'Yes, sir. He just arrived.'
Bode strode across the foyer with the same jaunty cockiness he had exhibited twenty-five years before when running onto a football field. Of course, it was easy to be cocky when God was your teammate. But Bode Bonner was about to learn that politics in America, like football, is a contact sport.
The Border Patrol agent named Rusty tackled the skinny Mexican boy.
The boy had raced past the front door of the clinic, where Jesse and Lindsay stood, as if he were running a race. He wasn't. He was being chased. By a green-and-white SUV driven by another Border Patrol agent. The boy glanced back, only to be slammed to the ground by Rusty, who had cut around the back side of the clinic. Rusty now punched the boy in the face numerous times.
'Rusty, he's just a boy!' Jesse said.
'He just shot a Border Patrol agent in Laredo!'
Rusty removed a gun from the boy's baggy pants and tossed it aside. Next came a switchblade. Then a baggie of a black substance.
'Mexican black tar heroin,' Rusty said.
He turned the boy over and cuffed his hands behind his back then yanked him up. The other agent loaded the boy into the SUV then returned to Rusty. He slapped him on the back.
'Just another day in paradise.'
Two hundred thirty-five miles north, Governor Bode Bonner stepped to the podium and smiled at the sea of reporters. Network. Cable. Wire services. Newspapers. They had all come to him.
'Good to see y'all today. Questions?'
Hands shot into the air. Bode searched the sea of reporters and spotted a cute gal from cable waving as if desperate to be plucked from obscurity by Bode Bonner and put on a national stage. Why not help her get ahead in the world? He pointed at her, and she stood. If he weren't a religious man, he'd say she had a nice body.
'Governor, are you worried about another assassination attempt?'
'No.'
'But they killed your bodyguard and your daughter's best friend. It was a miracle that you and your daughter survived.'
'Yes, it was.'
He thought it best not to elaborate.
'You really are an American hero.'
He smiled. No need to over-talk the obvious. He'd just hero his way through this nationally-televised press conference. The little gal looked like a star-struck teenager. She had another question. He nodded at her.
'Governor, how are you going to reduce the federal deficit as president when Texas is facing a twenty- seven-billion-dollar deficit with you as governor? When you're going to fire tens of thousands of state workers and perhaps a hundred thousand teachers? How are you going to save a broke nation when you're governor of a broke state?'
' What? '
Right before his eyes, the cute reporter had transformed into Katie Couric, like that guy in the werewolf movie.
'Well, uh, the, uh, thing is…'
He glanced at Jim Bob by the door, who shielded his face from the reporters and mouthed, 'No deficit.'
'There is no deficit.'
'But-'
He turned away from the Katie Couric clone and searched for friendly faces. He found none, so he pointed at a familiar face, Carl Crawford, the reporter from the alternative Austin newspaper.
'But, Governor, I've obtained confidential documents written by your political advisor, Jim Bob Burnet, that prove the State of Texas is in fact facing a massive budget deficit and that you knew this when you said there is no deficit, as you just repeated.'
'There are no such documents, Carl, because there is no such deficit.'
Carl held up a stack of papers.
'Yes, Governor, there is a deficit and there are documents that prove it. One of your former employees, Jolene Curtis, gave these to me. You lied.'
Damn. The frisky gal betrayed him.
'Governor, she also gave us documents that prove you replaced the entire Board of Pardons and Paroles after they opened an investigation into the execution of Billy Joe Dickson to determine if the state executed an innocent person in order to derail their investigation.'
'She did?'
'She did. That's a cover-up.'
'A cover-up? That had nothing to do with any investigation, Carl. I just didn't want them to think it's a career.'
'Some people think Jesse Rincon might end your career as governor of Texas.'
'Who?'
'Jesse Rincon-he might be your Democratic opponent.'
'Jesse Rincon? Never heard of him.'
'I think you'll hear about him soon enough.'
Carl was grinning, as if he had finally found a scandal. Lying about the deficit, executing an innocent man, those are the best scandals he can come up with against an American hero? Please. Bode nodded at the reporter from the Houston paper.
'Governor, have you heard of Hoot Pickens?'
'Sure.'
'You appointed him to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality even though he's in the refinery business?'
'Shouldn't the industry being regulated have a voice?'
'They shouldn't write their own regulations.'
'Lawyers do that.'
'Their lawyers.'
'Do you have a question or are you campaigning? You sound like my Democratic opponent.'
'Yes, Governor, I have a question: Can you explain how you made a half-million-dollar profit on a land deal with Mr. Pickens?'
'What land deal?'
'You bought a lot on Lake Austin from him two years ago, and you recently sold that lot to his son, and you pocketed five hundred thousand dollars.'
'I did? Look, I put all my assets in a blind trust when I was first elected governor, so I don't know anything about that.'
'But you know Mr. Pickens is active in Texas politics?'
'My auto mechanic's active in Texas politics.'
He smiled and moved on to the next reporter-but he was getting a bad feeling. This wasn't the hero's welcome he had expected. He pointed at a San Antonio reporter.
'Governor, did you appoint Joe Jack Munger to the UT Board of Regents in exchange for a million-dollar donation to your campaign?'
'No, absolutely not. I think it was only two hundred thousand.'
He chuckled, but no one else did. His bad feeling increased. A little help here, God. He acknowledged the reporter from Fort Worth.
'Governor, we've learned from Democratic state legislators that you're personally rounding up votes for a special bill that would grant your biggest campaign donor-John Ed Johnson, a billionaire-the power to condemn rural land for his water pipelines. Is that true?'
'You're getting your information from Democrats? Those guys will say anything to discredit me because they know we're going to bury them in November.'
'But is it true? Are you supporting Mr. Johnson's attempt to condemn ranchers' and farmers' land for his
