Traffic

ROBERT: I... I don't really know.

A.D.A. KELLY: Is she in any kind of therapy... professional help?

ROBERT: No, of course not. She's one of the top students at her school.

A.D.A. KELLY: Well, I hope it stays that way.

A.D.A. KELLY: One thing bothers me... That kid they dropped off had coke and heroin in him. Serious amounts. He's lucky he lived. So I gotta ask: what's your daughter on?

ROBERT: I don't know what you mean.

A.D.A. KELLY: I mean, did you ask her? What kind of drugs has she tried?

ROBERT: I appreciate you coming in so early.

A.D.A. KELLY: Judge Wakefield, it's an honor to handle it for you. Consider it gone away. She's a minor; it probably would've expunged on her 18th birthday anyway.

ROBERT: Still, this was a sensitive issue for me and I wanted to thank you personally.

A.D.A. KELLY: Like I said, open container, P.I., Misdemeanor possession. Easy to make it disappear. For you, poof, it's gone.

JAVIER: If Manolo hadn't gone and told them what he did then Salazar and Madrigal would never have been brought to justice. He did a great thing for Tijuana. He did a great thing for Mexico.

ANNA: I want to believe you. I really do.

JAVIER: You will believe me, because it's true.

JAVIER: What is he planning on telling them?

ANNA: Well, you know, he's going to say about Madrigal... and Salazar.

JAVIER: Why does he need money?

ANNA: He has debts. He has gambling debts. He owes a lot of money.

JAVIER: How much?

ANNA: Nine thousand dollars.

JAVIER: What? What is it?

ANNA: It's very hard for me to come and tell you this.

JAVIER: Anna. What's wrong? What do you want?

ANNA: I can't find Manolo.

JAVIER: He's not here.

ANNA: He never came home last night. Was he with you?

JAVIER: No.

JAVIER: Even if that were true, they're not going to come to your house where you're waiting for them.

ANNA: He's right. They'll do it when you're walking somewhere, make it look like street crime.

HELENA: It's the same stuff? From the rainy day stash?

ARNIE: It's the same. What happened to what they gave you?

HELENA: Did you get it?

ARNIE: What are you thinking, calling me at home with a message like that? You've compromised me and our relationship --

ARNIE: Helena --

HELENA: I need an introduction to the Obregon Brothers.

ARNIE: I can't do that.

ARNIE: Helena, please. This is out of your hands.

HELENA: I know I made things worse. I know that and I'm sorry, but Arnie I need something from you. Something only you can help me with.

ARNIE: That was a stupid thing you did. Incredibly stupid.

HELENA: I tried, Arnie. And, I will continue to try.

ARNIE: Have you gone crazy? You are not Carl. You aren't as good as Carl. They are moving the trial to a high security location. The press has gone berserk. The jury will be influenced. Stay out of things. Let us try to win the case.

HELENA: That is going to be rather difficult when all the evidence is against us.

HELENA: Sometimes I wonder what I'll do if Carl doesn't get out. I'm not very adept at being on my own. I've always had a man in my life. Always.

ARNIE: I remember when I first met you: little Helen Watts from the wrong side of somewhere. I had a feeling even then that your survival instincts were pretty well honed.

HELENA: I'm glad you think so, but I'm picturing a debt-ridden, thirty-two year-old mother whose ex-husband is being compared to Pablo Escobar. And I'm wondering who would want to be with someone like that?

ARNIE: Even if I knew I wouldn't tell you. You do not want to come into contact with these people. Only Carl knows who they are. That's his real asset. Ruiz doesn't know them. They don't know Ruiz. Church and State.

HELENA: What about legitimate businesses? We own a construction concern, real estate --

ARNIE: Laundromats for the washing of money. Unfortunately, Carl had only one successful business.

HELENA: Don't you have some good news? Isn't there something positive you could say.

ARNIE: This place is swept twice a day. I learned that in Miami in '85. Then the U.S. shut down the whole Caribbean, but it's a big game of wack-a-mole. Knock it down in Miami, it pops up here. And San Diego is so much more relaxing.

HELENA: Arnie, I need money. Somebody threatened my children. They want a first payment of three million dollars.

ARNIE: Helena, if I had it I would give it to you, but I don't have that kind of money.

HELENA: Arnie, help me. Doesn't anyone owe us money?

ARNIE: Yes, I told you before, there are people who owe you money but they're not paying. There's too much heat on Carl.

HELENA: Please. Tell me who Carl sells to.

HELENA: If all our assets are frozen and our "sales force" has scattered... How am I supposed to survive? I'm giving birth in three months. How do I get through this?

ARNIE: You're gonna get through it, but the first thing we do is get Michael Adler to represent Carl. We get Adler and we beat this thing.

HELENA: How much do I pay him?

