to explain why you woke me out of a deep sleep to tell me about your unofficial-official case.”
I like Jesse but no way am I sharing. I do not need my shit or Bella’s to leak any farther into the world. “My boss isn’t crazy about my informant. Raji is flakey sometimes but still good. When it comes to shit like this, he’s always spot on. It’ll make it easier if I removed myself from the chain on this one.”
He’s about to say something else when someone speaks over the radio. “How many agents do you have out there, boss?”
Jesse picks up the radio and pushes the button. “Ten on my side. Why?”
“I’m showing a whole lot more red dots on the thermal cameras.”
Jesse looks at me and frowns, but speaks into the radio. “How many more?”
“Double at least, maybe three times. When I scan out, I keep counting.”
“What the fuck?” I ask.
“Are they moving?” Jesse asks.
“Negative. Could be a forestry party of bears and moose, but I doubt it. I think we’ve got company on our side.”
“Shit,” Jesse mutters, picking up the radio to call his Border agents. “We’ve got company interspersed in the woods on our side. I have no idea who they are.”
“National Defense to Homeland,” the radio scratches. “We’ve got three bodies moving through the woods heading southeast.”
Jesse speaks into the radio. “How far out and can you tell where they’re headed? Give me their coordinates.”
The Canadian rattles off a slew of numbers and Jesse enters them into his phone. “If they stay the course, we’re not far off.”
“Not far seems far when we have company.” I holster my Glock. “This isn’t good—couldn’t be any more opposite than working off an op plan.”
“Welcome to enforcement, Mr. Intelligence,” Jesse quips as he inserts an earpiece and climbs out of the car.
“You have one of those for me? Or some night vision goggles?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “Sorry. I don’t exactly have a tech room at home and you gave me no time to run by the office.”
I guess I’m going in blind. I hate not being in charge. I follow as Jesse coordinates with his Border agents. We move to the edge of the tree line, only a wire fence separating the two countries, with Canada a few yards away. I know the agents are at our backs but so are a bunch of strangers.
Jesse presses his finger to his ear and motions to me. I unholster my gun and we move south through the forest, trudging over ground cover, brush, and weeds, which I am not dressed for.
“What the fuck?” Jesse mutters under his breath and his eyes dart to me. “How many?”
“What?” I mouth.
Jesse presses a button on his earpiece and responds, “Please tell me they know we’re here.” He waits for an answer and motions to the woods behind us. “DEA. Looks like your case collided with theirs. But at least they’re on our side, as long as we don’t get caught in the middle. They know we’re here.”
The next few seconds happen too fast. Jesse and I are chests to the earth when it happens.
One moment there are only sounds of the forest—bugs, a few birds who want to catch the first worm, leaves rustling in the night breeze.
Then, like a bulldozer, feet hit the earth, branches crack and break, and low voices mutter through the humid, pre-dawn air.
Feet hitting the earth is an understatement. The sounds turn into a stampede. The Royal Mounted Police have appeared out of nowhere on the other side of the wire fence.
Voices in two languages bellow through the air. Shouts come from behind us, announcing the presence of the Drug Enforcement Administration and Border Patrol.
About ten feet to our right, two men appear from the darkness and do what they can to get through the fence. The barbed wire catches their clothes and skin but they keep pushing through with the galloping beasts approaching.
One guy doesn’t take on the barbed wire. He stops and juts his arms in the air, yelling in English to stop, he’s giving up, and begging for his life. This only adds to the commotion of the two tearing through the fence, the DEA, the mounted police, patrol agents, and Jesse and me.
A mounted officer arrives and takes down the one on the Canadian side while the other two are yelling in another language—I think Persian, one of the few Middle Eastern languages I’m not fluent in.