She gave the field agents a sunny smile when she introduced herself, and they fell all over themselves like schoolboys, ushering her to a seat and trying to make her comfortable, as if they had never seen a female agent before. They apologized for the heat, apparently not noticing that she was not bothered by it.

One of them, a beefy redneck with close-cropped hair who introduced himself as Chuck, said, "We noticed you've met Coyote Joe and Pup. Hope he didn't bend your ear too much with his wild ideas."

"No, he was rather quiet today. I saw him on the road outside of town and he looked like he needed a lift. He helped me find your office. Should I be concerned about him?"

"Oh, no, he's harmless. A good tracker, though. We've used him a few times, so now he thinks he's part of the team. Tries to tell us how to do our job. Of course he doesn't have a clue what we're really up against." This was Frank speaking, a tall thin agent with dark-rimmed glasses, wearing the dark suit and tie Dema thought of as "Government issue."

The third member of the team was Doug. He was dressed more casually, like Chuck, and had a thoughtful look as he handed Dema a glass of ice water. "His name is really Juan, Juan Matus. He's Yaqui Indian and spends most of his time in Mexico, although he was born here in Nogales on this side of the border so he's a U.S. citizen. He may not know about big-time drug operations, but he knows this part of the country better than we ever will."

Dema accepted the glass of ice water and sipped it. "I was briefed in Phoenix," she said, "But I need you guys to tell me what's really going on here."

Chuck took this as a cue to pull up a chair and sit down next to her. "Most of the drug traffic used to come from the Free Zone, and cross over by Lukeville where you didn't have to carry a visa to cross the border.

"Customs toughened up their inspections and shut down a lot of the smuggling on the highways," he said, "But that just pushed it into the back country. Then the border patrol tightened things up along the border with the Free Zone, and that pushed traffic this way. So we got sent here to Nogales, to try to get a handle on this new wrinkle."

Doug chimed in. "The border patrol is all involved in the illegal alien business, so we can't get a lot of help out of them on the drug smuggling. Sure, if they pick up someone who's carrying we hear about it, but they're stretched too thin to be looking for those guys very hard. Illegals don't smuggle themselves across the border much, they usually need help. So a guy alone doesn't get much attention. It's up to us."

"I understand," she said. "You three could spend days out there and not find anyone, and if you did pick someone up he wouldn't tell you much. If he's part of a big operation, he probably wouldn't know much anyway. He's just a mule."

They all nodded. "Right," said Doug. "We need to find out who's in charge and bust him. We can't waste our time targeting the little guys."

"And the guy in charge is in Mexico, or even farther south," said Frank. "The Mexican authorities try to cooperate, but down there it's still not unusual for local police to be on the payroll of bad guys. The big shots are hard to find, even harder to bring to trial, and next to impossible to convict in a Mexican court."

"So where does that leave us?"

"We don't know. Isn't that why you're here?" Chuck said this with a smile, but Dema could tell he was only half joking.

So she said, "Okay. But I usually start on the streets. Which I guess in this case means out in the badlands. Let me take a look at your recent files so I can get an idea what's been going on around here lately, then maybe one of you can show me where the stuff crosses the border. Or should I get Coyote Joe to do that?"

They all chuckled. Frank showed her the file drawers. As she was thumbing through them, Chuck said, "You don't need to go out in the badlands. I can tell you what's out there. Nothing but rocks and dirt. You said it yourself, you can spend days out there and not see anyone."

"All the same, I'd like to go have a look for myself. I might get lucky." She turned to look at Frank and Doug.

"I'm no good as a guide out there," said Frank.

"Well if you're serious, I guess I'm elected," said Doug. "But we'd want to get an early start."

"Tomorrow morning then," said Dema. "I'll look over these files for a while, then you can tell me where to find a room."

Later on she agreed to join them for dinner, and the four of them ate at a little restaurant nearby. As a matter of course the food was authentic Mexican, and Dema thoroughly enjoyed the chicken tostada. The men made a game of rating the nearby motels, and finally agreed on one to recommend to her.