West of Laredo by Tom Armbruster (novel24 .txt) 📖

you."

"There is no procedure and there is no reason why she can't be with us to the border. She is not a criminal."

"It's our procedure. You can't violate it." A new face appears at Lee's window. It's Pico. The Zeta assassin who killed Fatima and Luis.

"You are getting to be a real liability for business." Pico says.

His face is ugly, twisted. Lee looks the other way.


On Sinclair's side of the car another conversation is taking place.

"Get out Sinclair. Just give us the girl."

"Oh yea, blow me pal. Just fuck off."

Lee almost laughs. She notices her legs are shaking and she brings her hands to her sides so they won't see her shake. She gets out her cell and dials the State Department's operations center. Ops answers immediately.

"Hostage might be too strong a word, but here's the situation..." Lee outlines their situation. Fifteen minutes later ops calls back and tells her that the anti-terrorist team is being spun up.

"Lee, give me the phone." Sinclair says. Dials a number.

"Antonio. Sinclair. I know I'm going to owe for you this, but can you come to the Procuracy. I know this will raise your profile, but we're in it deep."


Antonio, Mexico City's undercover federal narcotics officer, is in Nuevo Laredo for only the big fish. Showing up tonight could blow his cover. Normally, if one of the Cardenas leaders shows up, he calls in the troops from Mexico City. Now, that chance could go up in smoke. There is no one to trust on the border. Not even the Army since their elite narcotics team went to the dark side and became the Zetas.


Antonio is in the courtyard in 15 minutes. He's in his windbreaker. He is the ultimate low profile professional, but tonight he is visible and Lee knows he is vulnerable. Antonio works quickly and quietly. He identifies the leader. He makes two calls on his cell phone. Five minutes later it is game over and Lee and Sinclair are rolling out of the courtyard toward the border. Syndi is in the back sobbing.


The next morning Lee gets a call from Chief Forest, Border Patrol. "You know you're friend from last night, the little girl Syndi? Well, she escaped from our detention at six a.m. We caught her again a couple hours later trying to cross into Nuevo Laredo. So desperate to get some cocaine back into her system she was ready to be their little love slave again. We're driving her all the way to Port Arthur, Louisiana now and the authorities there can lock her up and figure out what to do with her. Meanwhile, you're adventure cost the Nuevo Laredo police force six of their finest. Mexico City got a full report from Antonio. They tried to claim they were going undercover into Los Tecos and were going to let the girl go, but Mexico City stripped them of their duties and recalled them. Good thing you've got diplomatic immunity or you'd be testifying for the next year and a half. Good work. Stay safe. Oh yea, and by the way, those six guys were all implicated by FBI in the killings of Dice and Fatima. You put some bad guys out of business."

Lee exhales and realizes she'd been holding her breath. The State Department was also uncharacteristically interested in the whole affair. They asked Lee to write it up. There was talk of an award for heroism. Lee decides to keep it low key. She doesn't need any more problems. She writes, "At 2:00 a.m. Nuevo Laredo police released Syndi Tompson after a thorough investigation into her kidnapping. Consulate afforded Tompson a ride to the U.S. upon her release. Tompson has been turned over to Port Arthur authorities as a minor runaway. Consulate considers the case closed."


Antonio disappeared from Laredo. Lee heard he was working on Mexico's other border, in the south where Mexico and Honduras meet. She often thinks of him and smiles.


*50*


Ed Ballistrade lowers himself in his white Crown Vic and watches Lee Penny come out of the HEB shopping center. It's early Saturday morning. For the past week he's watched her movements. She crosses to the U.S. side almost once a day, like everyone else, to shop, see a movie, go to lunch, or ride horses. She's been easy, fairly boring, completely unaware of surveillance. Her friend Usman is being interviewed by other agencies with more of an interest in Cuban intelligence. Ballistrade’s interest is simply finding and prosecuting wrongdoing, really criminal stuff in American Embassies and Consulates.

