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“Nahh, I’ve just got overly large Bew-tock, muscles, that’s all.”
Hunter rose as the girl, last in line, disappeared up the second bank, “Let’s go,” Hunter said.
The three Agents moved in silence up the moonlit trail, closing quickly to within sight of the aliens. The young girl made Hunter and the other agents scramble for cover as she looked back at odd times, no pattern or rhythm to it, but effectively watching the group’s backtrail without slackening their speed.
Hunter keyed her mike and whispered, “Be careful, that girl at the end of the line is muy coyote.” She heard the Pop-Pop in answer as the other Agents double-clicked their mikes. They watched as the single-file group moved through the short brush, then into the dark V-mouth of a large arroyo, following the moonlit trail like a map. Hunter worked the mike on her shoulder and said to the evening crew, “They’ve gone into Faver Draw, still following the trail. You hit ‘em when they top out and we’ll be behind, have them in the bottom, ten-four?” Hunter received a whispered affirmative, and then she looked at Joe and Gary. Their eyes were shining. She grinned, “You believe we get paid for this?”
***
The group was candy. Several men started to run when the front of the line was stopped, but they made only a few steps when three flashlights lit them up, playing their shadows over the dirt-and-gravel-banded arroyo walls. Hunter watched the girl at the end of the line. She never tried to run, but simply turned toward the lights and put her hands on her head. God, she was young.
The Agents patted the group down and found four knives, a Raven .32 revolver with handles held together by duct tape, and a razor-sharp machete in one backpack. The aliens were loaded into the Border Patrol vehicles, with the two guides separated from the others, and driven to the station.
By two A.M., the Agents were processing the group and interrogating the guides. The evening crew stayed to help out, and things moved quick and smooth. Hunter and Gary were in the privacy of a small interrogation room, talking in Spanish to the oldest of the smugglers.
“Juan,” Gary said, “tell me the truth, the real truth, of how you made the arrangements to bring these people across.”
Juan looked solemn, “I swear, my Captain, we met them at the cantina in El Mulato, and in the talk and drink of the afternoon we told them, my brother and I told them, that we were going to cross the Rio Bravo to find some work on the ranches.” He shrugged his shoulders, “They asked if they could come with us, so we told them yes. What else is one to do with friends, no matter how new?”
Hunter said, “Show me your palms.” Juan’s hands were soft and callous free. Hunter pointed at Juan’s hiking boots, unlaced and resting on the table in front of him, “These cost two hundred dollars, not two hundred pesos, Juan. Your watch,” Hunted indicated the one on the table with the thick, handmade silver and turquoise band, “Is expensive. Now, you want us to believe you were going to work on a ranch? You, with the hands of a woman, and the clothes of a rico? I think not.”
She went out the door and returned quickly, carrying a thick, official looking book. Hunter put it on the desk and opened it. She read silently a few moments, then pointed out a page to Juan as she said, “This is our law, our immigration law book. This page tells us what we can do to you for not cooperating. We can put you in jail for forty years, Juan. Two years for every person you brought across. You understand this, how serious it is?”
Juan licked his lips and looked at Gary, not Hunter. Hunter continued, “Juan, it makes no difference to me, but I think you are too old to pass forty years in a prison. I think you will die there, never seeing your family again, never seeing your wife or children. Is this something you want? Are you afraid of someone, afraid of talking about them? Amigo, you should be afraid of me!” Hunter raised her eyes above Juan’s head and caught Gary’s attention. She said to Juan, “I’m going out now, to prepare the papers to take you to prison for forty years. All you have to do is tell the truth to stop me.”
Hunter left, taking the thick book with her. Gary said, “Amigo, you can help yourself.”
“Does she mean it? Forty years? She would do that?”
“It is the law, my friend. Up to forty years.”
“Up to?”
“Yes, with cooperation, it could be less, much less. You understand?”
“She is a hard woman.”
“Of truth, she is.”
Juan sat silent for several minutes, head down, and elbows on his knees. When Juan raised his head, Gary saw it in his eyes. “My Captain,” said Juan, “Will you help me, if I tell you?”
“Yes.”
“Will you not let the woman of stone send me away?”
“When you tell the real truth,” Gary said. Juan leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and began talking.
***
Juan had cousins in Guatemala, recruiting those wishing to go to El Norte. Once a month the cousins smuggled the Guatemalans into Mexico, where Juan and his brother took them north, mingling them with the others they themselves had recruited in Mexico, mostly in the Sierra Madre. Juan charged the Guatemalans one thousand dolares apiece and the Mexicans eight hundred apiece. He took the money up front, but guaranteed the payers he would help them find employment, and, if they were caught and sent back to Mexico, he would take them across again for free. Juan also coached the Guatemalans on how to pass as Mexicans, so if caught, they would not be sent to Guatemala, but only across the border to Mexico.
When Gary asked how big his largest groups were, Juan told him, This was the largest. Juan said that most of the time he only smuggled between five and ten a month, one trip. Hunter came back in the room and Juan looked at her, then quickly at Gary. Gary told him to continue. Hunter crossed her arms and leaned against the far wall.
Juan was silent for a few seconds, and then continued, saying they weren’t allowed to bring more than ten across before.
Gary asked, “Allowed? I thought you didn’t work for anyone.”
Juan said he didn’t but that Grupo Delta told the other smugglers how many they could cross. Everyone did what Delta said because everyone wanted to stay alive.
