“That son-of-a-bitch! You guys think Romero is El Hefe?” asked Sullivan.
Dix whistled, “I can’t believe it. He’s definitely up the food chain, I’m not sure the cartel boss would show up in the United States, though, but if he was already here as a wounded Special Agent, then damn, I guess Romero could be the main man.”
Sullivan was already on the phone with her boss. She told him what they just saw and sent him a photo of Romero that she just took. Her boss was stunned. Sullivan plead with him to advise the chain of command and see if they could buy her some time. Everyone stayed in their positions, but people involved in the operation were getting impatient and wanted the money, Calderon, and now Romero.
*****
Romero slowly limped over to Calderon and sat down right in front of him. Calderon looked up and through his one eye that wasn’t swollen shut saw Romero. His heart skipped a beat and he groaned. You’re supposed to be dead, thought Calderon. He tried to get free of the chair, but it was useless. He had nowhere to go. This is going to end miserably.
“Hello Jose. I see you were able to recover El Hefe’s money, well done,” said Romero. He watched Calderon and noticed he was shaking and he could see his mind was searching for answers. He wondered if he knew how close to death he really was. El Hefe had confirmed Jose Calderon ordered the hit on Romero’s second cousin, Pedro Munguia, and the hit attempt on him. This was completely unacceptable, and had not been authorized by El Hefe. Therefore, El Hefe gave Romero the option to deal with the Calderon mess any way he saw fit, as long as he retrieved his money.
“Jose, I know you ordered the hit on Pedro,” said Romero. Calderon shook and did not reply. He needed him to admit to certain things for his plan to work. Judging by Calderon’s face, however, Romero figured he probably was leery of speaking again.
“You need to speak Jose. Otherwise, I’m going to put a bullet in your knee cap.”
Calderon watched as Romero pulled a .45 caliber gun from a chest holster and took aim at his right knee.
Calderon reluctantly said, “Pedro had to go, El Hefe agreed.”
“You’re lying Jose, El Hefe did not agree to the hit on Pedro, you did that all on your own. Pedro was my family.”
Calderon shot a glance up at Romero and pleaded, “I had no idea. I was pissed, so I paid the Enforcers to take him out.”
“And in doing so law enforcement members died, which caused every law enforcement agency in San Diego to investigate us,” said Romero. He chuckled to himself since he knew the conversation was being recorded and would be used to send Calderon to prison for life and hopefully take the heat off the cartel.
“You also ordered the hit on me,” he said to Calderon. Calderon shook his head but was afraid to reply. Romero retrieved a silencer from his sport jacket pocket and put it on his gun. He then shot Calderon in the knee.
Calderon screamed in pain as the force of the bullet toppled him over to the floor. He was crying now as the realization of death was all too real.
“Okay, okay, I ordered your hit too,” Calderon said sobbing and writhing in pain. He was desperate and finally feeling the pain and agony of the many people he had done the same thing to over the years.
Romero got up and slowly limped over to Calderon and inspected the bullet wound. Satisfied he would not bleed out, Romero looked at Calderon directly in the eyes and put his thumb in the bullet wound and twisted.
Calderon screamed in pain and tried to move, but he couldn’t. He pleaded, “Stop, please stop!” After a few more seconds of torture, Romero stopped.
He whispered in Calderon’s ear, “That was for me and Pedro. We’ve got some friends in federal prison who will take care of the rest.”
Romero struggled to stand all the way back up. His body was broken and bruised from the car crash the night before. The doctor’s were not sure he would fully regain the ability to walk, but he was doing it now. All because of Jose Calderon, he thought angrily. He wanted to finish the man right then and there, but El Hefe needed him alive to redirect law enforcement away from the cartel.
He snapped his fingers and the men scrambled to sit Calderon back up and put the money bags near the exits of the warehouse. One of the mercenaries walked over to the area where the audio and visual recordings were stored for the warehouse. He ejected the compact disc, put it in a sleeve, and placed it on a small table next to Calderon. A second mercenary did a quick triage on Calderon’s bullet wound by packing it and wrapping it in gauze.
