Edilio Escobar Quotes

It takes me a while to figure things out, doesn't it?" Edilio grinned. "Do me a favor. When you find Astrid, repeat that to her, word for word, the part about how it takes you a while. Then remember her exact reaction and tell me. ~ Michael Grant

Sam. Brianna is dead."
He just stared at her. Then, in a soft, almost childlike voice, he said, "Breeze?"
"She stopped Gaia. It looked like Brianna almost killed her. The second time she . . . But this time . . ."
There were tears in Sam's eyes. "My God. How is Dekka?"
"Like you'd expect. Destroyed. Roger's dead, too, so Edilio . . . It's been really bad, Sam. Really bad. It's like we're in a war."
"We are. ~ Michael Grant

Edilio is in hiding," Astrid snapped. "Edilio has to worry about being kicked out of the country. Our Edilio."
"He's got a volunteer lawyer - "
But Astrid wasn't done. "They should be putting up statues to Edilio. They should be naming schools after that boy - no, no, I'm not going to call him a boy. If he's not a man, then I'll never meet one."
Lana nodded approvingly, obviously enjoying and sharing in Astrid's outrage. ~ Michael Grant

When she came back down, Sam and Astrid had arrived.
Sam hugged Dekka, and the two of them stayed that way for a long time, saying nothing. Both had loved Brianna.
To Edilio, Sam said, "I'm so sorry, man. I wish I'd . . . You know what I wish."
Edilio fought back a fresh rush of tears, nodded, waited until he was sure he could speak, and said, "I'm glad you're back, boss. ~ Michael Grant

Sam, no!" Edilio snapped.
Sam missed a step, then stopped. He looked at Edilio, puzzled.
"We're scattered. And we can't risk you. You die and the light dies with you."
"Are you out of your mind? You think I'm going to let Drake come in here and take Diana?"
"Not you, Sam. Dekka, yes. Orc, yes. He's out there, too. And send Jack as well. Anyone but you."
Sam looked like he'd been punched. Like someone had knocked the wind out of him. He blinked and started to say something and stopped.
"You aren't replaceable, Sam. Figure it out, okay? It's going dark and you make light. So this isn't going to be your battle. Not now. It's on the rest of us to step up. ~ Michael Grant

She's stronger than you are, Sam. It's like fighting yourself and Caine and Jack and Dekka, all at once."
"Yeah."
"Talk to Astrid about it."
"I already talked to Astrid."
"And she's okay with a suicide mission? Because I'm not. You go out there, go to win, huh? Don't go out there thinking you're doing us a favor by getting killed."
Sam sighed. "It's the endgame, my friend."
"Sam . . .," Edilio began, but that was all he had, that one word, that one-word plea for a different solution.
"Take care of Astrid for me. Try to keep her safe and don't let her follow me. ~ Michael Grant

Edilio lay on the steps of town hall feeling as weak as a kitten. He had barely heard Caine's big speech. He couldn't have cared less. There was nothing he could do, not with delirium spinning his head.
He coughed hard, too hard. It wracked his body each time he did it so that he dreaded the next cough. His stomach was clenched in knots. Every muscle in his body ached.
He was vaguely aware that he was saying something in between coughs.
"Mamá. Mamá. Sálvame."
Save me, mother.
"Santa María, sálvame," he begged, and coughed so hard he smashed his head against the steps.
Death was near, he felt it. Death reached through his swimming, disordered mind and he felt its cold hand clutching his heart.
Santa María, Madre de Dios, ruega por nosotros pecadores, ahora y en la hora de nuestra muerte. ~ Michael Grant

Then, Zil and a half dozen of his crew swaggered into the plaza from the far side. Astrid clenched her jaw. Would the crowd turn on them? She almost hoped so. People thought because she wouldn't let Sam go after Zil she must not really despise the Human Crew's Leader. That was wrong. She hated Zil. Hated everything he had done and everything he had tried to do.
Edilio moved quickly between Zil and a few of the boys who had started toward him, sticks and knives at the ready.
Zil's kids were armed with knives and bats, and so were those who wanted to take them on. Edilio was armed with an assault rifle.
Astrid hated that this was what life so often came down to: my weapon is bigger than your weapon.
If Sam were here it would be about his hands. Everyone had either seen what Sam could do, or heard the stories retold in vivid detail. No one challenged Sam. ~ Michael Grant

