Aim And Fire

The shout was cut off by an explosion that made Kate snatch her earpiece off her head, gasping in shock. As she watched the satellite image, the sedan erupted in a glowing, gold ball of flame, forcing everyone to retreat. Kate inserted the earpiece again. “Tracy? Tracy, are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. Jesus, he just blew himself up. Must have been a grenade or a bomb or something, I don’t know. But he’s gone and he took any evidence we might have found with him.

“You need to get out of there. I’m downloading an address and directions from your location right now. Try to coordinate the Border Patrol and any other DHS agents in the area if you can, but go in quietly—we can’t tip them off or they might launch early. Brief everyone there on keeping the press out of this for now—we don’t want to cause a panic,” Kate said.

Before Kate disconnected she heard Nate say, “Hey, that isn’t too far from here, maybe about fifteen minutes southwest.”

I hope that’s quick enough, Kate thought.

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Jonathan Morgan for his contribution to this work.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

PROLOGUE

As she crossed the border from Mexico to the United States in the dead quiet of a suffocating July night, Consuelo Maria Jimenez didn’t thrill to the possibility of beginning a new life, but instead felt the intense dread of entering a strange land. She shifted to a less painful position in the back of the stifling panel truck, filled to bursting with other illegal immigrants and lit only by the shaky glow of a few scattered flashlights. Her gaze alighted on her two children, and as she stared at their wary faces, she wondered again if this hazardous journey into an unknown future was the right choice.

The decision to leave her homeland had been the easiest part. Years of slow, insidious death by corruption from the Mexican government had choked the life out of hundreds of small villages across the country, including her home of San Pedro Canon, forty miles west of Oaxaca de Juárez. The only choices for jobs were either menial work for barely living wages in the city’s factories, or joining one of the regional drug cartels, with all of the risk, violence and death that entailed.

Consuelo’s sister, who had settled in the U.S. several years ago, had been persuading her to head north and make a new life in America. She had written of the possibilities in Wisconsin, where she and her family had settled, and her persistence—along with the money she had wired each month—had just about convinced Consuelo. The last straw had been when her husband had left without a word, leaving no trace or contact information for her to follow. With two children to support, one look in their eyes was enough to make up her mind.

The trip so far had been long and difficult. She had heard horror stories from the relatives of those who had gone over, being left to die in a trailer or back of a truck, getting lost and suffering an agonizing death by thirst in the desert, being raped or sold into sexual slavery. Consuelo had asked her sister to find a reasonably reliable coyote—one of the men who made their living transporting people across the border. When the same name came up three times by other immigrants, Consuelo knew she had found the right person.

With help from her sister, she paid the fee of two thousand dollars apiece for herself and her two children, more money than she had ever seen in her life. They had left San Pedro Canon late one afternoon, the tears in Consuelo’s eyes at leaving her home rapidly drying in the desert heat. From there they had traveled steadily north for two weeks through a dizzying array of cities and towns—Toluca, León, Mazatlán, Torreán, Chihuahua—staying in dingy rooms in small, crumbling motels, crammed with a dozen other people into shacks in festering slums and once even spending the night in the backseat of a car, sleepless, hungry and thirsty the entire time.

But at long last, their journey would soon come to an end. While crossing the Rio Grande the night before, they had dodged the Border Patrol, which had made a large bust at their planned crossing site, the bright lights and the dark green vehicles forming an ominous cordon on the American side of the border. Instead of canceling the attempt, their guides had simply shifted the crossing point a few miles farther east. Now, about thirty miles outside of the notorious border city of Ciudad Juárez, their long trip out of Mexico was ending, and the journey through America to her sister’s family was about to begin.

Still, Consuelo worried about their chances of making it at every moment, what with the increased border patrols and unmanned observation aircraft she had heard the coyotes discussing. The thought of someone watching her, unseen from thousands of feet in the air, made her shudder. The men guiding them had insisted there would be no trouble at all, that “it had all been taken care of.” But their furtive glances and whispered conversations to each other did little to reassure her.

“Are we almost there?” her oldest, Esteban, asked, his dark brown eyes shadowed with worry.

“Yes, sweetheart. Drink some more water.” As Consuelo looked at her son, she felt a flush of pride. As if they had sensed the importance of what was happening, both of her children had been very good during the prolonged trip, hardly complaining at all and listening to her with unusual patience. Even when they had first boarded the truck, Esteban had staked out a seat on the metal wheel well for his mother. Consuelo had promised herself that one of the first things she would do once they reached their new home of Milwaukee—such a strange name for a city—she would take them to the largest store she could find and let them each pick out one toy apiece as a reward for their good behavior.

