State of Peril (State of Arizona Book 3)

by Doug Ball

  They continued their work as the sun rose higher and higher as it does every day, but on this day it seemed much brighter.

  #

  Jack and Ray Lawler climbed out of the car they felt they’d been in for too long. At this time of the morning they stood wondering why their favorite road was blocked off. The sign said something about an archeological site, but they had never seen any ruins or sign of Indians in this area.

  Grabbing their cameras and backpacks, which were full of water and food, they started off to another site they liked almost as much as the one down the closed road. Within feet they were rewarded with the sight of a posing prairie dog. Ray had to have a picture.

  #

  The Governor arrived at her office earlier than normal in order to talk with Hawk concerning the growing new problem at the border. She had been called by the Channel 10 TV news at 3 AM wondering what was going on with all the incursions at the southern border and wanted a statement from her on her ideas to resolve the issue. The coffee pot was cold and empty. Her tea pot was dry. The room was stuffy because it was too early for the AC to kick in. Hawk was standing in the hall waiting for her.

  “Tell me about it, Hawk. This stuff has got to cease.”

  “We need a secure, as in shut down between authorized gates, border. I don’t know how to keep the choppers and other aircraft out of our air space without shooting them down. Then we’ll have one of those incidents like in the Ukraine, rebels shootin’ down passenger liners.”

  “Something’s got to give. We put the Hunters down there. They are working. We are building that fence that I know is never gonna be high enough. Twelve feet high should stop anybody, but most folks can figure out they need a ladder and they’re over free. What are we gonna do, shoot to kill and mine fields?”

  “We already shoot to kill if they get violent. We also round them up and ship them back. We even take them way down south so it hurts to come back. The mine fields idea would work, but the world would shake their fingers at us, because we did that to them. Got to come up with something that will not stop the free travel of migrating species or hurt the poor little old lady that just has to see her grandkids and is too lazy to get a visa at the border station. There’s also the need for cheap labor. We have some money in the bank, but it isn’t going to last long if we build a Star Wars system down there. I been thinking of taking all the Chihuahuas from the pounds and no-kill kennels and dumping them between two fences. All we’d have to do then is throw road kill over the northern fence and keep them fed, while cleaning up our highways.”

  The Governor laughed. She knew his dislike of tiny dogs of any kind and if he had his way that suggestion given in jest would be the answer for Arizona. “Hawk, you know that isn’t the answer. Let’s see if we can find some reasonably safe ways to meet the needs of border security without spending much more money, or if it is spending only what’s needed, it would only be one time monies with a follow-up of a small amount for maintenance.”

  “To bring this back to the serious side,” Hawk said, “I have a majority vote for a double fence and mine field staring me in the face. I don’t like that idea although it would stop folks, except like the Berlin wall, there’s always the people who feel oppressed enough they will chance it. I don’t want that, and neither does most of the minefield gang. We have to find something else to do the trick or it will be minefields.”

  “I’ll never sign the bill for minefields and you know it.”

  “I know it, but there’s an election coming and you won’t be here the January twentieth after. You’re done. The front runner is calling for ‘whatever it takes’ to secure the border and the folks are loving it.”

  “Find me another answer. I can live with just about anything but mines.”

  “I’m looking and so are 8 or 10 other well placed individuals.”

  “Thanks for the heads-up, old friend.”

  “Watch that old stuff.”

  “Oh, yes, Sir!”

  #

  The Arizona State Attorney General was on the line not ten minutes after the Governor had her first cup of tea in hand. “Governor, I have to present a rebuttal to the suit filed in the Supreme Court by the President’s Attorney General within 28 days. Any special ideas you might have that you want included? Other than state’s rights, the Constitutional responsibility of the Federal Government, and the individual right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”

  “How about Mom, apple pie, and baseball, or is it football nowadays?”

  “I can include those.”

  “I don’t care what’s in it as long as we win. You can call the President a pickle worshipper if that’s what it takes to get it thrown out. I think the justices are afraid of the lawsuit. They know that if they uphold the President’s charges that we could have another civil war on our hands. The State’s Rights crowd is begging for a constitutional convention already.”

  “Yes, Governor. I’ll get right on it. I didn’t think the President had the guts to file it. I’d like to file on him.”

  “Write it up and let me see it. I’m outta here shortly anyhow. What can it hurt?”

  “I’ll see what I can do. By the way, I have to go to DC and file the rebuttal in person.”

  “Enjoy the trip.”

  #

  Abdul came into the office dragging. “I just ain’t up to them all night poker parties like I’s used to before prison. That goin’ ta bed early and getting’ up late has ruint me. But, I got us some info, boss.”

  Tan looked at him across his desk and said, “Spill it, big guy.”

  Abdul dumped a night’s worth of info in ten minutes. “Basically, they’s a new mob tryin’ to find them a way to open the markets up big in Arizona. Got the impression, impression mind ya, that it was a part of the Mexican gangs or cartels, if they’s a difference. My main man was talking big loads comin’ over the border a truck load at a time or by some other route that would lead to high volume. Something was said about endin’ Druggersville for good.”

