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SNOWING IN BALI

Rafael needed Sparrow to babysit it for a while. He agreed. But typically, things went awry.

Sparrow was leaving on Christmas Day, and a couple of days earlier had asked Rafael for a little present of four or five grams. He wanted to sell it to his friend Beans, in Uluwatu, to make cash to buy sarongs to take back to Rio.

On Christmas Eve, Rafael and Anna threw their lavish annual Christmas party. It was a sumptuous spread of food from Brazil, Sweden and Bali, with fresh fish, turkey, beer, champagne, soft drinks and cocaine. Twenty-five people turned up. Kids ran around, music blared, people swam in the pool, dived from the balcony — and discreetly did lines of coke upstairs.

Towards the end of the night, Sparrow asked Rafael for his little Christmas present. Rafael told him, 'No, you can sniff a bit upstairs, but that's it.' Rafael didn't want to risk Sparrow running around high with a little bag of coke. Things were too hot.

Sparrow was furious and a bit drunk. 'You make me sleep one week with this coke, if police get me I'm fucked,' he shouted, slashing his hand across his throat.

Rafael was adamant. 'Sorry, my friend. No. If I give you this, you're going to get crazy. You're gonna talk bullshit.'

'Okay, no problem,' Sparrow snarled sarcastically.

As the party wound down, his pique rose. Sparrow felt he deserved some blow after sitting on a bomb for a week. Another mutual friend at the party, Julio, an addict — the guy Andre had once got Laskar thugs to threaten by putting a gun in his mouth — was inciting Sparrow. Sparrow had already proved Rafael's point that he was a risk by mouthing off about the boom to Julio. No one was supposed to know.

'Come on, we can cut it open. Look what he has done to you,' Julio goaded. 'You slept one week with this thing. Come on, let's get some coke from Rafael. You need money, you're bankrupt,'

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