Monday, June 18, 2012

  The morning sun rose with a glaring ferocity and speed that nearly blinded him. As the brilliant flashes of multicolored light bounced off the chrome trim of the big Kenworth W900 and refracted through the windshield, Lane Rogers winced and squinted his eyes into the harsh glare. His aviation styled sunglasses were almost useless against the bright light and his brow was furrowed as he squeezed his eyes tighter to try to block some of the rays.  
  "Cowboy,you ok up there?" Justin Hall's voice crackled over his cb radio's external speaker. "You're weaving and swerving just a little bit. You aren't going to sleep on me are you?"
  "I'm alright Gunner" Lane replied. "This sun popped over the horizon like a missile out of a Kansas silo and caught me by surprise,that's all."
  "10-4, just checkin' up on ya. We can't afford an accident today."
  "I know that's the truth!" Lane replied again. "I don't even want to think about how bad that would ruin my day."
  "Ha ha! Your's and a whole lot of other people around here" Justin retorted.
  "Hey! You guys watch your mouths on those damn cb radios. Those are public channels you're yackin' on. You're going to put yourselves in one helluva bind if you aren't careful!" This new voice crackled in an ear bud inserted in Lane's left ear and it belonged to his and Justin's boss, Tony Jackson.
 "Yes sir" Lane and Justin both replied at once,knowing the microphones mounted in the cabs of their trucks would easily transmit everything they were saying directly to Langley,Virginia where Tony was sitting in his conference room with 4 other men monitoring their progress. They also both smiled into the tiny cameras mounted on the drivers side windshield panel,knowing that those grins would only infuriate Tony that much more.
  The smiles had their desired effect as Tony sputtered in their ears "Just remember,if you guys wreck,or in any other way compromise yourselves, you are not the only ones affected. You need to keep in mind that what you are doing is severely dangerous and that you could be responsible for thousands of lives."
  "Yes sir!" 

 The two behemoth trucks continued to roll down the highway into the morning sun. Lane was thinking about all the work that had been done to these two giant trucks to get them ready for this one single run. Over a half million dollars had been spent customizing the machines to make them perfect for the task they were designed for. The new video monitoring system consisted of four cameras inside the truck as well as four on the cabs exterior. They were all disguised to look like normal parts of the truck's custom decor and trim,but in reality,you couldn't get within thirty feet of the rig without being seen on the two sets of in cab monitors as well as the ones connected via remote feed to Jackson's office in Virginia.
 There was also the new high tech alarm system that would render the truck's computer inoperable without the thumbprint recognition of the driver assigned to the rig. It could also be remotely shut down from Virginia in the case of a hostile takeover.
  Then the highly unconventional steel armored plating that had been added inside the body panels of the doors and cab. This increased the truck's overall weight by nearly twenty thousand pounds.
 The specialized communications equipment including scrambled radios to reach Langley and Jackson's staff had cost nearly thirty thousand dollars. But, Jackson had insisted that it was better than their agency issued cell phones.
 The final touch was the expensive cb radios which Lane and Justin had each chosen for their rigs. Both of these were professionally tweaked and had huge five thousand watt linear amplifiers built in. With these radios,they could communicate with each other from as far apart as 60 miles,although they never hoped to be out of sight of each other.
  As they continued to roll towards the Louisiana state line on I-10 through Texas,they chattered back and forth on their radios and with other drivers around them. Little did they know, that someone else was listening in on every word they said, someone who had yet to speak back to them.

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