Edge of Battle (46 page)

A loudspeaker on the bomb squad’s robot crackled to life: “Attention, any persons inside the truck. This is Sergeant Louis Cortez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. We would like to speak with whoever is inside. We will not harm you. A remote-controlled unarmed robot is behind the truck. It is carrying a bag containing a telephone. You may open the right-side cargo door, reach out, and take the bag containing the phone. We assure you, we will not trick you. The bag contains only a phone, and we will not attempt to arrest or attack you. We wish to speak with whoever is in charge. Please take the phone.”

The deputy began repeating the message in Spanish when those outside the truck could see the right cargo door handle move, and moments later open. The robot was positioned perfectly—all the person inside had to do was open the door less than six inches, reach out less than half an arm’s length, and grab the…

Suddenly both cargo doors burst apart and completely flew off their hinges when some sort of tremendous burst of energy erupted from inside the truck. The police instinctively ducked down behind vehicles and barricades, expecting the shock wave of a huge bomb blast to crash into them—but there was nothing. When they looked up, all they saw…

…was a large ten-foot-tall two-legged cyborg that had just jumped from the back of the truck. As the astonished police officers watched, Ariadna Vega, piloting the Cybernetic Infantry Device, dashed around the truck and into the main entrance of Jacaranda Hall—she was out of sight even before most of them realized what they had just seen.

The entryway and hallways inside the building were empty—Ariadna was able to monitor the campus police radio frequencies from on board the CID unit, so she knew that everyone had been evacuated. Running on all fours—the approved CID technique for assaulting a building, learned the hard way from Task Force TALON’s assault into an oil refinery office building in Cairo—she headed upstairs to the third floor of the engineering building. She briefly considered how she would do her final approach to the target, but quickly decided there was only one way to do it

Staying low so she wouldn’t hit the ceiling, running on all fours, she galloped around a corner, down a hallway…and crashed directly through the door at the end of the hall. It took her just two heartbeats to see that the outer office was empty, so she turned and bulldozed herself directly through another door to her left, then immediately rose up on her left knee, turned toward the windows, raised her mechanical arms in order to grab anyone within reach, and deployed the twenty-millimeter cannon in her backpack, all
in one smooth motion. She heard a woman and a man scream, and the lights flickered.
“Freeze!”
she shouted.
“No one move!”

She then heard the sound of clapping. Ari turned and saw none other than Colonel Yegor Zakharov himself, seated on her father’s comfortable armchair at the head of an informal meeting area in front of her father’s desk, applauding her entrance! The coffee table in front of him had a tray with coffee cups and saucers on it—the ones
she
had given to her father when he became the chairman of the school of engineering at Northridge!—and even a plate of cookies. She aimed her cannon directly at Zakharov’s smirking face and…

“No le mate, niño,”
Ariadna’s mother Ernestina said. Ariadna looked up in complete surprise and saw her father seated behind his desk in the corner behind Zakharov, with her mother right beside him. They were clutching each other, but in surprise, not fear. “Is that you, Ariadna?”

Ariadna immediately reached out, and in the blink of an eye had Zakharov by the throat, holding him up high enough so his toes just barely touched the carpet.
“¿Es usted el daño dos?”
she asked.

“We are fine, dear,” Ernestina said. “Yegor has been a complete gentleman.”

“Yegor…gentleman…?”

“Let him explain, Ari,” her father Dominic said. “You can make up your own mind, but we believe what he has told us.”

“You…
believe…him?
” Ariadna asked incredulously. “This man is an international terrorist and a mass murderer! He has masterminded the most deadly attacks in the entire
world!
What has he told you? Has he drugged you? Has he…?”

“He has not done anything except make an appointment to talk to us. He said…”

“He made an
appointment?
”

“Perhaps you should let the man breathe so he can tell you himself, Ari,” her father said with a hint of a smile on his face. “He looks like he is beginning to turn blue.”

