Two weeks later the story was still the lead on every net-work news program and on the front page of all the big newspapers. The cable news channels basically ran the story all day. New revelations kept coming out that added fuel to the fire.
Without knowing who else in the government was in on the conspiracy-and that is exactly what he thought of it as, a conspiracy to help the Sinaloa cartel smuggle tons of co-caine, heroin, and methamphetamine into the United States-Scott Greene had uploaded the video to YouTube and sent the link to the all major networks and newspapers.
His debriefing by DEA had taken a solid week. Word was that upper management was split on what to do with him. A friend at headquarters told him that half the chair warmers there wanted to fire him, and the other half wanted to give him a medal.
Scott didn't care. As far as he was concerned, the so-called War on Drugs was nothing but a sick joke, one that would actually be funny except for the fact that a lot of brave men and women in law enforcement and a whole lot of innocent civilians had paid for the punch line with their lives. Finding that video was like discovering that during World War Two the United States had secretly teamed up with Nazi Germany to fight Japan. It made no sense. Yet, there it was, the facts captured on a twenty-two minute video taken at a secret meeting in Mexico City.
So he exposed the secret.
And in the DEA safe house in Houston, where he and his family had been living for the past two weeks, Scott couldn't escape the headlines. They were on his iPad and on the TV news crawl:
"Secret video shows U.S. may have backed Mexican cartel."
"Cartel scandal rocks CIA."
"Spy agency claims case officer in Mexico went 'rogue'."
"Houston DEA chief resigns amid probe."
"Body of 'rogue' CIA officer found in motel in Mexico."
"Cartel scandal threatens administration."
"Congress appoints special prosecutor. CIA director resigns."
"Mexican president resigns."
"Special prosecutor says indictments of 'top' U.S. offi-cials 'likely.'"
...and on and on.
Naturally, the media had dubbed the scandal "Cartel-gate." Some of the talking heads were even speculating that the scandal could take down the president. Scott wasn't so sure about that, but he didn't care one way or the other. What he did care about was doing the best thing for his family. What that was, though, he had no idea.
Not yet anyway.
****
After another week, Scott found himself at the Grey-hound terminal in Houston, standing with Benny and Rosalita beside an idling bus. It was 6:10 a.m., and bus 6440 was scheduled to depart in five minutes. The rest of the pas-sengers had already boarded and a porter was closing the last door to the luggage compartment beneath the main cab-in.
Benny's left arm was still in a sling. The doctor said the wound was healing nicely. He also said that the bullet had nicked an artery and that if Victoria hadn't kept pressure on both sides of the wound, odds were that Benny wouldn't have survived.
Standing next to the open bus door, Benny held up two U.S. Immigration permanent resident identification cards with her good hand. Her photo was on one card; Rosalita's was on the other. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," Scott said. "And by the way, I could have gotten you a couple of plane tickets. Ohio is a long drive, especially in a bus." According to the schedule Scott had seen, this bus made seventeen stops along the way, including transfers in Texarkana and Memphis, and wouldn't arrive in Cincinnati until noon tomorrow.
Benny rested her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "I want Rosalita to see her new country up close."
Scott knelt beside Rosalita. "Are you excited about meeting your aunt and uncle and all your cousins?"
She smiled and nodded. "I can't wait."
Turned out Rosalita already spoke some English and had learned a lot more in the last three weeks.
"It gets cold up there," Scott said. "But you'll be able to build a snowman for Christmas."
"How cold is snow?"
"Pretty cold, but it's also a lot of fun. Like an ICEE."
"What's an ICEE?" she asked.
Scott stood and rubbed her hair. "You'll find out."
"Have you decided?" Benny asked.
"I'm going to law school."
She smiled. "I think that's a good decision. No more guns and no more shooting."
"I might keep one gun around," he said. "Just in case. But hopefully no more shooting."
Benny wiped tears from her face.
Scott felt a lump rising in his throat. He coughed to try to get rid of it but that didn't work. "You better get going."
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, then turned around and led Rosalita up the steps. They disap-peared inside the bus. A few seconds later the door closed, the brakes hissed, and the bus rolled away.
Scott waved goodbye. Then he turned around. Under the overhang outside the terminal, Victoria and the kids were waiting. He walked over and kissed his wife.
THE END