by Doug Ball
He had just left the Senate floor after a voracious feeding frenzy caused by the announcement of more money to spend. He had asked the State Treasurer not to present the financial state of affairs the way he did, but he did it anyway. There was no surplus. The funds the Treasurer had labeled as excess were to build the savings of the State to a one year’s budget emergency fund the Governor had asked for and was voted into law right after the War for Arizona. Some of it would still be needed to pay for medical care and support of those wounded in that war and then the ongoing effort to build the wall at the border.
Just last week Hawk and the Speaker of the House, Anthony White, had toured the nearly complete repairs in Nogales, and other small towns on the border damaged by the war. There was still much to do with the roads that were torn up and utilities that had been destroyed. The idea of saving came from the same legislation that had cut off the flow of Federal dollars and put Arizona in charge of its own life.
One of the Senators from the Southeast corner of the state saw Merle sitting there in the shade, peaceful and smiling as he watched the pigeons near his feet. It was a pastime Merle loved. The Senator, Melissa Vasquez, was on a crusade and that crusade began with Merle.
“Mr. Hopkins, may I have a word with you?”
He jumped to his feet and pulled off his hat, holding it in front of him like a school boy in front of the teacher. “Why, yes Ma’am. I was only day dreaming of a day without fights over money. You aren’t gonna ask for money, are you?”
“Not directly.”
“Please, join me on the bench. I fear we are startling the pigeons.”
“Hawk, I want to push through legislation that would demand a greater presence at the border and a much more secure border. Last week three of the cowboys working the border area, southern border that is, found two members of the Mexican Army on our side of the border. They were armed and attempting to move north. After a short conversation one of the Mexicans said they were lost and didn’t know they were across the border. He then asked for directions back to the border.
“Now I find it hard to believe they were so lost they couldn’t find south. I find it hard to believe there were only two men on a patrol of that segment of the border without a vehicle. I find it extremely hard to believe they didn’t know when they crossed a twelve foot high fence in order to get into this country.
“Bottom line here is I think we need a double fence, fifty feet or so of separation, and some severe deterrents in between.”
The Hawk took off his hat again and wiped out the sweat band with a handkerchief from his back pocket, put the hat back on, and stared into the sky through the branches of the tree over his head. “Ms. Vasquez, I completely agree with you. I tried to get the Governor to buy that during the revenue discussions of the past few months. She is against all that, but is weakening. Are there others that agree with you?”
“Yes, at least three. All from the border districts. I know this would double the costs of the fence, but it will halve the cost of human patrol which should make it profitable within three years.”
“I agree with all of that. How can we convince the Governor this needs to happen?”
“I don’t know. I will go talk with her directly before I push this harder.”
“Go with my blessing. Be careful, she is not in the best of moods with the elections coming. I think she loves the job as much as she loves the state and doesn’t want to leave the office, even though she is not up for reelection. She has stated that she will not run again, seven years is enough. There is not much reasoning with her at this time. She does not want to hurt the chances of the person she wants to replace her in that office. It will be hard to find someone that will continue to be as tough as she is, female or male.”
Senator Vasquez watched the pigeons for a moment or two and said, “I see why you like to sit out here, Hawk. It is a great place to think. May I borrow it on occasion?”
“You may, and you may also join me if I beat you to this bench.”
“Thank you. I don’t envy you your job, but I like your bench.”
“I don’t envy me my job, either, and this bench is the only real perk of the job.”
4
Armado called his backup chopper pilot and waited for him to arrive. The second body guard, Vincenté, sat in the corner with the two extra men. He knew he was being watched and could do nothing without a watcher, but he didn’t care. All this would only prove he was faithful to the Patrón - as long as there wasn’t a bigger cash offer from somewhere else. The chopper pilot entered the room through the metal detector and after a thorough frisking by the outer office staff.
“You wanted me, Patrón?”
“Yes, I wanted you. Why else would I call you?”
“At your service, Patrón.”
“Here is what you will do. You will take these two men with you and fly to any spot west of the I-19 to an isolated residence no more than ten miles over the border. You will land. These two will get out and ask for someone named Smith. No yelling, no guns, and no hassles. When the person denies knowing a Smith, you just leave and head south as fast as you can fly. You have no importance except as a diversion.”
“I will do this.” The pilot looked at the two guards and added, “Let’s go.”
#
Desi Armistad sat back in his chair and wondered how much longer all this drug crap was going to go on. His men were stretched a bit thin with the addition of Arizona Border Patrol, Druggersville Containment crews, and still patrolling the highways. He was beginning to wonder if he should ask for more troops. He started his usual exercise when he had to make a decision as big as this by listing the pros and cons of the changes needed if he continued down the same road or made some massive changes on top of the changes already in place. Maybe he needed to reorganize the entire unit.
He had no sooner started the exercise when his phone buzzed. He hit the ‘Answer’ button. “Yes, what is it?”
