‘’CLEAR THE AIRCRAFT!’ shouted Ingrid as she finished strapping herself in the Lockheed F-95 EAGLE II supersonic heavy fighter-bomber parked inside one of the protected aircraft hangars in Langley Air Force Base, situated some 220 kilometers to the South-southeast of Washington. With the Air Force technicians soon out of the way of the air inlets and jet exhausts of the combat aircraft, she started in turn its two powerful combined turbofan-ramjet engines, something allowed by both ends of the protected hangar being opened to allow scramble takeoffs. Normally, the F-95 had a crew of two or three, depending on the variant, but today she didn’t have time to find a weapons/radar officer: time was crucial today. Besides, with the weak capabilities of the Mexican Air Force, who didn’t have supersonic fighter aircraft or even long-range military air surveillance radars, she wouldn’t need another crew member for this mission. With her two engines starting up without a hitch, she then released her brakes and made her aircraft roll out of the alert hangar. With the alert hangar being positioned near the extremity of the base’s main runway, she had her fighter-bomber lined up with the centerline of the runway less than a minute later. She then briefly stopped her plane while calling the control tower by radio.
‘’Lady hawk to Langley Control: request permission to take off.’
‘’Permission to take off granted, Lady hawk. Good luck and good mission.’
‘’Thank you, Langley Control.’ replied Ingrid before pushing forward her engine throttles. The F-95, with its high thrust-to-weight ratio, took off in less than 800 meters despite its heavy bomb load. As she flew off in the direction of the nearby Atlantic Ocean, Ingrid kept her engine afterburners on, then veered south as soon as she was
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clear of the coastal area and continued accelerating past the speed of sound, soon attaining Mach 3.5, close to the maximum speed of Mach 4.2 of the F-95. Doing this was going to burn a lot of fuel, fast, but she had plenty of internal fuel for her mission and she really wanted to be over her objectives in Mexico as quickly as possible, before the Los Zetas could vacate their present locations. Her next move was to switch off her radar transponder, which made her aircraft disappear from the screens of civilian air traffic control radars. With the Mexican Air Force not having its own long-range radars, she was now going to be able to penetrate Mexican airspace without being detected.
While continuing to fly over water to avoid disturbing the coastal inhabitants with loud sonic booms, she quickly reviewed her list of targets, all situated in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, next to the Mexico-United States border formed by the Rio Grande. Each of her GPS-guided 910-kilo bombs were already programmed with the exact coordinates of her intended targets, so she was able to concentrate on her flying, using her nose radar to avoid the numerous civilian airliners flying around, which were unaware about her aircraft due to her switching off her radar transponder.
Once past the southern tip of Florida, Ingrid veered west and flew towards the Mexican coast, some 1,800 kilometers away, while being careful of staying out of range of the military surveillance radars the Cubans possessed. As for American military surveillance radars, which were quite numerous in this area, the commander of Langley AFB had promised her that he would alert them via encrypted lines about her secretive mission, with a firm order not to call her or signal her presence on the radio. With the high supersonic speed she was flying at, Ingrid came within sight of the Mexican coast on the Gulf of Mexico after just one hour of flying. It would now be around nine thirty in the morning in Mexico: this was going to be quite a brutal morning call on the Los Zetas.
09:31 (Mexico Time)
Fortified mansion complex on the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo State of Tamaulipas, Mexico
‘’SI! We got that CBP commissioner bastard!’
As Heriberto Lazcano rejoiced at the news of the confirmed death of Commissioner Walters in the bombing of the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, Lazcano’s mistress, who was also watching the Mexican television news channel, showed a clearly
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less enthusiastic response than her lover, prompting a dubious glance from the leader of the Los Zetas.
‘’What? Why do you look unhappy about this, Maria?’
‘’That woman and her son who performed miracles in Washington after the bomb exploded: what are they? Angels or witches?’
Lazcano then lost some of his own enthusiasm at that question from his mistress. The said Ingrid Dows already had a formidable reputation as a strategic and tactical genius and as a military leader, built along decades of service to the United States. Her known supernatural powers were also enough to make anybody pause. Now, her little toddler son was proving to be even more powerful than her?
‘’Listen, Maria. This Ingrid Dows retired from American military service many years ago. She may have performed miracles in Washington this morning, along with her son, but this doesn’t negate the fact that our car bomb did its work and got me rid of a troublesome adversary. As for her and her son being either angels or witches, I don’t care. They may have healed some of the people wounded by our bomb but they won’t be a threat to me, so don’t worry about what they are.’
