The American Consul General in Nuevo Laredo, Stephanie Bright, was getting increasingly stressed and frustrated as she was trying to explain her situation with the head of the Latin America Section of the State Department in Washington.
‘’Try to understand the level of risk my consulate and all Americans presently in and around Nuevo Laredo are facing, Mister Untzinger. The local cops are too corrupt to be relied on to defend my consulate or our citizens and I have no marine guards detachment here in Nuevo Laredo, while this is the stronghold of the Los Zetas. We must evacuate and close the consulate at once before something bad happens... No!
We can’t wait for the State Department to ‘discuss’ this situation before taking concrete measures. I know that you already refused to Ambassador Garcia permission to evacuate her embassy in Ciudad Mexico: she told me so this morning. If you continue to refuse to act now, then I will take it on me to evacuate my personnel today and damn the personal consequences for me...’
The department head in Washington was again telling her that she was overreacting when a loud concert of automatic fire echoed just outside of the consulate building, making Stephanie Bright jump in her chair. One of the windows of her office then
236
shattered, hit by multiple bullets, making Bright hurriedly dive under her desk while still holding her telephone receiver.
‘’CAN’T YOU HEAR THIS NOW? MY CONSULATE IS UNDER ATTACK, YOU
PAPER-SHUFFLING IDIOT!’
A second window shattered as another burst of automatic fire hit her office, making Stephanie squeal in terror. When she tried to speak again in her telephone receiver, she heard no tonality. Raising her head for a moment, she then saw that her telephone had been shattered by a bullet. Now fearing the worst, she thought frantically about her options. Unfortunately they were few, since only a few Mexican policemen and two security men of the State Department were providing security for her consulate. Those Mexican policemen were most probably already gone, paid for by the Los Zetas, or were dead by now. She then remembered the small revolver she kept in a drawer of her desk, a gift from her ex-husband who had become worried for her when she had told him that she was being posted to Nuevo Laredo. Opening the drawer containing her handgun while staying crouched behind her desk, she fished the small, five-shot .38
Special revolver and quickly checked that it was fully loaded, as more shots could be heard, now from the inside of the consulate. While she was no fan of firearms, her ex-husband did make her practice a bit with it before she took her post in Mexico. Next, she thought about what she should do. It would make little sense for her to leave her office now, as it was about the most secure room in the consulate, save for the communications section, which had a steel door. That fact coming back to her mind then decided her to move and go take refuge in that section. However, she barely had the time to get back on her feet before someone kicked in the door of her office. A thuggish-looking man in a muscle shirt and black cargo pants and armed with an automatic rifle then burst in and started to point his rifle at Stephanie. Survival instinct then overcame her fear and she pointed her small revolver at the man, holding her handgun with both hands, and emptied it as quickly as she could. Despite her generally poor and hasty aim, two of her five bullets managed to hit the gunman from a distance of seven meters. Mortally wounded, the gunman still had time to fire a long burst before dropping face down on the carpet. Five of his bullets hit Stephanie: one in the right hip, two in the chest, one in the throat and the last one in the head. The American Consul General in Nuevo Laredo was dead before her body hit the floor.
237
14:39 (Washington Time)
Situation Room, The White House
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
The participants to this urgently assembled meeting of the National Security Council could see that President Bush was getting increasingly angry as he watched the latest pictures available on the attacks by the Los Zetas against the three American general consulates located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. As the briefer from the State Department was still speaking, an image appeared on the screen, showing the bodies of the American diplomats killed in Nuevo Laredo, who had then been hung from the trees around the consulate building, including that of Consul General Stephanie Bright. President Bush exploded in frustration and rage and banged his fist on the long conference table.
‘’ENOUGH WITH THOSE BARBARIANS! IT IS TIME FOR US TO ACT, DECISIVELY!’
Bush then looked at his Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
‘’Have our embassy and other consulates in Mexico been evacuated yet, Condoleezza?’’
‘’The order to evacuate was given this noon, Mister President. Unfortunately, my head of the Latin America section was slow to react to the urgent requests from Ambassador Garcia and from Consul General Bright to close their posts and even denied their demands initially. I have since fired him. I also got a promise from the Mexican ambassador that the Mexican Army will deploy and protect our diplomatic buildings while we evacuate our personnel. The Mexican police is simply too corrupt and too inefficient to be relied upon, as the sudden vanishing of the police guards in Nuevo Laredo has proved.’
George W. Bush shook his head angrily.
‘’Too little, too late! We need to do better than this, people. For one, we need to stop reacting and to instead start acting. Also, we must take the gloves off and stop applying our customary law practices and legal rights to these sadistic animals.’
‘’But, Mister President,’ argued Stephen Hadley, Bush’s National Security Advisor, ‘’we can’t send our military into Mexico: that would be considered an act of war by the Mexican government.’
That objection only seemed to make the President angrier.
238
‘’President Calderon talked a big game when he declared his ‘War on Drugs’, but in reality, he has achieved little except to cause the murder rate in Mexico to jump up dramatically. It was his job to control and eliminate those drug cartels and he failed at that, miserably. It is now up to us to deal with those cartels. However, the safety of our personnel and citizens in Mexico must be considered first as our top priority. I am thus going to publicly order the following measures. First, I am declaring our border with Mexico to be hermetically closed as of today. Americans presently in Mexican territory will be allowed in but no Mexican national will enter the United States, even if they are hauling goods ordered and paid for by American companies or individuals. The Mexican nationals presently in the United States on a temporary basis will be allowed to leave the United States but will not be allowed to reenter our country afterwards. The same will go for air travelers: nobody but Americans will be allowed to fly in, while a travel ban to Mexico will take effect as of today. Dito for sea travel and cruise ships. Mexico failed to rein in those damn cartels and it will now learn how costly their failure will become for them.’
‘’But, Mister President,’ objected the Commerce Secretary, Carlos Gutierrez,
‘’our own companies will suffer greatly from such a complete closure of trade and travel with Mexico.’
