Chapter 21 of the R.M. Dolin novel, "Trophic Cascade"
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Albuquerque Metro PD arrive on scene to find a dead man covered in tattoos lying face down on the side of the road. Moments earlier, Miguel reached into his boot, pulled out a long-bladed hunting knife, and cut the hand of the dead man off so he and his interlocked accomplices could be free. The three handcuffed villains then worked their way across the open field to the utility service road, then followed the drainage ditch back to the Hacienda. There they found the craftly concealed tunnel entrance leading into the vault in the northwest corner of the crawlspace Ramon converted to a hidden basement. In the moments Ramon earlier had to prepare for the SWAT raid, he emptied the main part of the house of drugs, money, and guns just tossing stuff in SUVs. He instructed all personnel to evacuate because the authorities would catalog everyone found on site, and once in the system, his men would be less effective.
Ramon remained but locked in the vault that connects to the escape tunnel, so he didn’t risk getting picked up by police in cars filled with contraband but also didn’t risk being on site should investigators find something his men left behind. If the officials found his hidden basement and locked vault, he’d slip away through the escape tunnel but would otherwise hold up until things quiet down. The decision to send Sympatico was necessary, left here and found would mean life in prison. If Miguel were to get stopped, no one would suspect Sympatico was anything other than a passed-out party girl. Ramon was not prepared for the news Miguel was returning.
Dario’s team ditches the black SUV beside the car they earlier left near the Hacienda; Jake, Sympatico, and Chance take the car, while Dario, Calvin, and Michael returned the fake police car to storage before reconvening at Marcos’ house. The roadblock teams operate their traffic scam long enough to detain the three contraband SUVs for a visual search using flashlights with built in cameras, and a light duty X-ray imaging that can scan for hidden compartments. If they had time to prepare, they could have considered ways to alert law enforcement about the contraband laden SUVs, but that’s not their priority, and they’re already amassing risk just running the roadblocks. They do, however, attach tracking devices to each SUV to keep track of where they go.
The ANA are collectively in shock someone got killed; they knew it was possible, but still, no one really expects it to happen. Dario, who should be the most affected, seems coldly detached, but then again, he has a history of internalizing trauma only to have it later reemerge in unfortunate ways. Jake puts Sympatico to bed as soon as they arrive at Marco’s house, he dresses her in the extra polo shirt he carries in his backpack during festivals. Dario treated her wounds but there’s nothing he can do for bruises, and nothing anyone can do for her emotional trauma.
Armando volunteers to reopen the wine tent tomorrow down one server. Instead, Jake says he’s going to collect his stuff and close down the tent; that is until Marcos points out that closing the tent might seem suspicious and only further Alvarez’s thinking the ANA is connected to whatever he’s here to stop. This leaves Jake in with a Sophia’s Choice; does he risk leaving Sympatico’s side to be at the wine fiesta, or risk Alvarez’s suspicions by closing down. When Preston volunteers to be bar-back and Dario and Chance press Jake to open, he agrees to finish out the fiesta; reopening without him is as normal as things can get.
It’s agreed that once everyone leaves Marcos’ house, they can’t return. Who knows who’s being followed and they don’t want any trails leading back because now it seems they have threats from both Ramon and Alvarez. Once the fiesta’s over on Monday evening, they’ll load everything up and Chance will drive the trailer back home leaving it loaded until Jake gets there in a few days later. In the meantime, Marcos and Jake will work up plans for their next move and for how best to keep Sympatico safe, a task Jake feels he has repeatedly failed miserably to this point.
By morning, the only three people at Marcos’ house are Sympatico, Jake, and of course Marcos. It isn’t until well past noon that Sympatico wakes, not knowing where she is. Slowly, she pieces things together, the familiar sound of Jake’s voice means her rescue wasn’t a dream. When she tries getting up, she realizes she’s wearing one of Jake’s shirts, and nothing more. The coupled pain of movement confirms she’s not in a dream. When she comes out in Jake’s shirt and towel wrapped around her waist, Jake’s so happy to see her up and moving, he rushes over to give her hug. “I’m so glad you’re alright, you are alright, right?”