ARNIE: I suspect he'll accept his payment in publicity.

HELENA: I am on the board of my son's school. I had a fundraiser for A.L.V. in my front yard. I have a right to know if my husband is a legitimate businessman.

ARNIE: Of course he is. I've known him for twenty years and he doesn't jaywalk...

ARNIE: Got it? Good. Do not discuss anything over the telephone. Do not talk to the neighbors. Stay out of your yard.

HELENA: What is he being charged with?

ARNIE: I don't know, but under no circumstances would I talk about it here. I want you to go home and relax the best you can. Continue your life as if nothing has happened. That is very important.

HELENA: Arnie, I feel like Alice stepping through the looking glass.

ARNIE: That's a very apt analogy, Helena. Now, go home and be with your children.

ARNIE: Good. From now on I want you to expect that every word you utter will be tape-recorded, that the movement of your lips is being read. Got it?

HELENA: Arnie, this is crazy.

ARNIE: I understand. You're upset. You want to know what's going on. That's good.

HELENA: Why are you talking like that?

ARNIE: Listen to me carefully. First of all, Carl isn't here. DEA's got him and they'll hang on to him until arraignment, which will probably be tomorrow. So here you're wasting your time. Are you with me?

ARNIE: Helena, I'm so sorry --

HELENA: Arnie, thank God.

CARLOS: Arnie, do think there's a difference between a reason and an excuse, because I don't think there is.

ARNIE: Carl --

CARLOS: Goodbye Arnie.

CARLOS: Don't bother.

ARNIE: What?

CARLOS: So Arnie, when were you going to tell me about the 3 million dollars we got in from San Francisco two days after I got arrested?

ARNIE: I was just waiting for the right time.

CARLOS: And you didn't feel like you could trust my wife with this news?

ARNIE: I just didn't want to take a chance. I didn't want to risk it. It could have been frozen along with everything else.

CARLOS: You had it all figured out. You move into my house. You raise my kids. You sleep with my wife. It was a good plan, Arnie.

ARNIE: Carl, that's insane.

CARLOS: So my wife is lying?

ARNIE: Carl, think about it, if I was trying to rip you off, I would have left town after Ruiz was killed. I wouldn't sit next to you in court listening to the dismissal.

CARLOS: It's Saturday, Arnie. You work too hard.

ARNIE: Carl, I'm running late. I'm coming right now --

BARBARA: Where are you going?

ROBERT: She'll be at a pawn shop in an hour.

BARBARA: My Leica's gone.

ROBERT: So's the video camera.

BARBARA: At least she's alive.

ROBERT: About the other night, I'm sorry.

BARBARA: Me, too.

ROBERT: God, I don't get it. Are we supposed to say to ourselves, be prepared to lose her, be prepared to lose our child? Why does this happen to someone? How does it happen?

BARBARA: I don't know.

BARBARA: Should we bring the police into this?

ROBERT: No, not yet.

BARBARA: I'm not the one who has to have three scotches just to walk in the door and say hello.

ROBERT: I have a drink before dinner to take the edge off my day. That's different.

BARBARA: Oh, it is?

ROBERT: Yeah, because the alternative is to be bored to death.

BARBARA: You might want to pencil in a little face-time with your daughter.

ROBERT: Barbara --

BARBARA: Because I'm at the edge of my capabilities, Robert.

ROBERT: The first thing we have to do is present a unified front.

BARBARA: If you start in on the war metaphors I'm going to drive this car into a fucking telephone pole.

ROBERT: Look, I'm as worried as you are --

BARBARA: No, I don't think so. Leave me alone, give me money. That's what I get from our daughter. She has a way of shutting me out that seems very familiar.

ROBERT: Yeah, well, she has a way of self- medicating that probably seems familiar, too.

ROBERT: I think we may have found our Mexican Drug Czar. It's this General, Salazar. At least I'll have somebody on the other side I can talk to.

BARBARA: Does this mean you're going to be gone more?

ROBERT: How long have you known?

BARBARA: Six months. I found some marijuana, that's all. And a little pipe about two inches long. I talked with her. She said her friends smoked pot and drank --

ROBERT: Explain to me how you could think that I shouldn't know about this. Explain to me how this wouldn't be relevant to me. As a parent.

BARBARA: She asked me not to.

ROBERT: I think she's lying.

BARBARA: Me, too.

ROBERT: We'll ground her, clip her wings a bit. School and scheduled activities and that's it until further notice. This has to be handled delicately. Dan Kelly, in the District Attorney's office, will probably help us out, quietly. Christ, this could be embarrassing.

BARBARA: Honey, this is difficult, but we've all had our moments. I tried --

ROBERT: Stop. You experimented in college. I don't want to hear about that.

BARBARA: Should we take the quotes off experiment and call it what it is?

