The Cartel Enforcers (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 2) (29 page)

“I realize that, what are you thinking we do to stop him?”

“He’s too fast we barely can keep eyes on him,” replied Petersen as Dix was swerving around a corner trying to keep up with Romero’s Mercedes.

“If the helicopter doesn’t get locked on soon he’s gone,” said Dix.

Sullivan called out streets and landmarks to give to the helicopter pilot so he could get acclimated to the pursuing path. She gave the pilot the description of their vehicle and Romero’s vehicle. The helicopter saw the line of police cars and looked ahead of them and noticed Sullivan’s vehicle and the Mercedes well in front of Sullivan. The helicopter pilot got on the radio and advised he had eyes on the Mercedes. The co-pilot called out streets as the other law enforcement officers as well as Dix, Sullivan, and Petersen tried to catch up.

*****

Romero was pleased with the escape so far. He felt he was fortunate since the collision between the mercenary van and bearcat created an opening for him to escape. Otherwise, he might have had to come up with an alternate plan on the fly, which probably would have meant he surely would be apprehended. He kept looking in the air to see when the law enforcement helicopter would spot his vehicle. He told his driver to slow down. The driver did what he was told, but looked surprised that Romero would tell him to slow down. The chasing police cars were catching up because Romero could faintly hear their sirens. He needed the helicopter to locate him, but he didn’t want the police cars too close.

Finally, he saw the police helicopter and noticed it was an HSI helicopter. Romero flipped the switch on his radio in the car to the secure HSI channel and was now able to hear what the pilot and other officers were saying while they chased him. He heard Sullivan’s voice on the radio directing units to intercept him. He cringed and thought,
Should have killed that bitch when I had the chance
.

Romero told his driver to pick up the speed a bit, but not pull too far away from the pursuing police vehicles. He obeyed and raced through downtown San Diego heading for the border. After a few miles, Romero instructed the driver to put greater distance between them and the police cars. Once this was done, he directed the driver to pull into a parking structure where two other exact Mercedes were parked and idling waiting for them. The one Romero was in stopped, and while he got out and back into a full size van, three men loaded the money from his Mercedes into the van. Once that was done, all three Mercedes left the parking structure in three different directions at that same time. Romero knew this would thoroughly confuse the helicopter and incoming police cars. The move would cut the large amount of pursuers into thirds, making it much easier for him to slip into Mexico.

The helicopter observer announced over the radio that he saw three similar cars leave the structure in three different directions. The pilot updated the direction of travel to the pursuing units, but even they could not keep up with all three vehicles.

Sullivan jumped on the radio and said, “All units, split up. Follow the three Mercedes. 2300 (call sign for helicopter) stay with the vehicle traveling south toward the border. We’ll go with you. Remaining units switch to separate TAC channels and call your pursuits with the tactical dispatchers.” Two teams split off and chased the other Mercedes. It was a crap shoot as to which vehicle contained Romero.

Dix played the scene out in his head trying to figure if Romero would actually be in the obvious choice, the car headed to the border, or if some other trick was at play. He checked his rear view mirror as they raced toward the Mercedes headed south toward the border and noticed a full size van leaving the parking structure that looked like the two from the warehouse.
Son of a bitch, the old double switch
, thought Dix. Instead of coming up on the radio and advising the helicopter to turn around, Dix thought it would be better not to let everyone in on the secret he thought he had.

“Guys, I’m going to turn around,” Dix said.

“What! Why would you do that, we’ve got Romero in our sights,” replied Sullivan excitedly.

“I think we got the old double switch at the parking structure.” Sullivan and Petersen could see Dix was looking at his side mirrors and they both spun their heads around to look behind them. They both saw what Dix saw, a full size van pulling out of the parking structure that looked just like the other two from the warehouse.

Dix slowed and set up to make a u-turn. Without thinking, Sullivan grabbed the radio and advised the helicopter to turn back and acquire the black van leaving the parking structure. Dix made the turn and noticed at the same time the van took off quickly, which puzzled him.

“That van just took off for no reason,” Dix mashed the accelerator, “How the hell would they know we spotted them?”

Petersen thought and his eyes brightened. “The only way they would know is if they have our radio channel.”

“Damn, that’s it,” said Sullivan, “Romero would have our radio and our channels.” Instinctively, she went to put that information out on the radio but Petersen grabbed the radio before she could. She realized the mistake and stopped. She frantically dialed the command center while Dix tried to keep eye contact with the fleeing van.

“Steve, put out over the radio that we lost the van, maybe that will slow them down some and the helicopter will figure out something is up because they will see our car clearly behind the van.”

Petersen got on the radio and stated they no longer had a visual on the black van. Downtown San Diego was a circus with teams and police vehicles chasing cars all over the place, but the helicopter pilot could see Dix’s vehicle only a few blocks from the fleeing van and wondered why they would say they lost it.

Sullivan sent text after text to the pilot and co-pilot hoping one of them would feel their phones vibrate and check their phones.

The helicopter pilot got on the radio, “2300, we have the van passing the baseball fields on Grover way.” As the helicopter pilot keyed the radio once more to give another update his co-pilot smacked him on the shoulder and showed him his cell phone. The message read, “Suspect has our radio channels and is scanning, maintain visual on vehicle, no updates via radio, only cell phone.”

With some careful driving and input from Sullivan, they were able to catch up and be within a few vehicles of the black van. Since Dix was not totally convinced Romero would be in the van, he decided to get closer to try to identify who was in it. Making this happen without being detected was not going to be easy. The van was only four miles from the border. The traffic was beginning to back up since Sullivan had demanded the traffic be stopped headed into Mexico.