“Si,” Sympatico says breaking their hug. “I am so sorry I cause so many problems.” She tries to laugh but can’t, her swollen lips won’t move that way. “It’s bad enough dogs don’t like me, but monsters worse than dogs don’t either.”
“I’m the one who’s sorry, I should have protected you better and never let you out of my sight. But we got you back, that’s what matters.” He smiles hoping that can help and when she sort of smiles back, his first thought is, ‘at least things are not as bad as Cinco de Mayo,’ for which he immediately berates himself for thinking so cavalier.
Marcos rushes out of the house, but quickly returns with a plastic bag, “My nice dropped these off,” he says handing her the bag. “They should fit, but I’m not responsible for the style. I’ll whip up some lunch while you dress, I make a mean batch of enchiladas.” Marcos hops into the kitchen to get started, leaving an awkwardness between Sympatico and Jake who’s just staring at her grinning. “I should go get dressed,” she says taking a step back, but all Jake does is stand there grinning. “Thank you again,” she offers not knowing what to say. “Things were not going to end well for me if you didn’t come when you did.”
Jake manages to break away from his happiness. “You don’t ever have to be afraid again, by week’s end, Miguel and Ramon will be safely tucked away in federal prison; not sure how, but I promise they will. And their organization will be dissolved.”
‘If only you could know,’ Sympatico thinks, ‘if only I could tell you. Ramon is only a tool of the demon. Ridding the world of him does nothing to save me.’
Ramon spends the night in his secret lair but comes out when his crew text him the cops didn’t find anything criminal in their raid. The following morning a police captain apologizes for falsely storming the compound. He plays the 911 call to justify his overreaction, which even Ramon has to admit, is very convincing. Hearing the recording confirms someone set him up, and based on what transpired, it has to be Jake and that crew who foolishly confronted him at the fiesta. Ramon graciously agrees with the captain that had he been home, much of the misunderstanding could have been avoided, especially since he’s convinced what the 911 caller heard, were kids shooting off fireworks in the drainage ditch, “they do it all the time,” Ramon tells him. Unfortunately, even though the police have cleared him, he can’t really risk bringing his contraband home, so for now, Albuquerque operations are run out of his warehouse. Once things are back to normal, he’ll head north with Miguel to get Isabella and deal with Jake in forever terms.
It’s midweek when Jake returns home. He waits in part to give Sympatico time to heal, in part to give Dario and Chance time to fortify his property, and in part so he and Marcos can launch their cyber-strike to bring Ramon and his operation down or good. While Sympatico still looks like hell, she’s coming around faster than last time, which Jake incorrectly assumes means she believes her nightmare’s ending soon. Ironically, what it really means is she’s given up hope her nightmare can ever be over and all that’s left is to wait for the inevitable, and for that, she’s made her peace.
With Preston’s help, Dario and Chance beef up the perimeter until it’s as secure as a super max prison. In addition to early warning motion detectors and cameras previously positioned in strategic locations, they added snares and traps that are benign to animals and Quandos, but activate when a perceived threat is confirmed. These new features are not so much meant to capture intruders, but to confuse and frustrate them long enough for law enforcement to arrive. Another feature just installed is a multiply redundant sets of solar powered batteries to act as backup should intruders cut power as a means of thwarting security. The entire network of security devices are connected via a Bluetooth mesh with virtually no way to bypass or defeat the system. Dario’s cousin came by with Hector and the rest of his crew to quickly build a panic room, Hector was adamant that Theresa couldn’t return to work until after the room is finished.
Padre stops by shortly after Jake returns, mostly to find out if he and his cohorts had anything to do with the guy who got shot and had his hand cut off. While Jake’s elegantly elusive, he nonetheless gets the feeling Padre always knows the answer to every question he asks. In addition to gathering gossip, Padre offers Brother Bob’s services, since Bob’s to be live-in security at the Halfway House and the house isn’t ready, he’s available for short-term service. Jake appreciates the offer, and clearly having someone like Bob close is an asset, but they cannot involve anyone new so close to launching what is likely to be a significantly risky operation. Besides, with Calvin and Michael here until this mess is over, he has sufficient operational assets.