ROBERT: This is different.

BARBARA: Why?

ROBERT: To begin with, she's only sixteen years-old.

BARBARA: I think she has to find out for herself, on her own. We have to allow her space --

ROBERT: Space for what? To O.D. like that other kid? I will not send the message that this type of behavior is okay with her parents. Because it isn't. Correct?

BARBARA: We don't want to push her away. These are growing experiences.

BARBARA: So you know we put the case before the arbitration panel, none of whom had any expertise. Superfund is just one of those words. People stop paying attention.

ROBERT: That's frustrating.

BARBARA: It's so frustrating.

BARBARA: Like a Grateful Dead Concert.

ROBERT: Drugs begin pouring out of America into every other country in the world. Canada is completely overwhelmed.

CAROLINE: He didn't hang around us. He's like one of those hippie kids. I'm not part of that group. It was a party in all these rooms. His girlfriend who I barely know was completely hysterical... He's blue, he's puking... We didn't want to get in trouble, but what were we supposed to do? I mean, what would you have done if you had been us?

BARBARA: How well do you know this boy, Seth, who was driving? You know the police have charged him with a DUI and possession of marijuana.

CAROLINE: He's a friend. He's also like the only one who was dealing with the situation. He'd definitely had a few beers, but it's not like he wanted to drive. We didn't know what else to do. It wasn't my pot.

CAROLINE: Did you tell Dad?

BARBARA: Not yet.

CAROLINE: Are you going to?

BARBARA: I don't know.

CAROLINE: Is this bad for him?

BARBARA: What do you think?

CAROLINE: None of my friends can fucking believe my dad is the actual Drug Czar.

BARBARA: Caroline --

CAROLINE: Sorry, but I mean, come on.

BARBARA: Czar for life, just like a real czar.

CAROLINE: That makes mom the Czarina. I'm a Czarette. Like Anastasia.

CAROLINE: Did you meet the President?

BARBARA: Honey, your father knows the President.

CARL: We'll get through this, I promise. I'll make it up to you --

HELENA: How? Supportive letters from prison while I'm being kicked out of our home? Do you have any idea what is happening out here? Our credit cards are maxed. The people at the bank, you should see their faces when I walk in there. I have a letter from the government telling me that anything I sell from our house will be taken against an income tax lien. Our friends are behaving like the crowd at a public hanging. Nobody will help us. Nobody will take us in. Nobody wants anything to do with us. So tell me, Carl, how you're gonna make it up to me. Tell me again how we'll get through this, and maybe while you're at it you can put your hand up against the glass so we can have a tender moment of connection.

CARL: Helena --

HELENA: Tell me what to do, Carl. I need guidance, not a fucking platitude. I'm not bringing a child into the kind of life I grew up with. I won't do it. I want our life back.

CARL: How's David?

HELENA: How's David? How's David? He's terrific, Carl.

CARL: Helena --

HELENA: We watched his father get dragged away by federal agents. I don't even know how to begin to tell him where you are or when you're coming back... Or if you're coming back.

CARL: You all right?

HELENA: I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something.

CARL: Hi.

HELENA: Hi.

CARL: What's up?

HELENA: Just watching you.

CARL: I got that. How was your day?

ROBERT: What is wrong with you? What? You're going away. You're getting help somewhere.

CAROLINE: You can't make me.

ROBERT: Oh, yes I can.

ROBERT: Okay, young lady, that's it.

CAROLINE: Like I give a fuck.

ROBERT: Where is it? Where are the drugs? Where are they?

CAROLINE: Fuck you. I wasn't doing anything. You're like the Gestapo.

ROBERT: As it happens, the President of the United States, my new boss, the leader of the free world, has me penciled in for some "face time".

CAROLINE: Will we get invited to the White House?

ROBERT: I don't know.

CAROLINE: How long's the job?

ROBERT: It's a presidential appointment so... until I quit or get fired.

CAROLINE: What if every country legalized at the same time?

ROBERT: Somehow, I don't see that happening.

ROBERT: What's it like? Imagine you're being accosted by a swarm of beggars in the heart of Calcutta, except the beggars are wearing $1500 suits and they don't say "please" or "thank you."

CAROLINE: What about legalizing everything? Has anybody talked about that?

ROBERT: Fine -- legalization. Okay, forgetting all of our international trade agreements, legalize everything today. The Government inserts itself into all drug transactions. The U.S. becomes a giant pharmacy. Our borders are mobbed, lines of people from here to Europe wanting to smoke, snort and shoot themselves into oblivion.

SOCIAL WORKER: Private?

CAROLINE: Yeah.

SOCIAL WORKER: How are your grades?

CAROLINE: I'm third in my class.

SOCIAL WORKER: What's that mean?

CAROLINE: I get A's. All A's.