Gently shifting her daughter, Silvia, asleep on her lap, to a more comfortable position, Consuelo wiped sweat from her forehead and glanced around at the rest of the people crossing the border. The truck held a mixture of men and women from across Central America—from fellow Mexicans to those from El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and other places, all looking for a new life.

But sitting at the front of the truck were three men who looked markedly different from the others, and whose intense gazes made her flesh crawl. Whereas no one else carried anything with them save the clothes on their backs and perhaps a bit of food and water, the three bearded men had brought a large crate, roughly two and a half yards long. They always stayed close to it, hauling it across the border and through the desert without a word of complaint.

Although the box had attracted curious looks from several people in the back of the truck, no one had asked the trio about it, since they didn’t speak to anyone save one another, and then in a melodic language that Consuelo couldn’t understand. The only potential trouble had come when everyone had entered the truck for the last leg of the trip. One of the Mexican men had tried to sit on the box, but had been ushered away by one of the three men with a determined shake of his head and violent hand gestures.

Whoever they were, Consuelo was certain they weren’t from anywhere in Central America. She wondered why they were traveling this way, but the idle thought passed quickly, replaced by more pressing matters—like the wail of a siren that suddenly pierced the walls of the truck. Her heart sinking, Consuelo knew what that sound meant—they had been caught by the Border Patrol. The truck lurched forward, everyone in the back swaying with the sudden motion, but a cooler head must have prevailed in the cab, for they started to slow down.

Conversation throughout the truck stopped, and all eyes turned toward the large metal door at the back. Several men uttered quiet oaths, but most of the people around her looked resigned to their fate. As Consuelo shook her daughter awake, her eyes strayed to the three men at the front of the truck. They were clustered together, two of them with their backs to the rest of the group. She heard a strange metallic clicking sound, then two of them turned and stood in front of the crate, while the third pushed his way to the rear of the vehicle, his hand resting against the colorful tail of his loose-fitting shirt.

The truck stopped, and the engine died. A loud voice outside called out in Spanish. “Attention, everyone inside the truck. This is the United States Customs and Border Protection. When the door is opened, you will file out one at a time, keeping your hands in plain sight, and kneel at the side of the road in a single line.”

Consuelo’s son exchanged a troubled glance with her. “What should we do, Mama?”

“Listen to the men, and do as they say. If we are sent back, we will try to find another way across,” she replied. She had no idea how they would manage another crossing. It would be months before her sister could send the money to try again, and who knew what might happen to them in the meantime?

A metal rattle echoed through the cargo bay, and the segmented door was pushed up, revealing the bright headlights of a white SUV illuminating the men and women packed into the truck. An agent stood a few feet away from the back of the truck, one hand hovering above his holstered pistol. “Step out of the truck one at a time and take your place over here. Kneel on the ground, cross your legs at the ankles and keep your hands in plain sight,” the agent commanded.

Blinking in the sudden bright light, the men and women jumped down to the dirt road and lined up as directed. As the first bearded man stepped off the truck bed, the Border Patrol agent’s eyes narrowed. “Hold it—” The bearded man pulled a compact pistol out from underneath his shirt and fired, spraying several rounds at the agent, hitting him more than once and shattering one of the SUV’s headlights.

As Consuelo watched in horror, the agent fell to the ground and slowly tried to draw his pistol. The man stepped over him and fired once at the agent’s head, stilling him.

The group of immigrants burst into panicked motion, those still inside the truck jumping out while others on the road scattered into the darkness. The gunman continued firing, mowing down several fleeing people. Grabbing Esteban’s hand, Consuelo lurched toward the open back as she heard another strange metallic clatter behind her, then the deafening sound of some kind of terrible weapon.

“Run, Esteban!” she shouted. Pulling her son along, she scrambled toward the open door. Around her, men and women died in their tracks, bullets from the chattering, deadly weapons punching through their bodies. Shouts and screams were heard both inside and out, and Consuelo realized one of the voices was her own, shrieking in dazed terror. One arm was wrapped tightly around her daughter, and her other hand clutched Esteban’s fingers in a death grip.

And suddenly, they were at the door, miraculously unscathed. Consuelo didn’t stop, but leaped out of the truck, dragging Esteban behind her. She fell hard, landing on her knees, right beside the body of the Border Patrol agent who had collapsed against the side of the truck. The woman’s oozing blood stained her uniform black in the bright lights and heat. Around her, the three foreign men methodically killed everyone in sight. The first one now stood on the patrol vehicle’s hood, shooting anyone who moved. Bodies were strewed everywhere, cut down as they tried to escape.

Sucking in a breath of hot night air, Consuelo staggered to her feet, helped by Esteban, who was now tugging on her. “Hurry, Mama, hurry!” She let him pull her into the darkness, stumbling past yucca plants and Amargosa bushes. She saw a thick cluster of guajillo a few yards away, and knew if they reached the thicket, they might be safe.

