Broken Borders, page 20
“Good,” Bo said, “Call 911 with the license number!”
Back to the 911 operator, Bo said, “Are you getting all this?”
The 911 operator said, “I have patched you through to El Paso Police headquarters. They are listening, ma’am.”
“Good thinking,” Bo said. “There is an American C.I.D. agent, my boss, Major Bobby Samuels. He was in Ciudad Juarez, but is probably in El Paso by now. Let him know I am okay and tell him I lost my Glock and M4 and need weapons and have to be picked up right away.”
Francis showed up with the bolt-cutters, and snapped the cuffs, freeing Bo from her trap, and a familiar voice came on the phone saying, “Bo, it’s Bobby. I’m in a police chopper on our way. We had a twenty on the ambulance and don’t need an address. Are you okay?”
Bo said, “I’ll live. We have to get them, Major, They have the packages that were reported with them, both packages.”
Rudolpho took the cell phone out of her hand and said, “Sir, this is a neighbor on the scene. This young lady is very brave, but she should be taken to the hospital. She looks like she was in a gang fight with no weapon.”
Bobby laughed, saying, “Sir, I’ll look at her when I get there, but believe me, she would win the gang fight.”
Bo said, “Major, someone has to get the names and addresses of these people for me. They have been wonderful.”
Bobby said, “I just got a thumbs-up from the police. They’ll take care of it.”
Bo smiled at everyone around her. Francis’s wife was still cleaning and dabbing her wounds, and used an Ace bandage to hold an ice pack on her bleeding shoulder. She had Connie behind her with another woman holding her dark green shirt up carefully, while Connie pulled splinters from her back with tweezers and applied first-aid cream to each wound.
Bo said, “You all have been so nice. Thank you.”
Rudolpho said, “We are all Americans, Captain. Thank you for your courage.”
All the neighbors started clapping and were soon cheering, and that is what Bobby saw when he topped over the trees in the police helicopter. The neighbors first heard sirens in the distance, and then heard the unmistakable whop, whop, whop of the UH-1D rotor blades. The chopper descended just yards from the wrecked vehicle, and the officer set it down in the middle of the street. Bobby jumped out, amazed at all the people clapping. He ran to Bo, and they hugged, neither caring how it looked. The neighbors just kept applauding.
A well-endowed young woman ran up and asked to speak to Bo alone. She took her behind some trees and handed her a bra and yellow blouse that looked like it would fit her. Bo hugged her and thanked her. She removed her shirt from Rudolpho and handed it to the young lady. Then she put on the bra, which fit, and then the blouse, which looked good on her.
Bo said, “Let me pay you for this.”
The girl said, “I would be insulted. Please, I want you to have them. In fact, I am going to go down and enlist in the army.”
Bo pulled out a business card from her back pocket and handed it to her.
She said, “You e-mail me and let me know when you go in and how you are doing.”
“Okay,” she said, “I promise.”
They went out, and Bobby handed Bo her Glock 17 and another belt holster he probably got from an El Paso officer, she figured. She checked her magazine and the gun functioning, and holstered it.
They ran for the helicopter and waved at the crowd.
Bo said, “Wait.”
She ran back and handed Rudolpho his shirt and gave him and Francis kisses on their cheeks, then hugged their wives. Waving, she half-limped, half-ran to the chopper, and it lifted off with the whole neighborhood clapping and cheering again. Francis reached out a hand to Rudolpho and the two shook hands, then hugged. So did their relieved wives.
11
RACE AGAINST TIME
The police chopper set down where the standoff was still going on, and Ramsey ran over and gave Bo a long hug. Too long, Bobby felt. He felt his ears burning again, and really wished he could just get away from there and have a few beers.
The sergeant greeted them and introduced himself to Bo. She thanked him for the support and asked him if he could suggest some special award from the PD for the neighborhood that had helped her. He felt it would be a great idea. He then introduced them to the lieutenant who had taken over, and to the SWAT lieutenant, who was waiting for the armored SWAT vehicle.