‘’So? What is more important? Save and preserve American lives or protect the profits of our companies? My duties call for me to protect the United States and its citizens and that’s what we will do. As of now, I am ordering the National Guard of the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California federalized. Those guardsmen will then deploy along the border with Mexico and hermetically seal it to prevent illegal entry into the United States from Mexico, with orders to shoot if people are seen trying to cross. It is high time that we take back effective control of our border, lady and gentlemen. Our CBP agents have been doing their best but they are simply not enough to effectively seal our border with Mexico.’
General Chadwick, the commander of the U.S. Army, spoke up on hearing that.
‘’Mister President, while our national guardsmen would effectively help a lot our border agents to better control our southern border, they still won’t be enough to fully secure such a long stretch of land.’
239
‘’Then, let’s use our federal troops to assist them, General. I know that there will be many who will protest and call that a violation of the ‘Posse Comitatus Act’22 but this will simply mean using our soldiers to defend our borders against an external threat, not for them to operate within American territory against American citizens. Irrespective of what it will take, I want our border with Mexico hermetically sealed as quickly as possible. I intend to announce this to the nation by this evening, in a special presidential address on television.’
‘’What about the elements of the drug cartels and of their affiliated gangs inside the United States, Mister President?’ asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey. ‘’As the murder of Administrator Tandy this morning showed us, there must be thousands of Mexican drug cartel members presently inside of the United States, coordinating and directing the distribution and sale of illicit drugs in our country. Finding, arresting and prosecuting them will take an immense effort on our part.’
In response, Bush gave him a jaundiced look.
‘’You know what? I am truly tired of seeing our justice system play footsy with those bastards and letting them use the services of high-flight lawyers to avoid jail.
What the Los Zetas did in Laredo, then in Washington and against our consulates in Mexico, constitute no less than acts of terrorism against the United States. We will thus treat those bastards like the terrorists they are and will proclaim them as such and as official enemies of the United States. From now on, all the members of the Los Zetas and those of the gangs affiliated with them and supporting their illegal activities in the United States will be subject to immediate arrest without warrant as declared terrorists and will then be locked up and treated under the rules of martial law, with no rights to legal representation. We have a special detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, which we built as part of our War on Terror and which now sits nearly empty. Well, let’s fill it with those Los Zetas bastards, out of reach of all those pricey lawyers who had been making millions defending them in our courts. The Los Zetas essentially declared war to the United States today and we will respond in kind, lady and gentlemen. If our closing of our southern border causes the other Mexican drug cartels to intervene against the Los Zetas, then the better.’
22 Posse Comitatus Act: U.S. federal law passed in 1878, limiting the powers of the federal government in the use of federal military personnel to enforce domestic policies within the United States.
240
15:24 (Seattle Time)
Main personnel cafeteria of the Hiller aircraft design and production plant William R. Fairchild International Airport, Port Angeles State of Washington
Having heard of the incoming presidential televised address concerning the dramatic events in Mexico, Ingrid had called for an early end to work today for the personnel of her aircraft design and production plant and had all of her employees assemble in the main personnel cafeteria, where there was a large flat screen television set. Ingrid herself was sitting closest to that television set, a notepad and pen in hand, ready to note down the main points of President Bush’s speech. The horrific news from Mexico and the assassination in Washington of DEA Administrator Tandy had understandably both shaken and angered the Hiller employees and most of them were nodding in approval in response to the executive orders their president was now announcing. Ingrid herself mostly agreed with those orders. If anything, she would have extended those orders and measures to all the Mexican drug cartels and not only to the Los Zetas. The CNN coverage had then switched to getting the reactions from various members of the Congress to the presidential address. While most of those members were approving and supporting those measures, a few ‘progressive’ Democrats had complained about what they called ‘executive abuse of power’ and about ‘infrigements of individual rights’. Those Democrats’ opinions had been greeted by a chorus of boos and catcalls from Ingrid’s employees. Ingrid herself shook her head at that: those Democrats had just shot themselves in the foot big time, just as the season for primaries to the presidential elections of November 2008 had started. If anything, this could only help the Republicans to eventually win the Presidency in 2008 and possibly win as well control of the Congress.
01:50 (Texas Time)
Saturday, October 27, 2007 ‘C’
Texas National Guard fixed observation post along the Rio Grande Twenty kilometers northwest of Presidio, Texas
241
Five soldiers of the Texas National Guard were manning the observation post hiding behind a cluster of trees along the American side of the Rio Grande. Being bored by their up to now uneventful duty, they were conversing in low voices while keeping their eyes on the river, which constituted the border between Mexico and the United States. The youngest soldier, who worked as a civilian store clerk in the city of Presidio, looked at the senior soldier present, Corporal Miguel Cervantes.
‘’You live in Presidio as well, Corporal, right?’
‘’Yeah! What about it?’
‘’Then you must have heard about the chaotic mess at the international bridge, then?’
‘’I not only heard about it, Roberto: I went to watch it last afternoon. I wouldn’t want to be the poor CBP agents manning the bridge and having to turn away all those poor Mexicans trying to enter the country. It must be a heart-breaking job, on top of having to deal with hot-tempered travelers and desperate would-be immigrants.’
‘’Are they still letting in some of those would-be immigrants or refugees?’
‘’Nobody but American citizens are let through into the United States, Roberto.
As for the Mexicans still in the country, they can only go one way: out to Mexico. Even the trucks bringing fresh fruits from Mexico can’t come in.’
‘’Tell me about that, Corporal: my grocery store I work in is already starting to run low on fresh fruits and vegetables, on top of seeing their normal flow of Mexican customers completely cut out. The people around town are already feeling the pinch of this present crisis.’
‘’So? You would prefer for us to ignore the atrocities committed by those Mexican drug cartels in order to continue business as usual, Roberto?’ said another soldier, annoyed by Roberto’s complaint.
‘’Of course not! What I say is that it is the little people that is paying for this, as usual. I...’
‘’Quiet, guys!’ suddenly ordered Cervantes, who was observing the Rio Grande with the help of a night vision scope. ‘’I see over half a dozen people who just stepped into the river, on the Mexican side. They are wearing backpacks. Get ready to challenge them when they will approach our side of the river. Roberto, prepare a para-flare for launch. In the meantime, I am going to call this in to our company command post.’
242
‘’On it, Corporal!’
