If they are caught in the open sea, they can be returned to Cuba. Havana blames the act for luring so many ambitious or desperate Cubans into the Florida Straits on no more than rafts and car inner tubes. But as rallying calls go, it somehow lacks Elian's human intensity. Latour can only sigh in exhaustion at the party's new mobilising strategy. But this tiny minority will prevail because their thinking is in line with the government.
Most people are sick and tired with ideological issues.
But then a mysterious American turns up, offering to facilitate Steil's flight to the US, in honour of a promise he once made to the schoolteacher's late father. But the apparent saviour turns into his nemesis on the open sea. The secret of the stranger's identity and his reasons for wishing Steil dead can only be found in Miami, where he washes up, a bedraggled survivor. Back in Havana, Outcast's success has brought Latour all manner of excitement, but some absurd new complications at the same time. He pulls out a movie contract.