Home Invasion (21 page)

Jack, Rowdy, and Jimmy approached the high school from the back, past the baseball diamond, the soccer pitch, the tennis courts, and the outdoor basketball and volleyball courts the P.E. classes used. They didn’t see anybody moving anywhere as they approached the back of the gym.

The latch on one of the windows into the boys’ locker room had been broken ever since the past school year. A lot of the guys knew about it, but they kept it quiet so they could sneak in and play basketball whenever they wanted to.

That was going to come in handy today, although Jack never would have dreamed before now that sneaking into a gym could play a part in a war.

“I can’t go in … there,” Jimmy said when Jack and Rowdy had levered the window open.

“Sure you can, “ Rowdy said. “Jack can go in first, and then he’ll help you while I give you a boost out here.”

“No, I mean … I can’t break into the school.”

“We’re not breaking in, Jimmy,” Jack said. “The window was unlocked. You saw how we got it open without any trouble.”

“It’s still … trespassing. We don’t have permission to … be here.”

Jack saw the exasperation on Rowdy’s face, so before his friend could say something hurtful, he went on quickly, “This is an emergency, Jimmy. You know all about emergencies. You’ve handled enough of ’em over the years.”

“Well… yeah, I… guess so.”

“Sometimes you have to bend the rules a little in an emergency, right?”

Jimmy shrugged. “The chief says … we go by the book.”

“I know. Believe me, I know. But I also know she’d want us to get somewhere safe and out of sight, so those bad guys can’t get us.”

“Yeah, that’s … true.” Jimmy sighed and nodded. “All right, but it’s … high. I don’t know if I can climb in.”

Rowdy slapped him on the shoulder. “Sure you can, buddy. Like I said, we’ll help you.”

It took a few minutes, but all three of them managed to get inside. Jack felt better right away because of the familiar surroundings, and because they weren’t out in the open where they could be spotted easily anymore.

“We’ll go to the library,” he said. “That’ll give us a good view of the front of the school. We’ll be able to see if anybody’s coming.”

Rowdy had brought the deer rifle from the pickup. “Yeah, maybe we can pick ’em off.”

“We don’t shoot unless we have to,” Jack said. “That’ll just draw attention to us.”

“Don’t you want to kill as many of those bastards as we can, Jack?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.” And Jack was surprised to realize he was telling the truth. He had never considered himself a really violent person, but those guys had come into his town and shot it up and killed God knew how many people already. Yeah, given the chance, he could pull the trigger on any of them.

Hell, yeah.

With all the lights off, the hallways of the school were dim and shadowy and kind of spooky. Jack had never seen them this empty. Their footsteps echoed hollowly as they made their way through the wings of the sprawling building to the area where the administrative offices and the library were located. The library had several big windows that looked out over the front of the school.

The library doors might be locked, Jack thought, but they would force their way in if they had to.

When they reached the double doors that were half-glass, Jack grasped the handle of one and pulled. It opened easily. That was a relief. With everything that had gone wrong so far today, it was only fair that
something
go right for a change.

He went in and half-turned to motion for Rowdy and Jimmy to follow him. The door swung shut behind them as they came in.

Someone lunged out of the shadows between some sets of shelves, tackled Jack, and drove him to the floor, knocking the air out of his lungs and stunning him.

Eloise was still alive. That was something to be thankful for, anyway, Alex thought as she was prodded through the police station at gunpoint. Eloise had been tied into her chair at the dispatch station. Her face was pale and tear-streaked, and when she saw Alex, she exclaimed, “Oh, my God! Alex, they got you, too?”

“Yeah, I’m afraid so.”

“What about Clint? Have you see him? Do you know if he’s all right?”

Alex could only shake her head and say, “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him.”

Sounding amused, Garaldo asked, “Who is this Clint?”

“One of my officers,” Alex grated.

Garaldo shrugged. “Then he is probably dead. We have killed all of them we have found, except for you, of course. Four men and a woman.”

Eloise began to sob, and Alex felt her stomach clench in horror at the casual way Garaldo talked about murdering her officers.

But Garaldo had said four men and a woman. The woman was poor Betsy, of course, but there were five male officers in Home, counting the two reserves. Alex was sure that Lester and Antonio would have tried to reach the station when the trouble broke out, only to run into Garaldo’s killers.

That left one man unaccounted for. There was really no way of knowing who it might be, but Alex hoped it was J. P. Delgado. Then she felt an immediate twinge of guilt, because if Garaldo was telling the truth, and if Delgado was alive, that meant Clint Barrigan was dead and Eloise was a widow.