“I should kill him just for coming near you!” Ari turned back
to Zakharov who indeed was starting to look like he was in some distress—he gasped like a fish out of water for several moments after she finally lowered him to the floor and loosened, but did not release, her grip on his neck. “You came here to kill my mother and father, didn’t you,
hijoputa?
”

“Ariadna!”
her mother admonished her. “Watch your language!” It was comical to watch the robot shake its head in disbelief.

“I came here…to give you…information,” Zakharov said, his voice strained and croaking as he caught his breath. “Kill me if you want, but hear me out. I may even be able to help you.”

“
Your
help? You want to help
me?
”

“I have been double-crossed, Dr. Vega, and I lack the resources to exact my revenge,” Zakharov said. “Listen to me for two minutes, and I will tell you who is behind this Mexican immigration madness.”

T
HE
W
HITE
H
OUSE
,
W
ASHINGTON
, D.C.
A
SHORT TIME LATER

“I apologize for the confusion, Mr. President,” Felix Díaz said when he took the call from the President of the United States in the president of Mexico’s office. “I am somewhat at a loss to explain what has happened. All I know for certain is that President Maravilloso, the vice president, the Minister of Defense, and several other Council of Government ministers are missing or incommunicado. As fifth in line of presidential succession, I have temporarily assumed the role of president until a thorough investigation can be conducted.”

“Do you think this is related to the embassy bombing in the Federal District, Minister Díaz?” the President of the United States asked. “Is there a coup underway? Is all this being engineered by that right-wing fanatic Comandante Veracruz?”

“Again, sir, I do not have that information at this time,” Díaz said. “The situation here is confusing and fluid.”

“I want to know just one thing, Minister Díaz: are all these announcements and threats from this Comandante Veracruz guy sanctioned and endorsed by the Mexican government? I require only a simple yes or no answer.”

“I assure you, Mr. President, that this Comandante Veracruz character does not speak for Mexico,” Minister of Internal Affairs Felix Díaz replied. “However, Ernesto Fuerza is a private citizen of Mexico; he has not been charged with any crimes here in Mexico, and therefore has the constitutional freedom to move and speak wherever he chooses; and if the private media outlets in my country wish to give him airtime to voice his opinions, that is their decision.”

“Minister Díaz, his remarks are inflammatory, counterproductive, and obviously dangerous,” Conrad said. “Cities and counties all over the United States are complaining of traffic gridlock, acts of vandalism and violence, theft, assaults—all because of this man’s announcements. Since your Internal Affairs Ministry controls the communications outlets in your country, I want to know if his remarks are officially—”

“I have told you my government’s official position many times, Mr. President,” Díaz interrupted. “Mexico wishes to participate in formulating a just, fair, and equitable immigration and border security program with your government.”

“And that is?”

“Very simple, sir: all military forces on the U.S.-Mexico border must be removed; all Mexican citizens being held in detention facilities must be released immediately; an in-place guest worker program should be initiated immediately, with Mexican citizens wishing to work being allowed to register with their employers or directly through your Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau without requiring them to return to Mexico; all Mexican workers in the United States are to be guaranteed the federal or state minimum wage, whichever is higher; and all Mexican citi
zens living and working in the United States for more than two years should receive a Social Security identification card, not just a useless taxpayer ID number.”

“What you want is being debated in Congress as we speak, Minister.”

“It has been debated for far too long—and as it is being debated, our citizens are dying in your deserts, being cheated out of fair wages, being denied workers benefits, and are not allowed to even open a bank account or see a doctor in some areas,” Díaz said. “That must stop immediately, Mr. President. Otherwise I think our people should do exactly what Mr. Fuerza recommends: for their own safety, they should get out of the United States and not return until things change.”

“Minister Díaz, millions of your people will suffer if they just leave like this,” Conrad said. “Already thousands of innocent persons, mostly Mexicans, have been injured by assaults, traffic accidents, bombings, fighting, and looting. Several hundred have been killed. In the meantime they have no jobs, no income, and have only succeeded in creating chaos, fear, and confusion. Many of your people have been accused of hate crimes, racial attacks, sabotage, vandalism, and even murder. Is this what you want?”

