CL Hart -From A Distance

by CL Hart

  An elderly local held out silver jewelry as Kenzie and Cori passed them. "Ah, Senorita, come, take a look. For you or your friend." He held up an arm adorned with beautifully crafted silver necklaces. "Come, come." He beckoned them over, but they moved on with a shake of their heads, following some of the other tourists from the bus as they strolled along the wide walkway. The shops began to look pretty much the same as every merchant gleefully propositioned them to come into their shop. They did slow down for the occasional store, though it was more for appearance than to look for bargains. Kenzie had one thing on her mind and that was to get across the border.

  The sloping of the sidewalk gradually lessened, as the pedestrian bridge over the cement banks of the Tijuana River came into sight. Several tables of trinkets lined the concrete walkway that zigzagged toward the bridge. Unlike the merchants in town, the women watching over these tables were silent as Cori and Kenzie walked by.

  "You okay?" Kenzie asked as they proceeded up the ramped walkway.

  "Yeah... Well no, I'm scared shitless," Cori answered honestly as she slid a nervous glance in Kenzie's direction. "If I neglected to mention it earlier, I'm glad I have you with me." She offered her best smile, but it quickly faded away. "Are you sure you're okay? You look a little flushed."

  "I'm fine." She wiped the sweat from her face. "It's just the heat."

  Cori was about to comment that it was not that hot, but as they rounded the last turn that would take them onto the bridge, she saw something that bothered her more than Kenzie's temperature. There, right in front of them, at the beginning of the pedestrian bridge, was a small red and white booth. Her eyes darted to the matching booth on the opposite end of the bridge. Both were marked with a faded but clearly written word: POLICIA. They appeared to be empty and she took a calming breath as they turned the corner and walked out onto the bridge. Her relief was short lived as they almost bumped into three uniformed officers partially blocking the entrance. Cori's heart thumped and her stomach dropped, but after one more reluctant step forward, she realized the trio was not even looking at them. The three uniformed officers were having an angry exchange with two young men and didn't seem to be aware of them.

  Kenzie leaned over and whispered into Cori's ear, "It's okay. We're tourists heading home, remember? Just ignore them like everyone else is doing." Kenzie took Cori by the elbow and gently steered her around the group. Keeping their eyes away from the officers and their detainees, the twosome casually crossed the aging footbridge, carefully avoiding some of the large potholes in the older sections of the bridge. At some time in its past, there had been attempts to liven up the concrete by painting brightly colored squares with names all over the surface, but time, weather, and millions of footsteps had faded them to a memory. Neither woman spoke as they passed the halfway point.

  "There's the border," Kenzie said. "See the fence?"

  Cori looked beyond the cement riverbed to the exceptionally tall fast food restaurants signs and the palm trees that lined the streets of San Ysidro. "Then that would make that America."

  "Yup."

  Cori stopped and looked back over her shoulder at the busy streets of Tijuana. She was leaving Mexico, and that realization unsettled her. The lifestyle of the impoverished country was something that had initially been hard for her, especially seeing the children who had little more than the clothes on their backs. She recalled with vivid clarity the first time she had seen one of them eating in the middle of an open-air market. The flies had been buzzing around the mixture of refried beans and rice on the young girl's plate. The child barely noticed them as she scooped the food into her mouth with her fingers. It was a different world down here, and it took Cori a while to get used to the poverty, the heat, and the crime, but the people made it all worthwhile. Never before had she been around such a sense of community and family. They seemed to celebrate everything and they seemed to do it together. Family was everything, and everyone was invited. "Cori?" Kenzie's placed a hand on Cori's back. "You okay?" Cori turned and looked ahead to the end of the bridge.

  "Yeah, I was just..."

  "There's no one following us, if that's what you're looking at. Even if there were, they wouldn't try anything here - too many people, too many eyes, too many cameras." Kenzie spoke reassuringly, but the caution inherent in her profession made her glance back over her shoulder as well.