Taking the time first to call his unit by radio to pass on his observation, Cervantes then waited until the group of eight Mexicans, seven of which carried big backpacks, reached the middle of the river and thus started to wade through American waters before giving a curt order to Roberto.
‘’Lauch your para-flare now, Roberto! The rest, be ready to fire but wait for my express order to do so.’
Holding the tube containing his para-flare at about sixty degrees of upward angle, Roberto then pulled on the string linked to the rocket’s percussion cap inside the tube.
The para-flare rocket’s powder charge then ignited in a muffled ‘woosh’, sending the rocket high in the night sky over the river. A bright spot of white light then appeared in the sky and started floating down under its parachute, brightly illuminating the group of men now plainly visible in the middle of the river. The Mexicans, taken by surprise, let out a few swear words and exclamations, then did the worst thing they could now do: they started running through the hip-high water towards the American side of the river.
Cervantes, seeing that, yelled at them in Spanish with the loudest voice he could muster.
‘’TURN AROUND AND RETURN TO THE MEXICAN SIDE NOW, OR WE WILL
SHOOT!’
Seeing that the Mexicans continued to approach the American shore, Cervantes repeated his warning, but to no avail. He then spoke to his four national guardsmen.
‘’I am going to fire a warning shot. Hold your fire for the moment.’
Cervantes then fired one shot into the air, then repeated again his warning. To his dismay, the Mexicans kept coming.
‘’Alright, guys: they were warned. Open fire at will.’
As his four men started firing short bursts of automatic fire at the group in the river, he himself took careful aim at the sole Mexican who was not wearing a backpack: that man was probably a so-called ‘coyote’, a drug cartel member who guided ‘mules’ across the border. If anybody deserved a bullet in that group, it was that coyote. Squeezing progressively his rifle trigger, he had the satisfaction of seeing the man collapse on the sand of the American shore just as he was about to step out of the water. Of the seven other Mexicans, six of them also fell, either dead or seriously wounded. The lone remaining mule who was still on his feet then decided that this wasn’t worth his life and quickly took off his backpack and threw it away on the nearby shore before turning
243
around and running back into the water towards the Mexican side. Seeing that, Cervantes immediately shouted an order.
‘’CEASE FIRE! CEASE FIRE! LET THAT GUY GO! ROBERTO, MIGUEL: GO
RETRIEVE THOSE BACKPACKS. PEDRO, CARLOS, GET THOSE BODIES AND
PULL THEM OUT OF THE WATER, SO THAT WE COULD SEARCH THEM.’
As his four soldiers got up and ran down the slope of the shoreline, Cervantes took a minute to call again his unit by radio to inform it of his actions, then ran down the slope to join his men. First helping his men to retrieve the bodies and backpacks from the river, he then went to search the presumed ‘coyote’. He found a holstered pistol on him, some cash money but no identity papers, something that didn’t surprise him. He however found a small notepad with some info and numbers written in it, plus a detailed map of this area of the border. He nodded with satisfaction as he went through the names, codewords and telephone numbers written in the notepad: CBP agents were certainly going to be interested by that pad. Next, he went to Roberto, who was opening one of the big backpacks taken from the dead Mexicans.
‘’So, what do we have here, Roberto?’
‘’I am not sure yet what this is exactly, Corporal, but those backpacks are filled with tightly wrapped packages which must be packs of drugs. They are too compact to be filled with cannabis, so my bet would be either heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine or opioids.’
‘’Good! We thus stopped a sizeable quantity of hard drugs from entering the United States tonight. Good job, guys! Let’s bring the packs and the bodies up the slope and to our observation post, where we will wait for federal agents to take custody of them. Hopefully, those damn drug traffickers will understand the lesson and will stop trying to pass drugs into our country.’
14:46 (Mexico Time)
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 ‘C’
Safe house of the Sinaloa Cartel, Culiacan
State of Sinaloa, Mexico
Joaquin Guzmàn, also known as ‘El Chapo’, was in a truly sour mood, for good reasons, as he composed a number on his cell phone. None of his drug smugglers and drug-carrying vehicles had been able to enter the United States during the last five days,
244
for the simple reason that nobody from Mexico was allowed into the country, thanks to President Bush’s executive orders and to the posting of over 80,000 U.S. Army and National Guard soldiers along the border. As Guzmàn had often said, he was a businessman running a business for profit but, right now, there was no business going on, just a freeze on all movements across the U.S.-Mexico border. Even more serious, the blocking of even legitimate trade was having catastrophic economic consequences within Mexico, with farmers unable to sell their produces in the United States and Mexican industries, notably car parts producers, unable to access the American market.
Many Mexicans were now heading towards bankruptcy or were out of a job. There were as well serious economic repercussions in the United States because of this border blockade, but nothing as severe as the present situation in Mexico. All this meant for Guzmàn and his Sinaloa Cartel a severe drop in revenues, a situation that other cartel leaders were also pestering about. And all this because the madness and blood-thirstiness of one cartel, which had caused this border war with the United States.
El Chapo finally got someone to answer his call after four rings, with the male voice who answered nearly dripping with contempt, something that infuriated even more the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel.
‘’Yeah, what do you want, Guzmàn?’
‘’What I want? What I want is for you to stop your stupid war with the United States and to stop your attacks on Americans. You are ruining everybody else’s business in Mexico with your mad bombings and assassinations and I suspect that you are also finding your own business suffering from that.’
Heriberto Lazcano, the head of the Los Zetas, also known as ‘Z-3’, didn’t sound repentant one bit when he replied to Guzmàn.
‘’I simply sent a message to the Americans to stop their so-called ‘War on Drugs’.
They may have reacted more forcibly than I have expected at first but they won’t be able to keep the border shut for much longer: their own economy is hurting because of that blockade and their politicians in Congress will soon cave in and force President Bush to back down and recall his troops along the border. We just need to be patient and wait for the Americans’ resolve to melt down by itself. We will prevail in the end...if you and the other cartel leaders show some backbone for a change and tough it out.’
‘’Tough it out? Are you mad or just delusional, Lazcano? The whole country is heading down into economic chaos and you want us to wait for the Americans to cave in
245
first? Just your attack on three American consulates has ensured that the American public is firmly behind their president in this.’