While retrieving his cell phone to text his status to El Hefe, Romero heard what sounded like windows breaking. The concussion of the flash bang grenades disoriented him and the other men, then all hell broke loose.
Three separate groups of El Hefe’s men exited the warehouse from the side and rear access points and began shooting at anyone they saw. The remaining men loaded the money bags into the two vans and Romero’s vehicle. Two mercenary snipers began pinning down vehicles from the top of the warehouse providing more cover fire for the remaining mercenaries to get to their vehicles. Time to make a run back home, thought Romero.
Chapter 51
* * *
Sheriff Libal was miffed and impatient. He ordered the hit on the warehouse without consulting with anyone else involved in the takedown. The sheriff’s deputies did what they were told and began assaulting the warehouse. The other agencies weren’t about to leave the deputies hanging, so they all joined the attack.
Dix saw the flash bangs launch into the warehouse and noticed all three exits had suspects pouring out of them right after. The splitting up of suspects confused law enforcement.
The radio traffic was fast and unorganized. People could not get out updates and the fire fight was in full swing. Law enforcement tried to disable the vehicles while the suspects tried to get mobile. Petersen and Dix could see the situation was bleak as both sides were well armed and making counter moves as though the suspects had been trained in law enforcement tactics. A group of SWAT operators moved to the east side of the warehouse. The front-shield-man was knocked down from sniper fire causing the team to retreat to cover and get eyes on the sniper.
Sullivan looked at Dix and said, “We’re not going to get out on the radio, we should go with Romero if he gets mobile.”
“I agree. He’s the link to the cartel boss.”
The windshield to their car exploded sending glass splinters throughout the vehicle. Dix checked on Sullivan and Petersen before returning fire. He scanned for threats and could see there were a lot more suspects than they’d anticipated. Damn, they must have sent men up from the tunnels, he thought.
Instead of the law enforcement teams working together, cops and deputies were moving in groups attacking from all angles creating cross-fire issues.
Dix grabbed a radio and kept pushing the transmit button until he could get through.
“Keep suppression fire on the warehouse, we need to keep them pinned down. Do not allow them to get mobile.”
Rounds flew over Dix’s head and since their car was already disabled, he motioned to Sullivan and Petersen to get to better cover. Petersen looked up and could see the vans and Mercedes were beginning to move. He pointed it out to Dix, and they began shooting at the Mercedes. The car’s windows were not breaking even though they were clearly hitting it with bullets.
A loud boom shook the vehicle they were utilizing as cover and one of the vans appeared to be on fire and smoking. The van coasted into the side of a building and suspects began shooting out of it toward law enforcement. Dix scanned the area to see what had disabled the suspect van and noticed a SWAT operator holding a grenade launcher and chuckled to himself. The SWAT operator was quickly reloading so he could get a second shot off at the remaining van.
More suspects flooded out of the warehouse, and the fire fight grew more intense. The second van drove in an effort to shield the Mercedes. Rounds were hitting both vehicles, but not doing much damage. A SWAT bearcat assault vehicle drove through the fire fig
ht and slammed into the side of the second van pushing it over on its side. The bearcat reversed and set up forty yards back from the second van as the suspects pulled themselves from the wreckage and turned their attention to the bearcat.
The collision between the van and the bearcat created a small crease between the road block set up by the cop cars and the suspect vehicles. The Mercedes sped up and made a run at the opening. It hit the curb and bounced off a patrol car, but managed to break the perimeter.
Dix, Petersen, and Sullivan were already in a lightly armored SWAT SUV and trying to catch up to the Mercedes. The SWAT bearcat tried to get in the chase but had no way of keeping up. It turned back and got into the fire fight.
Dix drove while Sullivan was trying to get the HSI helicopter locked onto their location. The vehicles sped toward the San Ysidro border leaving the warehouse in their dust.