Bo was re-outfitted with weapons and ammo, even a tactical vest with help from the El Paso police. Ramsey said he would stay and take care of his group while they pursued Ramiro. The police helicopter took them to Biggs Army Airfield at Fort Bliss, where General Perry and a few others waited on the tarmac with the Specops U.S. Army CH-47E Chinook Special Operations Helicopter, this chopper and flight crew formerly of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), commonly known as “The Nightstalkers.” As soon as the police bird touched down, they thanked the cop, and ran up the ramp of the Chinook while giant twin rotors slowly turned.
They were greeted by General Perry and others, who checked to see if Bo was okay physically, and then sat down and started planning. The big helicopter revved up, and was soon airborne.
General Perry said, “We have the red Suburban under surveillance by satellite, and the other car, with, we believe, one of Ramiro’s gang leaders, Humberto Inigo, and three others, is heading north, with both cars, we believe, heading toward what we expect will be a rendezvous with Dr. Otis Frankin Rabbe at the safe house he has in the Tularosa Valley. Two FBI agents are keeping his place under watch and report that it is like Fort Knox.”
Tariq Ubaadah saw a large shopping mall and asked Ramiro to pull in there. He had him drive around the mall, and then saw an entrance to an underground parking garage, which seemed to be very busy. Ramiro was puzzled, but complied. One ramp before the exit, Tariq had him stop, and he and Abdul got out, opened the trunk, and removed the two bombs, setting them down on the ramp.
Ramiro, in Spanish, asked what was going on.
Tariq said, “You got us across the border. That is all we wanted. You can go to the meeting with Dr. Rabbe and he has even more money for you. Just kill him and take it, but here is what we promised you.”
He tossed Ramiro an envelope, and the gang leader looked inside and saw many bills.
Ramiro said, “But I thought we were going to . . .”
Tariq said, “We are where we want to be. Thank you. Good-bye.”
Ramiro started to speak again, but Tariq smiled and said again, “Good-bye,” and Ramiro felt that would be a permanent thing if he did not leave right then.
He pulled out with his followers.
Abdul said, “Why did you do that?”
Tariq responded, “Because all of those fools will be arrested or killed by the infidels. That Yankee whore crashed that ambulance, so the Americans could find her and see where we were.”
Abdul said, “How?”
Tariq said, “Satellites. They have them everywhere in the sky and are always watching us.”
“Really?”
Tariq said, “The infidels even have magic dust, which they can sprinkle on people or things, and it makes a satellite look at them.”
“How?”
A car approached, and Tariq waved and smiled as one housewife drove by, then another.
“I think that their satellites have a special camera and the magic dust shows up very bright green,” Tariq said, trying to sound like he had all the answers.
A mother-of-pearl Cadillac Escalade came around the corner, although they actually call the color White Diamond Pearl. It had wire wheels, all-wheel drive, large tan heated leather seats. It was what Tariq was watching for.
With a big smile on his face, he held up his hand, and the silver-haired man driving the SUV slowed to a stop. He smiled and rolled down his window and started to speak, but he couldn’t as a Colt Python .357 Magnum barrel was shoved into his mouth. Tears started to run down his cheeks, and he shook all over.
Tariq said in broken English, “Open zee trunk.”
The man reached over carefully and pushed the button, and the back gate unlatched. Abdul hoisted the backpack nukes into the back and closed it, while Tariq forced the man into the backseat. He looked all around.
The man said, “Please! I am a grandfather. I have seven grandchildren and my wife and I are celebrating our fiftieth anniversary next month. Please don’t kill me? Please?”
Tariq raised the pistol up and slammed it down on the man’s left temple. He slumped unconscious on the floor of the backseat.
The al Qaeda leader hopped behind the wheel and drove out of the garage.
By this time, Ramiro Maureo was eight blocks away driving north. Tariq headed east just wanting to distance himself from Ramiro and not show he was headed the same direction. He would head due east on U.S. Highway 62, and eventually make it to Interstate 20 and follow the blue lines back east. In the Midwest, he and Abdul would each take a bomb and head to their respective cities and their destination with world history.