‘’They won’t follow him much longer, Guzmàn, that I am sure of.’
‘’Are you listening to the same news bulletins than I do? The last American senator who openly criticized Bush’s border policies in the Congress was booed down and called a pro-narco sellout.’
‘’He may have been booed down then but the Americans may be changing their tune in the coming days.’
El Chapo was instantly on his guards then: the past had unfortunately proven that the Los Zetas leadership was capable of the most insane and sadistic acts of violence one could think of.
‘’What do you mean by that? What kind of insane thing are you planning to do, Lazcano?’
‘’It will be for the Americans and weak-kneed cartel leaders like you to find out.’
replied the Los Zetas leader before hanging up on Guzmàn. El Chapo looked at his cell phone for a few seconds while doing his best to contain his rage. Exhaling deeply, he then pocketed his telephone and walked to the patio of the house he was in, so that he could calm down and think about what to do next. He firmly believed that Lazcano was reading the situation in the wrong way and that American outrage was not about to cool down, contrary to the expectations of the Los Zetas leaders. Besides, he could not afford to simply wait while his business and that of many others in Mexico went down the drain. Worse, the allusion by Lazcano about more violent action against the Americans was deeply preoccupying for Guzmàn. Something had to be done to stop this madness, but what? In terms of sheer firepower and para-military training, the Los Zetas had proved repeatedly in the past that they could outgun and outfight the other cartels and even the Mexican authorities while defending their territory in the State of Tamaulipas.
Thus, any direct attack by his cartel against the Los Zetas would most probably end in bloody failure. Even if he enlisted the help of other cartels, that would be unlikely to change the outcome. Only the U.S. military had the kind of firepower and reach to physically take out the Los Zetas...if they knew where to strike. Right now, despite all the efforts of the Mexican government and of the American DEA, most of the locations from which the Los Zetas operated or lived in were still unknown to the Mexican and American authorities. Guzmàn himself only knew of some but not all of them. Faced with this apparently insoluble problem, El Chapo contemplated for a long moment the
246
scenery from his patio while thinking about what to do. An idea then came to his mind, making Guzmàn smile to himself.
21:39 (Seattle Time)
Ingrid’s living room, 1402 South McDonald Street Port Angeles, State of Washington, U.S.A.
Ingrid was watching a Spanish language news channel from Mexico, trying to get the Mexican side of the present border crisis, when her lounge’s telephone rang. She frowned when she saw that her caller’s number was a Mexican one but she picked up her receiver nonetheless and answered in Spanish, a language she had gradually learned along the years.
‘’Hello!’
Her caller, a man, did answer to her in Spanish while keeping his tone of voice polite.
‘’Am I speaking to ex-General Ingrid Dows?’
‘’That’s me! What can I do for you, mister?’
‘’General Dows, please do not hang up on me when I will state my name: I am calling to pass on to you some very important information for your government. My name is Joaquin Guzmàn, also known as ‘El Chapo’, and I am the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel.’
Ingrid became instantly on alert on hearing that name but she kept her tone neutral.
‘’I am listening, Mister Guzmàn.’
‘’Basically, I, other cartel leaders and my country can’t afford to let those crazies of the Los Zetas continue this border war against the United States. You may genuinely ask why I would care about others than me but the truth is that the present crisis has the potential to drag everybody in Mexico down to a complete economic disaster and into social chaos. I may be a criminal in your eyes but I think of myself as a businessman, on top of being a proud Mexican. If I could stop the Los Zetas from continuing this border war I would do it. Unfortunately, in terms of sheer firepower, my cartel can’t outfight the Los Zetas, even with the help of other cartels. The Los Zetas are simply too brutal, too savage and too powerful to be defeated by anyone in Mexico, including my government and its army, both of which are riddled with corruption anyway. So, I am hoping that the U.S.A., with its huge military power, will be able to rid Mexico of those barbarians.’
247
‘’Why call me, instead of calling directly my government, Mister Guzmàn? If you have important information concerning the Los Zetas, you could have called the DEA, the CBP or the DHS.’
‘’Well, that would indeed have been the logical thing to do, General Dows, if not for the fact that the Los Zetas would learn about my call within hours at the most. Like in the case of my cartel, the Los Zetas have paid moles and informants all over various American government law enforcement agencies. I called you because I know that, as a trusted presidential advisor to President Bush and to his predecessors, you can have quick access to him and pass information to him in confidence, in a way that the Los Zetas could not learn about.’
Ingrid was silent for a few seconds as she digested those words. Guzmàn actually made a lot of sense in this matter.
‘’Very well: what is that information you want to pass to us?’
‘’I have the locations and addresses of many safe houses, drug labs and residences presently used by the Los Zetas, including the home and telephone number of Heriberto Lazcano, their leader. I also know that they are preparing another major attack within the United States, against your government. That list of information is however too long to recite on the telephone. Do you have an email address to where I could send you that information, General?’
Ingrid took only a second to take a decision.
‘’Send it to the following email address: ladyhawk@gmail.com. ’
The drug lord laughed briefly on hearing her email address.
‘’I should have known. You should get my info within ten minutes. Don’t bother trying to retrace its origin: it will be sent from an untraceable link.’
‘’Very well. You spoke about another imminent attack that the Los Zetas are preparing. Do you have details about that threat in your list of information?’
‘’No! Lazcano only bragged about it to me, without giving me any details.’
‘’Then, I will be waiting for your email, Mister Guzmàn. As soon as I have it, I will call the White House to get an appointment with President Bush. I would normally not say this to you but thank you for calling me.’
Ingrid then put down her receiver and blew air out: this had been one unexpected call indeed.
248
Her next move was to go to her private study on the upper floor of her house and to open her laptop computer. An email with a Mexican suffix did appear in her ‘in’ box in less than six minutes. Reading quickly its content, Ingrid sat back in her chair, her expression somber: the info in that email could actually make a huge difference in the current crisis. She made a print of that email, plus saved it on a USB thumb drive. Her next move was to make a phone call to Washington, using a private number very few people in the United States or the World knew. As the telephone rang, Ingrid looked at her watch and grimaced: it was now close to one o’clock in the morning in Washington.
Thankfully, President Bush did pick up and answered in a clear voice that told Ingrid that he had been still up and active.