Lazcano barely had time to finish his sentence before the first of four one-ton bombs targeting his mansion complex penetrated the roof of the mansion’s main building. It actually crashed through the ceiling and floor of the living room in which Lazcano and his mistress were, taking the television set on its way down to the reinforced basement, where it exploded. Lazcano and his mistress didn’t have time to react before the powerful blast propelled the floor of the living room up against the ceiling, which was then propelled up as well through the roof of the mansion. The whole building was either blown away or collapsed on itself, its three levels pancaking into a big pile of rubble by the bomb. Another GPS-guided bomb hit the annex housing Lazcano’s bodyguard force, while the two remaining bombs respectively hit the drug production lab situated inside the mansion’s fortified compound and the vast garage which contained the cars and pickup trucks used by Lazcano and his men and which also served in modifying designated vehicles to be used to carry drugs across the nearby border. The powerful blast waves from the four bombs also killed or severely injured the dozen armed men posted at the main gate and along the walls of the property.
In a small house situated some 250 meters from Lazcano’s mansion, a secret member of the Sinaloa Cartel paid by ‘El Chapo’ Guzmàn to watch the mansion and to
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signal any significant activity there, was discretely watching the mansion with a pair of binoculars when a dark object flew down in a flash and hit the mansion. The huge explosion that then destroyed the mansion made the observer recoil in surprise and shock just before three more explosions basically razed the whole of Lazcano’s complex. A rain of debris, from pieces of wood to broken concrete blocks and metal bars and car carcasses, then rained down on the whole area, forcing the Sinaloa man to retreat from his window and hurriedly taking refuge under the dining table of his small living room. That reflex probably saved his life, as a concrete block crashed through his roof and finished its trajectory on top of the dining table, which collapsed under the scared man. However, he was not seriously wounded and was quickly able to extirpate himself from under what was left of the table. He was however suffering from a mild nervous shock and took seconds to recover his wits before he approached his damaged window. Using his binoculars, the Sinaloa man examined what remained of the mansion complex now covered by a cloud of dust: basically, next to nothing.
‘’Madre de Dios! What just happened there?’
He then decided that warning his boss about this was more important and urgent than speculating about what had happened. Taking out his cell phone and composing a number, he spoke in it as soon as a man answered him.
‘’Hello! This is Carlos, in Nuevo Laredo. The big one here just got blown up from the air, along with his men... I will!’
Unknown to him as he pocketed back his phone, more bombs were now raining down on specific buildings in Matamoros, Monterrey, Reynosa and on five isolated locations containing drug production labs. It didn’t take long before the news about those airstrikes reached ‘El Chapo’ in his Sinaloa secret residence. The jubilant Guzmàn was grinning like an idiot when he returned to watching the latest news on his television set.
‘’Coño! Getting the help of this Ingrid Dows was probably the best move I ever made in this business. I should go pray and make an offering to Santa Muerte23 after this.’
23 Santa Muerte: a Mexican cult image, female deity and folk saint in folk Catholicism and Mexican Neopaganism. A personification of death, she is associated with healing, protection and safe delivery to the afterlife by her devotees.
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CHAPTER 18 – CRUSHING THE CARTELS
14:45 (Washington Time)
Thursday, November 01, 2007 ‘C’
The Oval Office, The White House
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.
When Ingrid was admitted inside the Oval Office, she found her son Michael waiting there with the President and his wife. Little Michael ran at once to her while shouting in joy on seeing her.
‘’MOMMY!’
Crouching to catch her son in her arms, Ingrid then straightened up while holding him and covering him with kisses.
‘’My little angel! It always is a joy to hold you.’
As Michael clung tightly to her, Ingrid smiled to Laura Bush, who was sitting in the coffee corner of the Oval Office.
‘’I hope that my son was not too troublesome during my absence, Madam Bush.’
‘’Not at all, Ingrid: he was a true angel. And please call me simply Laura.’
Ingrid then looked at Sniffles, who was playing with two Scottish Terriers at the feet of the First Lady.
‘’My dog seems to be getting along well with your two dogs, Laura.’
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‘’Oh, the three of them spent most of the time playing with your son. Your little Michael appears to love dogs and they obviously felt that.’
Ingrid nodded at that, then looked at President Bush, who was sitting next to his wife.
‘’I am ready to brief you on my mission over Mexico, Mister President. Have you heard of any official reaction yet by the Mexican government to my strikes on the Los Zetas?’
George Bush made a face at that before answering her.
‘’I did get a telephone call from President Calderon about half an hour ago. He accused us of committing an act of war against Mexico but I told him where he could put his accusations. While we can expect lots of criticism on our actions, both domestic and foreign, my feeling is that the American people will overwhelmingly support your strike mission. By the way, I gave firm orders to keep your role in this secret. Officially, a number of our Air Force planes conducted that bombing raid on Mexico.’
