Officer Lena Petrovna had been stationed at Checkpoint Zeta for three years. It was a scar of concrete and rusted steel cut into the throat of the Korath Mountains, a natural border between the Federated Republics and the lawless territories of the outer cantons. Her job, officially, was "Customs and Contraband Interdiction." Unofficially, she was a stomach lining—the first point of digestion for everything the mountain tried to smuggle through.
| Contraband Type | Typical Concealment | Annual Interdiction Rate (US only) | |----------------|---------------------|-------------------------------------| | Fentanyl | Gas tanks, spare tires | ~11,000 lbs | | Counterfeit meds | Mixed with vitamins, hollow books | $2.3 billion value | | Human trafficking victims | Sleeper cabs, wall cavities | 1,500+ rescues | | Protected wildlife parts (ivory, pangolin scales) | “Wood carvings” or “ceramics” | 6,000+ seizures | | Untaxed cigarettes | False pallets in semis | 1.2 million cartons | contrabandpolicerar work
The shift begins with a threat matrix: recent border seizures, drone surveillance footage of dirt road crossings, and alerts from customs. Today’s target: a white Ford Transit van moving laundered money north and contraband cigarettes south. Officer Lena Petrovna had been stationed at Checkpoint