General Perry got a scrambled call on the sat phone, and told Bobby and Bo about the parking garage diversion. They all discussed the possibility that the group was thinking of changing cars. General Perry called back and asked if they’d digitally taped the satellite views. They had, so he told them to review all vehicles that exited the parking garage within fifteen minutes of them entering. This in case of what did happen.
Tariq decided they would stop in one major city and rent one car, and then dump the Cadillac in another town, then rent a second car in the next large city, so the FBI would not check for car rentals in the same city where the Escalade was dumped.
He found an old adobe house that was crumbling a bit off the road about a dozen miles or so due east of El Paso. Tariq quickly pulled in to the old dirt driveway and behind the shambles of a building.
In Arabic, he told Abdul to watch for cars and warn him if any were coming. He opened the back door and pulled the distinguished-looking man from the backseat. The man had a large blue goose egg over his temple and his left eye was blackening and was totally bloodshot. Tariq dragged him back up behind the old house and pointed the .357 at his head, cocking it. The man started to cry again and begged, throwing his hands up protectively.
Tariq laughed and yelled, “Allah Akbar!” and fired into the palm of the man’s right hand. The round then traveled through his left hand, and dead center into the forehead, finally mushrooming.
He called Abdul, and they hopped in the car with Tariq explaining that by the time someone found the man’s body, they would be long gone and the authorities would probably be busy killing or arresting the O Grupo Grande gang members. Another thought was not wasted on the grandfather who was going to celebrate his fiftieth anniversary. In fact, that made the killing sweeter for Tariq.
Sheriff’s deputies, Border Patrol, FBI, and many types of cops were on their way toward Rabbe’s outpost. The helicopter set down miles beyond the far side of the hill from where the FBI agents had been maintaining vigilance. Rabbe and several others had been spotted over the course of the past couple of days doing activities you would normally associate with such a place.
One hour later, the SUV with Humberto arrived, followed just ten minutes later by the red Suburban. When they went down the long gravel driveway to the ranch house, two men wearing rifles at sling arms ran out and moved an old school bus that had been placed across the driveway to block the entrance. The rest of the ranch yard was bordered by an adobe-covered brick wall.
Minutes later, a command post was established several miles down the road leading to the southern end of the compound. The general had the Chinook fly over there. Inside the compound, for want of a better word, Otis Rabbe and his five volunteers kept going from window to window to try to figure out what was going on.
Back in the city of El Paso, every single one of the hardcore rough, tough gang members of O Grupo Grande surrendered without a shot being fired. Ramsey Keats bummed a ride on the same police helicopter, which was going out to the Rabbe site command post.
Ramsey and Bo got off in the corner by themselves, and spoke at some length while Bobby joined the general, the senior FBI agents who had come, an arrogant Homeland Security boss, a Border Patrol lieutenant, several sheriff’s supervisors, and several more boss-cops. His eyes kept inadvertently straying toward Bo and Ramsey, who really seemed to enjoy each other’s company. Bobby felt the flames of jealousy worse than ever.
Why did she seem to like Ramsey so much? he wondered. He was an FBI agent and seemed to be good. He was very good-looking and well built. Bobby wondered why she seemed more interested in Ramsey than himself, and then he once again got mad at himself for even thinking that.
The meeting ended, and the FBI supervisor spoke. “We must, before we do anything else, give the suspects an opportunity to surrender. They have not answered any phone calls, so we will send two volunteers with a loudspeaker in a cruiser to the front gate where the bus is parked and tell them to lay down their weapons and surrender.”
Ramsey saw this as an opportunity to further his career, plus he was simply gung ho.
He immediately said, “Sir, I would like to volunteer,” and a sheriff ’s deputy said, “I’ll drive him.”
Bobby and Bo did not even have a chance to volunteer. General Perry had already decided he would not let them volunteer, as they were members of the army, and he wanted to really keep them as low-profile as possible because military and civilian law enforcement do not mix well. People can and should worry about martial law and government intrusion. Plus, both of them were still walking wounded. If national security were not at stake, both would be in the hospital by his orders, especially Bo after what she had just gone through.