‘’Yes, Ingrid?’
‘’Mister President, I just got an unexpected phone call from Mexico...from Joaquin Guzmàn, the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel. He gave me a list of locations and addresses presently used by the Los Zetas and also warned me that the Los Zetas were preparing another major attack in the United States.’
George Bush was understandably stunned by that and took a couple of seconds to verbally react.
‘’Did he say why he gave you that information, Ingrid?’
‘’He did, Mister President. Basically, he told me that the crazy actions by the Los Zetas were threatening the economy and social order of everybody in Mexico, including himself. He also told me that, since his cartel was not militarily powerful enough to fight the Los Zetas and win, he was hoping that we would do the job ourselves, using his information. When I asked why he didn’t contact directly our law enforcement agencies, he said that the Los Zetas, like the Sinaloa Cartel, had paid moles and informants inside our agencies. He thus asked me to pass to you that information in complete confidence, so that the Los Zetas would not learn about his call. If I may, Mister President, this point he raised about possible sources of leaks inside our agencies is very credible, in my opinion. Thus, we will have to use his information in a very compartmentalized way and involve only our top players in its distribution.’
Bush took the time to think for a few seconds before speaking after that.
‘’Since you were able to read that email from Guzmàn, do you have any suggestions on how to use it against the Los Zetas?’
249
‘’I certainly have, Mister President, but I am not ready to discuss that on the phone. Could I come and see you at the White House early in the morning, this Thursday?’
‘’You certainly can, Ingrid. I will advise my security detail to expect your arrival.
How are you planning to come to Washington? By commercial air? And what about your little boy? How are you going to find a babysitter for him this quickly?’’
‘’I will take my personal Hiller SUPER AIRCAR, Mister President: it has enough range to easily cross the United States without the need for refueling. As for finding a babysitter for my little Michael, would your wife mind watching over him while I am in Washington?’
Bush briefly chuckled at that, clearly amused.
‘’I am sure that Laura will be most happy to babysit your son, Ingrid.’
‘’Excellent! Then, you can expect me at around eight in the morning, Washington D.C. time. For our meeting, I would like for the heads of the DHS, DEA, CBP and FBI, plus General Fletcher and Secretary Rice, to be present.’
‘’They will be there, Ingrid.’ promised the President. ‘’Anything else?’
‘’Just one thing, Mister President: am I still listed as a part-time presidential advisor?’
‘’Of course you are, Ingrid! The only reason why you are not one of my full-time advisors is because you refused to become one.’
‘’Then, see you in the morning, Mister President...and don’t forget to warn your security men not to shoot down my AIRCAR when I will arrive over the White House.’
‘’Don’t worry about that, Ingrid. I will now hang up, so that I could warn a few people about our morning meeting.’
‘’Thank you again for listening to me, Mister President.’
Ingrid then hung up at the same time Bush did. Staying in her chair for a moment, she mentally made a list of what she would need to pack for her visit in Washington.
Thankfully, little Michael was already diaper-free and fully potty-trained.
07:41 (Washington Time)
Thursday, November 01, 2007 ‘C’
Ingrid’s Hiller SUPER AIRCAR, on approach to the White House Washington, D.C.
250
‘’Will we arrive soon, Mommy?’
‘’We should land in a few minutes at the most, sweety. If you look ahead, you will be able to see the White House, where we are headed.’
Ingrid then keyed her radio microphone to call the White House security center.
‘’White House Control, this is Lady hawk, on approach from the Northwest. I am now six nautical miles from you and on descent. Request permission to land on the White House South Lawn.’
‘’Permission granted, Lady hawk. Please land along the western border of the lawn, so that the presidential helicopter can land on it if need be.’
‘’Will do! Lady hawk out!’
In order to facilitate her landing at the spot requested by the White House control center, Ingrid overflew the White House at an altitude of 300 meters while slowing down, then made a tight U-turn to come back towards the White House at a speed of only fifty kilometers per hour while continuing to lose altitude. She was overflying Pennsylvania
Avenue and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel when a large part of the Ronald Reagan Building, some 200 meters ahead, suddenly seemed to
jump in the air, then collapsed on itself in a cloud of concrete dust. A strong shock wave accompanied by a terrifying rumble followed, hitting and shaking hard Ingrid’s SUPER
AIRCAR. She had to fight with her controls for a few seconds before regaining full control of her craft. Ingrid had seen enough wars from the air to understand at once what had just happened. Keying her radio microphone, she spoke urgently while starting a wide and slow turn to return over the site of the explosion.
‘’White House Control, this is Lady hawk! A large bomb just detonated under the Ronald Reagan Building and collapsed over half of it. My best guess is that this bomb exploded inside the underground garage of the building. I will now complete my approach to the White House South Lawn. Please advise your security team to not be too trigger-happy right now.’
The voice of the controller who replied to her sounded understandably shaken when he spoke a few seconds afterwards.
‘’Uh, message passed, Lady hawk. Continue your approach and landing.’
251
As she piloted her craft towards the presidential lawn, she looked down at the huge cloud of dust now slowly expanding over what had been the Ronald Reagan Building.
‘’Shit! The headquarters of the Customs and Border Protection agency were in that building. This can’t be a coincidence. The casualties from this will be horrific.’
‘’What happened to that building, Mommy?’ asked Michael, strapped in his booster seat attached to the front passenger seat while holding Sniffles, the young white Labrador dog Ingrid had bought for him four months ago.
‘’Bad men just detonated a bomb and killed many people. I was coming to Washington with the hope of being able to prevent a thing like this but I was obviously too late for that. We are about to land. Make sure to hold Sniffles’ leash, so that he doesn’t run out when I will open your door.’
‘’Yes, Mommy! Uh, Mommy, will there be people in need of help where that building blew up?’
‘’There certainly will be, Michael. Too many, in fact.’
‘’Then, I want to help them, Mommy.’
Ingrid, busy flying her aircar towards the designated landing zone next to the White House, gave a quick look to her son, who wasn’t four years-old yet.
‘’I know that you already possess a number of superpowers, sweetie, but that disaster area will be a dangerous one, strewn with debris and subject to cave-ins. I would need to go with you if we wish to help the unfortunate victims of that bomb but I have to attend an important meeting with the President of our country.’
