Chapter Twenty Five:     Narco Boss


MIKE narrates the events of November 19 --

Once again, about 10:00 at night, we stop the convoy alongside the freeway for a hefty discussion about what to do. The 16th Battalion has been ordered to take a side road from Carretera Iguala-Cuernavaca and meet the 11th Battalion at a lonely spot far from any towns. That's suspicious enough: normally such a meeting would take place at the base in Cuernavaca, which was not far away now, so it's obvious they don't want any eye-witnesses for what happens.

Capitan Javier suggests that before the convoy meets up with the 11th Battalion we take our bus and disappear off the side roads, then get to Mexico City quick. "It's risky, sure, but we know the unit we've been ordered to meet has actually been supporting the drug cartels, so if we deliver our prisoners to them they'll probably just release them all, including deVega, who would certainly insist upon taking Adam as his own prisoner."

Adam asks, "But isn't this a trap for all of you? We all know that Raf and Leo were supposed to have been executed along with their friend lieutenant Alvaro, so why not just take out the entire troublesome 16th Battalion? Especially since you now have a list of names of traitors who could eventually compromise your General Camilo Luiz Sanchez."

"Of course it's a trap," Capitan Javier confirmed, "or at least we need to assume that it is."

The discussion became tactical: how many men and vehicles could they be facing? Might the 11th set up an ambush before the designated meeting place to take them by surprise? I had to ask, "Is this General Sanchez really so corrupt that he would sacrifice an entire unit of his own soldiers to satisfy the drug cartels?"

Leo laughed a cynical snort, "Oh yes, he's proved himself to be their man, again and again."

"But we have a lot of firepower now, with all the vehicles and weapons we've confiscated today," Raf said with optimism, "We can fight back."

"Those weapons won't do us any good unless we're prepared to actually use them," Capitan Javier stated, "every gun shall be manned from here on, even the guns on the IAFVs we've confiscated. At least three men to every vehicle, a driver and two shooters. We go in cocked and ready. So make sure everyone has some kind of working knowledge of whatever equipment and ammo at their disposal. We're only 22 men strong, not counting our civilian friends here who aren't trained for heavy-arms combat."

"We're not interested in heavy-arms combat, either," Adam says, "as if you should be. You can't really go in with guns blazing against your own Army anyway."

"No, we can't," the captain admits, "we'd be duty-bound to wait for them to fire first or we'll all be court martialed. Problem is, they'll be officially protected by the base comandante as long as they are following his orders, no matter what they do."

A young corporal steps forward, "Sir, may I speak?" He's one of those three guys who didn't pass the "I am not a spy" test and has been in the doghouse. Name tag reads Montoya. "I am a spy, I admit that, but not for the cartels. I report to General Artigone's anticorruption unit out of Base Aéra Militar #1 in DF. We've been investigating complicity between the Army and the cartels."

Adam sniffs the air and announces, "He's telling the truth this time."

Montoya gives Adam a nod of appreciation, holds up a cell phone. "I can put you in touch with General Artigone, who will be much more sympathetic to your efforts against the cartel than General Camilo Luiz Sanchez. In fact, we were already investigating him for complicity."

It is decided to call the General right away, even though it's late in the evening. Adam and I can tell it's going to be a while so we go back to our bus to see how the girls are doing with our captured narco boss.


Señor deVega had been deeply hypnotized, and was pleasantly admitting all sorts of interesting details about his life as a drug lord. Masnia is still questioning him as we come into the bus, asking what connections he has with the 11th Battalion. He's enthusiastically telling her how the unit commander is his very own sobrino, a nice young capitan on his way up in the military, being groomed for a government position later on that will be beneficial for deVega's cartel.

But now Adam releases him from the spell with a code word, allowing him to rant and rave for a while, just to see what comes up. So he starts shouting at us: how he's going to kill us all and have the girls raped and then kill us all over again. Not useful information.

Adam snaps his fingers and the man shuts up, immediately in a trance again. I'm pretty impressed by Adam's skill at hypnosis, he seems quite professional: he could easily pull off a "mesmerizing" act, tricking people into doing funny & embarrassing stuff on stage or TV. Or something a lot heavier-- as he does with deVega. He plants a posthypnotic suggestion, and it's a stroke of genius. Then he wakes the guy up again.

deVega goes right into his rant, "...I'll contact every drug cartel in Mexico and offer them whatever it takes to hunt you down, capture and kill..."

"Actually, I'm more concerned about my parents," Adam says, real calm.

"As well you should be, I'll send an army of..."

"So I've hypnotized you and programmed what you might call a post-hypnotic suggestion, although we Nokhons call it a Syssk, a kind of evil spirit."

"What? You can't hypnotize me!"

We all laugh at him, me and Pokey, all five girls. That convinces him more than any words would. The look on his face was pretty funny, so we laughed again.

"You've been zapped, Salvador. I can program what you do-- or do NOT. For example: if I, or any of us or my parents are killed, you may NOT breathe anymore."

"Hah, you can't hypnotize someone to do something they would never choose to do."

"Are you sure? That sounds like a misunderstanding from Sigmund Freud's day. Let's find out. Stop breathing now." deVega does.

He holds his breath. At first he looks irritated, disbelieving, but before a minute goes by he's looking pretty scared. After the second minute deVega is definitely beginning to panic, still unable to suck in the tiniest breath of air. After three minutes he is thrashing against his seat belt. At four minutes he passes out. Then he breathes, while unconscious, although he doesn't know that.

He jerks awake, his moment of triumph for having survived is quickly forgotten since he still can't breathe all over again. He thrashes, passes out again. Awakens, still can't breathe... until Adam snaps his finger to end the spell. Señor deVega drags in a big, desperate breath and pants for a while, looking pretty horrified.

