The Rise of Aztlan! A Political Thriller
By David Bergsland
Published by Radiqx Press at Smashwords
Copyright 2010 by David Bergsland
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First blood
Tuesday evening, the fifth of March: 6:49 pm in the Walmart parking lot, Belen, New Mexico
Stones was having murderous thoughts—not for work but on general principles. It was scaring the hell out of the scattered customers who remained of the hoard getting home from work 30 miles north in Albuquerque. The look she gave the gangbanger asking if she wanted a piece of him was enough to make the entire group of Spanish gangsters back off as she stormed out the door of the store. Foul mood doesn’t begin to describe the underlying burning rage that was rearing its ugly head again. It radiated out of her like heat from forge.
She was still very frustrated by her forced vacation. That Pakistani bullet had really messed up her gut. The peritonitis was only a dim memory along with that horrible excuse for a hospital in Jalalabad, Afghanistan. She wouldn’t have survived except for Ralph’s connections, which had gotten her onto the US military base at the Jalalabad Airport and decent care.
She had much better memories of the incredibly good and compassionate care she received in Germany for four months as they repaired the damage in her lower abdomen. It was good to be home with her Mom and Dad, but she was ready to spit at poor Dr. Benjamin at the Veterans hospital in Albuquerque. She was so sick of sitting around.
But she had been dealing with that. The basic problem today was that she was back in Belen again. She just knew too much about what went on in this sleepy-looking Spanish railroad town, thirty miles south of Albuquerque. Having graduated from high school nearly fifteen years ago in Los Lunas several miles north up the Rio Grande, she knew many people in this town. Her father, Jake, often ranted on about all the witchcraft in the town. But Stones knew little of that first hand. Mainly there were a lot of nasty people. The place just set her on edge, and it was getting much worse.
She was so focused on containing herself that she barely noticed that it was much darker than it had been back in the corner of the parking lot where she had been forced to park her little PT Cruiser. “Those clerks in Wally World ought to be fired,” she muttered as her long, lovely legs jammed the nailed heels of her hiking boots into the asphalt, “there’s no excuse for that arrogance. I can’t help it that I’m Anglo.” The anti-Anglo prejudice of Valencia County was getting a little hard to take. It was getting much more aggressive.
She’d come down to meet one of her closest acquaintances in college, Maria Alvarez. It had sounded like a good thing to see Mary again. It seemed like another life, ten long years ago and far away. Their shattered lives had drawn them close at Iowa State in Ames. Maria had become one of her projects “to fix”. They had to put themselves back together after Harvey Ortman had decided that political scientists needed to be dead. Harry Schnieder, her fiancee, had been sitting next to her in the fourth row of the small auditorium. He was throwing her another thrilling wink with those deep blue eyes when Harvey walked into the room with his Uzi blazing.
The first or second bullet caught Harry right in the winking eye and the love of her young life disappeared in a red cloud that sprayed all over Maria and those around her. Rage had taken over and Stones just reacted. She leaped out of her seat and strode toward Harvey in one quick step that allowed her swinging left foot to smash into the gun and hand of hate. The hiking boot didn’t even slow down as it flew up through the instantly broken hand—curving in to smash the face of the human garbage who was laughing as he killed her life and her friends.
That kick finished a horrible trail of terror Harvey had left behind him after blowing away the guards at the front door with a silenced Glock. He had continued to spread blood and death through the entire lobby area with dull coughs from the muzzle as the deadly hollow point bullets picked off nearly a dozen innocent bystanders. He pulled out the Uzi as he walked to the doorway into the auditorium.
By the time he entered the auditorium he was laughing in incredible, loud, hysterical laughter spraying bullets throughout the students on either side of the aisle as he strode down toward the podium. Over two dozen lost their life in the barrage. The maniacal noise was cut off to dreadful silence as his face was caved into a virtually unrecognizable mass of smashed bone and blood. The Uzi quit spraying bullets while flying away from smashed fingers. When Stones came to her self, she was sitting in the floor holding the remains of her love cradled in her arms, sobbing over the loss. She hadn’t thought about that day for a least a year. She was always surprised by how much the memories still hurt after all these years.
Of course Maria’s macho brother had not helped this afternoon. It was obvious that he had been beating his sister and probably abusing her little girls. The last straw was when he pawed Stone’s breast as she walked by him on the recliner. He hadn’t even bother to say hello. It wasn’t until Stones grabbed his grasping hand and squeezed until he doubled up in the chair that he backed off. Maria was so beat down that it really pissed her off. There were old bruises around her neck that were almost faded, but Stones knew where they were from. Today had been rough. She had forgotten how bad it was. It wasn’t right—even remotely.
Her pity party was in full swing as she picked her way through the trash, beer cans, used rubbers, and broken glass that coated this side of the lot like demented confetti after a nasty party.
She snapped back into the present as she heard little cries of pain and grunting. She became aware that all the lights in this corner of the lot were out. She noticed that they’d been shot out again. She was on full alert now. What’s goin’ on? I’ve really let myself slide. She was stunned she hadn’t noticed earlier.
She saw the back end of her car just beyond a large black Dodge Ram pickup about twenty feet ahead. Even in the gloom the little sticker with the pyramid in the back window was obvious. She wondered where all these new trucks were coming from. She’d seen five of them this afternoon—all had Mexican plates from Chihuahua. All had that little sticker.
