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The Border: The final gripping thriller in the bestselling Cartel trilogy
Don Winslow
The explosive, highly anticipated conclusion to the epic Cartel trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Force.The war has come home.For over forty years, Art Keller has been on the front lines of America’s longest conflict: The War On Drugs. His obsession with defeating the godfather of the Sinaloa Cartel – Adán Barrera – has cost him people he loves, even taken a piece of his soul. Now Keller is elevated to the highest ranks of the DEA, only to find that in destroying one monster he has created thirty more that are wreaking chaos in his beloved Mexico. But not just there. Fighting to end the heroin epidemic scourging America, Keller finds himself surrounded by an incoming administration that’s in bed with the very drug traffickers that Keller is trying to bring down. From the slums of Guatemala to the marbled corridors of Washington, D.C., Winslow follows a new generation of narcos, cops, addicts, politicians, and mere children fleeing the violence for the chance of a life in a new country. A shattering tale of vengeance, corruption and justice, The Border is an unflinching portrait of modern America, a story of – and for – our time.
Copyright (#ulink_ac755ccb-964c-547c-ad19-c60eaa85fc61)
This is entirely a work of fiction. Any references to real people, living or dead, real events, businesses, organizations and localities are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. All names, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and their resemblance, if any, to real-life counterparts is entirely coincidental.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
First published in the United States by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 2019
Copyright © Samburu, Inc 2019
Stephen King, excerpt from Introduction to The Shining (New York: Pocket Books, 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Stephen King. Reprinted by permission.
Tom Russell, excerpt from “Leaving El Paso” (Frontera Music / BMG Firefly). Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Don Winslow asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover photographs © Ted Wood / plainpicture / Aurora Photos (landscape); Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com) (sky).
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books
Ebook Edition © February 2019 © ISBN: 9780008227555
Version: 2019-03-06
Dedication (#ulink_96fafe32-375d-584e-95e1-f3cc506711b5)
In memory of
Abel García Hernández, Abelardo Vázquez Peniten, Adán Abraján de la Cruz, Alexander Mora Venancio, Antonio Santana Maestro, Benjamín Ascencio Bautista, Bernardo Flores Alcaraz, Carlos Iván Ramírez Villarreal, Carlos Lorenzo Hernández Muñoz, César Manuel González Hernández, Christian Alfonso Rodríguez Telumbre, Christian Tomás Colón Garnica, Cutberto Ortiz Ramos, Doriam González Parral, Emiliano Alen Gaspar de la Cruz, Everardo Rodríguez Bello, Felipe Arnulfo Rosa, Giovanni Galindes Guerrero, Israel Caballero Sánchez, Israel Jacinto Lugardo, Jesús Jovany Rodríguez Tlatempa, Jhosivani Guerrero de la Cruz, Jonás Trujillo González, Jorge Álvarez Nava, Jorge Aníbal Cruz Mendoza, Jorge Antonio Tizapa Legideño, Jorge Luis González Parral, José Ángel Campos Cantor, José Ángel Navarrete González, José Eduardo Bartolo Tlatempa, José Luis Luna Torres, Julio César López Patolzín, Leonel Castro Abarca, Luis Ángel Abarca Carrillo, Luis Ángel Francisco Arzola, Magdaleno Rubén Lauro Villegas, Marcial Pablo Baranda, Marco Antonio Gómez Molina, Martín Getsemany Sánchez García, Mauricio Ortega Valerio, Miguel Ángel Hernández Martínez, Miguel Ángel Mendoza Zacarías, Saúl Bruno García, Daniel Solís Gallardo, Julio César Ramírez Nava, Julio César Mondragón Fontes and Aldo Gutiérrez Solano.
And dedicated to
Javier Valdez Cárdenas
and all journalists everywhere.
Epigraph (#ulink_7e523490-5152-5312-996e-47ec238ebb1e)
And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall.