SOCIAL WORKER: You do? What else you do?

CAROLINE: I'm a National Merit Finalist. I'm on the Hi-Q team and the Math team. I'm in the Spanish Club. I'm a Thespian. I'm Vice-President of my class. I'm on the volleyball team.

SOCIAL WORKER: ...How old are you?

CAROLINE: Sixteen

SOCIAL WORKER: Live with your parents?

CAROLINE: Yes.

SOCIAL WORKER: Parents still together?

CAROLINE: Yes.

SOCIAL WORKER: Do you work?

CAROLINE: I volunteer. I read to blind people. One day a week for two hours.

SOCIAL WORKER: In school?

CAROLINE: Cincinnati Country Day.

SETH: Did Courtney Love play Nancy in Syd and Nancy?

CAROLINE: I think so. If she didn't she should have. I've only got maybe an hour. Then volleyball practice is over and I have to be home.

SETH: Why? Nobody's there.

SETH: You know my dad takes eight red cold pills every day? He and my mom have cocktail hour every night, from six to seven, set your clock, two bourbons --

CAROLINE: Maybe we could show up and smoke a little rock with them to unwind --

SETH: Yeah, then some dope to take the edge off at the end of a long day.

CAROLINE: Have you done your homework, honey?

SETH: Yes, mom --

CAROLINE: Then here's a little bump.

CAROLINE: Are you kidding... I'm staying with you --

SETH: He's gonna fucking die right here on the kitchen floor --

CAROLINE: Ach, that's what I'm talking about. Sarcasm. Always fucking sarcasm. You're afraid and you think if you admit it people will think you're weak or won't like you --

SETH: We live our lives by these unspoken rules that are handed to us.

SETH: Inhale the smoke and hold it.

CAROLINE: What is this, like freebase?

SETH: Not like. It is.

CAROLINE: What are you doing?

SETH: Just watch.

CASTRO: Remember when we sat on that mob guy, that chef, for like six months?

GORDON: Oh, man, I've never eaten so good in my life. Why don't you develop a useful skill?

CASTRO: Yeah, like turning into a beautiful woman.

GORDON: What do you think she wants?

CASTRO: She's your girlfriend. Open it, talk about your kids.

GORDON: What do we do?

CASTRO: I don't know.

GORDON: Are you getting this on tape?

CASTRO: I love my job. I love it. The next time I'm having a bad day you gotta remind me of right now and I'll get over it.

GORDON: You should see little Montel play. Little Montel is the next Maradona.

CASTRO: Maradona is a cokehead. Hand of God, my ass. We're wasting our time here.

GORDON: He won. He was a winner. That bothers you.

CASTRO: Winners don't do coke. Or haven't you been reading the bumper stickers?

CASTRO: They're whispering. I can't hear them, but I know it. I smell conspiracy. I feel the lie vibrating out of the home.

GORDON: She ain't in on it.

CASTRO: I have dreams about this, actual dreams about busting the top people, the rich people, the white people.

GORDON: I'm telling you, she doesn't know shit.

CASTRO: She knows Arnie Metzger.

GORDON: So does half of San Diego.

CASTRO: You want to make a wager on this?

GORDON: That's a big word for a fisherman.

CASTRO: Who do you work for?

CASTRO: Move 'em to Texas, fry 'em up.

GORDON: We got you on tape making the deal. We got you bragging about the quality. We got you bragging about your business. We got you.

GORDON: Chill out --

CASTRO: It's a funny fuckin' joke and it's quick. Why do women wear makeup and perfume?

CASTRO: No telltales. Nothing to read. Not touching my face. Not even blinking. No giveaways. How're you feeling?

GORDON: I feel good.

CASTRO: No more pissant basin league bullshit for us, hunh?

GORDON: Nope.

CLERK: What do you think it is?

ROBERT: Depends who it's from.

CLERK: Your friends at Warren, Putnam and Hudson.

ROBERT: You can learn a lot about somebody from this stuff. Three categories: you like me, you hate me, you want something from me. Definitely third category.

CLERK: What would a law firm want from the new drug Czar?

ROBERT: Depends on the state.

CLERK: Arizona.

ROBERT: Medicinal marijuana initiative. Or am I being cynical?

HELENA: Women's room, stall two. Should we stop for ice-cream?

DAVID: Yeah!

HELENA: David --

DAVID: We're playing!

HELENA: I'll put this in the back.

DAVID: No --

HELENA: All the professionals keep them in the trunk.

DAVID: Not Tiger Woods.

HELENA: Especially Tiger Woods. ...Actually, he keeps his on the back seat.

FRANCISCO: They're going to walk right past me.

HELENA: What are you? A mouse? Get out of the car and do it. This is your chance.

FRANCISCO: You were followed by the police, but they won't hear us over the children. I want to use a bomb.

