CHAPTER 10

As he moved through what almost seemed like a swamp, Matt could feel the mud underneath him sucking at his boots. It was slow-going and moving without a sound was nearly impossible. The rifle in his hands was raised over his head as the water, mud, and floating debris were chest deep. If he hit a low point he might well go under. There was a sound now, aside from the splashing water. He had heard it before but couldn't figure out what it was. Then there was a scream.

Houston sat up straight in the bed, the alarm on his phone going off on the bedside table. He shut it off and sat on the side of the bed for a minute and tried to clear the cobwebs from his mind. After dressing, the PI picked up the laptop and left the hotel, stopping at a nearby Burger Nerd and picking up two dozen sausage biscuits before heading to the Border Patrol office. He put on a fresh pot of coffee, and as he waited for his first dose of caffeine to brew, opened up the computer and reviewed the satellite feed and critter surveillance from overnight. Neither CJ nor Sheila had called him so Matt didn't really think he would find anything.

"Good morning." Chris walked into the office.

"How's the nose?"

"Mmph. I think I believe you now about the perfume aisle at Waldo Mart. A woman with some wild perfume got on the elevator last night as I was going up to my room. It wasn't good." He shook his head and smiled.

"Hate to say I told you so."

"Sure you do." He pointed to the computer as he sat down. "Anything new?"

"Nope." Matt poured him a cup of coffee and looked up as Jared Taylor, another member of the Homeland Security team tapped on the door and was waved in. "Want a cup?"

"Sure." The young agent gratefully took the cup. "Thanks."

"Sausage biscuits are in the bag there – help yourself." Matt tossed one to Chris and pulled one out for himself along with a package of mustard which he opened and put on top of the sausage.

"Is that a Texas thing?" Taylor gave him a grin.

"Don't know. As far back as I can remember I've been doing it." Matt put the top back on and leaned back in his chair and began eating. "So what's up?"

"Nothing that I know of…we've raised the terror alert to orange and everyone along the border has been instructed to be vigilant."

Chris took a sip of coffee. "When you're an officer working one of these checkpoints…" He waved over his shoulder, "…you can only be so vigilant. Traffic stacks up bad enough. What day is it anyway?"

"Friday." Matt wouldn't have known himself if he hadn't already checked on the laptop.

Oakley grunted. "One of the busiest days on the border."

"Think they'll try it today?" Taylor took another bite.

Shrugging, the older agent took another sip of coffee. "You never know with these guys." Matt had gotten quiet and was drinking his coffee thinking about the dream that he had awaken from that morning. His eyes were fixed on a corner of the room and both of the other men looked to see what he was watching, exchanging a look when they saw nothing. "You okay?" There was no reply. "Houston – you okay?"

Matt heard him the second time. "Huh? Yeah." He shook his head and drank more coffee as Mark Traughber came to the door and the PI waved him on in. "Mornin'. Sausage biscuit?"

"Thanks. Oh good, somebody remembered the mustard." Traughber looked around as the other three cracked up. "Something wrong?"

"Nope. Nice to know I'm not the only one with good taste." Matt reached back behind him and pulled out a foam cup and poured the sergeant a cup of coffee.

"My grandpa got me started on that." Traughber gave a chuckle. "Along with several other habits." After finishing off the biscuit and taking another one out of the bag he looked at Matt. "Any other developments?"

"Not yet. Taylor here says we're on orange."

"For all the good it does." Traughber put mustard on the sausage and looked at Oakley. "Not knocking you guys but really – it doesn't change a thing. Most of the folks around here already bust their asses everyday keeping an eye out for bad guys."

"We were just talking about that." Oakley reached for another biscuit as did Matt who applied the mustard and wiped the biscuit out in quick order as his phone rang. With a half full mouth he answered. "Mhey Mabe."

"Got your mouth full, huh?" CJ laughed. "Good – at least you're eating."

"Sorry. You caught me mid-biscuit. How're you feeling?"

"Fine. Your sons decided to let me sleep good. Catey and I were sitting here wondering what Daddy was up to this morning. Have you got time to talk to her?"

"I've always got time for my ladies." He waited and heard as she punched the speaker button. "Hey Lady Bug – whatcha doin'?"

"Daddy!" Catey Rose giggled and then began jabbering a blue streak that had her dad cracking up and he hit the speaker button in an effort to keep the others in the small office from thinking that he had lost his mind.

"Well I'm not sure I caught all of that, kiddo; but as long as you're happy I'm happy. Can you take good care of Mama for me until I get back?"

"Mama two babies." Catey laughed again. "Daddy be good. Love you."

"Love you, too, Lady Bug." Matt's face had lit up the moment that his phone had rung and he was now smiling ear to ear as CJ came back on the line.