Sinclair was no help. Sinclair sees a lot of himself in Penny as an officer. She is bright, direct. No nonsense in her own way. And committed as hell to the mission, but she's just one officer who can be replaced in a heart beat by another good candidate. There is no shortage of would be Foreign Service Officers.

Ballistrade calls his boss Trey Samuelson in Washington. "Trey. I'm getting nowhere on surveillance. Let's do the final interview tonight. You want me to do a hostile interview here?"

Samuelson watches another plane lazily follow the contours of the Potomac river as it makes its approach into Reagan, just passing the Washington monument.

"What do you think, Ed? Bring her into D.C.?"

"Hell yea. Let's get this done. God knows I feel like I know her after her adventure with the cops who moonlight for Los Tecos. I thought we were going to lose her that night. The kid has guts."

Ballistrade lifts his bulk out of the car. Penny has just started backing out. She sees Ballistrade and stops. He gestures for her to pull back into the parking space.

"I'm Ed Ballistrade, you may recall from Diplomatic Security."

"I guess it’s time for the final act of this drama."

"Yes it is. How do you feel about a free flight to DS Headquarters in Rosslyn, Virginia?"

“Let’s go.”


*51*


Usman comes out of his debriefing in Roslyn shaken. Too little sleep, too many questions, in English and Spanish and too much coffee. He feels his elbow lift and looks to his left. A Cubano. On the right too. "Hello Usman. Enjoying your stay in Virginia?" Pronounced the Spanish way with a soft "g." Usman feels a chill. His brain is vaguely working out how they knew to find him here but he is not coming up with any answers. "Just a little longer Usman, and we'll have you home."


*52*


"The thing is Penny, the U.S. government does not give you a gun in the Foreign Service. All you get is a pen and your only weapon is your judgement. This isn't a point and shoot job. It's a job where you can really screw up and it looks to a lot of people in Washington like you screwed up."

Ballistrade's lectures are getting to Lee, but she keeps her mind focused on the Washington interview, knowing that was where and when the decision would be made. She settles into the plane and closes her eyes. Other than the Foreign Service there is what? Gardening. She smiles to herself. That might pay the rent. What else? Lee has a hard time visuallizing another profession, maybe the military? She sighs, watches the Virginia suburbs come into view as the plane noses in towards Dulles. Then the people movers, baggage claim, and a waiting U.S. Government Suburban. Forty five minutes later she is in Trey Samuelson's office.


*52*


Lee composes herself. Relives the night that she and Sinclair were trapped in their car in the middle of the night with the Mexican cops/drug lords who had kidnapped the American girl, Syndi.


Samuelson has one memo on his desk. It's a Decision Memo all filled out for him. Lower echelon DS Agents decided Lee Penny should go, all Samuelson has to do is initial the space next to the word "Concur." A decision to keep Penny just means more paperwork.


"Well, since you asked, here is the thing about the night. We could have turned over the girl to the police, the narcos. Legally, I suppose the Mexican cops had a right to deport her. But I felt pretty sure they were going to kill her. I didn't think they would kill me and Sinclair just to get to her, but I wasn't 100 percent sure. If we gave her up though, they would hold her for a while in prison for "processing" then when they had her alone they would kill her and say she was trying to escape, or she hung herself or God knows what. After they figured out she had ratted them out, telling me and Sinclair that they were her kidnappers, I knew she needed our protection, and I figured diplomatic immunity might just do it."

"Did you ever consider giving her up?"

"No."

"Do you know what happened to the cops?" Samuelson is taking notes.

"Yes. They were fired the next morning. Pico and his Zetas were called back to Mexico City. The Feds busted them. I guess kidnapping a diplomat was more than even Mexico City could handle. I don't know what happened after that."

"Well," Samuelson leans back in his chair. "Later, Pico and his fellow thugs tried to bring suit against you, saying they were "undercover" and they were holding Syndi to get information on the Tecos. It was a nice try,