HELENA: You're kidding. Can't you shoot him or something?

FRANCISCO: I don't really like guns. You shoot someone in the head three times and some doctor will keep them alive.

HELENA: When will you do it?

FRANCISCO: I don't know. Eduardo Ruiz is the only real witness against Carl. The security is very tight. There may not be a way.

HELENA: There's always a way. If people get to the Pope or the President, you can get to him.

FRANCISCO: Yes.

HELENA: I'm on a special phone, may I speak freely?

FRANCISCO: You may speak.

HELENA: I have a job for you and I don't have much time.

RUIZ: Can't you for a second imagine none of this had happened? That my drugs had gone through. What would have been the harm? A few people get high who are getting high anyway. Your partner is still alive. We avoid having breakfast together. Don't you see this means nothing? That your whole life is pointless?

GORDON: You're breaking my heart.

RUIZ: The worst thing about you, Monty, is you realize the futility of what you're doing and you do it anyway. I wish you could see how transparent you are. This food tastes like shit.

GORDON: So go shower already.

RUIZ: You only got to me because you were tipped off by the Juarez Cartel, who's trying to break into Tijuana. You're helping them. You work for a drug dealer too, Monty.

RUIZ: You expect me to be grateful for spending the rest of my life looking over my shoulder.

GORDON: That thought makes me feel awful.

RUIZ: This is ridiculous. Why is there no elevator?

GORDON: When the DEA gets into the narcotics business, then we'll stay at the Four Seasons.

GORDON: This attitude's not gonna help him any, is it?

RUIZ: I got greedy. I decided to bring a little in on my own and somebody tipped you off. That was my mistake. Carl would never be so stupid.

GORDON: He hired you. That was a mistake.

RUIZ: Carl and I were friends from childhood. He was loyal, that's not a mistake.

RUIZ: Carlos, I mean Carl, started out in the family connection business: real estate in Tijuana, fishing boats out of Ensenada, hydroponic raspberries. He met up with the Obregon brothers of the Tijuana Cartel who were interested in two things: entering society and using his fishing boats.

GORDON: So you pay off our customs officials?

RUIZ: In Mexico law enforcement is an entrepreneurial activity, this is not so true for the USA. Using regression analysis we made a study of the customs lanes at the border and calculated the odds of a search. The odds are not high, and we found variables that reduce the odds. We hire drivers with nothing to lose. Then we throw a lot of product at the problem. Some get stopped. Enough get through. It's not difficult.

GORDON: One chance here, Eduardo. Make us believe you got a boss. No boss, it's all on you.

RUIZ: It's a death sentence. I'll never make it to the trial.

GORDON: We can protect you.

GORDON: You planning on going somewhere, Eduardo? You don't like it here? This is the best situation you're going to have for a long, long time.

RUIZ: I am a legitimate business. Fishing boats. Tuna. Check it out. Tax records, everything --

GORDON: Listen you motherfucker, you tried to kill me with a fucking cannon.

RUIZ: You can't visit me here. I want my lawyer.

GORDON: The amount of coke we got on you means capital punishment in some states.

RUIZ: So, it's worth the wait, right? What can I do? Rent a Huey? Have an airlift? It's not like you can put it in a condom up some mule's asshole, right? How many peasants would that take? A line stretching from here to Mexico City --

GORDON: Nobody said shit, Eduardo --

SALAZAR: I want to know who is responsible for this treatment.

GUARD: Yes, sir!

SALAZAR: We aren't barbarians.

GUARD: Yes, sir!

SALAZAR: Bring this man a change of good clothes. Has he eaten?

GUARD: I don't know, sir.

SALAZAR: You will dine with me from now on.

HELENA: You will help me with my other problem.

MARQUEZ: Deliver that safely to Tigrillo in San Diego. And we have a deal.

MARQUEZ: Take this back with you. Deliver it safely to Tigrillo in San Diego and we have a deal.

HELENA: That's crazy. My husband is on trial for smuggling.

MARQUEZ: Exactly, and this is how I know I'm not getting into business with the U.S. Government.

MARQUEZ: That's good coke.

HELENA: It should be... It's yours. I want our debt forgiven. I want to be the exclusive distributor of Obregon Brothers Cocaine for the United States. And I want the principle witness against my husband, Eduardo Ruiz, killed.

MARQUEZ: Perhaps... Perhaps... I'm afraid I must first ask you to pass a test. I asked the same of your husband and he succeeded with flying colors.

MARQUEZ: You first.

HELENA: I'm six months pregnant. I won't do it.

MARQUEZ: Fine, then we don't have deal.

HELENA: Fine, then we don't have a deal.

HELENA: Every part, from his ears to his accessory belt, is high-impact, pressure-molded cocaine. Odorless. Undetectable by dogs. Undetectable by anyone.

