hands on its back supporting the pistol's weight. She stood there, the gun pointed at the door, waiting for Pedro to return. She heard him moving around in the kitchen, and after an interval that seemed to be a long time, he appeared in the doorway. He took two or three steps before he realized that Maria had his gun. He stopped and demanded angrily, "Put the gun down, puta, before I break your neck." Her body was trembling violently, and she was so frightened that she almost obeyed. Her legs were so weak that they felt as though they were about to collapse and let her fall. "Get out of my way," she whispered weakly. "Por favor, senor. I must leave." "I'll show you, you treacherous whore," he screamed. He dropped the wine glasses and rushed toward her. She braced, waiting to feel the crushing blows of his fists. He was almost upon her when she heard the gun firing again and again and felt it bucking in her hands. Pedro fell backward onto the floor. Blood was splattered on the wall behind him and flowed from beneath his body in scarlet streams. Maria is a young girl who is kidnapped by a ruthless cartel that sells Mexican senoritas to oil-rich foreigners. Cal Lovett is a callous con man who defrauds desperate cancer patients with a bogus cancer cure machine. Andy Calliope is a construction worker who meets Jesus in a remote and lonely canyon."