A shot cracked out from behind her, and Consuelo felt something punch her hard in the lower back. All of the strength drained out of her legs, and she collapsed in a heap, still holding Silvia, who was clinging to her neck.

“Mama, get up, we have to get out of here!” Esteban pulled on her hand, pleading, tears streaming down his face.

“Esteban, take your sister and go.” Consuelo shook her head, trying to think. “Follow the—the road.” Scattered shots came from behind them, the cries and pleas of the others falling silent. Suddenly she was tired…so tired.

“No, I won’t let you. Don’t hurt Mama!” She felt Esteban drape himself over her back, and all Consuelo could think to do was to huddle over her daughter, who had suddenly turned limp and heavy in her arms. Consuelo tilted her daughter back and saw Silvia’s head loll on her shoulders. Looking down, she saw dark blood from where the bullet had passed through her and into her daughter’s body.

“Oh, no…no, not Silvia…” She felt Esteban, still yelling and struggling, suddenly lifted off her, and then a single, sharp crack, punishing her ears. Strange, but she couldn’t hear her son’s voice anymore. The shot has deafened me, she thought.

Consuelo drew her daughter close again, wrapping her arms around the small body as footsteps crunched in the sandy soil next to her. She looked up to see one of the men, his eyes expressionless, a pistol held at his side.

“Please…my daughter…she is hurt….”

He spoke to her in mangled Spanish. “Your son had heart of warrior. I give him quick death. Good death.”

“Please…help my baby…let her go….”

He raised the pistol again. “They will be at peace, if Allah wills it.”

Just before she saw the blinding muzzle-flash, she heard him say one last thing in that strange language, and in the flash of a second before Consuelo’s death, she somehow understood the words, although they did not ease her passing one bit.

“Allahu Akbar.”

1

Nathaniel Spencer tilted his cowboy hat lower over his pale blue eyes and leaned back in the seat of the battered, primer-gray Ford Bronco. He appeared to be just another gringo taking a siesta in the ovenlike afternoon heat on the road in front of a line of small businesses along Oregon Street. But Spencer stared through the loose weave of his straw hat at the auto parts shop and attached warehouse across the street. He also kept one hand on the small, discreet earbud to monitor the reports from his men. He and several Customs and Border Protection agents had been stationed around a drop point for one of the dozens of local drug-smuggling rings that infested El Paso and its poorer half to the south, Ciudad Juárez, for the past four hours, and Nate would stay there until their quarry showed up.

“I still don’t see why I have to sit back here and suffer. I think I’ve lost five pounds just from sweat alone.” Nathaniel’s new partner, George Ryan, was a big, green recruit not even six months out of training. He was huddled in the backseat, out of sight, but not out of smell. Nate wrinkled his nose at the sweet-sour stink coming off the other man.

“Because two men in the front would arouse suspicion. Now shut your trap and drink more water. At least you’re still sweating, so consider yourself lucky. I don’t need my backup keeling over from heatstroke.” Nathaniel eased the straw of a plastic sport bottle underneath his hat and took a long, warm gulp. After dozens of stakeouts just like this one, he knew all too well the stealthy danger of the life-draining heat. He keyed his radio. “Anybody got anything yet?”

A chorus of negatives answered him, from two agents posing as loitering day laborers in front of the hardware store next to Hernando, the unlucky guy who had drawn the short straw and had to dress as a homeless person. He had spent the past few hours alternating between rooting through a small grocery store’s garbage and wandering up and down the alley.

Nate would have preferred to have an extra half-dozen agents on this raid, but they were stretched thin as it was, and he’d been lucky to get the three additional agents in the first place.

“Jesus, these guys are seriously late.” George sucked down tepid water, draining the bottle. “Bet they ain’t coming at all.”

“Slow down, Tex—drink too fast and you’ll give yourself cramps.” Nathaniel heard the growl of a truck coming up the street, and his eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, spotting a rumbling cargo truck turning the corner, heading toward the back of the building. Emblazoned on its side was the name of the auto parts store they were watching.

“Everyone look sharp. I think they just arrived. Hernando, get your head out of that Dumpster and see if you can verify that license plate.”

“With pleasure—you had to pick the day they threw out their old meat, didn’t you? My wife’s gonna make me sleep in the den again. Okay, Lima Juliet Kilo five-one-niner. That matches the truck we’re expecting.”

Nate sat up and pushed his hat back. “All right, everyone. Get ready—the cargo has arrived. We’ll give ’em a few minutes, then move in after the truck has docked and they’ve started unloading. Carter, Juan, you guys take the front. Hernando, move to the back corner and keep an eye on the truck. Ryan and I will circle around the block and take them from behind.” He clicked off his radio. “All right, George, get up here.” He leaned toward the door as the stocky man clambered into the front seat.

