Fly Into Black
by Michael G. Crawford
Chapter Twelve
Richter leaned the nose of the Apache forward, panning the wide top of the plateau with his night vision goggles. Ahead he only spotted the tiny flares of scurrying ground creatures, nothing large enough to be a human, not even a shielded one.
He let moved the rudders swinging the nose in an arc, first to the left, then sweeping 100 degrees back to the right. Completing his scan, he pulled back on the collective - the lift controls of the helicopter - and danced over to the next ridge. This was, a weeks of experience had taught him, the area where a large number of border crossings took place. With the dense brush, and numerous tunnel entrances, it was a perfect place to spot large groups crossing. With his high tech gear, he had stopped four different drug mules and their hapless hostages, young Mexican's hoping to steal into the U.S. and earn their below minimum wage fortune. With the armored helo, he had withstood their small ground fire, and kept watch over them until the rest of the squadron could arrive. He knew the tactic wouldn't last long, someone was bound to sell the rich smugglers a shoulder rocket one day. Then the ECM gear aboard his Special Forces version of the Apache would be put into work, and the Cyclops Anti AAM missiles would hopefully solve the problem.
He swung the chopper over onto the next ridge, performing the same bowing action, hoping not to see anyone. He sincerely hoped that only the hard core folks would continue to cross the border. With the headlines, and the almost certain person to person traffic, it was clear that the U.S. borders were closed. In fact, the application of sophisticated U.S. armament in the "fight" for border control was seemingly working to scare all but the smugglers away.
It was the expected result, and it performed two functions for the U.S. First it served to decrease the illegals crossing, and the attendent effects upon the U.S. economy and welfare systems. Secondly, it was now easier to use increasing force to match the increasingly better armed smugglers. His hope was that the human cover the smugglers typically used to cover their actions would be drying up as a direct result of the increase in violence of the crossings.
It certainly had proven the point to the government of both the U.S. and Mexico. There were people who depended upon the open border to do their business, and the numbers were two magnitudes greater than the U.S. government had estimated. The results of the cutoff of "free" passage, and the U.S. three day work party rule had effectively cut down on those coming across the border to make their life's fortune.
The location of several hundred Semiconductor factories on the Mexican side of the border had also helped curb the migration. Why would someone chance death coming across the border illegally, when there was plenty of work available in the factories where you didn't have to cross illegally. Of course it helped the Mexican economy as well, the infusion of American dollars also increasing by a magnitude.
Richter noted the flash of infrared on the wide band receiver display, and hopped over to another ridge, to keep watch on the portion of the horizon the gear had indicated. This could be a large animal, such as a mountain goat, or mountain lion.
Or it could be human. And it was. He picked out enough heat for at least three people, if not more. He dropped down behind the ridge and waited for them to get a little closer. Then he rose up out of the canyon, making lots of noise and flashing on the navigation lights only. This would scare off those only interested in crossing for jobs, and serve, perhaps, to offer a choice target to a smuggler with a missile.
But no flares of missile launches could be seen, so he moved in on the the ten distinct infrared signatures he now spotted. With increased caution, he approached the group head on, as they attempted to scurry behind bushes and rocks thinking that darkness alone could hide them.
Then as he switched on the powerful spotlight, he started the recording in Spanish, which translated to
"Please stand and walk back toward your country. This is your only warning. The U.S. border is closed. Any further attempts to cross illegally will result in gunfire. We do not wish to harm our neighbors, but be advised, the border is now closed."
He let the recording boom out of the speaker for another two repeats. Of the ten people, seven fled. As he dropped in closer, the red flashes of gunfire pinpointed the positions of the other three. Yes, another couple of mules who had lost their human cover. He armed the guns, and straffed a line behind the three, the tracers making an awful picture in the night, and the sound of the guns no doubt. But as a figure stepped out boldly from behind what Crash assumed was a huge boulder, he lurched back on the collective and flipped open the arming switch for the Cyclops system.
But switching from infrared to low-light, he saw that it was a man surrendering, his compainions also standing up.
"Birddog Control, this is Six."
"Go ahead Six."
"I have three here, sending position."
He reached over and triggered the MilStar transmitter, and within a milli-second, the satellite pinpointed his position within 1000 feet. Then his data link relayed that position, again through the satellite, to his INS control station. Within thirty minutes a pickup chopper with a handful of INS people would arrive to arrest the smugglers, destroy their cargo, and take them to one of the new "Smuggler's Inn" located at intervals along the border. They would serve a two year sentence for smuggling. They were lucky, since there was no physical evidence of the shooting, only the Judge would be apprised of it during sentencing.
When the INS chopper arrived and took over the prisoners, he lifted clear of the ridge, and blasted along to another area 4 miles to the East. Certainly he wasn't covering the entire border, but he and the other ten Special Forces vets were making one helluva dent in the drug traffic. And if the intelligence predictions were true, they would have a well established and well equipped method of stopping the inrush of illegals trying to cross. They might even close this new open doorway to the terrorists.