by Ty Patterson
‘We’re good,’ Bwana replied and introduced Roger and himself.
Gonzalez chewed slowly as he looked them over and noted their weapons. ‘Never heard or seen such a thing happening before, two guys, ex-Special Forces, right? We checked on you. You guys took down eight bandits and rescued forty-odd hostages. They would have been sold into sex slavery, and once they had outlived that, would have been used as drug mules. All these women seem white American or European… at a casual glance, anyway. We’ll process them once we take them to Nogales and start the investigative process as well as inform their kin.’
He scratched his head. ‘We’ve busted some human-trafficking runs before, but not this large nor have we put down so many bandits. This has gotten the entire Border Patrol buzzing. You guys are going to have quite the reception when we get to Tucson.’
‘Tucson? Not Nogales?’ Roger asked him.
‘Nope, we’re going to Sector HQ in Tucson – this is big.’ He paused. ‘So why don’t you tell me all that happened right from the beginning?’
Roger and Bwana were expecting this and talked him through their camping trip and the happenings of the night.
‘Sir,’ one of the agents shouted at Gonzalez, ‘these women are drugged and are in a stupor. We need to move them fast.’
‘Load them up and take them to base, Brodell. All of them won’t fit, so we’ll need to make two or three round trips. I’ll stay with these guys till we’re all done here.’
Brodell acknowledged with a thumbs-up and started leading the women to the chopper. Gonzalez watched as Brodell led about fourteen women to the chopper while the other agent led the rest to shade and tried to make them comfortable.
He then turned back to Roger and Bwana and saw they had drawn a map in the earth and hunkered down. Roger stuck a stick in the earth. ‘This is where we were camping. Still got our gear there. Woke up in the night, sensed something was wrong–’
‘Sensed how?’ Gonzalez shouted over the roar of the chopper lifting off.
Bwana shrugged at him. ‘We’ve lived with danger a long time. Knowing when something is off is second nature to us.’
Gonzalez nodded, expecting the answer, and waved at Roger to carry on.
‘So we woke up, scouted around a bit, and saw this glow in the night, followed it and came across these guys.’ He stuck another stick in the ground. ‘This is where the bastards shot three women, and then we took them all out and led the women here, about four miles from where the action happened.’
‘And if we track back, we’ll find the bodies?’ Gonzalez asked them.
‘Danged right, but you’d better get there before buzzards and animals make short work of them. You’ll also find their rifles, smashed, and if you go back further, our gear.’
‘We’ll be obliged if you get our gear back,’ Bwana said straight faced.
Gonzalez laughed. ‘We’ll try.’ He looked at the sheet of paper Bwana handed over to him.
‘Coordinates of all the points Rog marked over there,’ Bwana explained.
Gonzalez nodded in thanks, stood up, and used his radio to check where the chopper was. He then walked over to the women, tried talking to them, and walked back defeated.
‘Have seen this before. The bandits drug them to the eyeballs and then make them walk the trails. Makes it easier for them to manage. By the way, did the bastards have any markings on them? Any gang signs?’
‘Had a playing card sign on them. Here.’ Bwana pulled out his phone and brought up a photograph and showed it to Gonzalez.
Bwana scrolled through a few more pictures and showed them to Gonzalez.
Gonzalez whistled as he swiped through the pictures. ‘I dunno how well you guys are clued on gangs operating on the border, but these guys, 5Clubs, are an upcoming gang who’ve muscled in and started taking over the drug and human-trafficking business. This is the first time we’ve busted one of their runs.’
He looked up. ‘Once we get you back to Tucson and sort out all the formalities and paperwork, will you come back with me to locate the bodies?’
‘We’re good to go right now,’ Bwana replied.
Gonzalez shook his head. ‘I wish we could, but paperwork is paperwork. Still let’s see if we can grease the wheels and turn it around quickly.’
They heard the chopper returning and looked up.
‘There’s another behind it,’ Roger commented.
‘Yup, I want to get the women back to Tucson and medical attention as soon as possible,’ Gonzalez said as he approached the women and got them organized.
