“I don’t think that’s an accurate characterization of his opinions, Madam…”
“You agree with this racist? You support his contention that all Mexicans should be hunted down and forcibly removed from the United States?”
“That’s not what he…”
“Obviously you do, because you are doing precisely what Bob O’Rourke has been calling for: putting the military on the border, repealing Posse Comitatus, and removing all Mexicans from the United States. You, sir, are following his hysterical xenophobic fascist ranting to the letter! Please, Mr. President, I urge you: get control of this situation quickly before it gets out of hand.”
“Madam President, I assure you, I’m doing all I can to defuse the growing crisis and deal with the illegal immigration problem,” Conrad said. “Placing National Guard forces on the border is a temporary measure until Congress approves a more comprehensive immigration reform package.”
“Sir, Mexico is here to assist you any way we can,” Maravilloso said, “but it is hard to support you and your government when you make bold, radical moves such as this without consulting us first. You can help me help you by conferring with us beforehand. Good day to you, Mr. Conrad.” The connection terminated abruptly.
“Who does she think she is, speaking to another foreign leader like that?” Thomas Kinsly said as he deactivated the listen-only receiver he had been using to monitor the call.
“She’s using these circumstances to full political advantage, that’s what,” the President said, rubbing his eyes wearily. “I’m getting hammered, and she’s looking like a tiger. She’s taken the complete moral high ground here, and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.”
“Why not let State handle her calls from now on, Mr. President?”
“Because heads of state talk to each other, not to the bureaucracy,” the President replied. “I’ll handle her calls just fine. She’s looking for anything I say to use against me—if I didn’t talk to her, no matter how rude she becomes, I’ll be the coward who didn’t take her call.” Kinsly had no response. The President turned to Attorney General Wentworth. “What do you have on the investigation, George?”
“The FBI is still collecting evidence,” Wentworth said, “but it appears that the migrants were shot by the Watchdogs. The caliber of the weapons used matches the ones the Watchdogs were carrying.”
“Oh, Christ…!”
“Has there been an actual match with the weapons, Mr. Wentworth?” National Security Adviser Ray Jefferson asked.
“Not yet. Those results will be in later today.” He looked at Jefferson closely. “The caliber matched the weapons the Watchdogs were carrying. Why do you want an exact match?”
“Those weapons could have been planted.”
“C’mon, Sergeant Major, that’s overly far-fetched, especially for you,” Kinsly said. “Let’s stick to the facts, shall we?” He turned to the President. “We have got to keep this quiet. If word gets out that the Watchdogs slaughtered those migrants, all hell will break loose.”
“But the video was tracking another group of unknowns,” Jefferson said. “Geitz said they were more migrants, part of the original large group that just split up. What if they weren’t migrants?”
“Who, then?” Kinsly paused, then rolled his eyes. “Oh, you think it was the Consortium, right?”
“I think it’s not just possible—I think it’s probable,” Jefferson said. He raised a message form he held in his hands. “I have an important report from Task Force TALON commander Richter…”
“He’s not still out in the field, is he, Sergeant Major?” Chief of Staff Thomas Kinsly groaned.
“Major Richter met with FBI Director DeLaine yesterday in San Diego, after being debriefed by the FBI and Justice Department after the incident at Rampart One. They spoke with a survivor of that attack on the Border Patrol agents.”
“Say again, Sergeant Major?” the President remarked. “There was a survivor?”
“A veteran Border Patrol agent, shot in the back by the terrorists,” Jefferson said. “Name’s Paul Purdy. He had the wind knocked out of him and fell into a ditch, where he was left for dead. But he’s positive that he heard some of his assailants speaking Russian, and he identified two of the individuals at the scene of the shooting: the Mexican insurgent known as Ernesto Fuerza, and…Yegor Zakharov.”
There were a few moments of stunned silence; then: “Is he positive, Sergeant Major?” the President asked.
“Not one hundred percent, sir, but close. It was dark, and he saw them only at a distance, but Purdy is a reliable, trained eyewitness…”
“It’s not enough to link Mexican insurgents with the Consortium,” Chief of Staff Kinsly said, shaking his head. “It doesn’t prove anything.”
“There was another survivor: the smuggler that brought one of the terrorists across the border, the one identified as Victor Flores,” Jefferson said. “Director DeLaine wants to go after that smuggler. Purdy thinks he still might be in the United States, where he was born, possibly somewhere in the agricultural region of southern California. If they find the smuggler, he may be able to gather information on where the others were heading.”
“What does Richter have to do with any of this?” Attorney General Wentworth exclaimed. “He shouldn’t be involved in this operation any further.”
“Director DeLaine has requested Task Force TALON’s assistance in hunting down Flores and the ones that were smuggled into southern California,” Jefferson said. “She wants full authority over TALON to provide the high-tech surveillance support and firepower she needs to take on the terrorists.”
“Those robots—in the hands of the FBI?” Kinsly retorted. “No way, Jefferson.”
“The FBI has plenty of firepower of its own already,” Wentworth said. “They don’t need TALON. TALON was designed for military operations…”
“TALON was designed to replace a light armored cavalry unit or special ops platoon with a single, highly mobile, highly effective weapon system, General Wentworth,” Jefferson said. “The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Teams are the best of the best, but they don’t have nearly the capabilities of a Cybernetic Infantry Device. Judging by what we’ve seen in southern California and now in southern Arizona, I think CID is exactly what we need. And if the Russians Purdy identified turn out to be Zakharov and Consortium terrorists, we’re going to need all the firepower we can get out there.” He turned to the President. “This episode in Arizona could have been one massive setup. The Consortium had plenty of time to plan this ambush in order to make it look like the Watchdogs killed those migrants. They could have even jammed the transmissions from the unmanned aerial vehicle the Watchdogs used to monitor their operation…”
“That’s really stretching credibility, Sergeant Major,” Kinsly said. “No use in speculating until we get more information from the FBI.”
“Until then, we need to prepare in case the word does get out and it does precipitate unrest,” the President said. He turned to the one-star Army general standing in the center of the Oval Office. “General Lopez, I’m impressed you were able to deploy those troops so quickly.”
“Thank you, sir,” the commander of Operation Rampart replied. “I had seven Army National Guard units standing by with orders to deploy on short notice. They were all units previously tasked for border protection duties with Customs and Border Protection—I just put them on a higher readiness level. The California unit was on the highest readiness level and was able to roll within two hours of the incident in Arizona. The Arizona Guard units are rolling now. We’ll have two additional Guard companies on the border in California and Arizona within eight hours, and another seven units in place in all of the border states within seventy-two hours.”