The Watchman of Ephraim (Book Club Edition) (35 page)

“
Sir, what’s going on?”

He motioned for William to follow him to his study.

“
Mugsy just informed me that there’s been a security breach in The Watchman’s computer system. Someone was looking at the GPS transponder frequencies of the boys and me! Stay with me while I call him back!”

De Niro hit an auto-dial button on his home phone and placed the call on speaker. As the call connected, Mugsy, Johnny-F and Michelle Wang appeared on the plasma screen, all looking very concerned.

“
Okay, I wanted William here. We threw all the cells and laptops into the pool, now will someone please tell us what’s going on … why the urgency?!”

Ricci: “Just after John and Michelle came to me with what they found, Charley called, Cris. There’s been a major breach down there. It started before dawn. They’re estimating hundreds have illegally crossed the border, some on horseback and they’re armed and dangerous. They’ve already murdered one border patrol agent via a sniper round and they downed a DHS Blackhawk chopper. It has to be what we’ve been waiting for. This has to have something to do with what Les was part of!”

De Niro shot a concerned look at William.

“
Okay … but even if Les had something to do with what’s going on down there … what does that have to do with my boys and me?”

Wang: “We don’t know for sure, Cris, but what we do know is that the last time Les looked up a transponder frequency, Agent Garcia ended up dead. We just—“

“
Michelle, hold on …”

De Niro was looking up at a security monitor next to the main screen.

“
William, what happened to the camera at the main gate?”

William rushed to the controls for the monitor and fiddled with them as De Niro bolted to his security panel. Before he got to it all the power went off in the house including to the security system. De Niro turned and saw that the screen went dead.

“
Mugsy … Mugsy!”

De Niro turned the speakerphone off and picked up the receiver.

“
William, the phone’s dead too!”

“
Sir, listen!”

They started to hear the sound of multiple vehicles in the distance.

“
I think we have company!”

“
We have to get the boys and get out of the house NOW! We can bring them to the Coyote’s Den!”

“
Sir, you go get the boys. I’m too old to run. I’ll try to stall them for as long as I can.”

“
William, no—“

Both men heard the sounds of tires crunching rocks coming from the far end of their long driveway.

“
There’s no time to argue sir! Please, go quickly!”

De Niro grabbed William by his shoulders and wordlessly expressed his gratitude then took off up the stairs. He ran into Louis’s room. Both boys were sleeping together in his bed.

“
Guys, wake up!”

The boys opened their eyes but were groggy.

“
Just put your sneakers on, no questions, we have to go NOW!”

De Niro looked out Louis’s bedroom window. His heart raced with terror as he saw three black, Lincoln SUV’s coming around the circular driveway, all with no headlights.

Running the whole way, De Niro led the boys down the stairs, out the back door and down the path to the guest house. He punched the number code into the electronic front door lock and shuffled the boys into the house. Once inside, he ran upstairs alone and burst into the master bedroom.

“
Moriah you have to get up!”

Moriah opened her eyes. De Niro could see that she cried herself to sleep.

“
Cris, what are you—“

“
Moriah, there’s no time. Intruders broke into the main house. I need you to take the boys to a secure place I have on the ranch. The boys know the way!”

Moriah was sleeping in pajama bottoms and a t-shirt. She slipped her feet into her sneakers and took off down the stairs behind De Niro.

“
Okay, first we have to make it to the stables. Then Richard, you show Moriah where the Coyote’s Den is. You remember where it is, right?”

Richard nodded, “I think so, Daddy.”

“
Good. I want all three of you to get inside the Den and close the doors behind you. Richard knows how… and you DON’T open those doors for anyone, do you understand?!”

The boys nodded their heads.

De Niro led the three down the long dirt path and to the stables. He pushed them all into the brush when he heard noises coming from it.

Putting his index finger to his lips, he whispered, “Someone’s over there. You three stay here! I’m gonna take a look.”

Moriah grabbed his arm.

“
Cris wait, let me go with you! Boys you stay—“

De Niro grabbed her by her shoulders. They locked their eyes on one another. Tears started falling from Moriah’s.

“
Moriah, please, stay with my boys! Don’t leave them for a moment! Can I trust you to do that?”

Moriah nodded her head then threw her arms around him and whispered into his ear.

“
I love you!”

De Niro pushed back from her and looked into her eyes then he took her in his arms and hugged her.

Out of the darkness, a voice called out from the stables.

(In Spanish) “Mr. De Niro, is that you?”

It was Martin Fierro pointing a shotgun at them.

Everyone stood up.

De Niro replied in Spanish, “Martin, I should have known it was you. We have a problem!”

Fierro lowered his weapon and switched to broken English.

“
Si señor, the alarm system, it's dead. I coming to tell you about it.”