Petersen said to Dix, “If Romero gets to Mexico he’s gone and we can’t go get him.” As he said this he assumed Dix knew that but would probably chase him anyway.
“I realize that, what are you thinking we do to stop him?”
“He’s too fast we barely can keep eyes on him,” replied Petersen as Dix was swerving around a corner trying to keep up with Romero’s Mercedes.
“If the helicopter doesn’t get locked on soon he’s gone,” said Dix.
Sullivan called out streets and landmarks to give to the helicopter pilot so he could get acclimated to the pursuing path. She gave the pilot the description of their vehicle and Romero’s vehicle. The helicopter saw the line of police cars and looked ahead of them and noticed Sullivan’s vehicle and the Mercedes well in front of Sullivan. The helicopter pilot got on the radio and advised he had eyes on the Mercedes. The co-pilot called out streets as the other law enforcement officers as well as Dix, Sullivan, and Petersen tried to catch up.
*****
Romero was pleased with the escape so far. He felt he was fortunate since the collision between the mercenary van and bearcat created an opening for him to escape. Otherwise, he might have had to come up with an alternate plan on the fly, which probably would have meant he surely would be apprehended. He kept looking in the air to see when the law enforcement helicopter would spot his vehicle. He told his driver to slow down. The driver did what he was told, but looked surprised that Romero would tell him to slow down. The chasing police cars were catching up because Romero could faintly hear their sirens. He needed the helicopter to locate him, but he didn’t want the police cars too close.
Finally, he saw the police helicopter and noticed it was an HSI helicopter. Romero flipped the switch on his radio in the car to the secure HSI channel and was now able to hear what the pilot and other officers were saying while they chased him. He heard Sullivan’s voice on the radio directing units to intercept him. He cringed and thought, Should have killed that bitch when I had the chance.
Romero told his driver to pick up the speed a bit, but not pull too far away from the pursuing police vehicles. He obeyed and raced through downtown San Diego heading for the border. After a few miles, Romero instructed the driver to put greater distance between them and the police cars. Once this was done, he directed the driver to pull into a parking structure where two other exact Mercedes were parked and idling waiting for them. The one Romero was in stopped, and while he got out and back into a full size van, three men loaded the money from his Mercedes into the van. Once that was done, all three Mercedes left the parking structure in three different directions at that same time. Romero knew this would thoroughly confuse the helicopter and incoming police cars. The move would cut the large amount of pursuers into thirds, making it much easier for him to slip into Mexico.
The helicopter observer announced over the radio that he saw three similar cars leave the structure in three different directions. The pilot updated the direction of travel to the pursuing units, but even they could not keep up with all three vehicles.
Sullivan jumped on the radio and said, “All units, split up. Follow the three Mercedes. 2300 (call sign for helicopter) stay with the vehicle traveling south toward the border. We’ll go with you. Remaining units switch to separate TAC channels and call your pursuits with the tactical dispatchers.” Two teams split off and chased the other Mercedes. It was a crap shoot as to which vehicle contained Romero.
Dix played the scene out in his head trying to figure if Romero would actually be in the obvious choice, the car headed to the border, or if some other trick was at play. He checked his rear view mirror as they raced toward the Mercedes headed south toward the border and noticed a full size van leaving the parking structure that looked like the two from the warehouse. Son of a bitch, the old double switch, thought Dix. Instead of coming up on the radio and advising the helicopter to turn around, Dix thought it would be better not to let everyone in on the secret he thought he had.
“Guys, I’m going to turn around,” Dix said.
“What! Why would you do that, we’ve got Romero in our sights,” replied Sullivan excitedly.
“I think we got the old double switch at the parking structure.” Sullivan and Petersen could see Dix was looking at his side mirrors and they both spun their heads around to look behind them. They both saw what Dix saw, a full size van pulling out of the parking structure that looked just like the other two from the warehouse.
Dix slowed and set up to make a u-turn. Without thinking, Sullivan grabbed the radio and advised the helicopter to turn back and acquire the black van leaving the parking structure. Dix made the turn and noticed at the same time the van took off quickly, which puzzled him.
