True Allegiance

That was just the first attack of the morning. Over the next two hours, Texas National Guard attack helicopters would raze several buildings and strafe a small convoy of vehicles attempting to escape. The concentration of troops on the border made it nearly impossible for the cartels to try any cross-border action, and Ellen had ensured antiaircraft ordinance availability should any unforeseen black helicopters attempt to land on the American side of the border again.

That night was quiet—the quietest it had been for months.

The next day, though, residents of El Paso woke to a terrifying sight: a National Guardsman hanging dead from a billboard in the center of town. Painted in broad block letters were the words “PLATA O PLOMO”— silver or lead. In other words, pay us, or die.

Governor Davis wasn’t in the mood to pay.

He ordered an immediate full-scale investigation, and he put Ellen in charge. She knew that nobody had crossed the border after the Texas National Guard incursions. That meant that the cartel had agents on the American side of the border.

For years, there had been rumors of significant drug cartel inroads into the city. Not just the civilian infrastructure—the city government. Just a few months earlier, nine former law enforcement officers were convicted on federal drug charges. The attorney general had said, “This creeping corruption resembles third-world country practices that erode the social fabric of our communities.”

Drugs, money, corruption. The triangle couldn’t be broken. And so the cartels had honeycombed their way through the force, using people with access to the border to work across the border.

Ellen acted swiftly, placing National Guard troops in the local police centers, increasing security along the border. Within hours, the Border Patrol had caught two men attempting to flee into Mexico. After questioning, Ellen had them detained indefinitely pending further investigation into their activities the night of the hanging. And she redoubled deployments to the border to stop any further infiltrations and deter any attempts by collaborators to escape into Mexico.

All of it was good policy. None of it made for good pictures on front pages around the country. And Ellen was stunned by the magnitude of the coverage.

The media coverage exploded with a protest on the other side of the Rio Grande: nothing but women and children. As the sun came up, at least a hundred women stood, carrying toddlers and babies, waving their hands and screaming for the National Guard to let them cross. The National Guardsmen stood their ground. They didn’t point their weapons—Ellen and Davis had agreed there would be no such activity, for both moral and media reasons—but they looked threatening enough in their uniforms, young, strong, square-jawed. The cameras zoomed in on their impassive faces, contrasting them with the tear-stained faces of young children standing in the heat of the day.

It wasn’t hard to gather who had tipped off the cameras: one of the biggest magnates in Mexico owned several major media outlets in the United States. Ellen wasn’t surprised at the number of cameras showing up—obviously, this was a big story. Still, she resented the intrusion: there had been zero cameras for the murdered National Guardsman, but get a few dozen crying women on the border with their kids, and the media had a field day.

The cameras eventually found their way to Ellen for comment. “We will maintain the security of the people of Texas,” she said. “Our immigration services have not screened any of the people out there. We’re sure most of them are wonderful people who want to come here and work and build a life without taxpayer help, but we simply don’t know who they are, and without screening them, we’re not going to open our borders to anyone who wants to cross. We have the body of a National Guardsman hanging from a billboard that tells the story of what we get when we don’t check those who cross the border.”

The headlines hit almost immediately: “Texas Governor’s Top Aide Says Immigrant Women, Children Pose Security Threat.” Ellen could have slapped herself—she should have known better than to give them any material they could misuse. Then again, what material wouldn’t they have misused? She vowed to ignore any calls coming from a media number.