  "What about that guy in Santa Rosalia? The crowds there didn't seem to bother him."

  "Cobra?" The name was barely a whisper off her lips as she scanned the vantage points that she would have used if she were the hunter rather than the hunted. The lay of the land would be perfect for a sniper - lots of uneven rooftops and billboards. The hairs on the back of her neck rose as her senses heightened. "I doubt he's following us. I winged him back at Santa Rosalia." Her eyes didn't find anything out of the ordinary, but she felt the sweat rolling down her back and between her breasts. "There are way too many witnesses here. But just to be on the safe side, stay in front of me.

  Cori did as she was directed, her mind still working on the possibilities. "If he...this Cobra is out of the picture, would they send someone else?"

  It was a good question, considering they had sent someone else because she had not done the job to start with. Even if they had, she didn't have the tools to deal with it at that moment, so there was no sense in worrying about what she couldn't change. "Probably. But they don't know where we are and they don't know where we're going."

  "They don't know about your boat?"

  "No one knows about my boat, except the Judge and Big Polly, and neither has been there. We'll be safe there, so come on, let's just keep moving."

  Once they were off the bridge and down the ramped, zigzagging walkway, they found themselves in the middle of an open town square surrounded by more shops.

  "Now where?" Cori asked.

  "Big Polly said to keep going straight across the road until we pass the restaurant and the taxi stand. The Millennium Bridge to the border will be in front of us." Kenzie cursed under her breath as she transferred the pinata from her left arm to her right. The pain in her side had been throbbing almost continuously and, though she tried to ignore the pain, it was not going away. Despite her resolve to keep that knowledge from Cori, when the salty sweat from her body trickled down her wound, she couldn't stop the hiss of pain that escaped from between clenched teeth. Cori didn't seem to hear it, and for that, she was thankful. She shifted the pinata and their windbreakers back to her left side.

  Cori did notice that. "You want me to take that stuff for a bit?"

  "Nah, its okay, I've got it. Let's just keep moving."

  It took only a few minutes for them to cross the square and find the Millennium Bridge that would take them over the road to the States. It was a lot more modern than the ancient footbridge, a lot narrower, too, leaving just enough room for two people to cross it side by side. Halfway across, Cori stopped in shock at the endless line of cars and trucks inching their way northward.

  "Wow!" she said in awe, her mouth open at the sheer volume of vehicles converging on the Land of the Free and the home of the twenty-four hour shopping mall.

  Kenzie joined her in looking over the traffic below. There were eleven lanes open to the border, hundreds if not thousands of cars idling their way northward past vendors desperate to sell their wares. She shot a glimpse over her shoulder, but she couldn't see the end of the line.

  "Is that it?" Cori asked, drawing Kenzie's attention back to the direction they were heading. "That's where we're going, right?" There, in front of them, was the largest and most modern building in the entire area, and its identity was clearly spelled out in bold aluminum letters: United States Border Inspection Station.

  "Yeah." Kenzie narrowed her focus to their immediate goal. Her head was still spinning and she squeezed her eyes shut several times, hoping to clear her vision and ease the throbbing in her head. "Let's get this over with."

  They moved off the bridge and headed
north. Cori was nervous, but she did her best to hide it. With each step, her heartbeat seemed to get louder.

  Sensing her nervousness, Kenzie leaned over and whispered into her ear, "It's going to be okay. Just take a couple of slow, easy breaths, and remember, we were just down here for the day."

  "I know...I know," Cori said, more to herself than to Kenzie. She took several deep breaths, blowing each one out slowly through slightly parted lips.

  The sidewalk was not busy, though everyone around them seemed to be heading in the same direction. They reached the glass doors of the border station and Kenzie pulled one open for Cori to enter. She smiled and winked, hoping to help ease Cori's tension.