“That van just took off for no reason,” Dix mashed the accelerator, “How the hell would they know we spotted them?”
Petersen thought and his eyes brightened. “The only way they would know is if they have our radio channel.”
“Damn, that’s it,” said Sullivan, “Romero would have our radio and our channels.” Instinctively, she went to put that information out on the radio but Petersen grabbed the radio before she could. She realized the mistake and stopped. She frantically dialed the command center while Dix tried to keep eye contact with the fleeing van.
“Steve, put out over the radio that we lost the van, maybe that will slow them down some and the helicopter will figure out something is up because they will see our car clearly behind the van.”
Petersen got on the radio and stated they no longer had a visual on the black van. Downtown San Diego was a circus with teams and police vehicles chasing cars all over the place, but the helicopter pilot could see Dix’s vehicle only a few blocks from the fleeing van and wondered why they would say they lost it.
Sullivan sent text after text to the pilot and co-pilot hoping one of them would feel their phones vibrate and check their phones.
The helicopter pilot got on the radio, “2300, we have the van passing the baseball fields on Grover way.” As the helicopter pilot keyed the radio once more to give another update his co-pilot smacked him on the shoulder and showed him his cell phone. The message read, “Suspect has our radio channels and is scanning, maintain visual on vehicle, no updates via radio, only cell phone.”
With some careful driving and input from Sullivan, they were able to catch up and be within a few vehicles of the black van. Since Dix was not totally convinced Romero would be in the van, he decided to get closer to try to identify who was in it. Making this happen without being detected was not going to be easy. The van was only four miles from the border. The traffic was beginning to back up since Sullivan had demanded the traffic be stopped headed into Mexico.
At the next stop light, Dix was able to get two cars back and to the left of the black van. Sullivan got a text from the pilot saying he was overhead and the traffic at the border was bad. She was not sure how the heck the van would make it across, but the way things were going, she was sure Romero had a plan.
“Buddy, let me see if I have this right or not. You want to make a move to see if we can see who’s in the van so
we can take it off before it gets to the border,” Petersen said to Dix. Dix shot him a look like don’t you know I’m trying here. Dix pulled into the turn lane to get up to the van. He wasn’t able to see anything because the windows were tinted.
“Steve, I can’t see anything, what about you?”
Petersen and Sullivan were also unable to see inside the van and none of them knew for sure if Romero was in it or not. They both shook their heads.
Dix said, “Damn, we have to make something happen here. I’m going to…” before he could finish his statement, automatic weapon fire erupted from the van and shot through the vehicles in front of Dix and startled him. He put the vehicle in reverse and slammed on the accelerator. He swung around to put the engine block of his car between the shooters and them while Sullivan and Petersen began returning fire.
“Guess you were right Dix!” yelled Sullivan.
“Get on the radio ASAP, the gig is obviously up,” replied Dix.
Petersen continued to fire on the van as Dix tried to keep some distance. Both vehicles sped toward the border with reckless abandon. Sullivan requested backup and let the helicopter pilot call out their location while she continued to shoot hoping to kill the shooters. Someone’s rounds shattered one of the windows on the van and Petersen and Sullivan both saw Romero screaming at the driver and waving his assault rifle toward the border.
“Romero’s is in the van! We’ve got to stop him!” Petersen yelled.
Romero’s van ran vehicles off the road while Dix tried to dodge pedestrians and disabled vehicles. Dix looked up and noticed the green sign said the border was one mile away. He could see vehicles and pedestrians fleeing from the van and watched as Romero continued to shoot randomly in their direction. A few police vehicles joined the chase and a couple Customs and Border Patrol vehicles tried to block the roadway heading into Mexico. Unrelated vehicles were stuck in long lines, but the van didn’t seem to be slowing. He tried to keep up, but the heavy fire from Romero made it too risky and they were pulling away.
The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) Page 21