Roger and Bwana followed him and helped him to split the women in two groups and get them aboard the choppers.
‘We’ll be turning back as soon as you meet the DCPA and debrief,’ Gonzalez shouted over the racket of the chopper.
‘Deputy Chief Patrol Agent Hugo Fernandez,’ he clarified on seeing Roger’s and Bwana’s quizzical looks. ‘El Jefe in Tucson, for the moment.’
Roger nodded and stared out of the chopper. He knew what was coming: briefing after briefing, to bureaucrats. He looked at Bwana, who read his mind and shrugged.
They were greeted by a phalanx of ambulances, doctors, and agents, who rushed to the group of women and took them away. Gonzalez led Roger and Bwana to the DCPA’s office, who rose from his seat and strode around his desk to greet them. The room was bare of decoration except for a few awards and framed pictures of the President, and one of a uniformed person who they took to be the Chief of the Border Patrol.
Fernandez was short, stocky and mustachioed, with a weather-beaten face that had seen everything on the border. He sharply assessed the two before him and ushered them to their chairs.
‘Gentlemen, Gonzalez would have told you we’ve rescued many men and women from human-trafficking bandits, turned away many illegal Mexicans, busted many drug runs, but this beats them all. I’ve no idea whether to call you heroes or lucky fools, but whatever you are, our thanks go to you.’
Roger and Bwana nodded silently.
‘Now,’ rasped Fernandez, in a voice sandpapered by the sun and the border, ‘why don’t you tell me everything right from the start.’
Bwana and Roger narrated their story once again as Fernandez silently handed over a couple of sheets to Gonzalez. Our military records, guessed Bwana. When Roger had finished, Fernandez strode over to a large map of the border on the wall behind him, took a box of flag pins with him, and grunted, ‘Again.’
He started sticking pins on the map as Roger went through the events and walked them through the route they had taken. He turned around when they had fallen silent. ‘This route is known to us, and we routinely patrol it, but budget cuts have taken their toll on our ability to man it as well as we would like to.
‘This new gang, 5Clubs, is a lot smarter than all the others. They track us and seem to know when we are going to patrol the Corridor and lie low at that point. It wouldn’t surprise us at all if they had snitches in Nogales and Tucson who monitored our movements, our choppers, everything, based on which the gang moved people. I mentioned before – this is the largest people bust we have made – but this is also the first time we have busted a movement going to the other side. In addition to that, it’s the first time we’ve struck at this gang, and believe me, we’ve been itching to do this for a long time,’ Gonzalez chimed in.
‘Despite all our technology, all the choppers, sensors, satellites, all the geek shit we can throw at it, there’s no way in hell we can seal the border totally, and thus drugs and people still get smuggled across the border.’ Fernandez looked resigned for a moment and went quiet.
Bwana and Roger sat silently, allowing Fernandez and Gonzalez to blow steam. They had seen firsthand the enormity of the border and knew how difficult the task of patrolling was.
Fernandez collected himself, gave a last look at the map, sat down at his desk, and scribbled on a notepad. Tearing the sheet off, he handed it to Gonzalez and looked at the two men in front of him. ‘You will go with G
onzo and recover the bodies and your kit.’ It wasn’t a request.
‘We can leave once we’ve done that?’ Roger asked him.
Fernandez nodded. ‘Yup. No call to hold you guys. If it was me, I would have pinned a fricking medal or two on your chests.’
‘Speaking of medals,’ he continued, ‘you don’t have any shortage of those, do you? I made some calls when we first got your message. Got your sheets sent to me… you guys come recommended from so many places, so high, that my poor old head goes dizzy just thinking of those heights.’
Bwana shrugged. ‘All those medals, they’re a past life. We just got lucky in those days.’
‘Not so past, so I’ve been told.’ Fernandez looked at him shrewdly. ‘I’ve also been told not to ask you guys too many questions about what you do now.’
‘Why? We just fish now, sir.’ Roger laughed and stood up to leave, Bwana following suit.
‘One last point.’ Fernandez halted them as the trio was heading to the door.