She rounded the back of the truck and headed for her car. As she passed the truck she glanced to her right and saw three small dark men beating a young Anglo who was curled in a fetal position on the ground trying to save himself from the blows of a baseball bat, a chain, and heavy boots.
Her anger against reality exploded into action again. She took three quick steps, dropping the sack of groceries and her purse, and launching herself feet first onto the back of the larger man who was swinging the bat. She felt both of her heels sink deep into his upper back as he was knocked on his face and she fell on top of him. Glancing left she heard the man with the chain shout and saw him start swinging the chain around his head to lash at her. She quickly rolled right.
Pushing up with her right hand, she found it wrapped around the handle of the bat that had been knocked out of the big man’s hands as he hit the ground face first. Planting her left foot, she reached out with her left hand and grabbed the chain as it flew toward her. The searing pain of the chain as it slid through her unprotected hand really jacked up the adrenalin. Her hand locked on the chain and she twisted violently— pulling the chain while planting the end of the bat on the asphalt. This gave her enough leverage to kick the third man behind her in the throat with the side of her boot.
The unexpected jerk on the chain yanked the second man into a surprised stagger toward her. Debbie leaped toward the chain swinger with the bat fully cocked over her shoulder. The man she had first jumped tried to grab her other arm, but merely succeeded in ripping the sleeve of her blazer. Shrugging out of the remnants of her sleeve, she slapped chain man on the side of his head with the bat. He went down like a slab of beef.
Whirling on the ball of her other foot, she almost avoided the man with the sleeve. But he knocked her down with a glancing punch to the side of her face that propelled her — sliding on her knee — toward the back of the truck. She leveraged herself up with the bat. The third man was clutching his throat, gasping for air. She knocked him to the ground with a full swing of the bat to his stomach. Lashing over with the bat, she hit the first thug in the back of the head before he could struggle to his feet to cause her more trouble.
With the three of them on the ground, two of them writhing in pain and the third totally unconscious, she shouted at the Anglo. “Get up! Get out of here!”
The man staggered to his feet, ran over to his van and slammed the side door — leaving the spilled bags of groceries on the pavement. He ran around the van, jumped in, started the engine with a roar and took off.
Debbie grabbed her purse and bag and ran to her car, unlocking it with the fob. She jumped into the PT Cruiser, flicked the switch, and mashed the accelerator to the floor. The immense torque of the electric motors almost surprised the computer into smoking its tires heading to the exit of the parking lot. But they worked as designed with perfect grip and incredible acceleration.
Broadsliding west from the lot onto the access road, she raced for I-25 at well over a hundred miles per hour. With her heart pounding from the adrenalin and exertion, she glanced in her rearview mirror as she continued to accelerate through the ramp heading north to Los Lunas and her office. She hit the freeway going north at nearly 140 miles per hour. There were no lights on the dark road in back of her, so she let herself think a little. She lifted the accelerator, letting the motors absorb some energy and put it back into the capacitors to recharge the batteries. Within a half mile she was back down to the legal limit.
It was good to right wrong again — but on the ten-minute drive north to the Los Lunas exit, she began shaking so bad that she almost had to stop the car. Damn! Dr. Ben was right—she was still too weak to go back to work. She focused on her breathing, driving, and compelled her body to slow down. It was not easy, not normal—I’ve got to get back into shape.
The adrenalin was now subsiding a little, but she was still in flight mode. She was still surprised at how good her social corrections made her feel even after all these years of fighting evil. All she wanted to do was drive up to the foothills to see her parents. She needed to clear her head and think. Her relative weakness and the surprise of her lack of awareness had shocked her.
She needed to talk to her parents. About forty minutes later, she was sitting in her father’s office in her parents’ comfortable hacienda at the foot of the Manzano Mountains fifteen miles east of Los Lunas and the cottonwood bosque of the Rio Grande Valley. Actually she was trying to sit, but the remains of the adrenalin was making that difficult. Between that and the surprise of her reactions (the lack of them), she was a bit jumpy.
“I think I may have killed at least one of them. What the hell were those three macho thugs doing? It didn’t look like a robbery—I think they were just causin’ pain for sport!” Deborah Stoner tried to slump back in the comfortable old leather club chair in her dad’s office. Normally, she could come here and relax — but that was more difficult tonight, for some reason.
Even Hulda, her mother’s Basset, could not cheer her up tonight. She had followed Deborah into the office and put her front paws into Deb’s lap in concern, but after a couple of ritual ear scratches she had been gently pushed back to the floor and was now just lying next to the chair with an eye of concern on the other daughter of the house.
Deb was a mess—though still stunningly beautiful with the remnants of her normal immaculate grooming. She was a tall, lean woman with a narrow-waisted figure that had been a magnet to men and boys ever since she turned twelve. Her wavy, auburn hair, which had become long and beautiful again during her long recovery, was not artfully draped over her shoulders in loose curls. It was a straggly mess.
Her jewelry was very understated — with a simple strand of handmade silver beads around her neck and round turquoise buttons in her ears. Amazingly, they were still in place. Normally, her eyes shone emerald green. Tonight, those eyes were glazed over from the physical stress and her makeup was blotchy with dark streaks coming from the corners of her eyes.
The top two buttons on her cream-colored, silk blouse were ripped off leaving her uncharacteristically immodest. The left arm was ripped off her navy blazer, and her bloody left knee was showing through the rips in her khaki slacks.