Ramsey came over and shook hands with Bobby, but Bo leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek. He smiled at her, and she at him, and Bobby Samuels could hardly contain his jealousy. He wanted to get out of the rental house they were using and hop in a cruiser and drive to a bar somewhere and have a few drinks. Thoughts like that were interfering with his investigation, and he was developing a newfound respect for AA. He really wished now he could go to a meeting and learn more about this disease he now understood he suffered from.
Ramsey and the deputy went out and hopped in the cruiser, pulling out the driveway with two other cruisers going as backup. The rest watched with a video camera being used by the two FBI agents who had been maintaining surveillance, and another in the highway patrol helicopter now airborne and slowly circling over the ranch area.
Bobby and Bo walked outside, knowing how the general would react, then quickly hopped in a cruiser and hijacked it, tearing down the road, and caught up, following the others toward the ranch. General Perry looked out the window, shaking his head and chuckled to himself.
The FBI supervisor said, “You want them back here, General?”
Perry laughed. “They partnered up with your man. You want to try to stop them from backing him up now?”
Bo and Bobby and the cruisers stopped at the end of the driveway, while the deputy and Ramsey went forward down the long gravel driveway.
They pulled up in front of the school bus barricade.
Ramsey lifted the mike up and said over the PA, “Dr. Rabbe, Ramiro Maureo, and all residents inside the house. This is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. . . .”
The staccato bursts of automatic-weapons fire from inside the darkness of the windows stabbed flame out of the blackness of the building’s interior, and shot horror into the hearts of those witnessing the carnage. It was eerie to Bobby, Bo, and the others to see the flame of bullets and the shattering of windshield and rear window, and from there, a mile away, the blood was visible.
Bobby yelled at Bo, “Get out!”
He ran to the back of the cruiser and opened the trunk, pulling out a tow chain.
He quickly affixed it to a brace under the rear bumper, hopped in, and tore down the driveway, yelling out the window, “Cover me!”
The other officers were in shock at the outpouring of gunfire, but Bobby’s actions awakened them.
Bo jumped in the lead cruiser and snapped, “Get down the driveway, Deputy. We can’t cover him from a mile away.”
He was fearful and said, “We are outgunned. We need to wait for backup.”
Bo looked at him, saying, “Tough shit! Drive!”
He snapped out of it and tore down the driveway, stopping a hundred yards out. They took cover behind the cruiser. The other one followed him and parked to his right.
Bobby’s vehicle took some overhead fire as he approached, but right behind the other cruiser, he slammed the brakes on and whipped the wheel to the left, and let off the brakes and stomped on the accelerator. The cruiser did a complete 180-degree spin, and Bobby jammed it into reverse and backed up to the back of the other cruiser.
In the meantime, Bo called General Perry saying, “Sir, we need the big bird for medevac. ASAP. That will be fastest.”
Perry said, “Wilco, out!”
Bo thought, “A four star general, chief of staff of the army, and the man still understands combat.”
Perry had already had the chopper warming on the expedient pad, for just such an occurrence. He ran in, dragging a paramedic Border Patrol officer with him, carrying a first-aid kit without explaining. They were ready to touch down at the end of the driveway within minutes, but waited and went into a hover instead.
Bobby jumped out of his cruiser under another burst of 7.62-millimeter automatic weapons fire, and ran back to the back of Ramsey’s cruiser, where he quickly affixed the tow chain. They fired at him, ineffectively.
He called in from behind the cruiser, “They have at least two AK-47s on full automatic with armor-piercing ammo! Cover me! Out!”
Bobby jumped up and opening up with his M4 in one hand, he fired round after round in thee-shot bursts from his thirty-round magazine, and with his Glock 17 in his other hand, he fired round after round at the windows. He wanted fire superiority, pure and simple. Bobby did not care if he hit anybody. He just wanted them to duck because of the heavy volume. While shooting, he dashed forward to the driver’s door, reached in, and slammed the car into neutral. It was still idling.