While Ingrid nodded her head at that, she was not too convinced that her role in this would stay confidential for very long: there were simply too many possible sources of leaks through the U.S. government. Even the Air Force technicians and armorers who had armed and prepared her F-95 could tell friends or family relatives about seeing her in Langley. Once that started slipping out, then the medias would quickly enough blab about it.
‘’Mister President, while my airstrikes will have undoubtedly hurt seriously the Los Zetas, this is by no means the end of this border war. We now have to finish the job by eradicating both the trafficking of drugs across the border and their distribution inside the United States. I have a few ideas about that and I would like to discuss them with you now...in private.’
Bush nodded once soberly, then looked at his wife.
‘’Laura, could you take little Michael with you, along with the dogs, while I speak with General Dows.’
‘’With pleasure, George.’
As the First Lady got up from her sofa, Ingrid smiled to her son and kissed him another time on his cheek.
‘’Sweetie, I now need to speak in private with the President. Be a good boy and follow Laura out. I should be able to see you again in less than an hour.’
‘’Will we go back home after that, Mommy?’
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‘’I don’t know yet about that, Michael. It will depend on what will be decided during our discussion. In the meantime, you can continue playing with Sniffles and its two companions.’
She kissed her again, then handed him over to Laura Bush, who then left the Oval Office with Michael and the three dogs. Now alone with the President, Ingrid gave him a somber look.
‘’Mister President, if you were planning to name me again as Commander of the American Combined Combat Commands, then I must refuse in advance. I already came back twice out of retirement by request from the White House and now have a civilian job I love. I have also grown quite tired of war in general. However, our nation is now facing a grave danger and I can’t possibly refuse to help it in its time of need. If you want to use me as your special presidential advisor, then I would be ready to accept such a position...for a while.’
Bush gave her a benign smile in response.
‘’Don’t worry, Ingrid: I had no plans to ask you to put your uniform back on.
However, I definitely could use your services in a civilian capacity. The heads of our two most prominent counter-drugs agencies, Administrator Tandy of the DEA and Commissioner Walters of the CBP, are now dead, killed by the Los Zetas. With the destruction of its headquarters in Washington, the CBP in particular is in a bad shape and headless. While I intend to name temporary replacements for Tandy and Walters, I would like you to act as my anonymous counter-drugs Czar, with authority to decide both our international and domestic moves about our war on the cartels. Would you be ready to accept to take such a post, Ingrid? I realize that I am asking you again to put your private civilian life on hold but I really need your advice and services right now.
‘’If I accept such a post, Mister President, then I would do it under certain conditions.’
‘’Such as?’ asked Bush, raising an eyebrow.
‘’Such as the ability and authority to decide our anti-drug moves by myself, subject only to your personal approval. The time of committee decisions on this is way past any usefulness if we truly want to win this war. Also, I believe that our justice system will have to changes its rules about how to deal with those drug cartels. Let’s treat this for what it really is: an open war by the United States against criminal organizations engaged in acts of terrorism on American soil. The sad, infuriating truth, is that this problem with the cartels only exists because our own citizens, by their own
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personal irresponsibility and selfishness, are fueling this drug trafficking by buying and using illicit drugs on such a large scale. Don’t take me wrong, though, Mister President.
I am not advocating the mass arrest of Americans who simply use illicit drugs. Our prisons and justice system would quickly be overwhelmed if we tried that. What we need to do is to force our citizens to stop using drugs by cutting off their circulation around the country: no drug importation and distribution, no or greatly diminished use of them in the U.S.A. While militarily striking outside our borders at the drug labs and cartel centers, we will need at the same time to crack down hard on the various street gangs affiliated with the cartels. Those street gangs are actually the ones who distribute and sell illicit drugs on our streets. Some may object that this would violate the individual and group constitutional rights of those street thugs and gangs but what we could do would be to declare them as accomplices to foreign terrorist organizations. Then, we could prosecute them under martial law rules, like what we did with Axis prisoners of war during World War Two. That way, all those high-paid lawyers will be cut out of the legal processing of those gang members. As for finding those street gang members, it will be much easier than many would say, especially if they are treated as domestic enemies and suspected accomplices of foreign terrorists. Many of those gang members pride themselves in displaying extensive tattoos marking them as part of specific street gangs. MS-13 members are a good example of such tattooed street thugs. Since those street gangs are heavily armed, you may have to use our various state national guards to back up our law enforcement officers. I know that all this will make many left-wing advocates and politicians scream ‘Fascism’ out loud but all this will be needed to be done if we want to win this war.’
President Bush was silent for a moment while staring at Ingrid, then finally nodded his head while smiling to her.
‘’Ingrid, I must say that I am in total communion with you on that. Let’s sit down and write down together the measures we will take to bring down those drug cartel bastards.’
18:30 (New York Time)
CBS Evening News studios