But it was possible none of them would survive this bloody Sunday, she reminded herself. Highly likely, in fact.

Garaldo had her taken on into her office. Hands pushed her down into a chair in front of the desk, while Garaldo himself went behind the desk and sat down in the comfortable old leather chair. He drew his pistol, a heavy Colt.45 automatic that looked like U.S. Army issue, and laid it on the desk in front of him. Then he made a shooing motion with his hand. The men who had brought Alex in withdrew, closing the door behind them.

She was alone with the general now. She gauged the distance between them and tried to figure the odds of her being able to grab that gun before Garaldo could pick it up and kill her.

Of course, even if she was successful, the men in the other room would just rush in and shoot her to pieces.

“You probably are wondering why I don’t simply kill you as we have killed the rest of your police force,” he said as he pushed his campaign cap to the back of his head. He was a stocky, ugly man with the very dark skin, hair, and eyes that said he had a lot of Indian ancestors in his background. “I’ve given orders that as many of the city leaders are to be left alive as possible. The citizens will remain calmer if they know the mayor and the police chief are cooperating with us.”

“I’m not cooperating with you,” Alex pointed out. “I’m your prisoner.”

Garaldo inclined his head. “True, but in a little while you’ll be coming with me. We will drive around town, and using the speaker on my vehicle, you will tell the people to stay in their homes and not cause any trouble. When we have what we want, we will leave and no one else will have to be hurt.”

“What
do
you want?” Alex asked. “Why have you and your men invaded my town?”

“Your town,” he repeated with a grin. “I like that. I would feel the same way if I were in your position, Chief.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“And why should I? I am in charge here, not you.” Garaldo shrugged. “But what can it hurt? We have time … time to kill, as the old saying goes. The shipment will not be here for several hours yet.”

“Shipment?” Alex frowned. “What sort of shipment? Drugs? One of the other cartels is bringing through a big load that you’re going to hijack?”

Garaldo put his head back and laughed. “This goes far beyond drugs, Chief Bonner. What we are after today is nothing more or less than destiny.” He clenched a fist and thrust it out in front of him. “Destiny! For Rey del Sol, and for me, and for all of Mexico! Destiny, in canisters not much bigger than a tank of oxygen….”

And as Alex listened in horror, General Jose Luis Garaldo continued to talk.

“Hang on to him! Get his gun! Don’t let him up!” “Then help me, for God’s sake!” Jack fought back wildly as the men yelled and grappled with him. Then a woman screamed, “Look out for the others!”

Jack heard a grunt, and the weight that was on top of him went away. Chairs toppled over with a clatter and a crash. A face loomed over Jack, and he struck instantly, driving his fist into it. The man rolled away, groaning in pain.

Jack scrambled to his feet. He saw Rowdy wrestling with another man next to one of the library tables. A pretty woman with disheveled blond hair grabbed one of the overturned chairs and lifted it like she was going to hit Rowdy with it.

“Jimmy, grab her!” Jack said. “Don’t let her hurt Rowdy.”

Jimmy did as he was told, looping one arm around the woman’s waist from behind and grabbing the chair with his other hand. She screamed again as he lifted her off the floor.

With clenched fists, ready to continue the fight, Jack swung toward the first man who had tackled him. That man had made it to his knees. He held up his hands, palms out, and yelped, “Hey, no more! Take it easy, compadre! I think there’s been a mistake made here.”

A surge of surprise went through Jack as he realized the man looked familiar. A second later, he placed the face from various newcasts. This was Clayton Cochrum, that scumbag lawyer who had represented Emilio Navarre.

And the blonde was a TV reporter. Jack remembered seeing her, too. He didn’t know who the other guy was, but obviously not one of the army of thugs that had invaded Home this morning.

“Rowdy,” Jack said. “Rowdy, take it easy. I think we’re all on the same side.”

Cochrum struggled to his feet. “There you go, kid. You’re thinking straight now.” He took hold of his chin and wiggled his jaw back and forth, wincing as he did so. “Damn, you pack a hell of a punch for a youngster.”

“You’re the one who jumped me, mister,” Jack said coldly.

“We thought you were some of those … those killers. The ones who blew our helicopter out of the sky.”

“I saw … that,” Jimmy said.

The reporter twisted and slapped at him. “Put me down, you big oaf! What the hell’s wrong with you? Are you retarded or something?”

“I have … Down Syndrome.” Carefully, Jimmy put the woman back on her feet. “I’m sorry.”

