- When this chapter begins, Mr. Hosokawa has gotten great at making his way around the house at night. He might even be good enough at it to escape. But then again, he has no desire to escape. He's too happy being in love with Roxane and listening to her voice every day.
- Carmen taught Mr. Hosokawa how to move this quietly around the house, and it sounds like somewhere along the way Mr. Hosokawa realized that Gen was in love with her. But Mr. Hosokawa respects their privacy and does no more than give Gen a small smile when talking about Carmen. Mr. Hosokawa isn't the overshare type.
- Mr. Hosokawa wants life to go on like this forever, but he knows it can't. When the hostage crisis finally ends, he knows that everything will have to change. He'd be willing to give up his whole normal life for Roxane: get divorced and just follow her as she sings around the world. But he knows that may not be possible when circumstances change. He wonders if it's normal for people to have brief experiences of something amazing and then spend the rest of their lives looking back to those moments.
- Gen and Carmen, meanwhile, are alternating between studying and making love in the china closet at night. Surprisingly, even with this arrangement Carmen is making headway as a student. She can read a whole paragraph in Spanish, although slowly. She's also learning some English. They're imagining a future life together somewhere else.
- The other people in the house don't comment, or maybe they don't know anything about Gen and Carmen. They are getting a bit suspicious about Roxane and Mr. Hosokawa, though, since they hold hands and sometimes share a quick smooch even during the day.
- Even the people who aren't in love are liking life better, since the Generals let them go outside every day now. Sometimes the terrorists and hostages even play soccer with one another. It's not the World Cup, but it's sure making them feel more like a community. Even if it is a weird one.
- The narrator mentions Messner again. He's seeming older and more tired, unlike everyone else.
- It's clear from his thoughts that he knows the military is tunneling up into the house, but he doesn't tell anyone that. Messner believes in neutrality, and he thinks it's his job to try to prevent a tragedy. Even if that looks increasingly impossible at this point. Anyway, he doesn't think he should tell the terrorists that the military's on its way, and there are things he wouldn't tell the military about the terrorists, too.
- But he does wake Gen up from a nap and insist that the two of them have to talk the terrorists into surrendering. So not 100% neutral.
- The Generals are watching a soccer game. Messner tries urgently to talk with them, but folks can get crazy about soccer. Messner waits more than half an hour, and finally they agree to talk.
- They go inside. Meanwhile, Cesar is inside learning scales with Roxane. Kato is playing piano and Ishmael is playing chess with Mr. Hosokawa.
- Technically Cesar and Ishmael are the house guards for the moment, so they have guns, even though they're clearly absorbed in singing and chess.
- Messner inquires about Cesar's singing, and General Benjamin proudly tells him that Cesar has been singing for weeks and that Roxane is impressed by his talent. It's like he got discovered by The Voice or something.
- General Benjamin says Cesar should sing for Messner. He sings a song by Bellini.
- Messner tries as hard as he can to convince the Generals to give up and surrender today. He is so intent on this that he keeps switching languages. He's under a lot of stress here, Shmoopers.
- This worries Gen a lot. He manages to keep up with the translation, but he correctly sees it as a sign that something is wrong.
- Messner says the government won't negotiate. The Generals threaten to kill the hostages, but Messner knows they're bluffing and points out that the government will be even less likely to negotiate if the hostages are harmed.
- They can hear Roxane and Cesar singing elsewhere in the house. Not the soundtrack you might expect for negotiations with terrorists (outside of this book, anyway).
- The Generals give up on the conversation and leave. That went well.
- Messner says that he isn't sure he can stand this anymore. He's having a rough day.
- Gen isn't. He feels like everyone is becoming happier. He suggests that maybe they'll just stay there forever in the vice president's house, in a permanent stalemate with the government.
- Messner says Gen was the brightest person here, but now he's going crazy because this state of things is going to have to end. You can't live in a utopian hostage crisis forever.
- Gen asks if the military is planning anything.
- Messner says the outside world won't stop moving. Which is sort of a sly way of saying yes, but not really.