  The building itself was warm. That was the first thing Cori registered as they moved forward with everyone else down the unfurnished corridor. She licked her lips several times, but it didn't help; her throat and mouth were too dry to furnish any moisture. The building was eerily silent except for the sound of everyone's footsteps echoing off the bare brick walls. At the end of the corridor, the foot traffic slowed as they approached the numerous inspection stations. There were four lines directly in front of them and all appeared to be moving quickly. Kenzie motioned to one of them and Cori silently followed her direction.

  Everywhere she looked, Cori saw armed border guards. They all seemed to be looking at her and Kenzie, but she took another shallow breath and realized they were paying no more attention to them than to anyone else. A border guard enclosed behind a chest-high counter manned each of the four inspection stations. Cori and Kenzie could not actually see the border guard from where they stood, but his hands and arms poked out now and then as identification was handed over by the couple currently at the booth. They had several plastic bags, as most everyone had, and they passed them over to the guard's outstretched hands. After close examination, the bags were returned and the couple moved on.

  Kenzie and Cori shuffled forward, closer and closer to the booth at the front of their line. As they drew nearer, Cori could hear mumbles and hushed words coming from people moving through the checkpoint. Before she realized it, they were at the front of their line.

  "Next," a monotone voice said as a hand came out of the booth and waved her forward. Cori took a step forward and felt her heart rate increase as the cool whisper of fear suddenly gripped her.

  Chapter 12

  The judge had been tirelessly making inquiries, but the information he was seeking had eluded him. There were proper channels he normally would have followed, but the need for speed and discretion forced him to navigate shark-filled waters without making any waves. If he tipped his hand, he wouldn't be able to obtain the information he required without someone else knowing that he was looking.

  There was a polite knock on his door and then Shelby opened it and poked her head inside. She held up several large manila envelopes. "These all just arrived for you by special courier."

  "Excellent. Thank you." He stood up and gestured her in.

  Shelby, a small sprig of a Southern raised woman, moved quickly across the thick-carpeted floor and set the envelopes on his desk. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

  Judge Woodward thought for a moment, then nodded. "Actually, yes, if you wouldn't mind." He went over to the closet to retrieve his wallet from his jacket pocket, counted out several hundred dollars, and then replaced the thin leather wallet in the jacket. Closing the door, he turned back to his secretary. "This is beyond your job description, so please don't feel obligated-"

  "Judge Woodward, I have worked for y'all for how long now? Whatever it is that y'all need, I'd be happy to oblige."

  He smiled at the woman he had chosen so many years earlier. Shelby had not been the most refined of the applicants he had talked to, but she had something that she referred to as "gumption". It had made him laugh, and he knew she was the administrative assistant he was looking for. "What would I do without you?" he said with a shake of his head.

  "Let's hope we never have to find out, sir."

  "I need you to pick me up one of those cheap, pay-as-you-go cell phones. You know - the kind you can get at an AM/PM or a mini-mart, and some phone cards, as well."

  "Yes, sir." She nodded, almost bowing, before she turned to leave.

  "Shelby."

  She paused at the door and turned back to the judge, noticing for the first time how tired he looked. "Yes, sir?"

  "If they need a name..."

  "It sure as hell won't be mine or yours," she said with a wink, then left him to his envelopes.

  "Next." The voice inside the booth sounded impatient, but Cori could not seem to move. Her feet felt like lead and her heart was pounding in her chest.

  "Cori?"

  She felt Kenzie nudge her forward, but her body refused to move. From the booth ahead, a face popped around the side, looking Cori over as he motioned her forward.

  "Next," he commanded strongly.

  A firm hand on the small of her back pushed her forward, giving Cori no choice. She reached the counter and smiled hesitantly at the stern face of the border guard. He didn't even lift his eyes to her as he held out his hand. Cori glanced back at Kenzie and then turned her attention to the detached government official.

  "Identification," he said, waving his hand impatiently.

  She swallowed hard, doing her best to appear relaxed. "Are we supposed to go one at a time, or can my friend join me?"