"You probably won't die of it," Adam says, "when you pass out your breathing automatically starts up-- but your every waking moment will be like that. Shall I demonstrate again?" He holds his hand up, fingers ready to snap.

"NO, no, por favor!" Looks like deVega is convinced.


Raf comes to report what the convoy plans to do. They've made contact with the "anticorruption unit" in Mexico City and it seems there is an organized resistance against corruption going on in Mexico after all-- it's just a matter of knowing who to trust. Which ain't easy. Javier suggests that Adam listen in on the telephones to confirm True or False, since he now believes in Adam's ability to hear the difference.

But Adam has to say, "It doesn't really work over the phone: I need to register scent, body language, eye contact, breathing, heartbeats, maybe even psychic waves. Otherwise I'd just be guessing. Sorry." They'd learned that there was also one of General Artigone's own spies in the 11th Battalion who'd already reported several illegal missions. They arranged for him to give us a report on the unit we were supposed to meet: how many men, how many vehicles, what kind of firepower, who's in charge, etc.

It seems General Artigone has insisted that the 16th Battalion makes that rendezvous with the 11th. He wants video-documentation of the 11th Battalion's actions: attempting to release the drug cartel prisoners would be enough to bring charges against those commanding the unit. The tricky part is that the 16th also needs to be ready to deflect an attack in case the 11th plans upon massacring them. So they are expected to go in as bait, like wide-eyed innocent tontos not expecting any kind of trap, but ready to spring a trap of their own. Artigone wants proof of evil intention, and then the 16th has permission to wipe the 11th off the face of the earth. If they can.

The whole thing sounded pretty dangerous to me. A lot like going to war. Okay, that's what soldiers do, so about this time we begin to think of the 16th Battalion as "them" rather than "us". As military unit they're not allowed to bring civilians into battle anyway, and especially not a bus full of semi-famous American tourists, so we were on our own. Which was also dangerous enough, considering all the carteleros roaming about.

We delivered deVega to one of the personnel carriers that was holding some of the prisoners, bringing their total up to 26. By luck Adam was standing beside the open door to put deVega in with his employees just as an escape attempt was being made. The carteleros had undone their gaffa tapes and were ready to rush the door, not expecting to find a Bigfoot in their way. What a disappointment.

Adam gives them a one-handed shove that sends a clump of ten men toppling backwards and back into their "cell". Then he effortlessly lifts deVega in by his shirt collar, dangling from one hand like he weighs nothing. He gives them all a stern look and says "Comportarse!" They don't dare do anything but behave as he closes the door again.


"Let me speak with the general," Adam says. Javier finishes a conversation then hands Adam the phone. "Hello General Artigone, this is Adam Leroy Forest... What? No, I'm not military, I'm a civilian, a gringo, in fact... yes, yes, no, just shut up and listen a minute." I couldn't hear what the General was saying, but Adam was rolling his eyes so I assume he was cantankerous and bossy.

Finally Adam had to stop being polite and just say "Silencio!" with the authority of a Nokhon Orator, which seemed to be effective. "I've taken narco boss Salvador deVega prisoner and I need to deliver him to an honest authority. Why? Because he had me kidnapped earlier in the day so I returned the favor, that's why. Yes, I know he has connections... look, do you want him or not? Okay, good."

He went on to say that we had deVega in our bus, then there was some confusion about what any of this had to do with a bus, and then I heard Adam say, "No, all that nonsense about a bigfoot is not nonsense. There are three Bigfoot here. Yes. Yes, general, you are talking with a Bigfoot right now. Me. I'm one. Yes, Adam Leroy Forest, the Baby Bigfoot of Monroe...that's right. No, this is not a joke and no, I'm not Mexican, I learned Spanish first time I came here years ago."

Listening to how hard it was for Adam to get through to a General's authoritative mindset reminded me of how much I really don't trust any Mexican authorities. I mean, how could anyone? I got into a conversation with Javier.

"The problem is," Javier said, "that our entire government is riddled with corrupt politicians and police and labor leaders. In every aspect of society, the whole spectrum of authority is already compromised, beginning with every family already indebted to favors and bribes made by the previous generation so that no one is free. It's been that way since the time of Cortez. It is now impossible for any honest person to participate in that system without being tainted... or killed.

"Of course, not every Mexican is corrupt. We DO have honest men, just like everywhere else, but the system does not allow them to flourish. There is, in fact, an Underground movement striving for an honest government. We are many against what the drug cartels are doing to our country and our people--and ourselves. It has to stop. To do so we must remove every corrupt politician in Mexico."

"Now, there's a challenge," I responded, "there'd be no government left. You'd have to start from scratch."

"Not really. We have people ready to step in."

"Sounds like a coup," I say, "Viva la Revolución!"

"No, we'll have to do it legally," he shrugs, "arrest the criminals, prosecute them, win elections. It'll take a while. Otherwise, the drug cartels will own Mexico forever, and they are NOT benevolent masters."

"Do you think anyone can get the ball rolling?" I ask.

He looks at the squatches, "They could."

", too bad they're not Mexicans."

"No kidding."

"I can't help but remember the "dirty war" of the 60's-- the Tlateloclo massacre in '68, the Military was really an instrument of governmental terror."

"True, but not since the 80's, you might have noticed, when the Military cleaned up its act."

"Oh yeah? During the recent Iguala incidents the military was intimidating students. And not being very nice about it. Then the students were suddenly all gone."

"Actualmente, that military is the probably the same one we'll be going up against today."







Chapter 26

Adam Into Babylon