Jack said, “You don’t have anything to apologize for, Jimmy. She would’ve hit Rowdy with that chair if you hadn’t stopped her.”

“So who’s this guy I’m sittin’ on?” Rowdy asked from the floor. “Do I let him up?”

“He’s Wilma’s cameraman,” Cochrum explained.

“Yeah, let him up, Rowdy,” Jack said. “What are you people doing in here?”

“Trying to stay alive. What about you?”

Jack shrugged. “Same thing, I guess.”

Rowdy stood up. The cameraman climbed to his feet and glared at him.

Cochrum said, “After those guys shot down the helicopter, we figured they might come looking for us, so we ran around the school and broke a window. That let us into the kitchen. From there we came up here so we could keep an eye out through the windows. Nobody’s come poking around, though, until you kids.”

“They probably figured you were all on the helicopter,” Jack said. “And we’re not all kids. Jimmy there is a grown man. In fact, he’s one of the dispatchers for the police department.”

“Really?” Cochrum looked at Jimmy. “What are the cops doing to stop those crazy killers?”

“I don’t … know. We can’t find the … chief. She’s Jack’s mom.”

Cochrum turned his attention back to Jack. “You’re Chief Bonner’s son?”

“That’s right. We tried to get to the police station, but there were too many of them for us to get through. We retreated here.”

“You’ve got guns,” the reporter said. “Nobody in Home is supposed to have guns.”

Jack frowned. “Well, lady, you’d better hope that we’re not the only ones, because if we are, there’s a good chance none of us will live to see the sun go down today.”

He might have said more, but at that moment, voices sounded somewhere outside the library, echoing in the school’s deserted hallways. Jack held up a hand and whispered, “Somebody’s coming!”

Since it seemed likely that whoever was responsible for the roadblocks would have all the routes into Home closed off, Ford, Parker, Earl, and Callahan abandoned the pickup and approached the town on foot. Ford, Parker, and Callahan were armed with pistols and rifles. Reluctantly, Ford had even given Earl a pistol, warning him, “If you shoot me, I’ll never forgive you.”

“I’ll try not to, but you’re an awfully big target,” Earl had said.

Callahan had done enough hunting in his life to know how to move across the landscape undetected. So had Ford and Parker, but they had been hunting men, not wild game.

“Just do what we do,” Parker told Earl.

“I’ll try.”

Ford recalled seeing a creek that ran close to Home on the map they had studied the day before. They had circled to the north, found where the road they were on crossed the creek, and pulled off to park the pickup under the bridge where it wouldn’t be noticed. Then they set off, following the creek as it meandered south toward the town, several miles away. The banks of the streambed were high enough, and enough brush grew along them, that it was unlikely anybody would spot them as they moved along.

The creek ran to within five hundred yards of the edge of the town, then curved west before looping south again and crossing the state highway a mile or so west of the city limits. The four men stopped when they were north of Home and lay at the top of the sloping bank where they could look through the brush at the community. Callahan had brought binoculars from the pickup. He trained them on the town and studied it for a few minutes.

The rancher grunted and passed the binoculars to Ford. “Take a look for yourself,” he said. “I don’t see anybody movin’ around except some fellas car-ryin’ automatic weapons.”

“The FPS? “ Parker asked.

“No,” Ford said as he peered through the glasses and spotted some of the men Callahan had mentioned. “Civilians. Hispanic males, all appearing to be in their twenties and thirties.”

Parker frowned. “And they’re armed?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“That sounds like drug cartel goons. But we’re north of the border.”

“That doesn’t matter much anymore. The Rio Grande is less than fifty miles away. From what I’ve heard, the cartels have a lot of influence over here, and they’re getting more powerful all the time.” Ford passed the binoculars to Parker. “Whoever those civilians are, it looks like they’ve taken over the town.”

Parker studied the situation for a moment and then said, “Yeah. It looks like a military occupation, the way they’ve got guards posted and patrols moving around the streets. What the hell’s going on?”

Earl said, “This is just off the top of my head, you understand, but, uh, what if they’re transporting the first shipment of that nerve gas out of Casa del Diablo today? Wouldn’t that be something those cartel types would like to get their hands on? They’re always at war with each other, right?”

The other three men stared at the young scientist. Earl said defensively, “Hey, it’s just a theory. I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff.”

“It’s a good theory,” Ford said. “It would explain a lot.”

“How would a bunch of Mexican drug smugglers find out about Casa del Diablo?” Parker asked.

