Roberta acted calm on the outside, but on the inside realized that her time was up.  Todd had brought her into the picture knowing that his brother would trust her.  She had no reason not to get involved, no reason to turn down the money and no reason to rattle the cage once she knew in her gut that she'd never get the money.  Her lonely life of prostitution and drug abuse had sealed her destiny long before she was enticed and sacrificed by Todd.  As much as the promise of wealth had been the lure that hooked her, probably only Todd knew that it was the chance to look out for an old friend that motivated her complicity in the ruse.  A ruse that she knew would come to no good, not for her, not for anyone.  She had been ready to go for a long time.  The chance to throw a lifeline to a former love was enough to close her eyes and let go.

Todd had thought that his involvement would have inherently kept his brother safe.  However as the black sedan sped away, he looked out the rear window and saw one of the cloaked figures irrelevantly hold a pistol to Roberta's head and uncaringly snuff the challenged life from her body with one distance-muffled shot to the head.  Todd rode in the back seat wondering if his life's work was currency enough to buy his brother's life.  He wondered if the whole game had been a mistake, regardless of how large the stakes may have been.  His life was one that continuously fluctuated between immense control and complete reckless abandon.  He could only do what he could do.  He had done his best to save his brother's life, but it was now out of his hands.  He had to focus on his mission and pray silently that his luck, his God, his influence or his power would influence someone to decide to spare his brothers life.  It was as helpless a feeling as he had ever imagined someone could feel.  A feeling he had probably instilled in many during his prodigious career.

Dan slowly woke up in a marginally comfortable bed with a sizably more than marginal headache.  He tried to figure out what had happened.  Was it a dream?  He thought that Roberta and Todd had showed up at his door, but neither part of his recollection made sense.  He had planned to head to the airport, planned to go looking for Espi and Duardo.  Now he was at best looking for answers...and aspirin.  As he gathered himself, he was aware of the heat.  Where was he?  As he continued to awake, his memory seemed more and more real.  That wasn't a dream!  It was Roberta and it was Todd.  He was alive!?!  How did they arrive at his home, and where and why had they taken him.  He didn't seem to be a prisoner, or at least he didn't seem to be restricted in any way.  He walked outside into the sun and once again couldn't believe what he saw.

Todd arrived at the embassy and was briskly escorted inside.  He couldn't help but regret whether his plan to protect Espi by establishing her cover as being his brothers' wife was as selfish as it was foolish.   As much as he wanted his brother to live, how could he ever face him if he discovered that his wife was a plant...that the boy he believed to be his own son was actually his brother's son.  Duardo wasn't part of the plan, but it would absolutely be part of the plan's unraveling.  Todd occasionally allowed himself scant moments of lament, before pulling himself back upon the preverbial horse to focus on their crucial objective.  In the end, it would all be worth it, wouldn't it?

Todd had convinced himself that he was through taking orders, through degrading his own humanity with these insufferable transgressions.  He practically strode into the room with every intention of re-taking control of his pathetic life.  That was when his pathetic life got tragically and horrifically worse.  His spirit instantly cascaded into the two large video screens before him.  One of the screens showed his beloved Esperanza sitting in a chair with her arms and legs shackled down and a gag over her mouth.  The other screen showed Duardo playing in a courtyard.  He was kicking a soccer ball back and forth with an unshaven man.  It was El Guapo who the agency had provided for him to protect his family when he couldn't be around.  He understood instantly that the message was that El Guapo was no longer meant for their protection.

If Ambassador Mateo had looked like Brad Pitt or Jon Hamm sitting between the video screens, he would still have been the most disgusting sight on Earth.  Of course he didn't.  His greasy slicked back, black hair and beady eyes and his missing chin completed the scurrilous vision of this dispicable figure.  If Todd could have crushed his windpipe with the pain welling up inside of his heart, the story would have ended right then and there, but he couldn't...thus the story struggled on.