Chapter 28: Game Plan

The car bumped along the rough dirt road leading out of Paracho. Jackson sat tensely behind the wheel, trying to forget the fact that he was driving the getaway car in a kidnapping and was experiencing intense pain from a bullet lodged in his foot. Sands sat quietly in the passenger seat, puffing at his cigarette, seemingly deep in thought and much calmer now then when they'd left Guitar Town.

El had yet to awaken, but Jackson figured it wouldn't be long before he came to. Personally, he wasn't looking forward to that.

~*~

Sands sighed, and tried to recall where he put his Aspirin. The rough road was causing his headache to return, and he sincerely hoped the incessant pounding wouldn't plague him much longer.

A deep cloud of smoke entered his lungs and he held it in a moment before exhaling slowly. He didn't feel like dealing with Jackson right now; he was too busy thinking about what he'd just gotten himself into.

Feeling a bit stifled, Sands rolled his window down a bit more. Although so far he'd had no trouble pulling El's strings, he knew it wouldn't last. If El refused to be a part of his plan, there wasn't much to stop El from escaping, or turning on him the first chance he got.

He wasn't that blind.

When it came right down to it, he needed El to agree to be a part of his plan.

That was the question, wasn't it?

Of course, he could continue to threaten El with the cartels, but he wasn't sure how effective that would be. El was far too much of a live-wire to take his threats for long.

Sands tossed his dead cigarette out the window and felt the road beneath their wheels change from dirt to asphalt.

He almost chuckled. It was a completely ridiculous idea, one that was damn near impossible.

Still, he was the best psychological warfare officer the Company had, so if anything, he thought it would be a worthy test of his skills. He was always up for a good battle of wits.

That is, as long as he won in the end.

Sands heard El groan softly, and begin to move around in the backseat as he came to.

~*~

El felt dazed, unsure of where he was. Opening his eyes he discovered his vision was hazy and he felt like the world was spinning around him. Groaning again, a little more loudly this time, he tried to move his arms, only to discover that they were bound tightly behind his back.

As he attempted to sit up, he found his feet were also bound. Trying to focus his blurry vision, his fogged mind deduced that he was lying tied up in the backseat of a car. Still feeling disoriented he tried to remember what had happened.

Slowly it filtered back into his memory.

Sands.

Turning his head he looked towards the front seat, and sure enough, there sat Sands.

As if sensing El was awake, Sands turned towards the bound man and smiled.

"Have a nice nipper-nap El? The Sandman didn't give you any unpleasant dreams, did he?"

El rolled his eyes, feeling oddly hung over, disoriented, and really not in the mood for Sands and his craziness.

"Sandman?" El asked thickly, trying to grasp what Sands was talking about.

Sands chuckled and raised an eyebrow before answering.

"The Sandman bleeds you of your mortality. He will blind your sight and fuel the fire of your insanity."

El glared at Sands. Nothing he was saying was making any sense. Not that that was anything new, but it seemed more random than usual.

After a short stretch of silence, both of Sands' eyebrows raised and he turned back around, facing the front of the car again.

"Still not getting it are you? It's from a song, you nitwit. Do you live in a cave? The Sandman is the controller of dreams... and nightmares."

El said nothing, getting Sands' little double meaning, but deciding that ignoring the officer was the best plan of action… for the moment anyway.

After a minute of silence Sands asked, "Are you giving me the cold shoulder, El? Really, we're practically old friends. That hurts."

El's hands turned into fists as he silently fought against the bindings around his wrists.

"Are you ignoring me, or are you asleep?"

Another minute passed, and the forgotten Jackson turned to look at the officer next to him, wondering what the heck Sands was up to, and noticing the mischievous look on his face.

For several minutes no one spoke. Jackson and El both thought Sands had let up until he suddenly started quoting some song or other in an oddly soft voice, as if he was telling a bedtime story to a child.

"Something's wrong, shut the light. Heavy thoughts tonight, and they aren't of Snow White. Dreams of war, dreams of liars, dreams of dragon's fire and of things that will bite. Exit light. Enter night."

Sands 'looked' at El.

Cocking his head, Sands finished, "You best sleep with one eye open, El."

"Do I look like I'm sleeping?" El asked, grumpy, and was surprised when Sands had no snappy comeback, only turning his gaze back to the road ahead and uttering a bored, "Not particularly."

El's disorientation, no doubt an after affect of the shock Sands' had given him, was beginning to wear off. Looking down he noticed that he'd been completely disarmed. He couldn't even feel the familiar weapons that he usually hid inside his boots.

"You'll be sorry you did this, Sands."

"Really El, what I'm going to ask you to do isn't all that difficult. Why, it's practically a walk in the park for a myth such as yourself."

"So you kidnap me?" El asked angrily.

"Well, I could sense that you weren't diggin' the vibe I was sending you, so I had to initiate plan B," Sands drawled, pausing a moment in contemplation before continuing. "Actually, it's plan C. I advise you don't make me whip out plan D, because it really doesn't have your best interests at heart."

Sands smirked as El asked, "And what is plan D?"

"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you… as a matter of fact, that's precisely the main idea behind plan D." Sands paused a moment, and then snapped his fingers, "Damn. Cat's out of the bag now."

El sighed and attempted to loosen his bonds again. "Are you ever serious?"

Sands was stone-faced as he replied, "I'm always serious."

Giving up momentarily on the bindings, El dropped his head back to rest on the seat.

"All right. Out with it. What do I have to do before I can go back to my home?"

Sands smirked, not really buying El's sudden submission. He knew El still wasn't willing to do work for him, and was merely curious as to what Sands wanted.

"Close your eyes, click your heels three times and say 'There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home'," Sands said, complete with impersonation. "Oh damn, I guess you can't do that since your feet are bound and you don't have any glittering red magic shoes. I guess that means you'll just have to work for me again."

El grunted. "If I do this… whatever it is, when I'm through, will you just leave me alone?"

"That's a highly probable possibility."

"Yeah? Well unless you give me your word that you'll leave me be after this, I won't agree to do it. I'll fight you all the way."

"Perhaps, but you also won't have a safe home to go to. So it's in your best interests not to ex-nay my plan before you even hear it."

"I don't let anyone threaten me."

Sands head snapped around to face El. "And I don't let anyone get away with turning on me. In my book that, El, is betrayal," Sands said with an anger El had never heard from him before.

Sands mood quickly changed, as if his anger could be switched off like a light, and his voice reverted to its normal drawl.

"You really ought to consider yourself lucky. You could easily be dead by now. But I've decided, out of the goodness of my heart of course, to give you one last chance to prove yourself. You know, you seriously disappointed me during the coup. However, there's yet another balance that needs readjusting here in Mexico and I'm willing to let you redeem yourself in my… eyes."

El said nothing, just studied Sands from the backseat. He was just noticing it. There was something off about Sands, he just couldn't put his finger on what it was.

"I'll give you all the details of the operation as is necessary. Right now, I've told you everything you need to know."

"You haven't told me anything."

"Exactly."

El was growing more frustrated by the minute. He wasn't used to being toyed with. "I have no choice but to do this for you, do I?"

Sands grinned at El.

"No, but welcome to the fold."