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A few weeks ago, a bud who works for the Border Patrol invited me along to field test a van full of communications equipment. I knew him from years back and I myself had worked for some years for the feds, so I was cool. Sure enough, it was one of those humvee type things. Once we got strapped he showed me all sort of neat stuff, infrared scans of the surrounding aread, feedback from sensors along the rio grande river, internet hookups, etc. etc. We really wanted to put it through its paces so we drove through some caliche half-finished roads into the boonies, where the river empties into the gulf reefs. These roads are very desolate and spooky. The illegal aliens do not like crossing through there though the drug cartels regularly use them. To our surprise we stumbled into some sort of FBI/Border Patrol checkpoint of which even my bud had no idea existed. These guys were all straight out of Rambo movies and seemed very jumpy. They made us get out of the humvee and --to my surprise, given that I follow the mythos-- were not as concerned whether we were legally in the US but...whether we were human! I mean it! They were about to X ray us when one of them recognized my bud and vouched for him. They told us to get the hell out of there, pronto, as it would be night soon. I kind of chuckled at that, I mean, what is this, Dr.Van Helsing's advise, and got a gun shoved in my face by a very irate fellow. At that point, something like a firefight could be heard starting up a mile or so down the road at another post. Their radio was crackling and there were all frantic calls to go into perimeter defense now!. My bud and I scrambled out of there real fast. The humvee's sensors showed movement converging on the checkpoint --where is sigourney weaver when you need her?-- and about to cut off the road. I let my bud know this most emphatically and he gunned the humvee. He thinks he saw something but was too busy trying to keep the vehicle on the road and isn't sure of what he saw. No, I did not see a thing, no viscous amorphous shoggoth or whatever and my gaze was fixed on the sensors. However, at that point, I can assure you I was thinking; "this cannot be, HP was only a novelist...oh jesus!" As we got farther away, the sound of gunfire intensified behind us and we heard the sound of choppers. Later, my bud asked around in the BP but no one would give him an inkling of what was going on. Of course I could find nothing in the civilian media. I don't think these folks were having it out with illegal immigrants or drug dealers. No, Tommy Lee Jones did not ask me to stare into a bright light while he put on dark glasses. My bud has advised me against discussing it since he does not want any more talk of it to be spread. As far as I know, the checkpoints are still manned, though I do not intend to go verify. My bud is frankly pissed off with what happened, though I thought it was a good field test for the equipment; anyways, he has always had a hard time adjusting to Texas, it being so dry and he being from some old port around boston. Anyway, I thought there would be no harm in sharing these events, which took place the first week of August of this year in south Texas. And if I am lying, may I become shoggoth poop. Since my friend checks this newsgroup regularly, I am sure he will be pleasantly surprised to find it discussed here. |