It was obvious that she had just grabbed her hair and clamped it off with the silver barrette she always carried in her purse. An impressive black eye was developing around her left eye. Her boots were scuffed and oily from the scum on the parking lot. Her left arm was lying on the arm of the chair, with her hand hanging in the air clenching and unclenching as she repeatedly rubbed her thumb across the inside of her fingers. She was visibly upset. Her knee was throbbing and her hip hurt (probably from hitting the ground as she rolled off the back of the first goon). Her hand was bloody from the chain sliding through before she grabbed on, but they were just scratches.
She had quickly driven the dozen miles across Los Lunas on Main Street and up Meadowlake Road to her parents’ home at the base of the Manzano mountains. Ever since her mother, Rachael Stoner, had married Jakob Jackson when Deborah was a little girl the Jackson home had been a haven of peace for her. Not that there hadn’t been some knockdown drag-out wars within these walls. Her temper was at least as bad as Jakob’s, and that made for some fiery verbal brawls. But that was just normal teenage stuff in the later part of the 20th century.
It was only after the killing in Iowa that the Jackson hacienda had become her place of work. After a great deal of prayer (coupled with a strong offer from back East) Jakob and Rachael had brought her into the family business. Because of her injuries, she had been thinking about getting out of the business, but after tonight that seemed less likely. She didn’t seem to be able to escape her work.
Jakob’s office was more like a study/den—lined with hand-built pine bookcases that were stuffed to overflowing with not only her dad’s technical reference books but with hundreds of books of political fiction, non-fiction, and scripture reference works. The room was painted a deep blue with stained pine molding that matched the bookcases and desks.
Only the outside wall was free from books and it was mostly glass. The windows were covered with two-inch pine blinds that, as usual, were pulled to the top to expose the view. All available wall space was covered with framed antique maps and paintings of Jerusalem lit by the track lighting that ringed the ceiling with at least a dozen small spots. Jakob had built the room in the middle of the north wall of their rambling adobe hacienda between the family room that faced west over the valley and the master bedroom facing north and east along the Manzanos.
The view from the office was stupendous. The Manzano Mountains framed the view on the east side the whole way north to the Sandia Crest, overlooking Albuquerque only 25 miles north. But, during the day you could see over Sandia Lab and Kirtland Air Force Base all the way to the Jemez Mountains east of Cuba, New Mexico nearly a hundred miles to the north.
Tonight, Deb would have seen a spectacular mirage in the city lights as the heat bent the light around the curve of the Earth. Beyond that, the glittering net of city lights spread almost forty miles north and west across the Rio Grande up through Rio Rancho and the huge Intel plant up there.
However, she sat facing away from that view toward a huge stained pine desk that jutted out from the side of Jakob’s drafting table on the south side of the room. The table and desk were actually built out as extensions of the bookcase on the west side of the room. They reached out to form a cozy working space with everything in easy reach. The desk was filled, as usual, with the clutter of a very active mind that was constantly in motion—always working on something new.
Jacob swung around in his large executive leather chair from the little bar and snack area built into the bottom of the bookcase covering the south wall floor to ceiling except for the gap around the door. He was a very large man but certainly not fat. He was a large-boned Swede who stood nearly two meters tall.
His short silver hair glowed in the lamp light, delightfully tussled from his tendency to run his hand through it when he was thinking — which was all the time. Laugh lines creased a strong, confident face. The brilliant blue eyes always held a touch of mirth—though he tended toward a cynicism he had to work to control.
Tonight, however, he was dealing with that old frustration that had been so much of a problem throughout his life. After the idealism taught in high schools in the 1950s, the real world machinations and power plays coupled with the outright evil of many organizations had infuriated him. His need to do something coupled with his cynicism used to keep him on the edge of explosion. Now he largely had it under control, but it was still the driving force of his life.
Things had become much more simple for him when he had realized over thirty years ago that he had a real enemy who hated him and his family. That evil was present in strength in Belen. Seeing his daughter injured after a battle with elements of that evil was still hard to look at—even after all these years of battle—even though she was a warrior in that fight.
Get yourself under control! Jakob prayed silently. Lord, please give me the grace to calm down and be a help to my daughter. You love her more than I do. I need your wisdom, Lord.
You could see the concern for his daughter in the slightly furrowed brow and studious alertness. He had noticed the thumb rubbing and recognized it for what it was — the sure indicator that his daughter was extremely angry. But that type of alertness was not uncommon in this man. What was uncommon was the slight squinting of the eyes and the rigid set of the jaw. In recent years, Jakob had learned a great deal about controlling his thoughts and relaxing in trust. But it was a struggle tonight. There was a reason why he had formed the company and he was dealing with that tonight.
Deb had seen his brown Stetson on the peg near the front door when she came in and headed straight for his office. As she walked in the door to the office, he had been attacking the complex problems of another project for Sandia Lab. He was dressed in his usual “home” clothes — wearing a flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off and hemmed short plus well-worn blue jeans.
The desk lamps glinted off the large red coral needlepoint bracelet on his right wrist and the silver cross with five matched natural red coral stones hanging on a thick silver anchor chain that fit snugly around his neck. The only gold he ever wore was in the simple gold band on his left hand. The only slightly jarring element to his attire in New Mexico was the pair of well-worn hiking boots that he always wore. Cowboy boots were too much of an affectation for him — he was into comfort, design, and workmanship.
