"¿Su gente?" one of the guirellas asked. "¿Usted trajo a estos gringos aquí ayudar a nuestra gente?" One of them, clearly their leader, raised a hand and ordered them to back off.

"You claim to be one of us," he said to Vega and Alex. "Why did you come here?"

"We were sent to put a stop to your people being taken." The guirella leader nodded.

"In that case you want to talk with Vezjuzade. He had been trying to lobby your governments to take action, but seeing as we suspect it's the American boarder patrols behind it they have been dragging their feet. I'm Gassman, these are my men." He then shouted orders to them. "Vamamos, necesitamos a protectores del perimetre y renovado en el huésped."

"¿Qué sobre ellos?" Gassman adjusted the rifle slung over his shoulder.

"Leave them to me." He dismissed his men with a wave of his hand. "Come," he said, "there is something outside town you should see." Alex looked at Vega, wondering if he trusted them, before cupping a hand to his ear to radio to Mina.

**************************

"Sakura dealt with them," Sofia piped in quickly.

"Did you?" Nancy place a hand on the girl's shoulder, moving it to the back of her head and ruffling her hair. She wanted to do more, wanted to somehow show her appreciation, but didn't want to scare her.

"Ahem," Sofia coughed, "you wanted to discuss something?"

"Of course." Nancy looked around for where Jessie had disappeared to. "That woman who was here before, I think she's outside. She'll look after you, okay? I just need to discuss something in private for a bit." Nancy gave Sakura a look that indicated this was important.

**************************

"So that's how it is," Nancy said to Sofia after explaining everything, how Amy was raped and wants to die after not seeing any justice done.

"What do you intend to do?" Sofia asked after giving the matter some thought.

"I know suicide is wrong, it is gravely wrong." Nancy looked at her friend, needing guidance. "Is it just as wrong to allow her to suffer?"

"Word of God says what she want is wrong," Sofia told her, "but what must be done to ease suffering be done."

"Nothing is being done for her," Nancy told her, taking a seat behind her computer. "I wish there was another alternative." Checking her emails she noticed one that came up discussing Al Qaeda's objectives with 9/11. "Hey, look at this. Apparently this was meant to goad America into attacking the Middle East and whip militant Islam against the We..." a look at Sofia gave Nancy pause for thought. "Against the free world. Afghanistan and Iraq was exactly what Bin Laden wanted."

"You speak to me of holy war," Sofia replied after taking a moment to allow what she was told to sink in. "Certainly reasonable what we see as about belief turn out to be nothing of the sort." A pause, then she was struck with a thought. "This..." Sofia stopped herself, knowing the right words to use but not wanting to use them. "What you do. Fight atheism. Is it belief or is it..."

"It's because I don't want others getting hurt like I have," Nancy shot back at the Russian, knowing what she was going to say. Cursing under her breath at an email over atheist prevention of freedom of speech she added, "I don't want this war to escalate to the point where taking children away is considered acceptable."

**************************

"Hey," Jessie said when she saw Sakura sulking. The Australian native was always thought of as a bastion of common sense and with that in mind thought to offer a pearl of wisdom. "You don't need to go about feeling sorry for yourself, okay? You have nothing to apologise for."

**************************

Damon Haysbert, aka Shaquille Shabazz, was waiting for Reiko's flight on behalf of Vezuzade. Despite his appearence Shabazz was loyal to the cause the Mexican villages along the American boarder were fighting for, to stop the attacks on their homeland. Whoever Vezuzade was connected to oobviously had resources, he had the same type of survailence photo of Reiko he used to see when he was in the Army Rangers.

"Reiko Ichijo," he said upon spotting the Japanese woman. "I wish to apologise for the methods that were used to bring you here." Even without observing her short, muscled frame Shabazz thought it wise to be polite.

"Well you can shove your apology up your ass," Reiko snarled. "The fuck's this about? It have to do with the gang shit I was involved in?"

"That's exactly what this is in regards to," Shabazz began to explain. "You see one of the people from Los Diablos in Chicago thought you might be able to help us out with the US Army."

"Why me?" Reiko asked, confused. "I ain't no killer. Matter of fact I hate guns."

"Vezuzade can explain it more." Shabazz held out am arm

**************************

"Exactly," Gassman agreed with Vega and pointed in the distance. From where they were they could see a small cemetary. "Carlita, Eva, Cassandra and Monica are buried there. Once whoever is behind this was done with them they are dumped for us to clean up." The guirella leader saw that the Spanish one was very angry about it. For his part Alex chose not to shy away. "It gets worse. Lately they have begun taking children, young boys, but none have been returned."

"Children?" Alex asked. "What could this all be about?"

"Vezuzade would be able to tell you more." Gassman indicated past the cemetary. "Eight miles from here is another town, where his brother Chavo says we must take action. Vezuzade however urges caution lest we lose more of our women and children in an attack, or as retalliation. Perhaps you can help him see reason."

"See if we can convince him to fight?" Gassman nodded at the question.

"Or perhaps you can explain his point of view to me better than he can."

**************************

"Children?" Mina contemplatted what she was asked. "No, I had no idea." She was then asked about Lucian. "I'm making sure he's better treated than those butchers are capeable of." She had anticipated being asked about her involvement in the kidnapping and aiding Albert in his actions, so Mina knew exactly how to answer that particular question. "I have my reasons."

"She's still at it." Albert had checked Nancy's actions online and saw that she was now speaking out against the prevention of freedom of speech. Looking up Mina offered what she considered a sage and reasonable answer to the problem.

"People are entitled to their opinions." Albert's answer made her think he was nothing short of pathetic.

"She isn't." Mina couldn't heelp it, it had to be said.

"So employing Marines to kidnap her son is your drastic plan to stop her assault on your view of how the world would be so much better if we told everyone what to believe?" The question seemed to knock some of the wind from Albert's sails.

"Trying to stop criticism of such an ideal doesn't work, her son's life being threatened doesn't work..." Mina knew there was a lot more to it than that, Albert was just trying to pursue some personal goal of revenge. Not finishing the comment he stormed off.

"Vasquez," she radioed to one of her men," keep an eye on Albert." She was concerned that he was about to go off the deep end with his stupid little plan, and she can't allow the trail to go cold here. He was just a small part of something bigger, she was certain of it.