Callahan snorted. “Shoot, they got folks workin’ for ’em all over Texas. Most of the people who come over here from Mexico are just lookin’ for a better job, but some of them already got a good job … workin’ for the cartels. And some of ’em go along with it because they still got relatives below the border who’ll be in danger if they don’t cooperate. When somebody crosses the cartel, it’s not just them who pays the price. Their whole family usually gets wiped out, too.”

Ford nodded and said, “That’s right. There’s no telling where they have agents these days. They could find out when a shipment is scheduled.”

“But we don’t
know
they’re bringing out the nerve gas today,” Earl pointed out. “I just said they might be.”

“And that’s what we have to find out,” Ford said. “Earl, why don’t you stay here?”

“By myself?”

“No, Mr. Callahan will stay with you,” Parker said.

The rancher objected. “Wait just a cotton-pickin’ minute. I got shot at, too. I want to know what it’s all about.”

“Yeah, but somebody’s got to live through this so that the truth will have a chance to get out,” Ford said. “That’s gonna be up to you and Earl here. Besides, getting in and out of places where everybody wants to kill us is what Brad and I are good at.”

Callahan rubbed his jaw and frowned. “Well… I don’t like it. But I reckon you’ve got a point. The boy and me will stay here … for now.”

“Don’t I get a say in this?” Earl asked.

“No,” the other three men said together.

“All right, all right. Go do your secret agent, commando thing. Just don’t forget that we’re out here, okay?”

“We’ll be back to get you,” Parker promised.

“If we’re alive,” Ford added.

“Have you heard of a place called Casa del Diablo?” General Garaldo asked.

“House of the Devil,” Alex automatically translated. “No, that doesn’t sound familiar.”

“I am not surprised. Few know of it except the people who work there, and their masters at the very highest levels of your government. It’s a scientific research facility located in the mountains west of here. They’re developing nerve gas and other biological and chemical weapons.”

Alex’s eyes widened. “Nerve gas?” she repeated. “The U.S. doesn’t use things like that on other countries. We never have.”

Garaldo laughed and shook his head. “You misunderstand, Chief. The gas is not intended to be used in a war against another country. It will be used
here,
in this country, against the enemies of the man who is now your President.”

The horror of what Garaldo had just said, the sheer enormity of it, was almost too much for Alex’s brain to comprehend. She shook her head and said, “No. That’s not possible. I don’t agree with the man’s politics, but he wouldn’t… he’d never get away with such a … it’s just not possible!”

“Of course, it is,” Garaldo said calmly. “If a man believes strongly enough in something, he will do anything to accomplish it. I have never met your President, but I have looked into his eyes in news broadcasts and seen what is there. He is like the Spanish priests of the Inquisition. He believes so strongly that he is correct in his thinking, he will do anything in his power to impose his will on the country. Do you not understand? You foolish Americans have put a man in office who truly loathes his own country and blames it for everything that is wrong in the world. Therefore, he must reshape it into what he believes is right: A country that is weak and defenseless, a country where a relative few do all the work and support the many who will not, a country where success is punished and lack of effort is rewarded. What is
wrong
with you people? Did you not
see
for yourselves what sort of man he is while he was running for election?”

Garaldo shook his head as if he were honestly baffled. “Elections are for fools. If a man is strong enough, he should seize power for himself! But I will give your President credit for one thing. The sheep you call voters may have put him in office, but now that he’s there, he will stop at nothing to stay in power.
That
is the reason for Casa del Diablo’s existence. He plans to wipe out his enemies and everyone who disagrees with him. There will be no more elections in the United States, at least not for this President.” Garaldo smiled. “That is his intention, anyway. But today will change all that.”

Alex struggled to make sense of everything Garaldo had said. “What are you talking about?” she asked now in a voice hollow with strain.

“Today, the first shipment of nerve gas will leave Casa del Diablo and be brought through your town on its way to Washington. My men and I will stop it and take it for ourselves.” Garaldo’s smile widened into a wolfish grin. “Señor Reynosa y Montoya, the head of Rey del Sol, believes that I will bring the gas to him so he can use it to eliminate his rivals and make himself the most powerful man in all of Mexico.”

“But… that’s not what’s going to happen?”

Garaldo made a curt, slashing motion with his hand. “Reynosa is a criminal, a common thug addled by perversion! All he wants is to make himself the boss of all the criminals. He lacks the vision a man needs in order to truly take advantage of this opportunity.”

“And you have that vision,” Alex guessed.

