Chapters 26-28

I read 27 pages.

"Why don't you put a computer chip in the horse's brain? Then it wouldn't matter how many legs it had." A gasp went around the room.
"Are you saying---?" the Keeper stopped, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you suggesting we turn the horse into a zombie?" (page 274)

When Matt suggests putting a computer chip into the five-legged horse instead of sawing off the extra leg, everyone seemed shocked that he would even think of something like that. I wonder how they would react to spending a day at the Alacran Estate with Safe Horses and eejits everywhere.

Chapter 26 Summary: The border guards are impressed with Matt's narrow escape from the Farm Patrol, and they ask him his name. He hesitated for a moment before telling them his name is Matt Ortega. The guards take Matt to a building to bathe, change clothes, and eat. They ask him what happened, and he recites the story Tam Lin came up with. He tells them he wants to go to San Luis, which is where Maria is. The guards ask Matt what kind of skills he has, and he tells them he can play the piano. They call him an aristocrat, which is what he is called quite a bit by the Keepers. A guard named Raul decides to send him to a plankton factory to work in San Luis. Matt thinks that sounds fine, he decides he'll just escape and find Maria when he gets there. He sees the other guards playing a holo-game, which he has never seen before since El Patron kept Opium behind present times. The game turns out to be called cannibals and missionaries, which is really strange if you ask me. Matt is then taken to a place with other children, which is the orphanage for children who lost their parents while trying to go over the border. He meets Fidelito and Chacho, and Chacho explains how everyone works and if someone doesn't meet the quota, they get less food or no meal at all. Already being smaller than most of the boys, this explains why Fidelito is so thin. Actually, Fidelito and Chacho are also going to San Luis with Matt the next day. Matt learns the guards who look after the orphans are called Keepers, and the orphans dislike the Keepers very much.

Chapter 27 Summary: Matt learns things from the kids who are working with him. The orphans are called the Lost Boys and Lost Girls, and they live in different buildings. Everyone refers to Opium as "Dreamland." The kids say how their parents are just trying to get enough money and settle in, then they are coming back for their children. It's heartbreaking to know how hopeful they are about their parents coming back for them, but Matt knows what happened to all of them. They didn't successfully cross the border, but they were turned into eejits. Matt helps Fidelito make more pills, so Fidelito can eat. At lunch, everyone had to recite the Five Principles of Good Citizenship and the Four Attitudes Leading to Right Mindfulness. Thanks to Matt's help, Fidelito receives a full bowl a beans for lunch. After lunch, Matt goes to Chacho's table, and Chacho says he should get used to making one product, because after a while you aren't allowed to switch around. We learn Chacho is secretly making a guitar, because his dad used to make them. He insists his dad is working in the United States and is going to send for him soon, although Matt knows his dad was probably turned into an eejit. Their bedtime story is about individualism, and why it is like a five-legged horse. According to Raul, individualism will cause people to just go in circles, so people should just be the same. Matt points out that not letting people be individuals is about the same as putting a computer chip into their brain, and everyone is shocked at this statement. Raul calls Matt an aristocrat. When everyone goes to bed, Matt begins to freak out, because he can't let anyone find out he is El Patron's clone since everyone at the orphanage despises "Dreamland."

Chapter 28 Summary: Chacho, Fidelito, and Matt are being taken to the plankton factory. Fidelito vomits on the way to San Luis, creating a terrible smell in the hovercraft. When they finally land, the boys exit the hovercraft only to be exposed to heat and an even worse stench of rotting fish. They fall to the ground and throw up at this. The boys go into the plankton factory, and the smell isn't as bad as it was outside. When they come across Keepers and Matt says his name, one calls him "the aristocrat," which means Raul must've already told them about Matt. They are forced to clean the vomit out of the hovercraft, but it's mainly Matt and Chacho cleaning since Fidelito still felt sick. After they finish, they talk to the head Keeper, Carlos. He rambles on about how great plankton is. It grows in the sea, then the factory manufactures it to be turned into food for humans. Matts asks where San Luis is, but Carlos tells him that it's on a need-to-know basis. The plankton factory is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by salt hills from the leftover plankton process. They eat plankton at lunch, and Matt learns that they are where the ocean used to be, and pollution from the Colorado River killed all of the whales. He also learns that the Gulf of California is where Opium gets its water from. While working, Matt brings up swimming, and Chacho claims that is something aristocrats do. Fidelito says he knows how to swim, because his grandma lived on the seashore. Then he explains how he became a refugee when a hurricane came along and destroyed their home. Fidelito's grandma got sick and the Keepers had to force feed her. Matt didn't understand why they did this, and Chacho explained that it was every citizens' job to survive and contribute to the general good, and that if the Keepers just let any ill person or orphan go, they wouldn't have a job. Carlos comes and scolds the boys for not working. Matt talks back to Carlos, which makes the three boys lose their dinner privileges for that night. He apologizes for making Chacho and Fidelito lose dinner, but they don't mind and Fidelito says he's proud to be friends with them. Aw, that was nice of him.