After Operation Rescue ended and everyone rendezvoused at Marcos’ house, they agreed not to all gather again until after Operation Take-Down’s over. Jake’s coordinating his team’s activities with Marcos’s spearheading team Sandia stuff. Operation Take-Down involves a two-prong approach; one prong’s a rescue operation to free the captive girls and get them to Padre’s halfway house. The other prong involves the more complex task of tearing down Ramon’s operation in a way in which it can’t be rebuilt, while making sure Ramon and Miguel are permanently removed from the field. At a high level the rescue phase is similar to Operation Rescue, beings it’s based on a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy. They know about Miguel’s safe house, but what they don’t yet know, is how to create a situation at the ranch that necessitates Miguel taking the girls there while leaving his crew behind at the ranch.
Per their previous path forward, the ANA are confident a plan will present itself at the opportune moment. They’re most certain about their ability to dismantle Ramon’s network, because it’s theater of operation is in cyberspace. There’s disagreement within the ranks, however, about whether or not to involve Alvarez. Half the ANA think it too risky, and the other half believe it’s the best way to throw Alvarez off their scent. The team favoring involving Alvarez is gaining momentum, especially after the Sandia crew learn he’s reviewing Sandia employee personnel files. For the moment, Preston and Dominic are finalizing their cyber-plan, which they intend to present based on a strategy involving Alvarez.
Jake informed Hector the Mexican Underground needs to be ready to do their part, but that nothing should be said until after the girls are safely at the halfway house. He assures Jake his guys are far more willing to help than even he imagined and that contacts have already been made in Mexico and Central America to facilitate safe passage. He estimates it will cost between five and ten thousand dollars per girl to get them safely home but hesitantly mentioned that if more funds could be found, it would be nice to have something to give each girl to help them restart their life. Jake agrees to talk with Padre about the extra money even though Jon’s already secured the additional funds.
With Jake’s team gathered at the Al Azar under the pretense of poker, and the Sandia team at Marcos’ house under the pretense of watching Premier League Soccer, the coordinated session of the ANA begins. Most key variables and parameters guiding Operation Take-Down are quickly hammered out. For example, it’s agreed Dari’s to lead the rescue phase, joined by Chance, Calvin, and Michael. Armando will provide logistical support and work out any kinks that might pop up with local law enforcement. Everyone understands this is the only team that’ll come in direct contact with Ramon’s forces and, given what happened at the last rescue, apprehensions run high. Individually, some members worry Dario might be trigger happy, even while acknowledging he’s the best man for the job.
Preston’s tasked with coordinating all cyber-warfare activities, which are comprised of multiple teams broken down based on responsibilities and areas of expertise. Each team only consists of one, and in a couple of cases, two members, but felt calling themselves ‘teams‘ provided a paramilitary stature. Like a symphony conductor, Preston’s responsibility as lead coordinator is ensuring the timing of each activity meshes with other team efforts to ensure the overall schedule is not jeopardized. Marcos is leading efforts to feed Alvarez cyber-crumbs at the right time in the proper direction. Dominic’s hacking into Homeland Security to plant evidence against Ramon and Miguel; he’ll implicate politicians known to be dirty to provide tasty distractions for Alvarez. Jon’s bringing multiple law enforcement agencies into the fray at precise moments. It requires careful coordination with both ANA crews.
An overriding control constraint for the rescue mission is not to harm anyone or in any way endanger the girls. Even Dario’s on board, but mostly because he believes Miguel hasn’t earned the right to simply die, he needs to suffer a long and painful federal prison existence as somebody’s bitch. Due to excellent work by the Sandia crew, they’ve uncovered most of Ramon’s Albuquerque operations. Their break came at the roadblocks during Operation Rescue when they placed GPS trackers on each of the contraband SUVs. From there they tracked movements to Ramon’s warehouse, his west side safe house, the entertainment venue near Sandia Casino, and a south valley chop-shop. They deployed a sophisticated neural-net tracking tool to identify Ramon’s associates used at NSA but developed by them during the Mind’s Eye Project.