“Indeed I do, Chief.” He closed his hand into a fist again. “The leadership of the other cartels will be wiped out by the gas, but so will Señor Reynosa and his inner circle. Then it will be
I
who seize power! I will be the one to truly unite Mexico for the first time in many years. Then it will be time to turn our attention northward, to the cruel giant who has dominated my country for far too long.”

“You’re talking about the United States.”

“Of course! With the weapons at my command, it will be my turn to impose my will on your country, and I will begin by demanding the return of the land stolen from us so long ago!”

“You mean Texas?” Alex asked.

“Texas, California, New Mexico, Arizona …” Garaldo shrugged. “Your President will be glad to return them to their proper owners. Has he not already figuratively given away much of your country to foreign powers? Now he shall give some of it away literally, and the
reconquista
movement will not stop there. Eventually, Mexico under my command will become the world’s one, true superpower, as it should have been all along!”

Well, that cinched it, Alex thought. General Jose Luis Garaldo was crazy. Certifiably insane. He would never be able to make his mad plan a reality.

But in attempting it, he might kill hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of innocent people, in the U.S. and Mexico both. If he got his hands on that new nerve gas—the very existence of which Alex still struggled to grasp—there was no telling how much damage he might do before he was stopped.

And there was just the slimmest of chances that he might succeed, at least in blackmailing the U.S. into ceding the southwestern states back to Mexico.

After all, nobody with any sense would have dreamed that the President could get away with as much as he already had.

Garaldo spread his hands. “So, Chief Bonner, now you know what I intend to do. You can see that your only choice is to cooperate with me.”

Alex glanced again at the gun on the desk. Cooperating wasn’t her only choice, not at all. She could still make a play for the pistol. If she could get her hands on it, she could kill Garaldo, even though it would surely cost her her own life a moment later when his men rushed in. But without their leader, could the plan go forward?

That was a chance she might have to take.

Garaldo raised a finger. “I can see what you are thinking, Chief. I beg you, consider not only your own life, but those of the citizens of Home.”

“What are you talking about? “ Alex asked tightly.

“My intention is to leave them alive when my men and I pull out later today. But I would not have to be merciful. In fact, it might be good to have a small field test of the nerve gas….”

Alex went cold all over. “You wouldn’t,” she said. “That would be cold-blooded murder.”

“No. It would be the first act in a long-overdue war. “ Garaldo shrugged. “Anyway, what makes you think I would hesitate at cold-blooded murder?”

He had a point there. Still, every fiber of Alex’s being itched to make a grab for that gun….

And she might have, if the ground hadn’t suddenly jumped under them from the force of an explosion that shook the whole town.

It was a minor seismic disturbance, barely enough to make the needles on the gauges wobble. But on this particular day, that was just enough to trigger a red flag and send an e-mail. That e-mail prompted a technician in the basement room that didn’t officially exist to tap some keys on his computer terminal and call up current surveillance satellite footage for the area of West Texas where the ground had shaken briefly a few moments earlier. The tech frowned at what he saw as he zoomed in.

That resulted in a phone call to the Chief of Staff, one of the few people who knew this room existed. He was so disturbed by what he heard that he came down to the basement himself to look at the footage.

Then he rushed upstairs.

“Sir?”

“What is it, Geoff? I’m getting ready to go play golf with the Speaker of the House. She won’t like it if I’m late.”

The Chief of Staff swallowed hard. “It appears that something is happening in Home, sir.”

“Home? The place where we took away their guns?”

“The town that’s sitting right on the route out of Casa del Diablo. You know what’s happening today—”

The President turned sharply and held up his hand to stop the Chief of Staff. “I don’t know
anything,”
he said.

“Yes, sir, I realize the plan is maximum deniability, and that’s why we’ve committed so few resources to the operation, for the sake of secrecy and not calling attention to it, but—”

“But nothing. Don’t tell me anymore.”

The Chief of Staff knew what he was risking, but he had to do it. He had to speak.

“Sir, it appears that a military force of some kind has occupied and taken over Home.”

The President was so stunned that he sat down. “A … a military force? Our military? The FPS, maybe?”

The Chief of Staff shook his head. “No, sir. I wish that was the case. I don’t know who these people are, but if they’re able to stop that shipment and take control of the cargo themselves—”

The President held up a hand to stop him again. “This is unacceptable. How could anyone have found out about this, after everything we’ve done to keep it quiet?”

“I don’t know, sir. I truly don’t.”

But the Chief of Staff had just had a terrible thought. It had to do with Julia Hernandez, and the fact that the Mexican border was less than fifty miles from Home….