As he turned, he held two hand-thrown, cobalt blue, stoneware goblets with manzanita stems from the set of twelve that he had picked up in the Napa valley for Rachael while on one of his many trips for Black Sail. He held one out to Deborah with a little smile, “Here, Stones, have some Madeira — then start from the beginning. Are you sure the lights were shot out?” Stones was Deborah’s favorite nickname. Jake had called her that since his little tomboy entered ninth grade. All her closest friends called her that now. It started as a simple contraction of her last name but in reality, it described her ferocious personality when aroused. There was no evidence of her normally calm, self-controlled exterior now. He was trying to calm her down by reminding her who she was. It wasn’t working well.
Deb took the goblet and a large swallow of the Madeira and forced herself back in to the chair. The warmth sliding down her throat felt familiar and normal. She was still getting herself under control. What is wrong? She thought, Get a grip! There was a little flicker of a smile at that reminder of one of her mother’s favorite phrases. She was always telling one of her sheep to get a grip. The wine, the chair, and her dad’s presence were helping. After a few long seconds, she looked at her beloved stepfather and started to explain her day.
“I was coming back from a visit to Maria Alvarez on the south side of Belen. She was there when Harry was killed—remember? We got talking and it got pretty bad.” As soon as she spoke the memories flooded back. “It had been a horrible visit. Her brother is even worse, if possible. It was stupid of me to go, I guess. But I promised I’d do what I could to help her and we’ve been through a lot together.”
“Her damn brother even tried pawing me…” She smiled at Jakob to cover her anger, plus she didn’t want him to think it was a big deal, “I took care of it, but it just added to the day.”
Jakob gave a little grin, imagining how she took care of it and motioned her to continue.
“I left there really upset with that old rage burning in my gut. I’m not really sure why I was so upset. I guess seeing what she has to live with, and there’s nothing I can do. It must have been around seven o’clock ’cause it was completely dark. I came up through town and stopped at the Wal-Mart to get some paper towels, some veggies, and a salad. I should never stop there. You know what it’s like. I should have just come up to the Wally World up here in Los Lunas. But I was tired — just wanted to get home as quick as possible and take a shower.”
Jakob nodded in agreement—smiled to encourage her.
“An Anglo is simply not welcome in that store any more. It’s gotten much worse than it was the last time I was there. Needless to say, I got in and out as fast as possible — even more irritated by the little nasties that are part of the prejudice down there. The cashier just jabbered in Spanish to the cashier in back of me like I wasn’t even there—just assuming the dumb Anglo bitch couldn’t understand them with all the nasty looks because an Anglo would dare contaminate their world. I even heard a woman ask her friend, ‘What is she doing here?’”
The further she got into the story the faster Deborah was talking. She was perched on the edge of her seat again and there was a glint in her eye that was not pretty as the words flowed out of her mouth. A steely calm was descending on her features.
“As I walked to my car (which was out near the highway because of all the shoppers stopping on their way home from the city) I was just lost in thought. In hindsight, I’m amazed at how little I was aware of my surroundings. I kinda snapped to the present when I heard little cries and some scuffling. That’s when I noticed that several of the parking lot lights in my area were out. They had obviously been shot out again. The gangstas seem to think that’s great fun. As I got near my car, I rounded one of those huge macho pickup trucks with a tall shell on the back. I found myself behind three thugs and a body. They had a nicely dressed young Anglo man on the ground and were brutally beating him. By the time I got there, he was curled on the ground in a fetal position as they all worked at kicking, whipping, and beating him. The cries were his whimpers as he was hit.
“I had noticed the plates from Chihuahua, Mexico. It was one of those fancy trucks with Chihuahuan plates, roll bars, aggressive off-road tires with 19” black-spoked rims — we’ve talked about’em. They’re certainly not the usual vehicles coming up from the Juarez crossing through El Paso.
“Those three thugs were not the normal undocumented workers either — these trucks are fancy. I’ve even seen a couple Hummers. These new trucks are all completely black and in really good condition. The men were dressed up, neat & tidy, not your normal macho slime.”
Jake smiled again in acknowledgement of the truth of what she had said so far and cranked his hand in a tight circle to urge her on. This was a normal encouragement of his to keep the story moving along and get to the point.
“Between the Mexican truck and my Cruiser was an old Dodge Caravan. There was an empty parking slot between the van and the truck. The van had a terrified, slim young Anglo woman in the front seat and I saw at least one young girl sitting in far back seat. The door was open and second seat was filled with bags of groceries and stuff. A couple of the bags had fallen on the ground and a jar of salsa (I think) had broken. I just glanced over there.
“On the ground, closer to the truck than the van, these three well-dressed, bearded Mexicans were beating a poor man to death. One had a bat — another was using a chain. After the afternoon I had and the experience in Wally World, I just lost it. One too many macho bullies, I guess.”
She tossed a quick vague smile at her dad.
Jake returned the smile with a warm grin of his own.
She resumed without a break, “I launched myself feet first onto the back of the nearest thug dropping my purse and the bag. I’m still trying to reconstruct what happened. I was just reacting. I must have simply gone berserk. I thought I had grown past that, but I was absolutely sick of inadequate men proving their manhood. They were simply beating a defenseless man to death. I must have grabbed the bat when it bounced out of the hand of the first man I jumped. He slammed into the pavement face first with my heels in his back and me on top of him.
