Hunting Humans

Actor spent a long time thinking about the dynamic of what he was doing: hunting humans.  "After all", he thought, "that's exactly what the government pays me to do".  It wasn't like the combat a Marine experiences; the Border Patrol was of a different quality.  Hunting humans as a Border Patrol Agent was a more solitary affair than it had been in the Marines.  In the Marines, Actor had numerous other Marines around him.  he was their leader; their Lieutenant.

In the Border Patrol, Actor hunted by himself.  At the most, during a chase, he would hunt with one other Agent.    This was the case with all Agents in the Old Patrol.  They would team-up for a chase.  It went faster that way.

Actor liked night hunting most of all.  Signcutting and chasing the sign was a huge thrill but, most of all, Actor loved was the Old Patrol called "Stillwatch" or "Laying-In".  Stillwatch was similar to what Actor had learned in the Marine Corps as "Ambush".  Actor loved to do stillwatch at night.

Night hunting is closed-in by darkness.  Everything seems to be closer than it really is.  Even when the sky is cloudless and the moon in at its full phase the darkness creates a protective veil of anonymity that cannot be pierced unless the hunter wishes it to be.  Secluded along a like point of entry or near an expected course of Tonk travel, Actor and his fellow Agents could wait to spring their apprehension at a time they chose.

Tonks often though stillwatch was unfair to them; especially when it resulted in their arrest.  Actor knew better.  It was the Tonk who decided to enter the Yankee Nation without inspection.  It was the Tonk who chose the spot at which he would "Jump the Line" with the intent of not being detected.  It was the Tonk who chose to sneak.  Actor and his fellow Agents chose to stillwatch in order to play by the Tonk's rules.

Stillwatch at night necessitated proper precautions: not bathing in scented soap before the shift began, not smoking, chewing or dipping during the stillwatch, not using a flashlight for any reason and completely concealing the Agent's vehicle.  Sometimes the vehicle concealment would mean placing it in "hull defalade" behind a canal bank.  Other times, it would require Actor to hide his vehicle in a citrus grove or on a crowded parking lot (if the stillwatch was done in town).

When laid-in, Actor had plenty of time to think.  The subject of his thoughts were usually centered-around lessons taught to him by senior agents such as Mundo, Dean, Anglico or Terry.  Sometimes when Actor was stillwatching he had one of his own Trainees with him.  Before they laid-in, Actor would tell the Trainee to do nothing but watch what he did.  The only time the Trainee was to act was if the Tonks were combative and were too numerous for Actor to subdue on his own.  That was they way the older Agents had taught Actor and it was the way Actor taught his Trainees.

Laying-in at night (or even in the daylight) offered solid proof to the Tonks that there was actually someone who could anticipate their movements; that there was someone just a little smarter than they were.  For Actor, the activity was a validation of all he had learned from the Agents who had gone before him.  If he could get inside the Tonk's heads for even a short period of time, he knew that he could rain all over their parade.  That was the way it had always been done - ever since there was a Border Patrol.

Deo Vindice