  Tan listened without interruption and when Abdul was done, he asked, “You put much trust in these guys? They just blowin’ smoke to get you thinking they were big men on campus?”

  “Didn’t sound like no smoke blowin’ contest. I kept tellin’ them I’s goin’ straight and never goin’ back in the joint. That prison stuff makin’ an old man outta me.”

  “Okay, write it up and get me the names and files on your buddies if you can find them. Rachel will show you how it’s done. Questions?”

  “Nope. I ain’t no dummy. Got a spare computer I can use?”

  “Ask Rachel. Chuck got us a few before Rachel, but she has all that stuff now.”

  Abdul turned and left the room. As he passed through the door, he asked, “You want this left open, or closed like I found it.”

  “Closed, please.”

  The door clicked shut and Tan pulled out a file he had been building with information from all kinds of sources, maps showing incidents and routes of attack and egress, and suppositions he was making. The last page was a list of questions he wanted answered.

  His phone rang.

  “Tan.”

  “Tan, this is Desi Armistad. Got some info for you, got time to chat.”

  “Here or there?”

  “How about you coming to me. I am very busy and I doubt if you are as busy, yet. It has much to do with your investigations and that file you are putting together.”

  “How’d you find out about the file?”

  “The Governor slipped.”

  “Yeah, but it’s okay if you know. If you think it will help you in any way, I’ll share it with you.”

  “That’s mighty generous of you.”

  “We’re both on the same team aren’t we?”

  “See ya soon?”

  “Ten minutes do it?”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  #

  El Trinchante sat in his usual chair as Armado walked in. “You have
a report for me. One pilot dead. Five soldados dead. Our best effort for a long tunnel gone. The Federales now know and own one of our primary buildings in your area. Tell me why I should allow you to live.”

  “Setbacks come in every business, Patrón. You know this better than I. We have gotten a small amount of product in without loss. The market is building. Druggersville is due to fall in two more days. I have for you another helicopter that runs almost silent compared to the old one. We will be using it this afternoon to salvage a load of product that was hidden when the mule realized he was going down. That will be over 2 million dollars of product. We have a drop set up right after recovery, so it will never come back to Mexico.

  “The soldados were loco. They thought it was necessary to kill the Border Patrol because they were seen. None of them had much experience. They were only for show on the pick-up of one of my men from the north who has a set of the Druggersville plans. We got the chopper back.”

  “I know all this except the recovery. I was not aware that was a possibility.”

  “You knew about the new chopper?”

  “Si.”

  “That was to be a surprise to you.”

  “And?”

  “The new chopper was 5 millions of dollars and for you to call on at any time. My new pilot will fly you or yours anytime anywhere.”

  “For that you will live for two more weeks. At that time I expect to be pushing product into the States, fast and furious. Just as they pushed guns in on us, fast and furious.” He chuckled at his little joke.

  “Gracias, Patrón. It will be done.”

  “I know.”

  #

  Tank spent half an hour trying to find a parking spot for his truck. He did not want it in the close lots with the small car slots for fear someone would swing a door into the side of it. Finally he found one and took the ten minute walk to the office. The walk would have been faster, but he kept seeing good looking gals dressed for work and had to stop and admire the Creator’s workmanship.

  He walked into the office in baggy shorts with eleventeen pockets, a ragged old tee shirt, and sneakers that had seen better days two years before. He hadn’t shaved since the Academy graduation. The residue of each meal he had eaten in the past two days was down the front of his shirt and shorts. There was even a spot of egg yolk from breakfast on his sneakers, but it was difficult to see with all the other stains. “Good morning, Rachel.”

  She looked up and almost lost her composure, along with breakfast. Breakfast in a can doesn’t taste very good the second time. “Good morning, Tank. Tan wants to see you.”

  “Which door?”

  “That one.”

  Tank walked over to the door shown, turned the knob, and entered.

  “Hey, we usually knock around here.” Tan had his back to the door and did the office chair spin to see who had broken his train of thought. “Tank?”

  “Yeah, boss. Rachel said you wanted to see me. Do I look alright?”

  Tank looked at the man before him. He looked just like he did when they first met at the Circle K in Mammoth. “Tank, I realize you are undercover almost. Actually, just trying to blend in with the street people and find out information. But, when you come to the office you are supposed to look professional. You look like something the cat drug in.”

  “That’s what the Academy Director said the first morning.”

  “Okay, I guess we need a training regime like the Academy.”

  “You’re not going to make me run are you?”

  “Probably.”

  An hour later the door opened again. This time Tan was escorting Tank out. “That’s the first lesson. Go and find out more.”

  “Sure, Tan. I won’t letcha down.”

  “I know, man, I know.”

  Tank walked out like he’d been beat.

  Rachel looked at Tan and shrugged her shoulders.

  “That man is going to do well if we teach him how to live with other people and how to be on the job. It’s gonna be a tough job. But, he did bring in word that collaborates what Abdul had. We’re on to something. I hope it isn’t as bad as it looks.

  “Boss, Chuck’s taking me to lunch and you know how he hates to be late.”