Using information gathered about Ramon’s Albuquerque operation allows them to broaden the rescue mission to include the girls kept in Albuquerque, but as the revised rescue plan is presented, the meeting devolves into partisan chaos. Once order is restored, they decide, for logistical and legal reasons, to just call in an ICE raid to rescue the Albuquerque girls. The winning argument is once Ramon’s arrested, the girls will be safe in ICE custody. To say Jake’s opposed, or that he’s the only one opposed, does not do justice to canonical words like oppose. A far fairer rendering would be to say that Jake stands in near violent, opposition to just, “phoning it in,” as he argues. He feels a deep obligation to the girls that perhaps the others do not, but every time he offers a reason for why they have to do the rescue themselves, other members coldly point out compelling logical reasons why it’s better to let ICE do the heavy lifting.
For example, when Jake argues ICE will deport them, Marcos counters by pointing out that’s what they’re doing with the girls at the Ranch, only ICE will do it with multi-nation police protection. When Jake argues they can get the girls home faster, Jon points out that their testimony may be needed to build a case against the Ramon syndicate. Jake’s still hot when the meeting ends, and feels his friends betrayed him, and by extension, Sympatico. It isn’t until he attempts to explain his failure to her that she points out how thrilled the girls will be when ICE rescues them, how they collectively dream ICE will someday come to their rescue. She explains that in their greatest nightmares, they can’t understand why ICE never comes. That diffuses his anger somewhat but does little to reduce the bitter sense of betrayal he feels.
The plan is to act quickly, tonight in fact. They know from the Tracker App and social networking tool that both Miguel and Ramon are at the Ranch and probably plotting some kind of attack on them. Sympatico intends on telling Jake the entire story about why Ramon’s so desperate to get her as soon as he comes home, but when he arrives angry and upset, she just can’t. It can wait, she decides, especially since knowing has the same impact as not knowing, and there’ll be time afterwords to come clean. She knows nothing about what Jake and his friends are planning, but knows they’re going after Miguel and Ramon, that it’ll happen tonight, and it’s almost dark.
Technically, Operation Take-Down began on Cinco de Mayo when a Bolivian woman trafficked for sex dared to escape her captures and storm in to the Al Azar on the coattails of fate. The operation was sanctioned when Jake won the woman in a high-stakes poker game, and took form when Miguel demanded her back. Things ticked up a notch when Marcos released the Tracker App his crew developed to test their ability to infiltrate law enforcement data bases. The operation solidified when the ANA set aside their subversive ambitions to execute a ‘virtual coup,‘ in order to stop Oligarchs hell bent on destroying the nation. The operation became more than fantastic hyperbole, when Ramon abducted Sympatico, and Dario killed Ramon’s henchman getting her back. Fate is at best a fickle foe who places good men on a path that’s culminate shortly; however, fate intends. Sympatico knows that, as do each ANA member preparing for conflict. In life you can be a victim of fate, a purveyor of fate’s opportunities, or someone who accepts what fate puts before you while deferring outcomes until you’ve had your chance to respond. Tonight, the ANA respond.
At exactly 9:26 PM, Mountain Standard Time (MST), Operation Take-Down formally begins. Marcos and Jon use their team’s ability to manipulate law enforcement networks to coordinate a raid on Ramon’s Albuquerque warehouse with one of Ramon’s men eluding capture long enough to warn Ramon. At the same time, multiple search warrants on the Hacienda are executed based on testimony that an underground network of vaults, dungeons, and tunnels are being used for drugs, weapons, and human trafficking. News of the Hacienda raid is just reaching Ramon when his ICE informant texts. Understanding his entire operation is under siege, he immediately directs Miguel to shut down Ranch operations and get the girls to the safe house. Meanwhile he hurriedly briefs Diaz back in Mexico and instructs the rest of his men to scatter. Ramon’s contingency plan is to take the back way over the Sangre’s to Pecos. From there he’ll make his way to Las Vegas where an unregistered Cessna Citation is waiting to shuttle him across the border. Dario and his team, who hours ago got into strategic positions around the Ranch, report back that Phase One is complete.