The mouthy expression little Michael made then told Ingrid what he thought about that.
‘’More people may die if we wait before helping them, Mommy. The President can wait.’
Just after saying that, little Michael vanished from his seat in the aircar, along with his dog, which had been in his lap. A stunned Ingrid could do nothing about that at the time, so concentrated on landing her aircar on the White House lawn. Once immobilized on the ground, she shut down her engine and opened her door as a pair of Secret Service agents in suits ran towards her, coming from the West Wing. One of the agents addressed her in an urgent tone as she stepped out of her vehicle.
‘’GENERAL DOWS, WE HAVE TO GET YOU INSIDE QUICKLY: THERE MAY
BE A SNIPER THREAT AS WELL.’
‘’I know; however, I must now go to the site of the Ronald Reagan Building: my toddler son decided on his own to go help there.’
252
‘’And you let him go?’ said the confused agent, making Ingrid smirk.
‘’Have you ever tried to control a young half-angel, mister? I can tell you that it can be quite complicated at times, as he can be quite hard-headed when he wants to.
Tell the President that I will be going to the site of the Ronald Reagan Building, both to help the victims there and to check out on my son.’
The poor Secret Service agent didn’t have time to reply to that before Ingrid flew silently off the lawn and started flying towards the huge dust cloud marking the site where the Ronald Reagan Building had stood. That agent then threw a befuddled look at the other agent who had run with him to the parked aircar.
‘’What the hell is this magic, Rick?’
At the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and of 13th Street Northwest, which was now all but blocked by debris, the first four policemen from the Washington D.C. Police Department to arrive on the site were doing their best to help and put order in the chaos reigning around the now collapsed Ronald Reagan Building, helping lightly wounded people and providing first aid. Thankfully, the sirens of at least two ambulances or fire department trucks were heard approaching, promising help soon. Officer Laura Sanders, a six-year veteran of the department, was applying a bandage on the bleeding head of a mature, deeply shaken woman, when her partner, Tony Costanza, let out a half-strangled exclamation.
‘’My God! What...what the hell is that?’
Fearing some kind of attacker to be approaching, Laura swiftly turned around while going for her holstered pistol.
She however never pulled her gun out, as she froze in stupor at the sight of a little toddler boy approaching, carrying a small white dog in his arms. The problem was that this little boy was flying, not walking. Laura and Tony were still frozen with disbelief, like the wounded woman Laura was treating, when the little boy and his dog, a white Labrador, landed next to them on the debris-strewn street. The boy then nearly ran to the wounded woman and looked sadly at her head wound, which was bleeding.
‘’Poor madam! Let me heal you.’
‘’You, heal me, boy? What are you talk...’
253
The woman nearly recoiled with fear when the boys’ left hand, which he had approached to her forehead, started glowing. However, the boy looked at her with a hypnotic stare while speaking softly to her.
‘’I am a half-angel, madam. Please don’t move.’
His stare nearly instantly calmed down the shocked woman, while Laura Sanders withdrew her right hand from her gun handle. Laura was now remembering stories she had read in newspapers about another person who was supposedly a half-angel and who had miraculously healed thousands of people around New York during the past few years. To the amazement of the two police officers, they saw the wound on the mature woman’s head stop bleeding and close up in seconds, as if by magic. Once the wound had completely closed, the little boy caressed with one hand the cheeks of the woman, making her shed tears.
‘’Here you go, madam. You will only need now to clean the dust on your head.’
‘’Ooh, you are indeed a little angel...a beautiful little angel, my boy.’
The woman then kissed Michael a number of times on his cheeks while crying with joy.
Michael smiled at that but also gently pushed her away.
‘’I must go help others now, madam. Have a good day.’
Little Michael, followed closely by Sniffles, then ran to a man in a dust-covered business suit who was bleeding from multiple scratches and superficial wounds. Laura Sanders watched him run away before looking up at her partner while getting up from her crouching position.
‘’Stay here and direct the incoming ambulances, Tony. I will accompany this boy around and make sure that no one reacts badly to him. With all those people in a state of shock, someone is liable to react negatively to him.’
‘’You may be right about that, Laura. I... Oh shit! Another flying one!’
‘’Uh?!’
Looking up, Laura nearly fell on her bum when she saw a young and very beautiful woman dressed in a female suit approaching while flying silently through the air at a good speed. Many onlookers who had taken out their cell phones to film the small flying boy then pointed them at the flying woman, who soon landed next to Laura. The woman however didn’t stay near her, instead walking quickly towards the boy after giving Laura a nod. It took only one look around for Ingrid to assess the gravity of the situation here: it was no less than a major disaster, with dozens of wounded people visible and with a couple of dead bodies already in evidence. She started running towards a pile of debris
254
from which a moving hand was protruding, some forty meters away, shouting instructions to her son as she passed by him.
‘’Stay here and continue healing wounded people, Michael: you are doing great.
I am going to try to pull out someone from under the debris over there.’
‘’Thanks, Mommy! Sniffles, go help Mommy!’
The young Labrador understood Michael at once and started running to catch up with Ingrid. The latter, as she approached where the hand stuck out from under a pile of small stones, could now hear a man who was weakly crying in pain.
‘’H...help, someone... Please, help!’
‘’I am here, mister. Don’t worry: I will get you out in an instant.’
Bending down and grabbing a piece of stone masonry which had been part of the façade of the Ronald Reagan Building, she lifted the eighty-kilo stone and threw it away, then grabbed another stone, repeating the process. She was removing her fifth stone when two men joined her to help free the man trapped under the debris. Their faces however became red under the effort when they tried to each pick up a stone. The two men then threw disbelieving looks at Ingrid as she threw away yet another stone as if it was a mere brick.
‘’How can you be this strong, miss?’ asked one of the men, prompting a disarming smile from Ingrid.
‘’I eat my corn flakes every morning. You better join efforts on a single stone if you don’t want to sprain your backs. By the way, thank you for helping.’
With the two men soon joined by more helpers, Ingrid was soon able to fully reach the trapped victim. However, she didn’t try to move him yet, speaking to him instead.
