The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (28 page)

Mugsy walked over before Woody could reply.

“
What’s going on over here?”

“
I just offered Woody a job with us. I thought that would be okay with you.”

“
That’s more than okay with me. I was about to ask him the same thing. What do you say pal? You’d be in charge of this infirmary and a small staff assigned to it.”

Woody dried his hands and thought about it. “Any field duty?”

Ricci and De Niro looked at each other before Mugsy replied.

“
There’s a possibility there might be some field duty. To tell you the truth Woody, we’re just getting underway, so I couldn’t tell exactly what to expect. I do need to leave all options open though, at this point.”

Woody didn’t reply.

De Niro: “Well, I’ll leave you in my brother-in-law’s capable hands. Mugsy volunteered to run you back to McCarran.”

De Niro offered Woody his hand.

“
Thanks again Woody … and Mugs, if you take the Cobra, try to bring it back in one piece!”

After De Niro walked out of the room, Woody started to change.

“
He’s not what I expected Mugs, he’s a nice guy … I mean being a billionaire you never know …”

“
I told you he was and I’ll tell you something else. It doesn’t get better than working for him and you don’t have to take my word for that, ask any of the guys here. First, we don’t deal with any red tape or politics or asshole superior officers here—“

“
So you’re telling me I’d only have to deal with one asshole superior officer here, the one in front of me now?”

Ricci play-punched him in the arm, “… who can still kick your butt. Woody, seriously, our mandate here is to protect our country. It’s the same mandate we had in the military, except we’re working for a privately-owned counter-terrorism agency, funded by one of the richest men in the world. And I don’t have to tell you that you get paid double what you’re making now—“

Woods buttoned his shirt.

“
I remember reading somewhere about what happened to his wife … your sister. I’m sorry, Mugs, she was pregnant, wasn’t she?”

Ricci nodded with sadness, “Three months pregnant with my third nephew ... but let me tell you something. If you think this whole setup is just Cris’s and my way to get revenge or be vigilantes, you’re wrong. We’re a covert arm of a government contracted counter-terrorism agency.”

“
I never thought that Mugs, I know you better than that. Besides, I personally wouldn’t have a problem with it, even if you were set up that way. I was in Iraq, remember? I saw what their terrorist tactics … ambushes …IED’s
¹⁸
… mines … shoulder-fired rockets did to our boys. I was the one that had to patch them up, remember? I also volunteered for Ground Zero duty … in all my years serving in the military I never saw anything like what I saw there…”

Ricci didn’t reply right away.

“
I didn’t know you volunteered down there.”

Both men remained quiet for a few moments then Woody exhaled audibly.

“
You’re right, this would be prime duty. I love it out here anyway, but I’m not sure how Donna will feel about it. Her whole family lives on the Island … it’s like half of Sicily lives within an hour of our house. I remember when I wanted to look out houses in Jersey. To her and her family it was like looking for houses in Siberia.”

Both men laughed a bit, lightening the mood.

“
Double the pay, you said? That might change her mind. Let me go home and talk to her. I’ll let you know.”

Ricci led his friend to the main house both men riding ATV’s then they both jumped in De Niro’s pride and joy, his midnight blue Shelby GT500 Super Snake.

“
Listen, we have a few hours before your flight takes off. I’m taking you to the Pink Taco over at the Hard Rock. They serve the best fish tacos and we’ll wash ‘em down with a few Dos Equis and the best tequila money can buy … on me!”

Back at the Coyote’s Den, De Niro and Charley Santappia tied in via videoconference with Michelle Wang at The Watchman. De Niro spoke first.

“
Here’s what we got Michelle. Mugsy’s not here but he thought we should fill you in right away. The findings from Garcia’s post mortem examination lean towards a contract-style hit … two 9mm bullets fired from a suppressed pistol at close range with no signs of struggle.”

Wang: “Suppressed … that ties in with what we got from the guard at the facility in Monterrey. He reported that he distinctly didn’t hear any shots fired. At that time of night, even from a distance and enclosed in a trailer, he should have heard the shots.”

Santappia: “We also have the fact that we were set up down in Mexico. Our rescue operation was totally blown, no doubt about it.”

De Niro: “Have you been able to contact or locate Les?”

Wang: “Negative, Cris. At this point we can safely assume he had something to do with all this but we haven’t been able to locate him since the last time he tapped into Big Brother … and that was ten days ago. I sent a few agents out looking for him. So far he hasn’t gone back to his home and he hasn’t shown up at the homes of any of his family or friends.”

De Niro: “What do we know about what he accessed ten days ago?”

Wang: “Well we know he tied in from somewhere outside of The Watchman again via the India-Golf ops access I gave him. It looks like he spent several minutes just scouring all the files, but we can’t tell much more than that.”

De Niro: “What was he looking for? I mean he didn’t need to access those India-Golf files to find out about the operation to find Garcia; he was there when we discussed it. He spends several minutes just perusing those ops files then goes missing right after that. What was he looking for?”

Wang: “That’s true. I’ve been asking that same question. You know something Cris you would have made a great spy.”