I believe in every part of my soul that one of the most world-changing practices of love is to help create corrective experiences for people - to have them experience, in the flesh, something different than the damage they received in their family, life, or church. ~ Kathy Escobar

Sometimes I am God, if I say a man dies, he dies that same day. ~ Pablo Escobar

I would bring down the sky, if it meant I was able to stay with you
always. ~ Victoria Escobar

The men of always aren't interested in the children of never. ~ Pablo Escobar

I always hated when people told me not to aspire to certain things because I was a woman. I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be told this simply because of my skin color. One of the many things I've learned is that when you've been holed up in a safe house with someone who doesn't look like you or speak the same language, but who was ready to break bread with you and even fight by your side - you quickly realized that there were a lot more important things to gripe about. At the end of the day, people were just people - blood, sweat and tears, heart and soul. ~ Alesha Escobar

No aching
Just numbness
Sadness
That feeling as if
U miss him
But then you realized,
Maybe he wasn't yours
To begin with.
And
There were no memories
To Reminisce,
Only pain.
Because you knew
From the very beginning
He didn't love u as much
As you loved him.
And that isthe most painful
And crucial part.
Or maybe not.
Maybe it's the truth
That there is
Still an ounce of
Love that shouldn't
Be there at all.

Not after everything. ~ Marianne Escobar

My fingers were so coated with icing sugar it looked like I'd gone on a cocaine bender with Pablo Escobar. ~ Sierra Dean

Edilio sighed and leaned forward, elbows on the desk. Quinn, listen, man. We need stuff back to normal. ~ Michael Grant

Everyone has a price, the important thing is to find out what it is. ~ Pablo Escobar

Sometimes he'd dream of hunting for Adam the Usurper twenty years in the future, or of Doctor Simmons sending Aero to burrow into his head and steal his most secret thoughts and desires. ~ Alesha Escobar

Hunter's dead," Taylor said without preamble. "It was these . . . these things. They came crawling up out of him and were eating him, oh God, I mean, it was like . . . I mean he was crying and Dekka prayed with him and he tried to fry his own brain just like he did with Harry only I guess it didn't work, I guess he couldn't do it, so Sam . . ." She swallowed. "Anyone have some water?"
"What about Sam?" Astrid demanded.
"He did it for him. Sam. I mean, he . . . Hunter was, you know . . . so Sam." She pantomimed raising her hands, like Sam, like he would do when using his power.
Astrid closed her eyes and crossed herself.
"Rest in peace," Edilio said and crossed himself as well.
"Sam burned the boy?" Howard asked. Then, bitterly sarcastic said, "Yeah, you all pray to Jesus. Because Jesus is really providing a lot of help here. Sounds to me like Sam was the one doing what had to be done. ~ Michael Grant

I thought again about Pablo Escobar cutting off people's tongues. It made sense to stop speaking, to say only what was necessary and nothing beyond. It was a way to survive. ~ Ingrid Rojas Contreras

All empires are created of blood and fire. ~ Pablo Escobar

And he thought of the two people who had held his job before him: Sam and Astrid. Both beaten into despair by trying to hold this group of kids together in the face of one disaster after another. Both of them now happy to let Edilio handle it.
"No wonder," Edilio muttered.
"Stay inside unless absolutely necessary," Edilio shouted, and not for the first or last time wished he was still just Sam's faithful sidekick. ~ Michael Grant

She bit the inside of her cheek. "You wouldn't keep secrets from me, would you? I mean we've been friends how long?"
"We have been friends, thirteen years, eight months, two weeks, four days," The wheelchair stopped and Ari watched the long shadow look at his watch. "Sixteen hours, four minutes and forty seven seconds and counting I'd say; give or take thirty minutes. Or if you want the short version: five thousand and four days plus or minus a few hours."
She put her hands to her face and laughed to keep from crying. "Please tell me you made half of that up. Who actually keeps track of time like that? ~ Victoria Escobar

Sometimes we have to lose everything to find what is most important. When life robs us of what we thought we could not live without and leaves us standing naked before reality, the essential things tht had always been invisible take on their true value. ~ Mario Escobar