‘’Mister, can you move by yourself? Do you feel that any of your bones are broken?’
‘’My...my legs...my hips: they hurt when I move.’
Those words made one of the men helping Ingrid grimace.
‘’Damn! If we try to move him without first applying braces, we could seriously aggravate his wounds. What are we going to do now?’
‘’I may have a solution. Please, everybody take a step back.’
While the men around her didn’t understand why she asked that, they did obey her.
Bending down on her knees, Ingrid then spoke softly to the trapped, injured man.
‘’Don’t panic if you see a sort of glow around you: I am going to heal you: I have the power of touch healing.’
255
Before the man could ask what she meant, Ingrid applied both of her hands on him, one hand on his back, the other on his left leg, then concentrated. The men around her recoiled in alarm when she started glowing, with the halo of white light enveloping as well the wounded man. While concentrating on her healing and with her eyes closed, Ingrid didn’t see that many people nearby were now filming her with their cell phones or with cameras. She wouldn’t have been bothered about that anyway: she had been performing healings for decades now and was rather blasé about the effects that it did on bystanders. Sensing the gravity of the man’s wounds, she glowed for a good forty seconds before taking a deep breath and opening her eyes, then spoke to the trapped man.
‘’Try to move your legs now, mister. Do you still feel pain?’
‘’Uh, no! How is this possible? This is a miracle!’
‘’Then, get up with my help, mister.’
With another man helping Ingrid, the victim was soon able to stand on his legs, covered with dust and with his suit ripped in numerous places but being otherwise alright. He gave an awed look at Ingrid while pressing her hand with emotion.
‘’You...you must be an angel, miss.’
‘’No, I am not an angel, mister: I am a Chosen. Do you feel able to walk by yourself?’
‘’Y...yes!’
Ingrid then looked at the two first men who had come to her aid.
‘’Could you please accompany this man to one of the ambulances that have arrived, so that medics could check him out?’
‘’With pleasure, miss. May I have your name, miss?’ said the first man who had joined her.
‘’You may! I am Ingrid Dows, retired General Ingrid Dows. If you will now excuse me, I am expected at the White House.’
Looking around her in order to locate her son, she saw that little Michael was kneeling next to the body of an inert young woman, with a small girl crying loudly while shaking the body of what had to be her mother.
‘’Mommy...Mommy, please don’t die!’
A paramedic who was kneeling next to the woman and to Michael sadly shook his head at that.
256
‘’I am sorry, little girl: your mother is dead. Her skull was caved in by a flying stone.’
Ingrid was starting to run towards that group when she saw Michael do something she herself couldn’t have done: with his hands opened wide, he shot an intense ray of white light which enveloped the woman’s body, while a strong whistling noise accompanied the white ray. The woman’s body, along with that of Michael, became so bright that Ingrid, like the medic and the other people nearby, had to avert their eyes from the light.
The whistling noise grew in intensity for a few seconds before waning, with the white light also fading away. As Ingrid resumed her run towards Michael, she saw her son, who now appeared wobbly, fall back on his bum.
‘’MICHAEL! ARE YOU OKAY?’
Michael didn’t respond at first, clearly looking disoriented, so Ingrid hurried to his side and knelt next to him to hug him.
‘’Michael? Michael, how are you?’
Her son looked up at her with his large gray eyes, his face pale.
‘’Mommy... Father visited me, inside.’
To anyone else, those words would have made no sense. However, Ingrid understood at once that Michael’s father, Archangel Michael, had just acted through his son, channeling his powers through the body and mind of the toddler boy. A shout from the medic near her then made her twist her head towards the woman lying among the dust and debris.
‘’SHE’S ALIVE! GET A GURNEY HERE, QUICKLY!’
Then, to the overwhelming joy of the little girl who had been crying over her mother, the woman moved slightly while speaking in a weak voice.
‘’Wha...what happened? Why are you crying, Lynda?’
The little girl immediately threw herself on top of her mother, hugging her.
‘’Mommy, you were dead. Then, the little boy shone brightly and you came back.’
The woman looked with shock at Michael, then at her daughter.
‘’Me, dead?’
‘’That’s right, miss.’ said the overwhelmed medic in a subdued voice. A piece of flying rock struck the back of your head and caved in your skull. I had time to verify that you had no pulse and didn’t breathe before this incredible little boy shot an intense ray of
257
white light which enveloped your body. Then, you came back. I...I just can’t explain what happened here.’
Ingrid, who had taken Michael in her arms and had gotten back on her feet, spoke in turn in a sober voice.
‘’My son possesses a number of supernatural powers, mister. I would have liked to tell you more but I am expected at the White House for an important meeting with the President.’
‘’Wait, Mommy!’ urgently said Michael. ‘’I need to do one thing before we go.
Hold me tight: I will need to join your powers with my powers for a moment.’
‘’You want to perform a healing burst?’
‘’Yes!’ answered her son before closing his arms around her neck and resting his head on her left shoulder. The dozens of people present around the site, a mix of police officers, medics, firefighters and passersby, many of them filming with either cell phones or cameras, the saw both Ingrid and Michael gradually become luminous from the inside.
After a few seconds, a burst of intense white light exploded silently from the duo, enveloping the whole block of buildings around them. When it faded after some fifteen seconds, exclamations went around as those who had been wounded by the bomb blast and thrown debris now saw that their wounds had disappeared as by magic. Ingrid bent down to pick up Sniffles in her right arm, then straightened up and smiled to the resurrected woman and her daughter.
‘’I have to go now, miss. May you and your daughter have long and happy lives.’
She then concentrated on her telekinesis power and silently flew off, taking some altitude before heading towards the White House, only a few hundred meters away. The little girl hugging her mother watched them go, then kissed her mother on the cheek.
‘’A little angel boy saved you, Mommy.’
‘’A miracle! This was nothing less than a miracle.’ Could only say the overwhelmed paramedic.
Three Secret Service agents greeted Ingrid when she landed with Michael and Sniffles on the South Lawn of the White House, near the West Wing. The senior agent looked them up, disbelief in his eyes, before speaking to Ingrid in a concerned tone.
‘’Are you alright, General? You are covered with dust.’
‘’I know! I had to dig out one of the victims of that bomb. Is the President in the Oval Office?’