  The border guard finally looked up at the young woman. He hesitated a moment, before answering, "It doesn't matter."

  Cori looked back at Kenzie and motioned her up to the booth.

  He leaned out to look beyond the booth to the woman standing next in line. "That your friend?"

  "Yeah." Cori continued to gesture Kenzie forward.

  "Next," the guard said sternly.

  When Kenzie joined them at the booth, he looked the pair over, scrutinizing them from head to toe. "Identification." He held out his hand.

  Cori was certain that he could sense her fear. If not, he definitely could hear her heart beating as she handed over her counterfeit Californian driver's license and fake birth certificate.

  The border guard examined the ID carefully and then held it under a small desk lamp. He said nothing as he reached for Kenzie's ID. He held up the IDs and compared the pictures to their bearers.

  It seemed to take forever but Kenzie remained calm and confident, though she could feel the heat radiating off her face and the sweat rolling down her back. She watched the border guard's eyes as he glanced over the documents.

  Cori started to fidget, but the guard didn't appear to notice or care. He handed them back their papers without question or comment. Reaching out, he waved his fingers to the young Mexican couple waiting in line. "Next."

  There was no "goodbye", no "thank you", and no "welcome to the United States of America". It was just - "next".

  Kenzie guided them away from the booth as Cori tucked her fake ID into her wallet and slid the wallet into the back pocket of her jeans. One down and one to go, Kenzie thought to herself as they moved toward the x-ray machine. There were five uniformed border guards around the machine, two of them sitting and a trio standing. No one said a word to them and that was just fine with Kenzie. Apparently, it was just assumed that you knew what was to happen next after you left the guard at the booth.

  Cori approached first, and one of the guards pointed to the moving conveyor belt of the x-ray machine. He didn't say anything, just pointed. She laid her bags down on it and then walked to the other end and waited for them to come through.

  Kenzie transferred the pinata to her right hand as she placed the plastic bag and their jackets onto the x-ray belt. This is it, Big Polly. You'd better be right. She placed her pinata on the moving belt, watching nervously as it inched toward the opening, until it became apparent that it was not going to fit. Kenzie glanced up at one of the guards sitting next to the machine. "It won't fit," she said.

  The guard barely looked up before he waved
it off. Big Polly had been right again. The guards had no interest in either of them or the pinata.

  With a sigh of relief, Kenzie reached for the pinata, but the hanging wire attached to the back became tangled in the handles of the plastic bag she had already placed on the moving conveyor belt. Try as she might to unwind it, the plastic only seemed to tangle more tightly around the wire hook as the conveyor belt persistently tugged at it. Other parcels and packages started jamming up on the conveyor belt, adding to the difficulty of untangling the little bull pinata.

  Waiting at the other end of the conveyor belt, Cori saw Kenzie struggling with something, and though her demeanor remained calm, Cori knew her well enough to know something was going wrong. Glancing at the guards seated behind the x-ray machine, she saw they had not moved from their positions, but they were all watching Kenzie. This is the last thing we need. Come on, Kenzie. Let's go. But instead of moving on, Kenzie bent down out of her line of vision. When two of the border guard began to walk in Kenzie's direction, Cori panicked. What's going on?

  She hurried back to see what the problem was and saw Kenzie pulling at the plastic bag wrapped around the wire hook of the pinata. One of the guards leaned down to assist, his leather gloved hand reaching out to grasp the papier-mache pinata. Cori quickly leaned over and held back the mass of parcels, jackets, and bags that were pressing to get through the x-ray machine. Between them all, it was enough, and Kenzie released the plastic bag from the pinata.

  "Thanks," she whispered as she snatched her pinata from the guard's grasp. "Sorry. I didn't know it wouldn't fit." She locked eyes with the border guard, "It's a gift for my nephew, but I think it's going to be more of a pain to get it home than it's worth." Kenzie smiled. "Do you want to look at it?"