MARQUEZ: I don't believe you.

HELENA: My husband had been working on something he called, The Project for the Children. Are you aware of this?

MARQUEZ: I don't know. Perhaps I remember something.

HELENA: We have the ability to change the color, odor, and physical property of cocaine.

MARQUEZ: You want to smuggle narcotics in Mr. Espastico Jacobo. That's nothing new.

HELENA: Not in...

HELENA: Yes, he threatened to kill my five year-old son. I was under the impression I would be meeting Juan Obregon.

MARQUEZ: No, this is not possible. And I thank you for coming down here, though I suspect it's been a pointless journey.

HELENA: Why do you say that, Mr. Marquez?

MARQUEZ: I hear these stories. Your husband in jail. His business in chaos. Various people fighting over the scraps.

HELENA: My husband is the victim of an informer in your organization, not ours.

MARQUEZ: That is not true, Mrs. Ayala. Your route is compromised. Perhaps it is time for me to deal with other distributors in California.

HELENA: I don't think you're going to do that.

MARQUEZ: You don't? Listen to this woman in a man's world, a very violent world.

HELENA: There are plenty of other suppliers in Mexico.

MARQUEZ: But not in whose interest it is to help you out of debt.

MANOLO: Javi! Come on. Don't pull this you don't care bullshit. This is incredible information. It must be. Javi --

JAVIER: We keep our mouths shut.

MANOLO: Madrigal's alive.

JAVIER: What?

MANOLO: Porfirio Madrigal is not dead. I just saw him.

MANOLO: It's no problem. I was just with everybody we work with.

JAVIER: Oh, really. General Salazar was there?

MANOLO: No, but a lot of other people. You should come. You should come out with us.

JAVIER: Go home. Get cleaned up. Get to work. Salazar is heading down to Mexico City next week and I'm not getting left behind. Don't fuck this up.

MANOLO: A group of us are going out tonight.

JAVIER: Who?

MANOLO: Guzman, Tomas, Esteban --

JAVIER: Your new friends.

MANOLO: Yeah. It should be fun. You wanna come?

JAVIER: Not this time.

MANOLO: This is fucking crazy. Instead of killing us, he sends us on a suicide mission. Do you know who Frankie Flowers is? He's a psycho-cokehead- hitman. A faggot. He's killed fucking who knows how many people. You'd need half the force to get close to him. And you can't get their help because he lives in fucking San Diego.

JAVIER: Then I guess I'm going by myself.

MANOLO: Please. Filing a report will not help you find your car.

JAVIER: The police won't find your car.

JAVIER: If you want her to stay out of it, then stop telling her everything. You should learn how to keep a secret.

MANOLO: She's nosy. She hears me on the telephone.

JAVIER: Anyway, I don't think we'll ever see them again. Everything's back to normal.

JAVIER: Relax. If they were going to kill us they would have done it in the desert.

MANOLO: They wouldn't do it in front of all these people. They'd send someone later, when we're alone.

MANOLO: Wasn't that General Salazar?

JAVIER: Yeah.

MANOLO: What's he doing up here?

JAVIER: I don't know. Something.

JOHNSON: You should feel good about this.

JAVIER: I feel like a traitor.

JAVIER: It's important that we work together. Mexico. America. One hand washing the other.

JOHNSON: We agree.

JAVIER: So... maybe you tell me about your informants in our operations.

JOHNSON: We thought maybe you'd have that kind of information for us.

JAVIER: This is a very different proposition.

JOHNSON: Somewhere safe.

JAVIER: Where?

JOHNSON: A place we have, that we know is protected.

JAVIER: No.

SALAZAR: You watch and learn. I earn his trust. Then more pain. Then I appear with kindness. Within a week he will follow me around like a dog.

JAVIER: But will he be house-trained?

SALAZAR: When he loves me like a father, he will never tell anyone he was here. He will freely give the names of his superiors. Then we get them and they too will give us names. And eventually somebody will get us to Juan Obregon and the cartel will fall.

SALAZAR: I'm curious how you did this with such economy.

JAVIER: Everybody has a weakness.

JAVIER: Does this offer include my partner?

SALAZAR: Only if he can be trusted.

JAVIER: He'll do what I say.

SALAZAR: That's your past. I want to talk about your future. Would you be willing to do something for me?

JAVIER: If I can.

SALAZAR: I'm trying to bust the Tijuana Cartel.

JAVIER: What is it you want me to do?

SALAZAR: A small thing. Nothing really.

SALAZAR: One question. How did you find about this?

JAVIER: An informant.

SALAZAR: What is the name of your informant?

JAVIER: It was an anonymous tip.

SALAZAR: What's your name?

JAVIER: Javier Rodriguez.

