It was 29 years since Sean had been a border security guard. Just the night before he and his 4 co-workers had a celebration at the local club to bring in Sean’s 30th year. They started off with the usual banter and lousy jokes but soon moved on to sharing stories from their years at the border. For them the job was their bread, their butter and their everything.

Mike who was the youngest with just 1 year on the job did not have much in terms of stories but he wanted to participate in the contribution. “Do you guys know of Devlon enterprises?” he asked. They all nodded their heads.

Devlon was the most prominent of the carriers that crossed the country’s borders. Several of their huge trucks went past each day. Also, if one saw one of their trucks, one would never forget them. They were a sight to behold. The colour of the midnight sky, painted with stars and stardust, these huge trucks stood out against the arid landscape. In a flowing cursive, the name ‘Devlon’ was printed on both sides. But they did not really need the name, because if you ever saw a starry sky truck, you would not think of anything else.

“Aren’t their trucks the coolest”, said Spence taking a swig of his beer. They all nodded. “Have you gone inside one of them?” They all nodded again. Given an opportunity who would not. Devlon had their fingers in every pie and so their trucks carried everything. From clothes, to stationery, to mobile phone chargers and even hair pins. Devlon did not manufacture any of these themselves. They sourced the items from the developing nations and sold them to the rich world. And their cargo went only by road through this border gate all around the continent.

 “Do you think they are smuggling something?” asked Mike. They all shook their heads and looked quite surprised at the suggestion. When they continued staring at Mike, he was forced to continue. “ Ummm…….,” said Mike scratching his chin.  “maybe I am wrong”.  They all nodded again and Rooster whose name was actually Arthur took out his deck of cards. This was a perfect night for some playing and betting. He did not want to leave without making some dough.

But Robin’s curiosity made him ask, “why do you suspect Devlon, Mike? Have you seen something unusual?”  Before Mike could reply, there was a loud roar of “Not this work talk now.” That was Rudolph, the brashest and most bossy of the guys. “Hey man, let the boy talk,” said Spence nudging Mike.

Mike cleared his throat and then began, “The other night when I was on duty a Devlon truck came by to cross to the other side. It was late for one of their trucks, past 10 pm.” “That’s unusual,” said Sean “never in my 29 years have I seen their truck go by post 7 pm. ” ‘That’s what I had been told too,” said Mike.

“Was it an emergency delivery?” asked Rooster. “Yea, said so on the papers,” said Mike. “Aha!! There you have it,” sneered Rooster. “Umm, yea,” said Mike. “Well, that’s done then, we can begin our game now.”

“So, what made you suspicious?” asked Spence. “Well, for one, the delivery was to a warehouse right over the border. There did not seem to be any urgent requirement of medicines, which was the cargo, in that country.” Mike stopped and took a deep breath. He then took a sip of water and continued, “I checked the medicines, they were over the counter generic drugs. There was not a single specialty drug in the list. So why did they have to go across and drop them at a location just 20 minutes across the border so late at night?”

“Why did you not ask the driver then; you suspicious boy?” asked Rudolph who was keen to get this stupid discussion over with. A game was what he wanted and it wasn’t even beginning.

“So, what did you do? “asked Sean. Mike looked at the faces around the table and found that at least 2 of the men seemed interested in his story and so he continued.

“Jensen was the driver that night,” said Mike. The men nodded. They all knew him. Jensen was one of the oldest drivers who had worked with Devlon. He had been there for over 25 years and was good friends with the men. “He said it was a li’l bit unusual for him to go across so late, but he had been informed it would not take him long . Also he had been promised additional wages on this trip, due to the odd hours,” said Mike.

“So, what made you so suspicious? “ asked Sean. “Hey kid, you will lose your job if you poke your nose where it should not be,” said Rudolph.

“Well,” said Mike, “It was a full moon that night and it was casting its silver light right on the truck. It looked like the truck had been spotlighted.” Mike looked around at the faces, “And that’s when I saw it. The usual stars printed on the truck looked different in that light. They were glowing and sparkling.” “And then….?” asked Rudolph whose interest seemed to have been stirred up.

“Jon was on guard duty with me that night. He had been sour ever since his divorce. We had argued a lot that day and he did not seem interested or supportive in checking out the truck,” Mike said, “he actually told me to mind my own business and not meddle with a company that had been trading long before I was even born.“

“But I could not just let it go. I walked close to the truck pretending to converse with Jensen and touched its sides. And can you figure what I found?” he stopped and looked. Not one guy had anything to say.

Mike went on, “these were no paintings of stars. They were encrusted stars. I walked towards the front of the truck on a pretense of filling some documents. That’s when it stuck me that the stars on the sides were nothing compared to what was on the hood. There were shining objects, 7 of them as large as marbles. They formed a pattern of the Orion constellation. These were not artwork, these looked to be crystals.”

“Jensen asked me to hurry as he was running late and he had to meet the timelines given to him,” Mike said. Astonishment showed on the men’s faces. “Hey!! boy don’t hold me up. ‘Emergency’ he had said smilingly as he clapped my back. I let him go, but I made a remark of ‘To check further’ on that entry record.”

“Two days later, when I was back on duty on that gate of the border, I found that the entire entry had been deleted from the records.” Mike stopped to take a break and the men whispered amongst themselves. “The sun was directly above and the sweltering heat was killing me. Seeing no vehicles on the road, I thought of getting a bottle of chilled beer and cooling off in the air-conditioned office. Lying on the table was the day’s newspaper. I idly picked it up and leafed through it. The usual junk filled the pages. And then something caught my eye.” Four pairs of unblinking eyes looked at Mike.

“It was a photograph of a pile of glitter… a pile of diamonds. What stood out in that pile were 7 marble-sized ones, with their sinister sparkle.”

Silence filled the table. “The headline read ‘Billions worth of diamonds seized at Astoria port’. The article went on to mention the same warehouse Jensen had told me about and some other details. But there was not a word about Devlon or how the loot reached the port.”

Abuses and words of shock filled the table. “Today,” said Mike and they all stopped to listen. “I received this,” he pulled out a paper from his sac and held it out.

“I have been suspended from border duty and been transferred to a village in the North. A village with a population of 250. A village where the only occupation is that there is no occupation. A village that cannot be found even on the map of the state. I report there tomorrow.  So, my dear friends, Cheers to our last evening together. I wish you all well.”

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