Preston directs Dominic to go live with the evidence he’s planted on DHS data bases, triggering a set of protocols Alvarez put in place to inform him about any law enforcement activity at the Ranch. He immediately dispatches FBI agents and according to Preston’s timetable, Dario’s crew has ninety-eight minutes to do their thing and get out. Dario’s first task is to slip down to the now abandoned ranch-house and plant evidence tying powerful members of the oligarchy to the trafficking of under-aged minors’ so that once they get back to their virtual coop, they have indictments ready to roll. The evidence includes a client book, accountant logs, and links to several unsolved crimes in the greater Santa Fe and Taos area. His second task is to get the girls and get out before FBI arrive.
Jake, Dwayne, and Theo help Preston run ops from the command center set up in Jake’s courtyard. They monitor the movements of the three SUVs that just left the Ranch. Two of the vehicles went down the main road toward Santa Fe, while the other headed deeper into the Sangre’s toward Pecos. Jake waits for the two SUVs to clear Pueblo property before signaling Armando to move in with his passenger van. He then informs Marcos it’s time to guide state troopers to the SUVs. Alvarez is buzzing up I-25 with two FBI agents when he receives a DHS bulletin concerning a Cessna Citation with Panama registration filing a flight plan from Las Vegas, New Mexico to Vera Cruz, Mexico with a scheduled departure time of 11:15, just over an hour from now. Breaking away from the other two FBI vehicles, Alvarez and his team proceeded toward Las Vegas knowing they have to hurry. At the same time, he scrambles the State Police Chopper with instructions to hold back until his signal.
Miguel has two additional men helping him herd twenty girls to the safe house. He isn’t pushing too hard, mostly because these girls are not used to mountain trails and in the dark it’s hard to keep tabs on everyone unless you go slow. Besides, there’s no reason to hurry, having cleared the ranch no one’s gonna pursue. It doesn’t take Dario and his team long to catch up to Miguel’s group who are stretched out in a single file line, which is all the narrow trail permits. Miguel’s in the middle of the column, with one of his men in the lead and the other in the rear. It’s easy for Calvin and Michael to overpower the rear guards, at which time Dario and Chance start peeling girls back one by one, each time assuring them they’re here to help. It doesn’t take Miguel long to realize there’s no one behind him anymore. Assuming the girls had to stop for something he waits for them to catch up, but after a few minutes, he starts back down the trail to investigate. The last thing he remembers prior to waking up handcuffed and blindfolded is something striking the back of his head. Immediately after Calvin cold-cocks Miguel; Dario and Chance return to plucking girls off the back of the line, which provides Michael time to get the drop on the lead man. With Miguel and his men cuffed and blindfolded, they’re escorted back to the ranch and handcuffed to each other around a tree as a present for Alvarez and the FBI.
Dario makes his way to the road with the girls, many of whom remain uncertain he’s really here to help, but anything’s better than being controlled by Miguel. Armando arrives with the passenger bus he borrowed from his cousin who runs a white-water rafting company in Taos. Once the girls are loaded, he and Dario move quickly to get down the mountain before FBI agents start up and according to Preston’s timeline, it’s going to be close. Preston directs Chance, Calvin, and Michael to take up strategic positions above the Ranch and keep tabs on FBI activity once they arrive. As soon as Jake gets word that Armando’s on his way to Padre’s halfway house, he wakes Sympatico, who wasn’t really sleeping, and together they drive to Our Lady of Perpetual Sympatico. Jake’s not looking forward to his impending conversation with Padre about what he and Armando are doing with a bus load of human trafficking victims in the middle of the night, but then again, he’s somewhat certain Padre won’t be asking too many questions, especially given Padre never asked how he got Sympatico back after she was abducted.
