Edge of Battle

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.”

“Outline the plan for me, General.”

“Yes, sir. The plan is simple: reinforce Border Patrol sectors with Army National Guard infantry, reconnaissance, intelligence, and light armored cavalry forces as quickly as possible in order to better patrol the U.S.-Mexico border,” Lopez said. “Our goal is to assign one National Guard company to each sector within the next seventy-two hours. Each company is generally comprised of between seventy and one hundred soldiers, which on average is an increase in manpower of ten to twenty percent in each sector, dedicated solely to field operations.

“Each company fields between six and twelve vehicles. To save on cost and increase maintainability, we rely mostly on reconnaissance and light mechanized infantry units that use the M-998-series Humvees. Each Humvee has two soldiers on board, although for special missions or situations it can have as many as six. They are lightly armed, mostly with infantry weapons such as rifles and sidearms. Their job is to observe, report, and act as directed by the Border Patrol sector commanders.”

“What missiles was Maravilloso talking about, General?”

Lopez looked down at his spit-shined tanker boots for a moment, then stood straight as he replied, “My decision was to beef up the El Centro Border Patrol sector that has those Mexican armored vehicles stationed on the border near Rampart One, sir. I sent in a platoon of Humvees with TOW antitank missiles on board. I thought it was important to counterbalance the Mexican force quickly and effectively, but not raise the ante too much.”

“Christ, no wonder she’s pissed,” Kinsly breathed. “That’s a major provocation!”

“I don’t hear anyone accusing the Mexican Army of a major provocation by sending in armored vehicles across from Rampart One, Mr. Kinsly,” Secretary of Defense Collier said, scowling at the President’s Chief of Staff. “General Lopez did recommend sending Humvees with TOW missiles on them, and I approved the idea, Mr. President. I was more concerned about evening the odds than what Maravilloso or the media might think.”

“Rotate the TOW missile vehicles out of there as soon as possible, General,” the President said. “We’re not trying to start a war here. The Mexican Army isn’t going to attack us. Machine guns and rifles are okay.”

Lopez shuffled uncomfortably and glanced at Collier. The Secretary of Defense stepped closer to the