De Niro: “I’ll take that as a compliment Michelle, seeing that it comes from a great spy. Okay, where does all of this leave us?”

Wang: “We have to find Les. He’s the one that can tell us who’s really behind all of this. It’ll take a little time but we’ll find out who he’s been calling on his cell phone and Johnny-F will pull the records on anything he accessed from the internet while he was connected through our system.”

The other line lit up.

De Niro: “Michelle, hold on.”

Ricci: “Cris, its Mugsy. I have Karla on the line. She’s got some interesting info.”

De Niro: “Mugs are you in a secure spot?”

Ricci: “I’m sitting in your baby. I walked back out to the car to take the call, leaving my fish tacos with Woody, who’s probably munching them down right now.”

De Niro: “Okay, let me patch Michelle in too and Charley’s sitting next to me.”

Ricci: “Karla, repeat what you were telling me.”

Matthews: “Hi Cris … Charley … Michelle … I was telling Captain Ricci that I just got off the phone with one of my sources at DHS-CBP
¹⁹
. He told me that ICE
²⁰
just reported to them that there’s been unusual activity near the border and it involves the Pacifico cartel. Apparently a special detachment of ICE apprehended a coyote
²¹
who spilled a little more than they usually do before he clammed up. My source didn’t know any more of the particulars, but he did say that this special ICE detachment didn’t have a problem with our sending a team down to investigate.”

Mugsy jumped in.

“
Thanks Karla, I’ll get back to you. Michelle, I need to speak to Cris. I’ll talk to you later.”

“
Understood,” Wang replied. A moment later, only De Niro, with Santappia sitting next to him, and Mugsy were on the line.

“
Cris, we need to send ARCHANGEL down there ASAP to investigate.”

“
I agree.”

“
Charley, you there ...?”

“
Yeah, Mugs ...”

“
Get Riggy, De May, and Pescy and saddle up … Karla will send you the ops files on India-Golf 072810. You’ll be flying into Nogales International. Cris, should I fly them commercial?”

“
I told you before Mugs, all of my resources are available. I would suggest the G550
²²
. I’ll contact Colonel O’Rourke and have him have the 550 prepped and ready to go within the hour. Charley, have you and the boys meet me at the main house when you’re ready. I’ll have Concho drop you guys off at Executive Airport.”

Santappia got up and was about to leave the conference room when Mugsy called out to him.

“
Charley, be careful. I don’t have to tell you how rough it’s been down there. That whole border area is a war zone. You’ll be meeting with the agent who made the original bust and report, Agent Bryan Ahiga. Agent Ahiga is a member of an elite unit of Native American federal agents called the Shadow Wolves. They’re tasked with protecting the border between Mexico and the Tohono O’odham Nation reservation, an area about the size of the state of Connecticut. The Shadow Wolves use tracking techniques that are unique to Native Americans of that area. You can definitely learn a thing or two from him Charley, so take his advice if you have to do any investigating.”

“
Will do Mugs … What’s our scope?”

“
Specifically, you’re to look for any link between the alleged Pacifico activities that this coyote hinted at and anything having to do with Agent Garcia’s murder, Les’s involvement or this Iranian, Zamani. I’ll leave it up to you how much you want to share with Agent Ahiga. We’re already requesting that ICE assign him to you for the duration of your stay down there, but like I said Charley be extra mindful of his input.”

“
Understood.”

De Niro waited for Santappia to leave the room before asking any questions.

“
What do you think Mugs? Could this have anything to do with what Garcia was investigating? Monterrey isn’t exactly close to Nogales.”

“
I know, but Nogales is one of the main crossing points for illegal aliens and Pacifico has a big hand in that. Up to now, we’ve been thinking drugs, but what if all this has to do with smuggling people over the border from Mexico?”

De Niro thought about it then asked the obvious and very deadly question.

“
Mugs, what interest would an Iranian have in a Mexican drug cartel that runs a big illegal alien smuggling operation?”

Chapter 26

Mission San Xavier del Bac

San Xavier District

Tohono O’odham Nation

South of Tucson, Arizona

11:30a.m., Thursday, July 28, 2011

Charley Santappia, Vic Rigoni, Karl De May, and Spiro Pescalitis sat in their rent-a-jeep in the parking lot of the old Mission San Xavier del Bac. They’d been waiting outside for most of the morning but the southern Arizona sun shot the early afternoon temperature over 100°F sending them back into the Jeep Cherokee with the engine idling and the AC blasting.

Pescalitis: “I thought Vegas was hot … the AC is on max and I can still feel heat!”

De May: “I need to stretch my legs but I’m afraid to step out there and have my boots melt.”

Rigoni: “Quit talking about the heat, you two, it just makes it worse! Charley, this guy’s over two hours late, how long are we gonna wait here?”

Santappia: “I called ICE, they said he’s out in the field but he told them he’ll meet us here as soon as he could. So we wait here as long as it takes.”

De May: I got to stretch my legs!”

The four members of ARCHANGEL stepped out into the desert sun. As they did, a pickup truck pulled into the parking lot and parked next to them. The four didn’t take much notice of the man that stepped out, keeping their eyes on the parking lot entrance looking for an official vehicle.