258
‘’Yes, along with a number of his cabinet members. Please follow me, General.’
As they were walking towards the door giving access to the Oval Office, Ingrid did her best to wipe off the concrete dust covering her but still had plenty left on her by the time she was introduced into the Oval Office, where President Bush and six other persons were waiting for her. With Michael and Sniffles still in her arms, Ingrid saluted George Bush with a nod of the head.
‘’Mister President! Sorry for having made you wait like this but there were lives to be saved.’
Bush nodded his head in turn while pointing to a television set, on which views of the bombing site were being shown, along with dozens of agitated people.
‘’I know, General. A news crew arrived at the Ronald Reagan Building mere minutes after the bomb exploded. You performed miracles there literally, you and your son.’
Bush then approached Ingrid and smiled to little Michael, who was still in her arms with Sniffles.
‘’And what is your name, my little angel?’
Ingrid hurried to whisper to her son before he could answer.
‘’You call him ‘Mister President’.’
‘’My name is ‘Michael’, Mister President.’
‘’Well, Michael, the nation owes you today and I will be most honored to shake your hand.’
Ingrid grinned with pride as her son and the President exchanged a handshake. Once that was done, she put down both here son and Sniffles and handed the dog’s leash to Michael.
‘’Here, Michael, you keep control of Sniffles while I speak with the President.
Mister President, is your wife handy to host my son while we talk?’
‘’She is and she will be most happy to care for your little angel. An agent will lead your son to my wife Laura.’
‘’You can follow that mister, Michael. The President’s wife will take care of you while I speak with the President.’
‘’Okay, Mommy.’ said the boy in his little voice before trotting out of the Oval Office with Sniffles and one Secret Service agent. Once they were out, Bush gave Ingrid a most sober look.
259
‘’I knew that you had powers but what I just saw on television blew my mind. As for your young son, I can’t find the proper words to describe what he did. They will talk about this for a long time in the medias.’
‘’I know, Mister President. Too often, celebrity is proving to be more of a curse than an asset. But enough about me and my son, Mister President. We have some very grave things to discuss about. First, I don’t see Commissioner Walters, of the CBP.
Is he on his way to here?’
‘’He is not answering his phone, Ingrid. I am afraid that he was killed in that bombing.’
Ingrid lowered her head in sadness on hearing that, then looked back resolutely at Bush.
‘’Mister President, it is high times that the United States take off the gloves with those damn Mexican drug cartels and with the Los Zetas in particular. What they just did was nothing short of a declaration of war by a terrorist group to the United States.
We should forget all diplomatic and legal niceties and strike back with all that we have and the hell with any protestations the Mexican government could make about it. They have proved incapable of cleaning up their own house and should be treated like the quasi-failed state they are.’
‘’I fully agree with you, Ingrid. After what just happened this morning, I doubt very much that any bleeding-heart politician in the Congress will protest publicly if and when we will hammer those Los Zetas barbarians. But let’s sit down around some nice coffee before discussing this.’
‘’I certainly won’t refuse a cup of strong coffee after this, Mister President.’
Following Bush and the seven cabinet members to the corner where a number of sofas and easy chairs surrounded a low coffee table, Ingrid sat next to State Secretary Condoleezza Rice on one of the sofas and waited until a presidential steward served cups of coffee to the group. Once the steward had left the Oval Office, Ingrid took out from an internal pocket of her suit’s jacket an envelope and a USB thumb drive and gave them to Bush.
‘’This is the information I received by email from El Chapo on the Los Zetas, both in print and in electronic data format, Mister President. While it lists only about twenty locations and telephone numbers of importance about the Los Zetas, I believe that this should help us greatly in striking back hard at those bastards. However, I would urge that we act quickly and decisively: that information will quickly become useless if we start
260
playing the kind of legal and diplomatic pussyfooting which the cartels have used against us to evade our law enforcement agencies. Nor do we have the time to do some elaborate military planning before we strike.’
‘’And what exactly do you propose we do, General Dows?’’
‘’Precision airstrikes against those Los Zetas locations, done today, preferably no later than noon.’
‘’Before noon? But organizing such a series of airstrikes takes many hours at the least, General Dows.’ objected the commander of the U.S. combat forces, General of the Army Richard Warner. Ingrid repressed with difficulty a sigh of frustration at that protest. It seemed that the American military system had a lot of difficulty in producing leaders who were competent in the use of inter-service forces, could show flexible tactical, operational and strategic flexibility and could also show true innovation in military thinking. Except for one recent holder of the post which Ingrid had held for many years, an officer from the Space Corps which she had formed, the American forces simply proved incapable to form leaders who could think outside of the proverbial box.
She was thus going to have to show by example how to do things...again.
‘’General Warner, with all due respect, I wholly disagree with you on that.’
She then looked at President Bush and spoke in a firm tone.
‘’Mister President, I want one F-95 fighter-bomber from Langley Air Base to be prepared at once and loaded with eighteen two-thousand-pound GPS-guided gliding bombs. I will also need a flight suit and full piloting gear for me. I will use my own SUPER AIRCAR to get quickly to Langley.’
‘’But,’ started to say Warner, ‘’you certainly aren’t still qualified on the F-95 after all those years as a civilian pilot, General Dows.’
That earned him a severe look from President Bush, who aggressively pointed an index at Fletcher.
‘’General Warner, do as General Dows say and get that fighter-bomber prepared and armed at once. Go now!’
As the flustered general got up from his sofa, Ingrid also got up and faced Bush.
‘’With your permission, I will now fly out to Langley in my SUPER AIRCAR, Mister President. Those Los Zetas locations should be dust and flames in less than two hours.’
‘’Permission granted, Ingrid. Go get them, tiger!’
261
‘’Thank you, Mister President.’ said Ingrid before walking out at a quick pace towards her parked aircar outside. As she went out, Condoleezza Rice couldn’t help smile in admiration at Ingrid’s quickness and initiative.
‘’What a woman! Could you imagine someone like her ever becoming the President, Mister President?’
That made Bush briefly chuckle.
‘’The Congress would hate that, truly.’
10:17 (Washington Time)
Fighter alert hangar, Langley Air Force Base