How do we stop them?" Edilio asked. He raised his head, and Sam saw the distress on his face. "How do you think we stop them? When your fifteenth birthday rolls around, the easy thing is to take the poof. You gotta fight to resist it. We know that. So how are we going to tell kids this isn't real, this Orsay thing?"
"We just tell them," Astrid said.
"But we don't know if it's real or not," Edilio argued.
Astrid shrugged. She stared at nothing and kept her features very still. "We tell them it's all fake. Kids hate this place, but they don't want to die."
"How do we tell them if we don't know?" Edilio seemed genuinely puzzled.
Howard laughed. "Deely-O, Deely-O, you are such a doof sometimes." He put his feet down and leaned toward Edilio as if sharing a secret with him. "She means: We lie. Astrid means that we lie to everyone and tell them we do know for sure."
Edilio stared at Astrid like he was expecting her to deny it.
"It's for people's own good," Astrid said in a low voice, still looking at nothing.
"You know what's funny?" Howard said, grinning. "I was pretty sure we were coming to this meeting so Astrid could rank on Sam for not telling us the whole truth. And now, it turns out we're really here so Astrid can talk us all into becoming liars. ~ Michael Grant

About time," Brianna said.
"Hey, sorry, we were kind of busy," Quinn snapped. "And I didn't exactly realize I was on a schedule."
"I don't like what I have to do here," Brianna said. She handed Quinn the note.
He read it. Read it again.
"Is this some kind of joke?" he demanded.
"Albert's dead," Brianna said. "Murdered."
"What?"
"He's dead. Sam and Dekka are off in the wilderness somewhere. Edilio's got the flu, he might die, a lot of kids have. A lot. And there are these, these monsters, these kind of bugs . . . no one knows what to call them . . . heading toward town." Her face contorted in a mix of rage and sorrow and fear. She blurted, "And I can't stop them!"
Quinn stared at her. Then back at the note.
He felt his contented little universe tilt and go sliding away.
There were just two words on the paper: "Get Caine. ~ Michael Grant

I think if Jesus was here teaching in the flesh again, he'd be turning over tables, clearing out churches, and raising some serious ruckus over how we are not only missing the point but are continuing to damage far too many people in the name of God. ~ Kathy Escobar

I prefer to be in the grave in Colombia than in a jail cell in the United States. ~ Pablo Escobar

Escobar, my ex-lover, was shot to death on December 2, 1993. To bring him down after a hunt that lasted nearly a year and a half, it was necessary to offer a reward of twenty-five million dollars and to employ a Colombian police commando unit specially trained for the purpose. ~ Virginia Vallejo

I'm killing Zil. Clear enough? I'm putting him down."
"Whoa, man," Edilio said. "That's not what we do. We're the good guys, right?"
"There has to be an end to it, Edilio." He wiped soot from his face with the back of his hand, but smoke had filled his eyes with tears. "I can't keep doing it and never reaching the end."
"It's not your call anymore," Edilio said.
Sam turned a steely glare on him. "You too? Now you're siding with Astrid?"
"Man, there have to be limits," Edilio said.
Sam stood staring down the street. The fire was out of control. All of Sherman was burning, from one end to the other. If they were lucky it wouldn't jump to another street. But one way or the other, Sherman was lost.
"We should be looking to save any kids that are trapped," Edilio said.
Sam didn't answer.
"Sam," Edilio pleaded.
"I begged Him to let me die, Edilio. I prayed to the God who Astrid likes so much and I said, God, if You're there, kill me. Don't let me feel this pain anymore."
Edilio said nothing.
"You don't understand, Edilio," Sam said so softly, he doubted Edilio could hear him over the roar and crackle of the fire raging all around them. "You can't do anything else with people like this. You have to kill them all. Zil. Caine. Drake. You just have to kill them. So right now, I'm starting with Zil and his crew," Sam said. "You can come with me or not. ~ Michael Grant

What does that word mean?" Cassidy asked. Her voice was soft, sexy. Mind-blowing. "Querida, or whatever you said? I don't speak Spanish."
"It's a term of endearment. An Anglo might say darling or honey."
"What was the other one you used? Me ha?
"Mi ja. Short for mi hija. It's what you say to someone you care about."
She smiled. "When you say that you sound
I don't know
affectionate."
"Maybe I like cats," Diego said.
Cassidy rested her hand on his chest, and her smile widened. "Meow. ~ Jennifer Ashley

Without healthy avenues to process loss, people fragment their experiences, neglect their real stories, numb out, and try to cope on their own, which often results in anger, depression, and anxiety. ~ Kathy Escobar