‘This bust is so big that in no way can it be contained. The media will be all over it, and truth to say, we like our fifteen minutes. It makes the jobs of all these guys worthwhile and makes them feel recognized.’ He waved broadly, meaning Gonzalez and the Border Patrol.
‘Question to you – we can spin this to take all the credit, or we can share credit with you. If we share credit with you, your names will be public. The danger with that is that 5Clubs might hunt you down. They have a reputation for being ruthless and for meting out punishment… and seeing that you have wiped out a good amount of them and caused them a serious loss, they might want to treat you extra special.’
Roger grinned wide as he pointed at Bwana. ‘Heck, mention our names. We’re not shy. Besides, he’s getting fat and lazy with all that fishing and sleeping. Time we had some excitement in our lives.’
‘Are you sure? If they come after you, it’ll be open season. They’re known for it. There was this guy in Nogales who was suspected of being our snitch. He wasn’t – we take care of our snitches and hide them well – but the rumor mill and the media somehow made this guy to be a snitch who fed us juice on 5Clubs and other gangs.
‘This story broke out one evening. The next day, the guy was found dead at home, hanging from a ceiling fan. On closer inspection, his head was pinned to the fan with a stake. Driven through him when he was alive. Around him lay his family, all butchered, three generations of it.’
Fernandez paused. ‘So, think about it. It could mean war if you guys are mentioned as being responsible for this bust and killing all those bandits.’
Bwana replied quietly, ‘War is our business, sir.’
Chapter 16
Roger and Bwana followed Fernandez and Gonzalez outside the Border Patrol Office on Swan Road – a swarm of news vans and reporters awaited them. They spent the next hour answering the reporters and then made their escape with Gonzalez to the chopper awaiting them. They were accompanied by six more Border Patrol agents. To get the bodies back, thought Roger.
‘I’d rather face twenty hostiles barehanded than go through that again,’ grumbled Bwana as he belted himself in the chopper.
‘What, and lose the chance to be known all across the country as the baddest man not to be crossed?’ Roger grinned at him. Bwana gave him the finger and leaned forward to guide Gonzalez and the pilot, not that any directions were required, since they had coordinates to all the locations.
The chopper settled down at the same place that it had picked them up from, outside the canyon – that was the closest the chopper could get. Forty-five minutes later, as the sun was casting long shadows in the stillness of the canyon, they reached the bodies. What was left of them.
A few vultures lazily flew away as they approached, and Bwana shooed away the last coyote. Gonzalez went over the seven bodies again and discovered nothing – Roger and Bwana had handed over all that they had collected from the bodies. Gonzalez produced a camera and took several photographs of the bodies and the 5Clubs markings on all of them. He took a few other photographs of the surroundings and then beckoned to his agents. They’d brought large black body bags with them and in a short while had all the bodies wrapped. The six agents paired up and carried the bodies back to the chopper.
‘Might be quicker if we helped,’ Bwana murmured.
‘Not his fault. Blame his folks. They brought him up to never be idle, not even for a few seconds,’ Roger sighed, addressing the air, and followed Bwana.
An hour later, the bodies were stacked in the chopper, and Bwana led the way to the remaining bodies a hundred yards away. There was a risk that the gang would send more bandits to check on the missing, and Bwana and Roger were alert, but they were the only ones moving in the ravine. Other than the shadows.
Gonzalez approached the fallen women first and circled around them, his camera working rapidly. He knelt in silence next to one of the bodies, the woman who had been felled by the bandit’s rifle, and noted her deformed head. His face was grim when he arose, and looking over at Roger and Bwana, he uttered a silent thank you.
Roger didn’t know if that was for helping the agents or for taking care of the bandits. It didn’t matter. He pointed silently to the coyote lying in the distance, his chest punctured by Bwana’s knife.
Once Gonzalez had snapped away to fill his memory card, they placed all the bodies in the chopper, taking more care with the victims.
Roger turned to the Border Patrol agent once they were done. ‘We can hoof it from here to our camping ground and recover our gear.’
‘And how’ll you get back?’