His receptionist, a short redhead with a vicious collection of belts in various martial arts, said, “Just got a call from the Miracle Valley unit. They have found a long, deep tunnel.”
“Call out the ‘oh no’ squad and get them moving. I’ll meet them at the car barn.”
“Will do.”
#
“Hey, Dad, you want to go down to the Buenos Aires Refuge tomorrow and get some pictures of the migrating birds and anything else than comes along?”
“Sure, Jack. What time you wanta leave?”
“How about 4 AM?”
“I’ll wake up long enough to get in the car.”
#
Two hours before sundown a chopper swept in low and fast from the west into the front yard of a ranch north of the border and settled to the dirt. Two men in black wearing ski masks got out and walked up to the front door. The rancher ran from a shed at the side of the home and yelled at them. They did not hear him coming because of the noise of the chopper in the yard not fifty feet from the porch.
The old man trotted over to the porch and got right in the faces of the two men in black, “What do you want and why is that thing in my yard? Can’t ya see them horses? You’re driving’em crazy.” He pointed to the corral.
The two men looked at the horses. One man says in very broken English, “Ju are Smith?”
“No, I am not Smith. There is no one around here named Smith that I know of. Ain’t ever been one, either.”
The other man in black said, “We are sorry. Wrong rancho.”
The visitors walked back to the chopper as it spooled up, lifted off, and headed due south to the border. The old man ran for the phone before the dust settled.
Within minutes a Sheriff’s Deputy was at his door getting his story. After twenty minutes of questions and answers, the Deputy asked, “Are you lookin’ for publicity or something? That’s the dumbest story I’ve ever heard.”
“Sonny boy, I’m just liable to pull this gun outta my back pocket and make you the victim of
a gun toting accident if you keep talking to me thataway. Them Mexs rang that doorbell right there. I talked to them right there. They left from right there where you parked your car. Any village idiot can see that your tracks are the only ones in that area. My tracks from the barn start at the barn and fade out thirty feet behind your vehicle and show up again just before the porch steps. You can also see the tracks of my horse coming home for dinner right yonder, and see how they fade and then are bright and fresh over there. What more do you need? Next time I’ll get ya a dead Mexican or a shot up chopper.”
“I guess you could have a point, but there ain’t nothin’ I can do about it ‘cept take your report and give it to the Sheriff. He’ll probably laugh and throw it in the trash.”
“I guess I ain’t voting for that clown again then.” The rancher had been pointing to everything he talked about and was getting tired of this dumb game. “I guess I’ll just call the press, they’ll make a story out of it, even if it does make me look like an old fool. I’ll bet someone will believe it. I’m just cantankerous enough to make a big deal of this thing, Sonny, and you can just bet on it.”
#
Diego moved north more than six miles from the border. The terrain was rough, but it offered him cover whenever he thought he needed it. He had seen one small plane flying at about 1,000 feet above the rocks and sand, moving steadily east, and nothing more that was even close. A long string of dust bothered him for a while, but it turned south two miles back.
His water supply was getting low due to two leaky bladders and he wondered if he could find any water this high on the mountain. The map showed a spring another mile up the trail and off to the right a few hundred yards and 200 feet of elevation lower. As he walked he decided that if he was still feeling as good as he was then, he would make the side trip before it was really dark. There was half of a moon in the sky which would give him until ten or so to make the decision.
The blue light on the radio under his shirt was flashing. All was well there. All he had to do was talk louder than normal and it would begin transmitting until he pushed the button on the side. He knew if the radio activated he would never have the opportunity to turn it off himself.
#
Desi Armistad arrived at the car barn south of Phoenix just as the Captain in charge of the ‘oh no’ squad - Drug Interdiction Task Force - was calling roll. It looked to him like all were in the barn and ready to go. He went to the locker room and grabbed his gear before going to the briefing room to tell these officers what the situation was.
At the far end of the barn three men in civvies were firing up the engines on three confiscated vehicles, two vans and a four door Lincoln, all with a few bumps and bruises. The idea was for the men to ride these into the area and then hit hard and fast. The older, bashed up vehicles were the best screen possible for the areas they usually worked in.
Armistad took the report from the Captain that all were present and ready to roll, no exceptions. He then turned to the troops waiting to go. “We have a large long tunnel to examine. It may hold nothing. It may be a railroad line from Mexico to here. It could be full of explosives ready for a raid at any time.
“It has supposedly just been finished and is not in use at this time. One of our snitches, one ranked as reliable, has given us just the location of our side of the border’s entrance. It is in a fair sized building which was originally a shipping warehouse employing twenty men and three women. Trucks can drive through from one end to the other. The actual entrance to the tunnel is behind a swinging wall where the Federal employer posters are hanging. Supposedly the whole wall swings out and a Ford F-450 flatbed truck can drive in and out on a steep ramp. The snitch says he worked on the tunnel for the past three weeks. The floor of the warehouse is dirt.