“Mexico wants only justice, equality, and freedom, Mr. President,” Díaz said. “What happens in the streets of your city and in your halls of Congress is entirely up to you. I suggest you control the hatemongers and racists in your
own
country first, like Bob O’Rourke, before accusing the poor displaced persons from Mexico!”

“Bob O’Rourke was killed early this afternoon, Minister Díaz, by a powerful bomb planted in his car,” the President said. “I assumed you were aware of this.”

Díaz was silent for a long moment, then: “If you expected me to be sorry O’Rourke is dead, Mr. President, I will no doubt disappoint you,” he said in a quieter tone. “It matters not. He was not a spokesman for your government, anymore than Comandante Veracruz is of ours. Prod your Congress into passing some real im
migration reform legislation, and sign it into law immediately, or the blood of many more innocent hardworking people will be on
your
hands.”

President Conrad was silent for a few moments, then: “I understand that things are difficult there now, Minister Díaz,” he said. “I called to ask if the United States can do anything to help. President Maravilloso gave her permission for us to send the FBI and military investigators to your country to—”

“I’m afraid that will be impossible now, Mr. President,” Díaz said. “As director of internal investigations in Mexico, I cannot spare the manpower to lend to American investigators while attempting to conduct our
own
investigation. The Council of Government, the legislature, and the people will not permit an American investigation to override our own.”

“You don’t understand, Minister,” the President said. “The El Centro incident occurred on U.S. soil, involving American military and civilian personnel. The U.S. embassy is considered American soil. You have treaty obligations that permit us to bring in our own investigators in cases such as this. I demand your government’s full—”

“Excuse me, sir?” Díaz interrupted, his voice fairly shaking with anger. “Did you just tell me that you ‘demand’ something? How dare you speak to me like this? You would never dare to tell even a pizza deliveryman in your country that you ‘demand’ something—I think you would be polite and
ask
instead. How dare you make demands of this government?”

“Sir, a horrible crime has been committed on our territory,” President Conrad said. “The FBI is our chief federal investigation organization. Because the incident involved a U.S. Marine Corps helicopter, the Department of Defense and the Navy are also going to be involved, along with other agencies. The aircraft that attacked near El Centro came from Mexico—you admitted as much yourself. Now I expect…no, Minister, I
demand
that your government cooperate with the FBI and the Navy Judge Advocate General’s investigation. You will also—”

“Mr. Conrad, Mexico has its own investigation to conduct,” Díaz retorted. “As I recall, no Mexican investigators were allowed on U.S. soil to look into the deaths of Mexican citizens at the hands of your military at Rampart One for several days, until your so-called investigators had a chance to sanitize the crime scenes so no useful evidence could be collected by our Border Affairs investigators…”

“Are you accusing the United States of destroying evidence in a criminal investigation?”

“I am telling you, Mr. Conrad, that Mexico does not, nor probably ever will, know the true reason for the deaths of our citizens at the hands of the robot working on behalf of Operation Rampart, and that is because of the unreasonable and illegal demands you placed on us,” Díaz responded bitterly. “We were not allowed to investigate or question witnesses for almost three days after the incident occurred. Now you expect Mexico to not only allow your FBI and Navy to accompany our investigators, but you
demand
that they
take over our
investigation, dismissing all Mexican law enforcement agencies like some third-rate circus-clown act? I think not!”

“Minister Díaz, I certainly did not—”

“Mr. Conrad, the Foreign Ministry here has requested permission from your Department of State to allow me free diplomatic travel within the United States, specifically to address the United Nations Security Council to air my country’s grievances concerning your arming of the border, illegal detainment of Mexican citizens, and acts of violence against Mexican citizens,” Díaz said. “I have not received the courtesy of a reply, which I find very disturbing. Is it your intention to deny me entrance into your country and full diplomatic privileges?”