‘The way we usually do. Hoofing it and hitching rides whenever we can,’ drawled Bwana.
Gonzalez shook his head. ‘The least we can do is help you recover your gear and get you back to Tucson.’
‘It’s about three miles away from here–’
‘That’s nothing. We’ve walked longer and in harsher conditions, and sometimes under bandit fire.’ Gonzalez laughed and signaled to his men to follow them.
Bwana shrugged and led the way. The canyon was now throwing longer shadows as the sun began its daily descent. They moved with care, not disturbing the silence of the surroundings, keeping a sharp lookout for other bandits or any seek-and-destroy mission by 5Clubs. But other than the towering walls looking down at their insignificant forms, and the occasional wildlife, they encountered no one.
Probably realized discretion is the better part, thought Bwana, of the rest of the gang.
They found their camp near Pena Blanca Lake, in the thicket, undisturbed except for their pots and pans in disarray.
‘Birds and wildlife,’ surmised Roger and set about packing them up.
They always travelled light – just their camping gear and their weapons – and within half an hour, they had turned back to the trail to the chopper.
Ninety minutes later, in Tucson, they helped offload the bodies into anonymous vans. ‘The media is still buzzing, and we don’t want those assholes to follow our vehicles and hence these.’ Gonzalez nodded at the vehicles when he saw Bwana’s raised eyebrows.
‘Dez wants to meet you and wrap things up,’ he continued as he led Bwana and Roger to his Dodge Charger and eased into it with a satisfied grunt. Roger spotted a sticker across the wheel: ‘We Do it For God and Country – And for the A/C too,’ and on cue, Gonzalez turned up the cooling.
‘Thanks for the help, guys,’ Fernandez greeted them when they went to his office. ‘Hopefully we’ll be able to identify the bodies and start working back to how the women got abducted. It should be easier to identify the bandits if they’re from this side of the border. Chances are they’ll have a record. Gonzo, why don’t you do the honors?’
Gonzalez removed the memory disc from his camera and plugged it into a computer that was connected to a projector. He narrated the trail and their activities as he brought all the pictures up on a bare section of the wall.
Fernandez leaned back in his chair once Gonzalez had fini
shed. ‘Gotta cover that section of the canyon more.’
‘We’ve done as much as we can, Dez. That section of the country is laid out so that only two legs can cover it, and we don’t have the manpower to patrol it more often. Which is why those coyotes use it,’ said Gonzalez as he let off frustrated steam and raised his hands heavenwards.
Roger and Bwana silently watched the byplay and then turned to each other with a why’re we still here look.
Fernandez noticed the byplay, and his lips twitched. ‘Yup, I would be getting itchy feet too if I were in your place. Like I said, you guys are well connected, and someone wants to talk to you. Apparently you guys have turned off your phones or they’ve run out of juice, and hence my office is the only place to make contact with you.’
Bwana and Roger simultaneously reached into their shirt pockets and dug out their phones.
Roger was first off the mark. ‘Ran out of battery. You know who called?’
The phone rang, stilling Fernandez’s reply. He lifted it, grunted in it, and handed it over to Roger.
‘Get your butts over here,’ came Broker’s baritone. ‘I swear, the moment I leave your side, you guys end up in trouble.’
Roger grinned broadly. ‘Aye, aye, sir. As soon as we book our flight.’
‘If you head over to the JetBlue desk, you’ll find a couple of tickets for you and that worthless friend of yours.’
Roger looked over at Bwana and mouthed, He called you worthless.
‘Forgive him, My Lord. He knows not what he does. Or says,’ mumbled Bwana.
Fernandez started drumming his desk loudly, which was the cue for Roger to hang up and stand up.
‘We’ll be on our way now. Thank you for helping us recover the gear.’
Fernandez waved his thanks away and walked with them outside the office, where Gonzalez revved up the Charger to drop them off at the airport.
Gonzalez clapped his hand on Roger’s shoulder. ‘Watch your backs, guys. 5Clubs are not to be taken lightly, and chances are, they’ll be seeking to get even.’