He's a murdering chud," Zil was yelling.
"What do you want to do? Lynch him?" Astrid demanded.
That stopped the flow for a second as kids tried to figure out what "lynch" meant. But Zil quickly recovered.
"I saw him do it. He used his powers to kill Harry."
"I was trying to stop you from smashing my head in!" Hunter shouted.
"You're a lying mutant freak!"
"They think they can do anything they want," another voice shouted.
Astrid said, as calmly as she could while still pitching her voice to be heard, "We are not going down that path, people, dividing up between freaks and normals."
"They already did it!" Zil cried. "It's the freaks acting all special and like their farts don't stink."
That earned a laugh.
"And now they're starting to kill us," Zil cried.
Angry cheers.
Edilio squared his shoulders and stepped into the crowd. He went first to Hank, the kid with the shotgun. He tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Give me that thing."
"No way," Hank said. But he didn't seem too certain.
"You want to have that thing fire by accident and blow someone's face off?" Edilio held his hand out. "Give it to me, man."
Zil rounded on Edilio. "You going to make Hunter give up his weapon? Huh? He's got powers, man, and that's okay, but the normals can't have any weapon? How are we supposed to defend ourselves from the freaks?"
"Man, give it a rest, huh?" Edilio said. He was doing his best to sound more weary tha ~ Michael Grant

There are two hundred million idiots, manipulated by a million intelligent men. ~ Pablo Escobar

There can only be one king. ~ Pablo Escobar

There probably are, but you would need a thaumaturge for that.
They have books upon books of old magic. We only have Google. ~ Victoria Escobar

As Sam came to a panting stop, a jet of orange flame burst from a high window.
Several dozen kids were standing, watching. A crowd that struck Sam as very strange, until he realized why it was strange: there were no adults, just kids.
"Is anyone in there?" Astrid called out. No one answered.
"It could spread," Sam said.
"There's no 911," someone pointed out.
"If it spreads, it could burn down half the town."
"You see a fireman anywhere?" A helpless shrug.
The day care shared a wall with the hardware store, and both were only a narrow alley away from the burning building. Sam figured they had time to get the kids out of the day care if they acted fast, but the hardware store was something they could not afford to lose.
There had to be forty kids just standing there gawking. No one seemed about to start doing anything.
"Great," Sam said. He grabbed two kids he sort of knew. "You guys, go to the day care. Tell them to get the littles out of there."
The kids stared at him without moving.
"Now. Go. Do it!" he said, and they took off running.
Sam pointed at two other kids. "You and you. Go into the hardware store, get the longest hose you can find. Get a spray nozzle, too. I think there's a spigot in that alley. Start spraying water on the side of the hardware store and up on the roof."
These two also stared blankly. "Dudes: Not tomorrow. Now. Now. Go! Quinn? You better go with them. We want to wet down the hardware - ~ Michael Grant

New life, hope, and change aren't going to magically drop on our doorstep because we wish for it, long for it, pray for it, share memes on Facebook about it. ~ Kathy Escobar

Sam, I know you're upset over what happened with you and Drake," Astrid began.
"Upset?" Sam echoed the word with an ironic smirk.
"But that's no excuse for you keeping secrets from us."
"Yeah," Howard said, "Don't you know only Astrid is allowed to keep secrets?"
"Shut up, Howard," Astrid snapped.
"Yeah, we get to lie because we're the smart ones," Howard said. "Not like all those idiots out there."
Astrid turned her attention back to Sam. "This is not okay, Sam. The council has the responsibility. Not you alone."
Sam looked like he could not care less about what she was saying. He looked almost beyond reach, indifferent to what was going on around him.
"Hey," Astrid said. "We're talking to you."
That did it. His jaw clenched. His head snapped up. His eyes blazed. "Don't push me. That wasn't you with your skin whipped off and covered in blood. That was me. That was me who went down into that mine shaft to try to fight the gaiaphage."
Astrid blinked. "No one is minimizing what you've done, Sam. You're a hero. But at the same time - "
Sam was on his feet. "At the same time? At the same time you were here in town. Edilio had a bullet in his chest. Dekka was torn to pieces. I was trying not to scream from the…You and Albert and Howard, you weren't there, were you?"
"I was busy standing up to Zil, trying to save Hunter's life," Astrid yelled.
"But it wasn't you and your big words, was it? It was Orc who stopped Zil. ~ Michael Grant

Life is full of surprises, some good, some not so good. ~ Pablo Escobar