Mark Gimenez - The Governor's wife

"Can you make it?"

"I'll get you both back across the river. If it's the last thing I do."

And he knew now it would be.

Jesse Rincon opened his eyes on a bloody scene. The governor's clothes were soaked with blood. Lindsay's hands were bloody. His own leg was bloody. And a boy stood there as if in shock, his shirt red with blood.

"Where is he?" Jesse said. "El Diablo?"

"Dead."

The boy walked out onto the balcony and peered over the rail. The governor leaned over Jesse.

"I can walk."

Jesse pushed himself up but fell into the governor's arms.

"The hell you can."

The governor dropped the AK-47 then hefted Jesse onto his shoulder.

Bode Bonner was the governor of Texas, and he sure as hell wasn't going to die in Mexico. He would die like a Texan. In Texas.

"Hand me my pistol."

His wife picked the gun up and held it out to him. He slid the Colt into his waistband. He then carried the doctor down three flights of stairs and to the front door. He stopped and drew the pistol.

"Open the door."

His wife pulled the door open on two armed guards. Bode shot them both with the Colt. 44. He saw no more guards so they hurried to the four black Mercedes-Benz sedans parked in the circle driveway. Lindsay ran ahead and stuck her head into the nearest car.

"Keys, " she said.

"Get in," Bode said. "I'll drive."

"I will navigate," the doctor said. "I know the way out."

Bode helped the doctor into the passenger's seat. Lindsay climbed into the back seat. Bode went around to the driver's side and saw two armed men running toward them. He put them both down with the Colt. He got in and started the engine.

"Go, go, go!" the doctor said.

Bode punched the accelerator, and the big Mercedes lurched forward and through the gates as shots rang out behind them.

"They're coming after us!" Lindsay said.

"We've got to get to the bridge!"

"No!" the doctor said. "The federales will soon know we have killed El Diablo. They will not allow us to cross the bridge. We must go west, to the river. To the colonia. Turn right here. Cesar de Lopez Lara."

Bode veered onto the road and drove past a string of cantinas and cheap motels.

"They're behind us," Lindsay said.

"Left-there. Avenida Alvaro Obregon."

Bode hit the brakes hard and made a fast turn, clipping a parked car. They were now driving down a dark road through what appeared to be a tenement of dilapidated houses and old cars parked right outside the doors. Groups of two and three men and women loitered on corners. Bode felt a fever washing over him.

"Did we lose them?"

"Yes," Lindsay said.

Bode slowed so as not to kill a pedestrian on the narrow street, until he heard his wife's voice.

"No."

He sped up-until he saw headlights coming directly at him.

"Shit-this is a one-way road, Doc! And we're going the wrong way!"

"Turn right- Calle Miguel Hidalgo. "

Bode swung the big sedan right onto another narrow street then sped up. His face felt hot and wet with sweat, and blood ran down his right arm and out of his gut.

"I grew up in this neighborhood," the doctor said. "A major road is just ahead. We can try to outrun them."

Bode came to an Alto sign but he didn't alto. He veered to avoid cars parked along both sides through a little business district for five blocks then the road dead-ended into a four-lane roadway. The light was red, but "They're still behind us," Lindsay said.

"Left!" the doctor said.

Bode gunned the sedan through the light and turned south. Now they heard sirens.

" Policia," Lindsay said.

They had joined the chase from a side road and were now on their side.

"They're shooting at us!" Lindsay screamed.

Bullets hit the driver's side window, but did not penetrate the glass.

"I'll be damned. An armored car."

He glanced at the policia. They too were stunned. Bode stuck his middle finger up at them. He floored the accelerator and soon had the sedan running eighty. Two lanes ran south, so Bode had room to maneuver. He swerved around slower moving traffic and put some distance between them and the policia and El Diablo's men. He blew through another red light.

"Aw, shit."

Traffic had stopped ahead. Cars were waiting to turn into a walled compound.

"Boys' Town," the doctor said.

"Great."

Bode blinked hard to maintain focus. He swerved around the line of cars. But just past Boys' Town the police had set up a roadblock.

"Hold on!"

Bode headed straight at the police cars then abruptly jumped the low median and drove around them in the northbound lanes then jumped the median back to the southbound lanes.

"They're coming after us."

The doctor grabbed the dashboard.

"Turn around!"

"Why?"

He pointed. "That is the Villareal, the motel where the federales stationed here reside."

But they weren't just residing there; they were waiting for them in military trucks parked across all four lanes. Bode slammed on the brakes and swung the Mercedes around into the northbound lane. He stomped on the accelerator and sped past the policia and soldados heading southbound.

"Go left on Abraham Lincoln," the doctor said.

Bode turned left and accelerated.

"Now right on Constitucion."

He swung right.

"Faster! No alto! "

"Don't worry, Doc. I ain't stopping."

They flew through the stop sign at Venezuela.

"Left on Peru."

Bode hit the brakes and turned the wheel hard. The sedan fishtailed and sideswiped a Tacos y Barbacoa vendor truck. He straightened out and headed west.

"Now go very fast," the doctor said.

Bode went very fast. The traffic was one-way, and they were going the right way for a change. They sped past cantinas with drunks loitering outside and small restaurants. In the rearview, Bode could see flashing lights. But they had a lead on them. His breathing came faster now.

"Bode, are you okay?" Lindsay asked.

"I'll get you home."

"There!" the doctor said. " Calzada De Los Heroes. The highway west."

Bode steered onto the highway. Four lanes headed west, so Bode pushed the sedan. They soon cleared the dense part of the city.

"We are outside the city now. Perhaps they will not follow."

"They're following," Lindsay said.

"Faster!"

Bode pushed the sedan to ninety. The pain in his gut had gotten worse. Much worse. He clenched back a groan.

"What's that?"

Up ahead, he saw red taillights, as if cars were being stopped.

" Bandidos. "

"You gotta fucking be kidding me."

"Do not stop, Governor."

He didn't. He swerved into the oncoming lanes and around an eighteen-wheeler then back into the westbound lanes.

"You drive fast very well, Governor."

"I been driving in Texas all my life."

"We will turn soon, toward the river."

"Bode," Lindsay said, "they're getting closer."

"There!" the doctor said. "The white cross… Turn!"

Bode slammed on the brakes and veered off the highway.

"There's no road."

"A dirt road leads to the river."

Bode steered down a path cut through the desert. The car bottomed out, so he couldn't go fast. His face felt hot; he fought not to pass out.

"They turned in behind us," Lindsay said.

"The river is just ahead," the doctor said.

"They're closer!"

"Just beyond that bluff is the river."

"How do we get down to it?"

"We drive over the bluff."

"Over the bluff?"

"It is a low bluff. We will drive right into the river. It is not deep, because of the drought. The colonia is just on the other side."

"Lower the windows."

"Punch it, Governor."

Bode punched it.

"Hang on!"

The big Mercedes-Benz sedan flew off the low bluff and belly-flopped into the Rio Grande. The air bags deployed and cushioned the blow. The car settled into the river. They climbed out the open windows and into the river. The water was only a few feet deep. Lindsay and Bode pulled the doctor out of the river and to dry ground against a ten-foot-high bank.