Chapter 2.2

It was nearly midnight by the time she finally entered her motel room and tossed her bags on the bed. The rest of the morning had been tied up with setting up the command center in city hall, followed immediately by a conference call with her boss, the Cochise County Sheriff, the Douglas Police Chief, and the directors for the FBI, ATF, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. At one point as they were all coming on line a fear the President himself would be on the line struck her. Fortunately the President would get his report from the rest of in attendance, at least for now. The city mayor and several others paced outside waiting for any information that would answer their questions. At the time she did not have time for them. Video footage was reviewed along with forensic evidence that had so far been collected. A public statement calling the incident a criminal attack by Mexican Cartels was to be issued to the press. They of course left out the part that they had not yet been found, nor the fact they never left the country.

After the conference call had concluded, she and McCormick had driven out to the demolished Port of Entry to look at the scene. It was worse to look at in person then via videotape. Glass and metal shards were still strewn about the ground, and the chalk outline of where Officer Armando Lopez was found still surrounded the red stain from the blood loss that eventually took his life. Looking down the paved road across the border, cars could be seen lined up and people milling about. The Mexican Media was easy to spot from all the lights they had, centered on the reporters taping feeds for the populace to watch. It was one of the reasons a public statement was finally agreed upon. While the U.S. Government could keep them out of the country, they could not force a media black out in another.

The two of them finally left the scene and grabbed some fast food on their way back to the make shift command center where they made sure they were up to date, filed their reports, then finally headed to the motel they would be staying at. Now she fell on the bed too tired to take her clothes off but to full of adrenaline to go to sleep. She continued staring up at the ceiling going over everything she had seen and heard that day. Questions hammered away at her mind as she reflected over it all. Why the attack? What happened to the missing civilians? More importantly how do you lose an all black semi with a pirate flag in the middle of nowhere? Finally her eyes could no longer keep up with her brain and closed. Images of destruction were eventually replaced with the nothingness of sleep.