“The first man reached up and grabbed at my arm. As I jerked forward with the bat, my sleeve ripped off. Leaving the sleeve in his hands, I grabbed the chain as the second man swung it at my head. I was able to use that as leverage along with the bat to kick the third one in the throat. Somewhere during all this I ended up sliding across the pavement on my knee but I was able to pry myself up with the bat. I turned around swinging and started whaling on the other two until they were on the ground and not moving. They got in a few punches, but I couldn’t even feel them. I just wanted to kill all three of them.
“The first guy I jumped was unconscious on the ground in a pool of blood. I hollered at the Anglo to get out of there and grabbed up my purse and bag before the spreading blood messed it up. He got up, slammed the side door of his van, ran around and took off as fast as he could. I kept the bat (worried about fingerprints, I guess) and ran over to my car. Maybe the Cruiser can not spin its tires, but they were sure chirping as I flew out of the lot.”
Jakob interrupted, “What happened to your eye?”
Stones thought a moment. “I have no idea. It’s pretty much a blur. Anyway, by the time I got back in Los Lunas, the questions were just whirling in my brain. I’m obviously in no shape to be seen in public, so I came here. I needed to talk with someone sane. I thought I was done with this crap!” With that and a little grin, it was like all the air escaped her lungs and she crumpled back into the soft leather of the chair — all energy gone. The calm face that had momentarily reasserted itself was gone. Her hand was trembling to the point where she could hardly hold the goblet.
Jakob got out of his chair, came around the desk, gently took the wine out of her hand, and set it on the old pine apothecary chest used as an end table between the two chairs. Then he got on his knees in front of his daughter. “Come here, babe. You’re still not completely healed. The adrenalin must have been quite a jolt to the system. This will pass.” With a big smile, he opened his arms.
Deborah leaned forward and threw her arms around her father’s neck. As she buried her face next to his neck, she felt the soft flannel of his shirt. Smelling his familiar scent of aftershave with the overtones of oil, steel shavings, and his shop, the tears started flowing. Within seconds she was sobbing as Jakob just held her tight, patting her back.
“There, there,” he said, “we’ll figure it out. All things work to the good…”
Deb quietly finished the phrase along with him, “…for those who love the Lord.” She wasn’t sure she believed that — or even really knew what that meant. However, it sounded good now in this place of peace and she needed that. “I love you, dad…” she murmured.
After a couple of minutes, she gathered herself together and gently pushed herself out of his arms back into her chair. Jakob stiffly climbed to his feet and sat in the other chair. The old joints were certainly not as limber as they used to be. He swung the arm of the old strap iron adjustable floor lamp next to his chair out of the way so he could see his daughter’s face.
“Well, let’s start with first things first,” he said, trying to figure out what, if anything, needed to be done. “Did anyone see you?”
“I don’t think so,” she thought out loud. “At least four or five lights were out in that corner of the lot. I shouldn’t even have parked there, but I was in a hurry to get home. Like I said, normally I wouldn’t even stop in Belen. But I was tired and in a hurry and just wanted to get home to shower and clean up. Maria’s house was filthy as usual — dirty diapers, just plain dirt, old moldy dishes piled high in the kitchen sink, trash all over… I could see missing cabinet doors in the kitchen with one of them just hanging at an angle from the top hinge. Maria has never really recovered from the shooting. Somehow she just doesn’t care anymore—about anything. Some cat was using the rug under an old ratty end table as a litter box. The place reeked. I hated to even sit down. I even had to brush off the chair before I sat in it.”
Coming back to the present and thinking for a few seconds, she looked over at her dad and said, “No, I didn’t see anyone else anywhere close. Even so, that town is secretive. No one would tell anything to the cops unless they were caught in the act. You remember when Michael was beat unconscious by those four gangbangers a couple years back? He was stupid enough to flip them the bird when they cut him off on I-25. He still has no sense of smell and all they can tell him is that it is brain damage. There’s a lot of bad stuff going on down there. It gives me the creeps—and I don’t creep easily.”
Jakob smiled (mostly to himself). “That town has been a center for curandera or so-called ‘white’ healing witches for centuries.” He knew Deb didn’t believe any of this stuff, but a little reminder wouldn’t hurt. “The spiritual garbage of that place should give you the creeps. If it didn’t, I’d be concerned. What about the men though? Why do you think they were from Old Mexico? We’d wondered about that when we talked about them last week.”
Stones thought a second. “The Chihuahua plates mostly — but they certainly looked the part of rich tourists. They weren’t talking much but it didn’t sound like the local Spanglish. I’m sure they were not normal illegals either. They were strong, healthy, trained… It was a tough fight.
“One had on snakeskin boots that must have cost him a thousand dollars. The one with the bat had on a huge silver concho belt with a matching bolo tie. These men were not poor. The beating was really methodical. It was almost like they were doing it for exercise or practice.”
“I imagine you rocked’em a little—this gorgeous babe whalin’ on’em.” Jake grinned at his daughter. “I’ve never seen you in action, but I know your mother taught you well. I was against it when she started training you the summer you turned six, but she insisted. The wisdom of her training has become obvious. Shucks, I could see the wisdom when you left the quarterback unconscious in his Corvette back in high school. Remember him?”
Deb laughed in memory. “I think my feet still hurt from that walk home. Those gorgeous four-inch spikes were killers. I’ve never seen such a look of surprise as he slipped off to sleep. I think he thought he was going to have his way with me—dope that he was. I always understood the need for the sleeper holds with all those creeps who were after me in high school.”
