Borderline [On hold for major revision]

Chapter 1: On the Border

Chapter 1

Man, the sun is hot. You can never truly know how hot the sun is until you're walking back and forth in the California desert all day. Like I’ve done for a living for the past five years.

"Agent Tucker, we've got a blip in Section 14," my radio squawked.

I sighed, even though I knew no one was listening. Section 14 had been giving us Border Patrol agents a lot of grief the last couple weeks. It was one of those spots that only the big criminals knew about—the hardcore drug dealers and gang leaders. No nice old immigrants looking for a fresh start in Section 14.

"Alright, I'll check it out," I replied, pressing the talk button on the walkie-talkie. "Just one?"

"Looks like. You need backup?"

I thought for a moment. "Nah, I'll be good. If he's crossing in broad daylight he probably isn't the smartest guy."

"If you say so," the voice on the other end said indifferently. He probably had to make other calls with similar messages to several other agents. No time to shoot the breeze with me. Oh well, I had more important things to shoot anyway. At least that’s how things normally seemed to turn out.

I jogged the quarter mile to where my Jeep was waiting, already sweating profusely. Before driving off I took a moment to take in the landscape so I could know exactly where I was going. There was practically nothing but the orangish-yellow sand for miles around, but there were several plants and far in the distance I could see an area with many more hills than the flat ground I was currently patrolling. That would be Section 14, a really bumpy area and difficult to navigate. I took my keys out of my pocket and a second later I was in the car and driving west, leaving small clouds of dust in my wake.

A couple minutes of hazardous driving later I pulled up in what was roughly Section 14. There aren't exact markers noting the location, though, so I can't always be exactly sure.

A quick glance around told me that whoever caused a blip on the radar wasn't close enough to be in my field of vision, which meant I had to use technology. I prefer to rely on gut-instinct rather than techno stuff, but in situations like this I allow myself to dip into the Border Patrol's resources.

I took my phone out of my pocket and pressed a button to turn it on. The real-time satellite imagery immediately came up on the screen, still on from the last time I used it. I typed in my agent ID number and the map was instantly overlaid with information on the location of other agents, local ranches, and small dots representing unauthorized persons crossing the border.

The dots weren't foolproof, however; there were probably several illegal immigrants we miss every day. If you ask me, it's because border patrolmen rely too much on the fancy tech to find the bad guys for them and don't actually do any work themselves. But no one else seems to share this opinion, so there isn't much I can do about it.

I found the small red dot I was looking for and noted where it was located relative to my current position. That wasn’t too difficult. The hard part is finding the actual person the tiny dot represents. Some of these people are better at stealth than others, and sometimes it's not even a person I'm after. The satellite just detects unauthorized organisms in tagged areas, and sometimes mistakes larger animals, such as coyotes or big dogs, for people. It really bugs me when that happens but, knowing Section 14, that's probably not the case here.

I jogged toward roughly where the dot was and once again scanned the area. The way the heat reflected on the ground can play tricks on the eyes, so I'm always careful not to go running guns blazing towards something that's not even there.