“Damn two-door,” he muttered.

“Hey, do not insult the vehicle. This little son of a bitch has gotten me through hell and back.” Firing the engine, Nate pulled a U-turn and headed past the grocery store, then turned right down the side street.

Hernando’s voice came over the radio. “Nate, I’m in position. The truck just parked in the loading dock, and it looks like our boys are in quite a hurry for some reason.”

“We’ll be there in thirty. Front team, you ready?”

“Give the word, and we’ll be inside in ten seconds.”

“Copy that. No one moves until my signal.” Nate turned right again, aiming the Bronco down the alley toward the auto parts store and pulling forward until he could just see the white snout of the truck’s hood. Drawing his .40-caliber HK P-2000 pistol, he chambered a round, waiting until George did the same. “We’ll pull in front of the truck as Carter and Juan sweep from the front, round everyone up and be done with it. You remembered your vest, right?”

George thumped his chest. “You mean the thing I’m swimmin’ in here? Hell, yeah.”

“Good man. Get ready.” Nate hit his radio. “Hernando, are they unloading yet?”

“Looks like it.”

“Okay, follow us as soon as we’re in front of the truck, and the three of us will go in together. Carter, Juan, on my signal.”

The three other agents confirmed the orders, and Nate slipped his SUV into gear, creeping down the alleyway until he judged he was close enough, then flooring the accelerator. The Bronco rocketed down the alley, and Nate squealed to a stop in front of the truck, trapping it between his vehicle and the building.

“Go, go, go!” he shouted. He yanked the key out of the ignition and slipped out the door, running around the hood, his cowboy boots slapping the pavement. George was already covering the driver, and Nate headed around the passenger side of the truck, seeing Hernando running down the other side of the vehicle.

The truck had backed up to a concrete loading dock that let people walk from the truck into the building without climbing up. Approaching it at a full run, Nate leaped up between the truck and the side of the building, squeezing through the narrow gap, pistol first. “U.S. Customs agents. Nobody move!”

The interior of the warehouse was large, easily several thousand square feet, and was filled with rows and rows of metal racks, stacked full of cardboard boxes and wooden crates of every size. Five shocked men, all standing in a line ready to relay the cargo into the warehouse, stared back at him. The second-to-last man had just tossed a box to the next guy, who had looked over in surprise, only to have the heavy container smack into his chest, sending him to the ground with a surprised grunt.

Nate heard the footsteps and shouts of his agents as they came through the front door, but knew it would be at least a minute before they secured the area and got to his location. He knew that was plenty of time for something bad to happen. He peered into the gloom, waiting for his eyes to adjust and not liking what he saw. There was too much cover where more men could be lurking, too many shadows to hide people.

Nate’s gaze flicked over to the other side of the loading bed, expecting his partner or Hernando to come barreling through at any second. He turned back to the five men, three of whom had put their hands up. Any day now, guys, he thought. “Everyone down on your knees and raise your hands—you know the drill.” He repeated the command in Spanish, trying to keep all of the men covered. The man farthest inside the warehouse edged a step away, then another.

“Buddy, you take another step you’ll be missing your knees something fierce,” he growled. Where the hell is he? “Agent Ryan, report!”

A shadow fell over the other side of the loading dock, and George Ryan forced his way inside. His face was red and he was panting with exertion. “Sorry, bastard driver…didn’t wanna…come outta the…truck. Hernando’s takin’ care of him.”

“All right, read ’em their rights,” Nate ordered. Keeping his pistol trained on them, he walked to the other agent and removed two pairs of handcuffs from his belt. “I’ll start trussin’ them.”

His pistol in one hand, George took the laminated Miranda rights card out of his pocket and held it up. “You have the right—”

The loud, unmistakable sound of a shotgun slide being pumped echoed throughout the warehouse. Ducking, Nate barely had time to yell “Get down!” before the dark interior lit up with a booming flash as the scattergun let loose. He twisted around to see George stumble and go down, a cloud of buckshot tearing at his body. The five men scattered in different directions as Nate squeezed off several shots in the direction of the ambush.

“Shots fired, shots fired! Hernando, get in here, Ryan’s down! Carter, Juan, watch for suspects coming out the front!” Nate crawled over to George and dragged him behind the nearest metal rack, his chest hitching as he struggled for breath. He checked George’s vitals, seeing blood stain his fingers. It looked as if the vest had stopped most of the pellets, but at least two had penetrated. “You’re gonna be all right, buddy,” he said.

The shotgun boomed again, and a shadow fell over Nate as Hernando hit the floor beside him. “I called for backup and the medics. Jesus, boss, what did you get us into this time?”