—Ezekiel 13:10
Contents
Cover (#u54592d4c-8125-588e-a0bb-4c4c041ebd9b)
Title Page (#uf26843a9-9e4a-5d90-b488-4d7425dc1160)
Copyright (#ue8f74d45-0909-5555-9c0f-0f42f08f1e8a)
Dedication (#u0b41dbac-1d36-5277-acd5-45ea7823d13c)
Epigraph (#u2a2bbeda-d1e8-56cb-bc4d-f4633f171b13)
Map (#u634aa723-e4ff-557d-a69e-7157c5549f6c)
Prologue (#u263edaf9-5d86-5360-a158-6b760d2bbd5d)
Book One: Memorial (#ud76356de-9cf4-5a58-805a-ad6e79f6c729)
1. Monsters and Ghosts (#u590f1ceb-4dfd-56be-a846-1da668a30524)
2. The Death of Kings (#u1a5f9758-fc5c-53e5-8f93-bf011391566a)
3. Malevolent Clowns (#u367f1e8c-f0e1-5ed2-8e04-0d5c453b61ab)
Book Two: Heroin (#ua0d4ba5b-b055-56af-95e4-0eab7077da5b)
1. The Acela (#u6706757d-c9fa-5465-915d-94e0aa399933)
2. Heroin Island (#u180ffb87-3097-586f-a711-fbb377c71bfe)
3. Victimville (#litres_trial_promo)
4. The Bus (#litres_trial_promo)
Book Three: Los Retornados (#litres_trial_promo)
1. The Holidays (#litres_trial_promo)
2. Coyotes (#litres_trial_promo)
3. La Bestia (#litres_trial_promo)
4. This Upside-Down World (#litres_trial_promo)
5. Banking (#litres_trial_promo)
Book Four: Inauguration (#litres_trial_promo)
1. Foreign Lands (#litres_trial_promo)
2. Death Will Be the Proof (#litres_trial_promo)
3. Bad Hombres (#litres_trial_promo)
4. Billy the Kid (#litres_trial_promo)
5. White Christmas (#litres_trial_promo)
Book Five: Truth (#litres_trial_promo)
1. The Most Powerful Entity on Earth (#litres_trial_promo)
2. Broken (#litres_trial_promo)
3. Cheap Guns (#litres_trial_promo)
4. The Reflecting Pool (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)
Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Don Winslow (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Map (#ulink_459fad88-d563-58ca-9b06-dd69ed8a9faf)
Prologue (#ulink_f170fb6f-27ab-585a-9107-9b4988b395e8)
Washington, DC
April 2017
Keller sees the child and the glint of the scope in the same moment.
The little boy, holding his mother’s hand, gazes at the names etched into the black stone, and Keller wonders if he’s looking for someone—a grandfather, maybe, or an uncle—or if his mother just brought her son to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as the end of a walk down the National Mall.
The Wall sits low in the park, hidden like a guilty secret, a private shame. Here and there, mourners have left flowers, or cigarettes, even small bottles of booze. Vietnam was a long time ago, another lifetime, and he’s fought his own long war since then.
No battles are inscribed on the Vietnam Wall. No Khe Sanhs or Quảng Trịs or Hamburger Hills. Maybe because we won every battle but lost the war, Keller thinks. All these deaths for a futile war. On previous trips, he’d seen men lean against the Wall and sob like children.
The sense of loss heartbreaking and overwhelming.
There are maybe forty people here today. Some of them look like they might be vets, others families; most are probably tourists. Two older men in VFW uniforms and caps are there to help people locate their loved ones’ names.
Now Keller is at war again—against his own DEA, the US Senate, the Mexican drug cartels, even the president of the United States.
And they’re the same thing, the same entity.
Every border Keller once thought existed has been crossed.
Some of them want to silence him, put him in prison, destroy him; a few, he suspects, want to kill him.
Keller knows that he’s become a polarizing figure, embodying the rift that threatens to widen and tear the country in two. He’s triggered a scandal, an investigation that’s spread from the poppy fields of Mexico to Wall Street to the White House itself.
It’s a warm spring day, a little breezy, and cherry blossoms float in the air. Sensing his emotion, Marisol takes his hand.
Now Keller sees the boy and then—to the right, back toward the Washington Monument—the odd, random glint of light. Lunging for the mother and the child, Keller shoves them to the ground.
Then he turns to shield Mari.
The bullet spins Keller like a top.
Creases his skull and whips his neck around.
Blood pours into his eyes and he literally sees red as he reaches out and pulls Marisol down.
Her cane clatters on the walkway.
Keller covers her body with his.
More bullets smack into the Wall above him.
He hears shouts and screams. Someone yells, “Active shooter!”
Peering up, Keller looks for the origin of the shots and sees that they’re coming from the southeast, from about ten o’clock—from behind a small building he remembers is a restroom. He feels for the Sig Sauer at his hip but then remembers that he’s unarmed.
The shooter flips to automatic.
Bullets spray the stone above Keller, chipping away names. People lie flat or crouch against the Wall. A few near the lower edges scramble over and run toward Constitution Avenue. Others just stand, bewildered.
Keller yells, “Down! Shooter! Down!”
But he sees that’s not going to help and that the memorial is now a death trap. The Wall forms a wide V and there are only two ways out along a narrow path. A middle-aged couple run to the east exit, toward the shooter, and are hit right away, dropping like characters in some hideous video game.
“Mari,” Keller says, “we have to move. Do you understand?”