- Gen asks if the terrorists will be arrested, and Messner says that's the best-case scenario for them. Gen asks if it will be just the Generals who are arrested (he's obviously got his foot soldier gal-pal on the brain), but Messner says it will be all the terrorists.
- Gen realizes that he doesn't just want to rescue Carmen from this, he wants to save all the terrorists. He's surprised to realize that about himself, but hey, that's what soccer and china closet adventures can do to you. He asks what he can do to help them.
- Messner says Gen could try to convince the terrorists to surrender, but even that may not help them much.
- The narrator tells us that almost everyone in the house has been forgetting their lives outside the house because there are things inside they've come to care about. Okay, Simon Thibault is the exception, because he spends all his time (when he's not peeling eggplants) thinking about his wife, who is waiting for him somewhere in the city.
- Flash-forward a couple hours, and Gen somehow succeeds at forgetting the urgency he felt when Messner explained the situation that afternoon. When he meets Carmen that night, he tells her he's worried, but they both ignore how urgent Messner was because they don't want to think about the future. They want to be together now and to forget life can't go on like this.
- Gen and Carmen talk about trying to escape, but then they make love instead. Decisions, decisions.
- The narrator gives them their privacy and starts describing what's up with Roxane. She is deeply happy. She's fallen in love with Mr. Hosokawa, and she's fallen in love with Cesar's voice (though not with Cesar himself). She imagines a great future for him.
- Cesar is getting better and better, and people now gather to listen to his lessons.
- After Cesar sings particularly well one morning, everyone demands that Roxane sing too.
- She sings a piece from The Barber of Seville. Everyone's loving this concert. Which makes it extra too bad that we know things may end very soon. Especially because most of the people in the book don't know that. Foreboding, anyone?
- Everyone is impressed, then Roxane sends everyone out to enjoy the sun.
- Mr. Hosokawa heads for the kitchen because he wants to make tea for Roxane. Cesar sticks around hoping the lesson will go longer. Is he a model student or what?
- Everyone is having a great time outside, mostly playing soccer or watching. Ruben and Ishmael are gardening together like father and son.
- Suddenly, Roxane Coss screams from inside. We readers know this as an "uh-oh" moment.
- The reason for the scream: an unfamiliar man is striding toward Roxane and Cesar. Where did he come from?
- She realizes she can't speak or sing anything that would change this man's mind, whatever he's planning. The power of art was good up until this point.
- Cesar leaps up, and the man shoots him.
- Roxane hides under the piano and then crawls to Cesar. She covers his body with hers so he won't be further hurt, even though his blood is getting on her shirt. She kisses his cheeks. One glorious terrorism-turned-opera career down the drain.
- Soon the military is invading the whole house and the yard. They shoot the terrorists and separate out the hostages for rescue.
- Father Arguedas tries to help one of the terrorists, but gets hit. He thinks it's a bullet, but then he realizes he's fine, so it must have been something else. But he also realizes Ishmael is dead, and the vice president is holding his body and crying.
- Beatriz tries to surrender to absolve herself of her sins still weighing on her, and she's relieved to find that all the sins have somehow disappeared. She sees Oscar Mendoza running toward her to protect her, but it's too late—she is shot and killed.
- Gen sees Beatriz die, and he cries out for Carmen. He doesn't know where she is. He knows that she's clever, and if anyone escapes, it will be her, but he shouts for her, yelling that she is his wife. Even though he doesn't know where he is and they aren't married.
- The narrator reveals that Carmen is already dead. She was killed at the very beginning of the attack.
- The heartbreaking moment: Carmen and Mr. Hosokawa had been in the kitchen when Roxane screamed, and they both ran to the living room, Carmen in front.
- A soldier shot at Carmen, and Mr. Hosokawa threw himself in front of her. One bullet, two lovers gone forever.
- The end.
- What! No. Really?
- Don't start hyperventilating just yet: there's an epilogue to make sure you don't get too down from such a stark ending to the novel proper.