  “Yeah, the buffet might be emptied before he gets there.”

  “You got it, Tan.”

  “Go.”

  6

  The afternoon sun was hot on their backs as they continued to dig and brush through the covering layers of dirt and weeds. Nothing was going to stop them after Lana found a projectile point of a style she could not find in any of their books. The ravens flew overhead as did a pair of buzzards along with various other birds. Those two buzzards were the biggest they had seen.

  #

  Ray Lawler stood behind the rock he had been using for a blind and aimed the camera at a small sparrow hawk working hard to find a meal. The raptor flew directly over him a few times allowing him to take video shots he knew would thrill the ladies at the Phoenix Birders’ Club meeting next month.

  Jack moved hunched over through the low grass looking for some of the rare types of small cacti that grew in this area. There was one very tiny cactus - he could never remember the name - of that he loved to find due to the beautiful flower that it grew only once a year. That flower was twice the diameter of the individual cactus and a shocking red. Through many years of searching for cacti, he had learned not to crawl through the grasses. Knees and hands full of spines didn’t make for a great day in the open air.

  A foreign sound came to his ears, almost like a helicopter, but not quite. There was more whoosh and less whop whop to this sound. This area was a no fly zone except for emergency aircraft. In all the times he had come here, this was the first low flying object he had heard.

  Jack searched the sky in the direction of the sound. His father yelled and pointed to the south over the women they had seen walking around right where they really wished they could get to. Ray picked up the camera with the long lens and after a few moments spotted the light blue chopper moving toward them. It slowed as he watched and then hovered just to the east of the women over a scattering of boulders. Four men repelled from the chopper to the dirt. The chopper lifted and began to circle the area, slowing over the women.

  Ray did not like the scenario here. This had all the earmarks of criminal activity. He grabbed the binoculars. The men in the rocks were searching for something. The women ignored the chopper and continued working. Just as he was getting ready to call out to Jack, the chopper went quickly back to the rocks and settled to the dirt. The four men got in, two of them carrying loads.

  The chopper lifted and turned toward the south. Jack watched as it moved slowly toward the border and then turned abruptly toward the women. For some reason that Ray will never know, Jack pulled his Smith and Wesson .40 from his belt and checked it. Ray was afraid.

  Jack stuck the gun back in his holster, why he had pulled it he wasn’t sure. The chopper slowed just short of the two women. It settled. Four men got out and ran toward the women, M-16’s at the ready.

  ‘Why would they go after the women? What was going on here?’ Jack asked himself.

  One of the women stood to meet the men and was shot down. The other woman tried to run, but got nowhere. The next thing Jack knew he was up and running, gun drawn, and madder than he’d ever been in his life. This was not right.

  He jumped clumps of grass as he approached the armed men who were so intent on tearing the clothes off the unmoving women they didn’t see or hear him coming. Jack heard the laughter. His anger built until he became, what was called in days past, a berserker. All he saw were targets that needed to be killed. At forty yards, he slowed. At thirty, he opened fire, hitting one of the men center body mass as he was pulling at Lana’s blouse. The man went down in a bloody wreck atop the woman. The rest of the men were so intent on their game of stripping the dead women, they did not react until Jack laid two more rounds on them. The first took a man in the thigh and the se
cond missed.

  At twenty yards he stopped, planted his feet, and began firing in earnest just has he had on the firing range last time he practiced. Another man went down. The man with the shot in the thigh, received another slug in his abdomen. The fourth man swiveled, bringing his rifle to line up on Jack and pulled the trigger.

  Jack felt the first two rounds hit him as he dropped his empty magazine, and jammed the second in. Still standing, legs spread, arms locked, he began shooting back at the man shooting at him. One of his rounds connected just as the pilot of the chopper stepped out and calmly emptied his M-16 into Jack from the side.

  With two automatic weapons targeted on him, Jack was shot to pieces and slumped to a bloody pile in the dirt. His last round hit the dirt just before he landed on the same spot.

  The father slumped in shock, the video camera still running taking footage of the sky. He watched as two men hobbled back to the spooling up chopper. ‘My son is dead. They did it. Take pictures.’ He consciously thought through it all in a time-stands-still moment. The camera’s aim was brought to the action as the men staggered into the chopper and it took off. Once the chopper was out of sight, he stopped the camera and reached for his cell phone.

  Twenty minutes later a Sheriff’s Deputy was on the scene and they were waiting for the ambulance. The deputy checked the son and then the women. “I’m sorry, sir, but your son is dead.”

  “I knew that. I’ve been on the battlefield.”

  “This older woman is still alive, but I don’t think she’ll last until the ambulance arrives.” He was kneeling next to her with his first aid box applying battle dressing type bandages to her two wounds, one of which was leaking into the pool beside her body. As he worked she coughed twice and exhaled loudly in a long moan.

  “She’s gone.”

  Ray had removed the guns from the area where the two Mexican soldiers were laying. One had been alive when he came up, but died while he was examining the other. Both of them were dead before he walked away, turning his back on them and saying nothing about them to the deputy when he arrived.