Billy Maddox Takes His Shot - A Border Patrol Novel (Excerpt)

This book excerpt comes from the forthcoming literary novel, Billy Maddox Takes His Shot: A Border Patrol Story.

It is 1999 and the last of three major Border Patrol operations from the past decade–Operation Safeguard–has ramped up throughout Tucson Sector including in the small border town of Nogales, Arizona. Over the past decade, Mexican subsidies for rural farmers and the devaluation of the peso have resulted in a surge of illegal border crossings along the United States’ southwestern border, leading to the deployment of hundreds of more Border Patrol agents, technologies and deterrence resources than ever before.

Into this environment arrives Billy Maddox, a young man who hails from a ranching family in Cochise County and who becomes part of the demographic of new agents hired, sworn and trained to protect the United States from illegal crossings. His personal history has led to impulsiveness and anger management problems. Billy has a history of lost jobs and his wife has threatened to leave him if this job with the Border Patrol doesn't work out.

The border, however, is where his problems began. When Billy was a boy, his younger brother was killed in a shootout between drug mules and Border Patrol agents on the family ranch. After his parents sold the ranch and fled to Tucson to escape bad memories, Billy was raised by a dominating and now xenophobic father to despise Mexicans and others who would cross into the United States.

In a scene readers can link to below, Billy is deployed with several other agents across downtown Nogales, to prevent anyone from "slipping" into the United States. Trouble comes when a local approaches Billy and explains that he has witnessed several men exiting a nearby abandoned house.

It is Billy's first experience with a tunnel that undocumented aliens have built under the international border fence. He is the first to arrive on the scene and comes face to face with a knife-wielding criminal.

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