At the next stop light, Dix was able to get two cars back and to the left of the black van. Sullivan got a text from the pilot saying he was overhead and the traffic at the border was bad. She was not sure how the heck the van would make it across, but the way things were going, she was sure Romero had a plan.

“Buddy, let me see if I have this right or not. You want to make a move to see if we can see who’s in the van so we can take it off before it gets to the border,” Petersen said to Dix. Dix shot him a look like don’t you know I’m trying here. Dix pulled into the turn lane to get up to the van. He wasn’t able to see anything because the windows were tinted.

“Steve, I can’t see anything, what about you?”

Petersen and Sullivan were also unable to see inside the van and none of them knew for sure if Romero was in it or not. They both shook their heads.

Dix said, “Damn, we have to make something happen here. I’m going to…” before he could finish his statement, automatic weapon fire erupted from the van and shot through the vehicles in front of Dix and startled him. He put the vehicle in reverse and slammed on the accelerator. He swung around to put the engine block of his car between the shooters and them while Sullivan and Petersen began returning fire.

“Guess you were right Dix!” yelled Sullivan.

“Get on the radio ASAP, the gig is obviously up,” replied Dix.

Petersen continued to fire on the van as Dix tried to keep some distance. Both vehicles sped toward the border with reckless abandon. Sullivan requested backup and let the helicopter pilot call out their location while she continued to shoot hoping to kill the shooters. Someone’s rounds shattered one of the windows on the van and Petersen and Sullivan both saw Romero screaming at the driver and waving his assault rifle toward the border.

“Romero’s is in the van! We’ve got to stop him!” Petersen yelled.

Romero’s van ran vehicles off the road while Dix tried to dodge pedestrians and disabled vehicles. Dix looked up and noticed the green sign said the border was one mile away. He could see vehicles and pedestrians fleeing from the van and watched as Romero continued to shoot randomly in their direction. A few police vehicles joined the chase and a couple Customs and Border Patrol vehicles tried to block the roadway heading into Mexico. Unrelated vehicles were stuck in long lines, but the van didn’t seem to be slowing. He tried to keep up, but the heavy fire from Romero made it too risky and they were pulling away.

Dix considered his options in a matter of seconds. He could get closer to the van and try to take it out, but that would leave him and the team exposed to Romero’s rifle fire. He could try to get beyond the van, but there was too much traffic to do that now. As he considered what else he could do, he finally saw where the van was headed. There clearly was an opening through the border, but not going the right way. There was an open lane for traffic coming from Mexico into the United States.

“Sullivan, you have any people in Mexico near the border, Romero is going to go through on the wrong side unless we stop him now,” he said as he pointed to the open lane.

Sullivan shook her head. “We have bodies over there, but the local police force asked them for help about an hour ago for a cartel shoot out a few miles from the border.” She realized after she said this that it was probably a shoot out orchestrated by Romero.

“I see the lane and there’s no way we can catch him,” Sullivan yelled as she reloaded her pistol and kept shooting. Petersen also reloaded and was trying to get the tires of the van with his shots.

Over the radio Sheriff Libal advised, “Sullivan and all pursuing units, you have no authority to pursue Romero into Mexico. He makes it to Mexico, he’s their problem. Terminate your pursuit at the border!”

Sullivan and Petersen looked at each other, and then together they looked at Dix. He clearly heard the order, but it did not look or feel like he was slowing down.

Dix felt them staring at him, “I’m not stopping now unless you disable the van!” He zig-zagged around some cars, and smashed on the accelerator. It was obvious he couldn’t catch Romero, but he didn’t want to give up. They continued firing on the van while the helicopter was reporting it would be across the border in less than a minute.

The driver of Romero’s van expertly drove through traffic and headed for the clear lane going the opposite direction into Mexico. Romero could see there was no way he would be caught now and finally relaxed. He said something to the driver and turned to look at Dix, Petersen, and Sullivan. He had a great big smile on his face and flipped off the group. He was mere feet from the border where he would disappear for good.

The team members could not believe hundreds of hours of work and the case itself were slipping away.
Romero is going to get away
, thought Sullivan.
I’m going to kill him someday
.

Suddenly, Romero’s van lurched forward to plow through a single Customs and Border Patrol vehicle trying to create a road block. Sullivan and Petersen shot the rest of the rounds they had in their weapons. Dix did not let off the accelerator, but he needed to apply the brakes soon or he’d be in big trouble.

Out of nowhere an unmarked patrol vehicle slammed right into the side of the van sending it into a spin as glass and debris flew everywhere. It spun violently and ended up on the United States’ side of the border. Romero was ejected from the bullet riddled van, and the driver was killed upon impact.

Dix pressed as hard as he could on the brake pedal and the SUV wobbled and fishtailed as he struggled to maintain control. Incoming police cars tried to avoid the crash, but were running into each other while the helicopter pilot updated the command center of the major collision. Medics were summoned to the location and the already confusing scene at the border was pure chaos now.

Dix, Petersen, and Sullivan exited the SUV and advanced toward Romero who was moving slightly near the destroyed van. Romero crawled with one hand toward the border. Dix motioned to Petersen and Sullivan to check on the driver of the unmarked vehicle. Other officers surrounded the van and unmarked patrol car.

“Romero, just give up, you can’t make it to Mexico,” Dix said. The other officers were spiked with adrenaline. Slowly the officers and Dix moved closer to Romero. It appeared his right leg had a compound fracture and he was bleeding badly from his stomach area.

Romero was no stranger to pain. As a young child, he was abused. His uncle told him it would make him stronger. When Romero was six, he shot his first rival cartel member. At age eleven he became known for brutalizing rivals until killing them, and shipping their heads to their families. However, at this moment, he recalled never feeling such pain.
If I can just make it to Mexico, they will fix me
, he thought.