Her eyes clouded over and became dark in thought. You could see things click into place behind those eyes. “All that hard work kept me alive tonight. But I’m really in bad shape. I guess I thought that I wouldn’t need that stuff any more. Silly me. I was huffin’ and puffin’ after the fight. I’d better get back in shape. I hope that man and his family are all right. That was an old van and the spilled groceries must have cost him over fifty dollars and he sure didn’t look like they could afford a loss like that. There was nothing else to do though. We had to get out of there. It’s just not safe for Anglos after dark any more — anywhere in Valencia county. But Belén and south to Bernardo are the worst.”
Steering her back on track, Jakob asked, “So you think it was racial?”
“’Fraid so, dad. That is the main thing holding the Valencia County gangs together. The anger directed at me was astounding. As I was peeling out of the lot onto the freeway feeder I remembered that little Aztlan sticker I’ve been telling you about. They had one in the back window of that fancy truck. It wasn’t conspicuous, but all those Chihuahuan trucks have them. Did you find anything out about it?” She and her parents had been curious about those stickers a couple weeks earlier when they were talking over dinner. As usual, they’d had a long talk — that time speculating about what that sticker meant.
Jake brow furrowed as he raised his left eyebrow like he always did when deep in thought, “Not really — the best I have found seems to show it is tied in with those Mexican secessionists like the National Council of La Raza. There’s a lot of ranting and raving online, but nothing substantial until recently. The Reconquistas have been ranting and raving since the 1980s or even earlier.
“You remember that fight up in Tierra Amarilla over the Old Spanish land grants back in the sixties. Many of the Mexican immigrants seem to believe that the Southwest should really be a new nation called Aztlan. Now it looks like they are getting serious. Suddenly, they seem to have a lot of money and their rhetoric has taken a practical turn. They could be a genuine problem. I couldn’t really find anything though. I don’t read Spanish well enough. I talked to Ralph about it and he has some people looking into it. He’ll get back to us when he finds out anything meaningful.
“As you know, I’ve been worried about them ever since I read up on Bustamante’s background when he ran against Schwarzenegger in 2002. Hispanics are the largest minority in the country now. From Texas through Southern California, they are the majority though many can’t vote yet.”
Abruptly, he focused on the present and looked Stones in the eye. “That’s enough for tonight. You’re really in no shape to drive. Why don’t you stay over? Tomorrow night, Senator Aragón and Nancy are coming to dinner. If anyone knows anything, Danny will. You better clean up those scrapes. No need for an infection.”
Stones nodded in agreement. She was ready to crash at this point, and the peace of her father’s home was very appealing. She got up, gave her dad a hug and a quiet thanks, and walked back to her room.
She still kept clothes in the old antique dresser Rachael had found for her when she was in high school. Her mom and dad had decorated the whole house with old beat-up pieces of furniture they had lovingly redone. Her room was in the middle of the outer eastern wall of the Jackson hacienda facing the steep upward slope of the Manzano Mountains. It wasn’t overly large, but it was as comfortable as a flannel nightgown on a cold winter morning.
As she flipped the switch at the door, the old hand-painted glass lamp on the night stand next to her bed lit the room with a soft warm glow. The walls were a warm, creamy yellow. The soft Berber carpet was a light blue-gray. The bed was an old four-poster of dark mahogany made up with a soft comforter covered in pale yellow cabbage roses. There was a pile of beautiful pillows at the head of the bed with her needlepointed version of Hulda’s mother stuffed and seated on the top pillow. Her mother had given her that silly-looking stuffed dog for her sixteenth birthday several years before Hulda was born.
The walls were filled with photos from her childhood, mementos of concerts, dances, and trips, and a large picture of Miss Piggy launching out in to the room on the back of a Harley. Around the top of the walls, her mother had stenciled a complex pattern of grapes, leaves, and vine. The window overlooking the back yard was framed with ecru lace curtains tied back to reveal the view. The room was protected from the sun by ecru mini-blinds. Debbie walked over to the window and raised the blinds as well as the window. A gentle, almost cold, breeze entered the room with the smell of the hyacinths outside. The sleeping would be good tonight.
She was too tired to even shower. She had her own bathroom and went in there to clean up her wounds. There was no way she was going to get blood on her mother’s sheets. When she had cleaned up and wiped off the dirt and blood, she bandaged the spots still oozing. Then she just dropped her clothes on the carpet and slipped between the sheets. She’d pick up in the morning. The air-dried sheets that were a hallmark of her mother’s living style smelled so good that she just deeply inhaled the aroma. It was good to be home. With a long sigh, she slipped off into deep, restful sleep within moments.
Cutoff Point #5
Tuesday evening, the fifth of March: Earlier, near sunset at the top of Hawk Watch Trail above Carnuel in Tijeras Canyon East of Albuquerque.
Mannie’s heart was still pumping fast. Part of it was simply pride that he, Manuel Cisneros, should be trusted with such an important job. It was good to be doing something that meant something. He hadn’t been trusted by anyone since he was drummed out of the SEALs for killing those kids who got in the way on that job in Iran in the early 1990s. It felt good to have real work to do again.