SALAZAR: Well, Javier Rodriguez, you've done a very good job, but we'll take care of it from here.

ROBERT: Let me ask you a hypothetical question: if Salazar worked for Madrigal and the Juaraz cartel, and he went out of power, would it mean the Juarez Cartel is losing influence?

JAVIER: It could mean that, yes.

ROBERT: That would probably mean the Tijuana Cartel is gaining power?

JAVIER: It's possible.

ROBERT: Is it possible to have a Drug Czar in Mexico who isn't connected in some war to one of the cartels?

ROBERT: The cocaine brand, 911, is an East Coast brand, a Juarez Cartel brand, and you must know it usually comes through into El Paso?

JAVIER: I'm aware of that.

ROBERT: So what's it doing in Tijuana?

MICHAEL: My work keeps me young.

ROBERT: Which part, getting terrorists loose on bail or freeing convicted murderers on technicalities?

MICHAEL: The worst serial killer in history - who? Gacy - right? Killed forty two people. Our government killed fifty thousand in Vietnam and lied about it every day.

ROBERT: Michael, you represent drug dealers, not civil libertarians.

MICHAEL: We kidnapped Noriega out of Panama. Is that covered in your Constitution? Because it isn't in mine.

ROBERT: Noriega is a criminal.

MICHAEL: Noriega was head of a sovereign nation who made the mistake of doing business with the U.S. Government. So, no, I don't have a problem waking up every day and fighting our government, fighting people like you, trying to keep this system a little bit honest.

ROBERT: Last I read your clients were chopping people up with chainsaws and delivering illegal narcotics into this country.

MICHAEL: I hope when you were on the bench, Judge Wakefield, you didn't handle the presumption of innocence in the same fashion.

ROBERT: If I ever return to the bench, Counselor Adler, I hope I have the pleasure of hearing your arguments.

OFFICIAL: The busiest land border crossing in the world. Over forty-one thousand vehicles per day, twenty-two thousand pedestrians on foot. I think we do a pretty good job but we know a lot of drugs are still getting through.

ROBERT: Any idea how much?

OFFICIAL: I've read official estimates but I wouldn't bet my house on them. I've heard the entire cocaine supply for the United States can fit into four tractor-trailers. At least a half-dozen of those cars right out there are carrying a load of dope, with drivers employed by people who don't give a damn if they're caught or not.

ROBERT: What do you look for?

OFFICIAL: We ask questions and measure the answers. When something doesn't ring true, a fact that doesn't make sense, a slight hesitation, then it's off to secondary for a closer look. Before NAFTA we had about 1.9 million trucks a year. Now it's almost double. Pretty soon there'll be Mexican truck companies that will have as much freedom in crossing the border as American truck companies.

ROBERT: Any way we can do it better?

OFFICIAL: Sure. More money in intelligence on their side of the border. So we have a better idea who we're looking for. More dogs. More people. Supposed to be getting some giant x- ray machines to run the trucks through. Outside of martial law that's about the best you're gonna do. But, I should tell you, there are two things that really have us on edge right now. In the last six months seizures have tripled, even though we're pulling over the same number of cars. What does that tell you?

ROBERT: That triple the amount of stuff is going through.

OFFICIAL: Right. But, that's not the biggest problem. One of our Intel officers picked up information from DEA that traffickers have come up with a process, a chemical process, to turn coke into something else. It doesn't smell like coke. It doesn't look like coke. And what's worse, it doesn't react to field test. It could be anything. Maybe it's already happening. I mean, how would we know?

SKETCH: Who the fuck do you think you are? Where the fuck do you think you are? Why the fuck do you think I shouldn't just put you in a dumpster?

ROBERT: I have money --

SKETCH: I got money.

ROBERT: I'll pay you a thousand dollars. I have it in my wallet.

SKETCH: I want your money, I'll take your money.

ROBERT: Just tell me where she is.

ROBERT: I'm looking for my daughter, Caroline. She comes here.

SKETCH: This is a business. Get the fuck outta here.

ROBERT: I need to find my daughter. I'll pay you.

SETH: I don't know, maybe we missed her.

ROBERT: I can't believe you used to bring my daughter here, to this place.

SETH: Hey man, back the fuck up. To this place. What's that shit? Right now, all over this country, a hundred thousand white people from the suburbs are driving around downtown asking every black person they see, You got any drugs? You know where I can get drugs? What kind of effect you think this has on the psyche of a black person, on their possibilities? If you sent a hundred thousand black people into your neighborhood, Indian Hills, and they asked every white person they saw, hey, you got any drugs?, within a day, your friends and their kids would be selling. It's market forces, man. The product's marked up three hundred percent. You can go out on the street and make five hundred bucks in two hours and then do whatever you want for the rest of the day. You think white people would still be going to law school?

SETH: Hey man, I'm sorry. I'm just trying to help.