“The plan at this time is to hit one end and the middle at the same time leaving two men at the other end to catch anyone fast enough to figure out that’s the only way left. We will then expose the tunnel and blow it. We have a chance to use our new tunnel blast technique on this one.
“Three men will clear the first two hundred feet of the tunnel. Two more will come in after they have it secured to set the delayed charges. Those five will back out after setting the fuse on the delay charges. Two more men will set charges 40 feet inside the tunnel mouth with smaller charges ever’ five feet up to the mouth. The idea is to have the close in charges blow and put a cork in the tunnel. The delay charges will blow a few minutes later. Their explosion will over pressurize the tunnel causing air to flow and blow a dust cloud and debris out of the other end. We will spot the other end and report that to our brother law enforcement officers on the other side of the border after we are finished.
“Any questions?”
There were none.
The Director nodded to the Captain. The Captain added, “We’ve done this in drills with the new charges. We’ve done everything in drills, now its actual. Stay alert, ready, and watch your buddy’s back. I want all to make it home. I hate writing letters and funerals. Hit the john and mount up. Our drivers and limos are ready.”
Within minutes two vans lead the Lincoln onto I-10 south toward Tucson.
#
Betts threw another hunk of wood on the fire. “At six bucks a bag with 8 pieces this fire gets expensive quick.”
“Yeah, but it’s nice to just relax and look into the flames at the end of the day. Didn’t you go camping as a kid? My dad’s a cop. He just retired. Every time he got more than two days off the family went camping. He always said it was just to get outta town and away from the phones so he wouldn’t get called in, but we knew he loved the outdoors. I can remember watching him sit by a fire just like this one until the wee hours of the morning, just winding down. I’m not sure how many times he got shot at or attacked.”
“My family was too poor to go anywhere except the free public library. My dad refused to accept help from welfare. Mom got us free medical insurance from the state. I read. I read everything I could find about the ancients in North America. When the library ran outta books, I went down to the community college and worked free in the library just so I could read more books.
“Did you date much, Lana?”
“No. Who’d wanna go out with a bookworm? I didn’t even have guys asking to carry my books. There were too many of them.”
The both laughed. A coyote yipped in the distance and a jet out of Tucson rumbled over.
“Dang jets ruin the ambiance of this fine establishment,” Lana added. “But, I love it.”
Betts looked around, “This place could grow on me real quick.”
They both sat and watched for shooting stars, or wild animals, and flames.
#
The ‘oh no’ squad rolled into Hereford and met up with a laundry truck in a restaurant parking lot. Desi Armistad stepped out with a jacket over his gear and waited for the Captain to join him. A large, muscular man stepped out of the driver’s seat of the laundry truck. They all met in the middle, shaking hands like the old friends that they were.
“What’s with you coming along, Desi?” asked Joe Kress, head of the Cochise County Drug Taskforce. “I have five men with me. All ready to roll.”
“I came to see if you small town wannabe cowboys were spending the money we send ya in the right ways and on the right stuff. Heard you got a raise this year.”
“Yeah, I make almost as much as one of your beginning troopers fresh outta the Academy.”
“Too danged much.”
They all chuckled. Desi brought it all to a stop when he said, “Here’s the plan.”
Five minutes later they all mounted up and traveled the last six miles before the assault, warrants in hand, and guns loaded.
Arriving at the site of the warehouse, the first van rolled past followed by the laundry truck. The Lincoln pulled off the road, aimed at the target, into the wide dirt lot between the road and the warehouse. From the beer cans and plastic bottles it looked like a place where many people pulled
into. The last van was parked back up the road a few hundred yards. It had rolled into place without lights.
The driver of the Lincoln got out and took a leak alongside the car, all the time swiveling his head searching the ground around him and the building two hundred feet away.
All appeared quiet. There were only two windows on this side of the warehouse. One appeared to be an old dispatch window with a shelf and light over it. Weeds showed it wasn’t being driven up to anymore. The second window was broken, a big piece missing from the bottom corner. There was a personnel door just off center to the right. The falling half-moon made good shadows along the tracks of trucks going in and out of the access driveway. There were only two sets since the last windy day, which had been the day before.
One lone woman, small and quiet, crept up on the east end door through the brush. She placed two charges on the door and turned away.
No lights showed anywhere.
Two vans and a laundry truck rolled toward various positions around the warehouse with lights out and doors open. The Lincoln moved forward and made moves like he was just turning around until he was broadside to the personnel door. It stopped and the car’s doors opened. The four men left the vehicle as the driver gave two short honks of the horn and attacked the door.
Men poured out of their hiding spots all around the warehouse. One roll-up truck door on the west end had been left two feet off the ground granting access from that direction. The personnel door fell to the second hit of a battering ram wielded by two men. From the east end came the sound of the two charges which opened up a rather jagged opening for entry on that side. The warehouse filled with the troops, each yelling, “Police, come out with your hands up.” The Cochise County leader was waving the warrant yelling, “We have a search warrant for this building.”