“
Moriah … boys, saddle up …! Martin, we have intruders at the main house and William is still there! There were three SUV’s so there could be as many as 20 men out there!”

De Niro motioned for his Head Gaucho to step to a corner with him. He switched to Spanish.

“
Martin, these men are professionals, do you understand?”

“
Yes.”

“
They’re here to either kidnap me and the boys … or to kill us. I’m not sure which. I’m having the boys lead Moriah to a safe place I have—“

“
Yes sir, the place with the doors in the ground. I came across while I exercise the horses.”

De Niro had to smile even through his tension.

“
I should have known better than to think I could hide something on this ranch from you.”

“
Yes sir.”

Moriah and the boys mounted their horses. De Niro walked over to them.

“
Go now and don’t even as much as look back!”

“…
But Daddy, what about you?” Louis asked with tear-filled eyes.

“
We can stay and help you!” Richard added, tears in his too.

De Niro walked between their horses and took both of their hands in his.

“
I need you two to be brave now. We each have to accomplish our missions. Your mission is to get Moriah to the Coyote’s Den. Daddy and Martin will be okay.”

He walked up next to Moriah and squeezed her hand.

“
You have to make it to the place the boys will take you to … it’s about 10 miles from here. Stick to the trails. You’ll be safe once you’re inside!”

The boys took off down the path but she lingered for a moment.

“
Be careful, Cris!”

She kicked JoJo’s sides and took off in a gallop, not waiting for a reply.

Martin approached De Niro now carrying two Winchester Model 1895 Centennial High Grade
³⁰
rifles. He handed one to him.

(In English) “Thanks Martin. Listen, you don’t have to come with me. I need to go and try and get William.”

“
Sir, we wasting time …!”

The leather-faced man pulled out his walkie-talkie phone and hit the transmit button.

(In Spanish) “Concho, its Martin, wake up!”

After a moment, Concho’s voice crackled out.

“
Martin, what the hell—“

“
Shut up and get up … and I want you to wake everyone else up too. Tell them we have intruders at the main house and tell them to get dressed and break out the rifles … but tell everyone to do NOTHING until you hear from me and Mr. De Niro, understand?”

“
Yes sir.”

De Niro gave Fierro a quick Italian-style hug.

“
Muchas Gracias, Martin …”

* * * * *

Ricci banged his fist on the conference table, “What do you mean dead?”

“
I mean the line went dead and we can’t get them back on the phone, it just keeps ringing! His answering machine is part of his phone system and it didn’t kick in. The only thing that could have caused that is a power outage … but the battery backup in the phone system should have kicked in then!” Johnny-F replied.

Ricci’s patience was at an end.

“
John, what the hell are you saying?!”

The computer genius thought a moment.

“
His phone line must be down AND the power must have gone out in his house. That’s the best I can think of.”

Ricci blinked, showing just a touch of fear.
My sister and now her boys!

“
Michelle, contact the Henderson, Nevada police department. Tell them … tell them we think something may have happened to my brother-in-law, that we got disconnected. Tell them anything, but get them to send people out to the ranch now!”

Johnny-F called over to him, “Mugs, check this out on Fox News!”

He walked over and looked up at the screen. A reporter was standing in front of the wreckage of the downed Blackhawk, reporting on how it apparently crashed while investigating a report of a mass illegal border crossing.

Michelle got off the phone.

“
Mugs, Henderson police put me on hold and tried to reach the house. They didn’t get through either but then they contacted the phone company and they were told the whole area near Cris’s home is down. The duty officer told me it’s probably nothing to worry about but after I threatened to have the Homeland Director contact his captain, he finally agreed to send a unit to the ranch to investigate.”

“
... A single unit?”
This is unbelievable!

Chapter 32

Ridgeline approximately 1 mile northeast of town

Tubac, AZ

10:00a.m., Sunday, September 11, 2011

Ahiga, Santappia and the members of ARCHANGEL reached the location that Ahiga told them about. They were perched on the northern edge of a ridgeline that stretched for about three miles south. All the men laid low while Ahiga and Santappia used their binoculars to scan the path at the bottom of the ravine below them. The sun had risen a few hours before and already the temperatures were climbing. Ahiga had positioned the rest of the Shadow Wolves about midway down the ridgeline, stringing them out about ½ mile south of their position.

Santappia took a swig from his canteen then handed it to Shadow Wolf-1.

“
We haven’t heard from your men, Bryan.”

Ahiga took the canteen from him and took a long pull from it.

“
That’s not unusual, Charley. Shadow Wolves don’t usually use their radios unless they spot something.”

He exhaled in frustration as he put his binoculars back to his eyes.

“
The truth is, on horseback, if that group was heading this way, they should have reached us by now. I don’t understand it though. This pass is miles long and they were heading right for it. They should have—“