Salgan!?Ya estamos a salvo! '
Brown faces slowly emerged from among the plants.
'Viagra?'
The doctor's assistant held up a carton of the medicine. Lindsay and Inez were unpacking the boxes El Diablo had brought the day before and stocking the shelves. Jesse was working at his desk on the other side of the clinic. He now looked up with a smile.
'Erectile dysfunction, that is certainly not a problem in the colonias.'
'All this was donated?' Inez said.
'Yes. From, uh… from Houston.'
'That reporter, Kikki, she had the hots for you, Doctor.'
Lindsay glanced at Jesse; he shrugged innocently. Lindsay turned back; Inez had caught their interplay.
'So, Senora,' Inez said in a low voice, 'the wedding ring-you are married?'
'Yes.'
'That is a very unusual ring. May I look at it?'
Lindsay removed her wedding ring for the first time in twenty-two years. She placed it in Inez's open palm. The ring was one of a matched set handmade by James Avery in Kerrville, just up the road from the Bonner Ranch outside Comfort. The ring had two separate bands, one gold, one silver, with the ends twisted together to form a knot. A lovers' knot.
'It is beautiful,' Inez said. 'I dream of one day having such a ring. And a husband who will take me beyond the wall.'
She handed the ring back to Lindsay, reluctantly it seemed.
'So, Senora, why are you not with your husband?'
'We're separated.'
'But you still wear your wedding ring?'
'I'm still married.'
'Does the doctor know this?'
'We got an all-points bulletin out on Manuel Moreno,' DEA Agent Rey Gonzales said. 'He must've been the inside man on this operation. Mexican cartels, they're setting up these farms in isolated areas-national and state parks, Indian reservations, remote ranches-from here to California. They send men north to grow the dope here, so they don't have to smuggle it across the border. The men live on the land, tend the plants, harvest and ship to the dealers. Low overhead, high profits, so to speak.'
Hank had called in the Feds on the satellite phone. Federal agents from El Paso had arrived in helicopters and now swarmed the scene in black and blue windbreakers with white and yellow letters identifying their agencies: FBI… DEA… ICE… DHS. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Drug Enforcement Agency. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Department of Homeland Security. Plus DPS troopers, Texas Rangers, and the Jeff Davis County Sheriff. They interviewed the Mexican children, took photos and collected evidence, examined the dead men, chopped and stacked the plants, and gathered a cache of high-powered weapons.
'Americans think all this shit stays south of the river,' Agent Gonzales said. 'But the cartels, they're here now.'
'We should send the special forces into Mexico,' Jim Bob said. 'Kill the drug lords.'
Agent Gonzales shook his head. 'You kill one drug lord, another takes his place before the sun sets. Too much money to be made selling dope to the gringos. Last four years, we seized six thousand tons of dope coming across the river. But the DTOs-drug trafficking organizations-they shipped sixty thousand tons.'
' Sixty thousand tons? '
'Metric.'
'How?'
'How not? Trucks, trains, planes, automobiles, buses, boats, submarines, tunnels, ultralights… you name it, the DTOs do it. Even with all our interdiction efforts, they've got a ninety percent success rate.'
'Is the drone helping?'
'Border Patrol's grabbed a few immigrants with the drone, but the DTOs got radar tracking it, so the drone don't slow down their shipments.'
He waved a hand at the camp.
'Sophisticated operation-booby traps, tripwires, irrigation pipes running down from the spring, drip lines throughout the plants. Almost harvest time. The cartel won't be happy with you, Governor.'
'That I killed their men?'
'That you found their dope. Street boys like these, they're a dime a dozen in Mexico. But that'-he gestured at the agents cutting and stacking the plants-'that's two hundred million bucks fixin' to go up in smoke.'
'Two hundred million?' Jim Bob said.
Agent Gonzales nodded. 'I figure this grow site for a hundred acres in production, maybe fifty thousand plants. Commercial grade, from seed to harvest in four months. Each plant produces a pound of dope, each pound is worth four thousand dollars wholesale. Ninety-nine percent profit margin.'
'Money really does grow on trees,' Jim Bob said.
'Three times a year. And this is a small operation compared to the grow sites we busted out west. Last year, we eradicated four and a half million plants on federal lands. Do the math, that comes to eighteen billion dollars worth of weed.'
'Should've been a dope farmer.'
'You and me both.'
'What about the children?' Bode said.
They had found twelve Mexican boys and the girl, Josefina.
'Abducted in border towns, brought up here to work the plants. The boys, they're ten, eleven, twelve years old. Been out here almost a year now.'
'What's going to happen to them?'
'ICE will take them into custody, try to locate their relatives.'
'And if they don't?'
Agent Gonzales turned his palms up and shrugged.
'How's the girl?'
'Not so good. She was their sex slave. The men raped her regularly. But the one you shot in the back, she said he came to the camp only a few weeks ago. He raped her twice a day. And beat her bad.' The agent's jaws clenched. 'She's only twelve. You did the world a favor, Governor, shooting those Mexicans full of holes.' The agent's face was stern and his skin brown. 'Americans want to smoke dope, figure it ain't hurting no one. But someone always gets hurt.'
A car horn interrupted them, and a black Hummer came crashing through the brush and over the creek and skidded to a stop. John Ed Johnson jumped out of the driver's seat and marched over, his head covered by a Stetson and his trouser legs tucked into tall boots, looking like LBJ himself pissed off at a congressman who had voted against him; Mandy followed behind, tiptoeing through the clearing in a dress and heels. John Ed arrived in a huff, glanced at the marijuana field, then addressed Agent Gonzales.
'These Mexicans growing dope on my land?'
'It was an inside job, Mr. Johnson. Your man Manuel.'
' Manuel? '
'He rode off,' Bode said. 'Heading south. Making a run for the border.'
John Ed seemed stunned. 'Manuel did this? To me? '
'We'll catch him,' Agent Gonzales said.
'Why the hell don't you people do your job and secure the goddamn border?'
Agent Gonzales held his ground.
'You want me to do my job, Mr. Johnson? Maybe I should check the immigration status of all the Mexicans working for you.'
'You do, and I'll have your job.'
'You don't want my job, Mr. Johnson.'
John Ed stomped off in search of another federal employee who might show more respect for a billionaire.