"She's ready to go play with Tilly. Busy girl ya know. I miss you, Cowboy."

"Miss you, too. Nothing new here so far but we're hoping it will be over soon."

"Okay, call me if you need me. Love you."

"Love you, Babe. 'Bye." He hung up and a collection of "Awwwwws" was heard in the tiny office, Houston turning a bright shade of red as he discovered the rest of the team was now present. He laughed.

"So how old is she?" Taylor took the phone as Matt handed it over with a picture of CJ and Catey on it.

"I hope you mean my daughter – CJ doesn't like to talk about that." They all laughed. "Catey is almost a year old."

"Now wait a minute – didn't she say something about two babies?" Traughber looked at him.

"We, uh…" Matt chuckled. "We've got twins due in late September."

"Damn – you're not wasting any time are you?" The sergeant started laughing as wolf whistles went up from the group.

"It seems to me that's all any of you are doing." McManus had walked to the doorway and was giving everyone inside a glowering look, his left eye a particularly nasty combination of green, purple, and black. "I believe we have a job to do." He turned and headed off for the conference room.

"It's already being done, jackass…" Oakley shook his head as the rest of the group started moving in that direction.

Matt spoke up. "Tell Hitler we'll be with him in a minute." There was a burst of sudden laughter from the group and then a chorus of giggles. He stood up and walked over to close the door. "I don't know if it has anything to do with this whole mess or not…" The PI walked back over and picked up his coffee cup.

"You had a dream."

"Yeah. I was wading chest high in what looked to be a swamp…" After relating the dream to Oakley he shrugged. "I don't know. But when I woke up my hair was standing on end again."

"Alright…what do you want to do?"

"Well…Traughber is handling the river…if it's okay with you, I'll go with him and let CJ handle…what she handles. If she see's anything she'll call us."

"Okay by me. I hate to just be sitting around here on my butt." He stood and stretched. "But I guess it's best to get you and Traughber away from Hitler." Both men cracked up, Oakley wishing that he hadn't; his nose started throbbing as they went up the hall to the conference room.

As the pair entered, Houston sat down next to Traughber and looked up where McManus was scrutinizing the information on the board, his back turned to the group. After waiting a minute, the PI finally spoke to the officer in a low voice. "Are you going to be patrolling the river?"

"Yeah. I figure if we try to overlap our patrols on the water it might be best. We've only got so many boats and officers out there. Why?"

"Have you got anyone on board with you for the day?"

"No. But I think I do now, don't I?"

"If it's okay with you. I've just got a feeling that's where it's going to happen."

Traughber nodded and looked at his watch and back up at McManus who still hadn't said anything to the group that he had demanded go to the conference room. "Screw this. Let's get some work done."

"Need to make a run to my truck and I'll be right with you." The two got up and left the room. If McManus took notice he gave no indication. Matt put the laptop in its case and took it out to the truck and called CJ on the way out the door, letting her know what his plan was.

"Just be extra careful, sweetie and don't take any unnecessary chances."

"I won't. Talk to you later. Love you."

"Love you." CJ hung up and looked out to where Catey and Sheila were standing at the pasture fence petting on the horses. With the laptop propped on her ever-growing baby bump she had been watching the surveillance video continuously without seeing anything suspicious. Matt had told her about the dream and she thought about it now; his being on the river made sense if in fact the dream was related to the case. She also thought how that put him in even more danger: not only was he going to be patrolling an area where three officers had already been shot but the river itself was a danger. Wishing that she could do more than sit and watch a computer screen she went back to work.

Matt helped Traughber hook up the boat to the Border Patrol truck and secure the chains before they filled the gas tanks on it as well as the truck. The pair headed toward the World Trade International Bridge, one of four bridges that connected Laredo and Nuevo Laredo across the Rio Grande. "There's a place just north of the bridge where we can launch." Houston nodded. Traughber looked over at him. "The captain had a nice little chat with me the other day." Matt looked over at him and he grinned. "I thought I was about to get the boot." He laughed.

"Nah, he wouldn't fire you over that. Looking back on it, I really don't blame you for questioning why I was there. But I've got a feeling there's more to it than the fact that two of your co-workers were gunned down."

"Yeah…" Traughber's expression turned sad. "I trained Elena Silvio and she was my partner for a while. The lady was great out on the river and knew where every snag was and could spot trouble in a heartbeat. Best partner I ever had actually."

"I'm sorry." Matt looked over as Traughber did his best to fight back the tears that wanted to surface.

"I just want to get whoever did it."