But, most of it was the climb. He looked out to the West across the Rio Grande valley towards Grants, New Mexico at the foot of Mount Taylor. The sacred mountain was silhouetted in black by the deep indigo sky seventy miles away. I-40 climbing Nine-Mile Hill, in the near foreground, was a river of red taillights exiting town for the new western developments and dinner at this time of the evening. The sun had been spectacular as it sunk behind Mount Taylor. The clouds were now glowing red around the edges as the last of the sun’s light disappeared. High overhead were three slashes of brilliant red — contrails left by some jets heading for the Left Coast.
Mannie’s short muscular body had recovered and it was time to get to work. His curly black locks were still wet, but the slight breeze just used that to cool his head. The old green fishing hat he used to protect his head from the glare of the sun had cooled nicely through evaporation. But his five o’clock shadow was more like a short beard that was itching with the drying sweat. His high-topped black military boots were still damp, but his feet were fine.
Lupe had been right, no one used the trails on Tuesdays. What he hadn’t told Mannie was that it would take three horrendous climbs to get all the materials to the top. It was only two miles to the top of Hawk Watch trail from the parking lot in Carnuel. But that was just the start.
He’d started early this morning. The load in the first large black nylon backpack was the drill, bits, extensions, detonators, and about half the explosives. That was only sixty-five pounds and it had been fairly easy. He had found a stash hole under the south side of a pile of huge boulders south of the trail just above the last switchback about two hundred feet below Hawk’s Lookout at the top of the trail. It hadn’t been too bad until the sun rose over the ridge. He had been in the shade most of the way, and sixty degrees is quite cool at 8000 feet.
He’d left his flannel shirt with the first pack as he headed back down for the second load. He had to keep the T-shirt on to protect from burning in the searing glare of the sun at 8000 feet. The second pack was a little larger and quite a bit heavier because of the water frozen in plastic bottles. The temperature was only in the 70s for that carry.
By the time he carried up the third pack, which was thankfully a little lighter, the temperature had reached the mid-80s and the glaring sun made the rocks too hot to touch comfortably.
He had wished he could have brought his roommate, Duane Tabot, with him to help. Duane was strong but dumb. But Lupe didn’t trust him — probably with good reason. After he had all three packs up to the top he found out the real difficulty with this climb. The carry up the trail was nothing compared to lugging those packs across the large boulders out to the overlooking slope. He’d worked his way down the rough, steep slope for over a mile, climbing down nearly a thousand feet in the process—twice so far.
“Oh well, the hard work is over now,” Mannie shrugged his shoulders, cracked his neck, and used his bulging shoulder muscle to wipe the cold sweat off his neck and chin with his Black Sabbath T-shirt. It was time to put the flannel shirt back on. In March, it still got cold up here near the top of the South Crest of the Sandia Mountains. The temp had dropped twenty degrees already and it was less than a half hour after the sun had set.
Lupe had told Mannie in no uncertain terms that no one was to know about this. He understood that. Obviously, something big was in the works. Unless he completely misunderstood what he was doing, a lot of people were going to be seriously inconvenienced, at the very least. With good timing, a lot of people would die. That brought a smile to his mouth, but he wouldn’t see the explosions.
Mannie cleaned his hands on his jeans, retightened the laces on his right boot, ran his hands through his hair, and stood up. He grabbed the green plaid flannel shirt, put it on, and buttoned it. Then he unbuckled his belt, unzipped the jeans, and got his T-shirt and the flannel tucked in carefully.
Man’s gotta have pride, he thought as he checked his pockets and got everything squared away. He pulled out his thin pigskin climbing gloves, which were still damp enough to be supple but cold on his hands and tucked them in his armpit.
He pulled the .38 Special from the leather holster and screwed on the silencer from his pack. He’d probably have to kill a few more snakes tonight and a gunshot would surely be heard in Carnuel three thousand feet below. The snakes were the worst part of this job. He hated snakes (truth be told they filled him with irrational fear, but he didn’t admit that to anyone). He pulled a comb from his back pocket and ran it through his curls, and then flattened them with the hat. Ready to face the world, though they certainly couldn’t see him, he put his gloves back on.
Then he grabbed the last pack with his jacket, gloves, ammunition, food, and the last of those damned batteries. They had been the problem. They were nearly three pounds each and he would be going through at least two dozen batteries before tomorrow morning. The third dozen batteries were probably overkill, but he wanted to be sure he got this done tonight. Thankfully, the cell phone detonator ran off that new solar charger. He didn’t want to even think about how many batteries he would have had to haul for it.
He had thought that second pack was going to kill him. It only weighed ninety pounds. But after the climb of 3500 feet to the stash, the straps of the backpack felt like they were going to cut his arms off at the shoulders. He would have used his own pack with the hip support but he hadn’t wanted to risk losing it. The new Chinese drill was amazing, but those Lithium batteries had been killers. He was proud of his strength, but he was glad this was the last one.
As he picked his way through the piled boulders toward his final camp overlooking the freeway, Mannie noticed that he was staggering a bit. He was sore and he better be careful. All he needed to do now was fall between a couple of rocks. They’d never find his body. He grinned. The girls at the Sidewinder in Andelito would never forgive him — although, at this point, the beers sounded better than the women.
“Tomorrow night,” he promised himself. In many ways, Manual still had the urges of a hormone-driven teenager. He didn’t know where Lupe found his women, but they were incredible. He imagined that Maria, Lupe’s woman, put a spell on the girls and/or drugged them up. Whatever it she did, Rosita was incredible.
