They made it into the diner before the rain started to fall in large heavy drops. Entering the diner, a number of patrons shouted, “Hi, Ed.”Ed rai...ed a hand and waved to everyone as he replied, “Hi, everyone. It looks like a little rain is headed this way.”One of the men at the counter turned and asked, “Are you always that prone to understatement?”“Yes, except when it comes to describing how beautiful my wife is, then words fail me,” replied Ed. The statement was greeted with laughter around. No wonder our guys couldn’t find his finger prints, he was Canadian and wouldn’t be part of our regular database searches. But his employer here stateside was responsible for finger printing, criminal background and everything else. Of course that goes to the immigration people at ICE who makes it part of the database. At the time of my inquiry, ICE was four months behind on scanning the data into their system.At least the Border Patrol tagged this guy crossing the border and called ICE, who. The time had passed 3am, the hourly check in code given on the radio communications to ensure their safety so they,d doze off till the next check at 4am. Suddenly both alsatians alerted quietly springing to their feet and acting agitated, a sure sign they,d either heard or smelled something nearby. “Probably a damned deer or a rabbit” airman second class Chuck Meyers grumbled. “ Or another fucking rabbit” airman third class Woody Cohn added. Woody climbed the stairs up to the tower to get a. I’d gotten up to take a piss around six the next morning, and lazily wondered how big Linda’s head was going to be after her party. I hadn’t heard her come in, but I chalked it up to sleeping soundly. Heading back to bed, I idly picked up my index cards and was casually re-sorting them when I heard a heavy, banging knock on the front door. Dropping my cards on the bed, I sat up and wondered who it could be. Suddenly, I got a cold knot in the pit of my stomach. Linda! Without checking to see who.