"I do, too." The pair stayed quiet until they got to the launch site that was in sight of the busy bridge. After putting on their vests and life jackets, they launched the boat and headed upstream on the river and then after stopping to talk with another pair of officers who were patrolling the next section upstream, they turned and headed down river, stopping to talk to the other officers who were patrolling their assigned sections. No one had seen anything out of the ordinary.

By late afternoon, both men were getting restless. Matt couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to be happening soon and Traughber seemed to be on edge as well. As they headed back upstream, the Border Patrol sergeant looked over at Houston and shook his head. "We don't normally operate at night out here…but I'm sorely tempted to put in a call for…" His sentence was cut off by a loud pop and Matt felt a sharp pain in his neck that literally knocked him off of his feet and down into the bottom of the boat. Everything went dark and then started to come back slowly, sound first. He could hear Traughber radioing in for backup and a medic, then his eyes started to open and he saw as the officer got down in the floor of the boat and crawled over to where he had landed. "Houston!"

"Yeah, I'm here." Matt heard himself answer but thought everything sounded fuzzy.

"Where'd you get hit?" Traughber was searching for blood but not seeing any.

"I…" Houston shook his head trying to clear it. "I'm okay. Something hit my neck." He reached up and felt the left side of his neck as the officer looked him over.

"Damn." He moved the collar on the vest. "If you hadn't had that collar on there you'd be dead right now, man." Taking Matt's hand he raised it so the PI could feel the indentation where the bullet had hit. "And there it is." Pulling a nitrile glove out of his pocket, Mark picked up the bullet where the man could see. "You are one lucky SOB."

"Good thing I'm getting fat." Houston started to sit up and both men ducked down again as another shot was fired, this one from a boat that was now shoving off from the Mexican side. "Go!" He rolled over and grabbed the AR-15 that was leaning against the boat's console and moved up into the bow, carefully peering over the edge as Traughber shielded himself behind the console and fully engaged the throttle starting after the shooter. Shots were traded back and forth as the officers closed in on the boat, and Matt hit the boat's driver square in the chest as he turned once again to fire. He dropped to the floor of the boat which promptly ran aground on one of the small islands in the river, the propeller bogging down in the mud and the engine screaming, smoking, and then flaming up.

The passenger onboard was armed with a pistol and floundered off of the boat and ran into the trees. As Traughber nosed the patrol boat into the shoreline, Matt bounded off of the bow and took off into the trees after him.

The ground was soft and mushy from the recent heavy rains and Matt had to slow down just to keep his feet from sliding out from under him. The shooter had been wearing a woodland camouflage t-shirt, a fact that wasn't helping the PI at all in the thick tangle of vines, trees, and brush that covered the small piece of land. There's only so far he can run Matt thought to himself as he followed the man's tracks to a slough that cut through the center of the island. Squatting down, he surveyed the area on both sides and could see where the man had slid down into the soupy, nasty mess of water and weeds. Just like in my dream. Looking across he couldn't see where the shooter had climbed out so he carefully slid into the muck and began working his way toward the north, the direction that he figured the man was most likely to take. He could hear Traughber moving through the woods toward him, as he made his way along the slough remembering his dream again as he kept the rifle over his head, praying that he wouldn't find a low spot and go under. Finally, he saw a spot on the opposite bank where the man had made his way out of the slop and up onto somewhat firmer ground and the hairs on the back of his neck once again stood on end just before a shot hit the water to his left. Hugging the bank, Matt kept looking up in case the shooter came over to try his luck again when Traughber caught up to him, exchanging fire with the man. In just a few seconds Matt heard the shooter gasp as one of the Border Patrol officer's shots hit home and then he heard the sound of running and the thrashing as he took off back through the woods. This island isn't that big, he can't get far without going for a swim.

The PI climbed up onto the bank, the suction from the mud and the weight of his water-soaked clothing trying to pull him back down into the goop. He edged forward on his belly until his feet were up on the soupy ground and then got to his feet. At the edge of the woods there was a spot of blood about three inches in diameter and then a blood trail leading through the brush. As Matt started into the overgrown weeds, he heard the noise that he had heard in his dream, a sound that was a cross between a grunt and a growl. It was immediately followed by thrashing and screaming and the PI knew exactly what had happened: their shooter had encountered a feral pig. He followed the blood trail and the noise and could hear Traughber catching up with him. They worked their way into a very small clearing as the pig went right at the downed man's throat, violently shaking its head as it continued to growl. Traughber and Houston both fired at the same time, the shots echoing across the water; there was absolutely no sound aside from the wings and calls of birds as they took flight and the faint sound of approaching sirens in the distance. Cautiously, the two men closed in on the scene where both pig and man were dead, the pig's jaws locked on the shooter's throat.

Traughber lowered the rifle in his arms. "Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."