He hurried as much as he could — clambering over the thirty ton rocks like a dark brown goat. He was anxious to complete his work. He’d spent the last two weeks setting up charges. It was obvious that the plan was to cut off access from the East. Easterners had no idea how easy that was. Roads through these rugged mountains were few and far between. In between the roads, it would be difficult to even hike through. Tijeras Canyon was one of the most difficult to block. The cliff looming over the road coming through Cimarron Cañon East of Eagle’s Nest had been the easiest. But that road from I-25 east of the mountains cutting through to Taos and Red River in northern New Mexico wasn’t too important. There weren’t that many who were going to be able to come through Taos anyway. The roads were too narrow and twisty.
Apache Cañon, east of Santa Fe and west of Glorieta, where I-25 swung around the southern end of the mountains had been much more difficult — mainly because of all the people. That was going to be something when the freeway was cut off. The narrow cut just out of Angostura up near the top of the Sangre De Cristos should cut off access from Las Vegas and Mora through to the back road to Taos. The charges at Abo Pass at the tail end of the Manzanos between Mountainair and Belen would cut off not only Highway 60 but also the railroad. He had gotten the railroad at Glorieta also.
At the southern end of the state, Lupe had someone else from Juarez getting Highway 380 through the Valley of Fires west of Carrizozo plus Apache Summit on the Mescalero Reservation. Mannie’s best guess was there were cutoffs set up on 380 near Capitan and on that steep winding stretch uphill from Nogal toward Ruidoso. Blocking Highway 82 up by Cloudcroft should cut off the rest of the access points through the Sacramento Mountains in southern New Mexico. Lupe had assured him that El Patron had West Texas and I-10 ready to go. Lupe had shown Mannie the map.
The light was almost gone. At least, he had finally figured out a fairly easy path. It would have been easier to come straight down from the South Crest Trail. But, there were too many people using that trail and it would have been three seven-mile carries on that trail, plus the three miles down to his temporary camp on the edge of the pile overlooking the bulging slope above the bridge where I-40 went over Route 66. The raptors were mostly gone back North, so Hawk Watch was empty. He hadn’t seen a soul all day. The three SUVs in the lot must have brought people up for long hikes headed North.
“Only another quarter mile and I can rest for a while.” Even his thoughts sounded tired and breathy to his mind. “I need a nap.”
He glanced to the West and saw all of southeast Albuquerque, Kirtland AFB with Sandia Lab, and the airport spread out in glittering lights. He saw two of those irritating Apache helicopters heading south on their nightly practice run to Alamogordo. They always passed about a half of a mile in front of Lupe’s compound at the base of the Manzanos just north of the Kennedy campground. They made him jumpy when they flew by so close. He knew what they could do.
Looking southwest he could barely see Tomé hill about twenty-five miles away in the evening shadows. Thirty miles beyond that, past the lights of Belen, he could see the craggy peak of Ladrón halfway to Socorro sixty-five miles south — black against the deep blue at the far southern end of the sunset. It looked like a battered version of Mt. Fuji sticking up on the high plains west of the Rio Grande. Ladrón meant thug or bandit and traditionally was remembered as a hideout for bandits who raided the Spanish caravans headed north along the Camino Real from Mexico to Santa Fe. The logo and namesake of their bike shop (Ciclos de Ladrón though the sign said Ladron Bikes) was also their hideout.
He longed to get back there—ripping over the trails behind the mountain. That’s the only time when he really felt alive lately. He really missed the action, the speed, the smell of hot machinery, the adrenalin… he couldn’t go there. There was work to do.
By the time he reached his final little camp, on a flat rock surrounded by five twenty-foot high boulders out of view from the town or the freeway, he could barely see. He’d rest for a while, until the moon came up. Thankfully it was full moon tomorrow, so he’d be able to see well tonight to do his work. He took out his jacket for a pillow, leaned back against a south-facing rock that slanted back nicely. The rock was still warm on his back, his eyes closed. What a climb — and he was gone.
Mannie woke with a start. The moon was glaring in his eyes. It was so bright he could see the colors in his shirt. He was now cold. It was certainly below forty degrees. It felt below freezing. He tried to sit up to put on his jacket, but he had “set up like concrete” as Duane’s dad was fond of saying. It took a few seconds of fairly serious pain to get moving again.
He reached for the pack with the food. He popped four ibuprophen, pulled out a cold breakfast burrito with chorizo, egg, and a sharp Mexican cheese. As he chewed and swallowed, he found a bottle of water that had not fully melted yet. The ice cold water was amazingly delicious. Dinner gone, he forced himself to his feet, opened the other two packs, and started unpacking.
He was headed for a huge rock that was precariously perched on the top of a huge pile of boulders at the top of the steep, bulging slope leading down to the bridge where old Route 66 crossed under I-40 heading down the canyon. Tijeras Canyon was the most difficult to block. Simply filling the freeway with rock wouldn’t do it. There would still be easy passage under the freeway on old Route 66. He had spent two very tense nights under that bridge setting charges to take it down on top of 66. The traffic on old 66 was still almost constant and he spent most of his time ducking headlights.
It all depended on the charges he was setting tonight. He not only had to make sure these rocks rolled down the hill. He also had to creep out in the open — in clear view of the houses below — and set charges to make sure enough of the slope would slide down under the rocks to plug the cañon. It was going to be more than a little tense.