ROBERT: You want to help? Stay the fuck away from her.

ROBERT: Can you tell me anything? Do you have any ideas?

SETH: I don't know what to say.

ROBERT: I'm not the police. I don't care about experimentation. She's a kid. I'm worried to death.

SETH: You won't say anything to my parents?

ROBERT: I don't give a fuck about your parents --

SETH: We sometimes went downtown to score.

ROBERT: What?

SETH: The West End. We buy it off the streets. I can stop, you know, and she can't. Two people, really similar, we can talk about anything, but for me it's like a weekend thing, then I get my shit together, and for her it's different --

ROBERT: You don't know what the hell you're talking about. You're a cocky seventeen year-old and you don't have a clue what the stakes are. You don't know the value of the life you've yet to throw away. And neither does she.

SETH: She's not at that place you sent her?

ROBERT: She snuck away. And we haven't seen her. She hasn't come home.

SETH: Oh, man --

ROBERT: She hasn't called you?

SETH: I tried to talk to her when she was up there, but they wouldn't put me through. I'm surprised she hasn't called.

ROBERT: You've been making very good progress against the Tijuana cartel.

SALAZAR: Yes, I am confident that Juan Obregon will be taken into custody before the end of the year. But, you must understand that it is very difficult because of corruption in the police force. We get a tip that he is one place, then we get there and he is already gone, having been warned by someone on our side.

ROBERT: Hopefully the exchange of training methods and information between our countries will help with this problem.

SALAZAR: Yes, I hope so as well.

ROBERT: Let me ask you a related question. We've talked about the supply side, but what about demand? What is your policy for treating addiction?

SALAZAR: Addicts treat themselves... they overdose and then there's one less to worry about.

SALAZAR: I recruited the best men in Mexico for my task force and put them through a rigorous screening process. Not only physical, but also psychological.

ROBERT: I'd like to bring you up to Washington, walk you around our side of things, and share some of the information we've been able to develop on your cartels.

SALAZAR: That would be very helpful to me. Also, I received the offer from DEA and the FBI to train some of my men at Quantico. I think this will be extremely useful, a good way for us to absorb some of your methods.

SHERIDAN: Salazar's been taken down. He was working for Porfirio Madrigal.

ROBERT: What? I thought Madrigal was dead. I thought it was verified.

SHERIDAN: Apparently not. Look, it's a shit storm here right now. When are you coming back? I don't know what to tell people any more.

ROBERT: I'll get there as soon as I can.

SHERIDAN: If we're moving the press conference, we need to do it now. Are you all right?

ROBERT: Hello.

SHERIDAN: I'm sorry... Did I wake you?

SHERIDAN: I just want to be clear about one thing. I used to work for him, but now I work for you. I'm not a partisan person, I'm an issue person. In the next few weeks, if you allow me, we'll get you well-versed on an incredible array of issues. The most important of which, in my opinion, being Mexico. I know everybody that you're gonna meet. It's important that they like you. It's not important that they like me. That's why I can help protect you.

ROBERT: Like you protected Landry?

SHERIDAN: I see where you're going with that, but if I could just say something, which is basically that a guy like Landry is so autocratic he doesn't know how to let himself be helped; it's a point of pride to take every bullet, no matter who fired it, or whether it was even aimed at him, which personally I think it very self-defeating. Now, don't get me wrong, he's a man of enormous integrity, but there's a political component to this job that the General just didn't have any patience for.

ROBERT: Who do we interface with on their side?

SPECIAL-AGENT-IN-CHARGE: What do you mean?

ROBERT: I mean, who runs interdiction on the Mexico side?

SPECIAL-AGENT-IN-CHARGE: I don't know. I don't think there's any one person. See the problem is the Juarez cartel owns everything and everybody, all the property on the Mexican side, sometimes all the property on both sides. Warehouses, transportation, even tunnels. It's very organized.

ROBERT: He died in a liposuction surgery, right?

SPECIAL-AGENT-IN-CHARGE: Right. Now it's used by somebody from the Juarez Cartel, one of his lieutenants... Who knows? Every damn day there's birthday party. At first I thought they must have three hundred children, then I realized they're taunting us. Three miles away and we can't touch them. Ha, ha, ha.

ROBERT: Who are these guys?

SPECIAL-AGENT-IN-CHARGE: Agents who died in the field.

SETH: What do we do? Okay. Fucked-up Bowman's turning blue. Doctor. We need a doctor.

VANESSA: Your dad's a doctor. Call him --

SETH: He's a research doctor. You're dad's a doctor, too --

VANESSA: What kind of research?

SETH: Mapping the fucking pig genome. We'll call your dad, he's a neurosurgeon --

VANESSA: It's three a.m. I'm not supposed to be here. I snuck out --