Nancy squirmed around in her cocoon of blankets to get as comfortable as possible on the hard ground. She turned on her side to look at Frank who was leaning against the tree on the other side of the small fire. When she had asked Frank about the wisdom of building a fire he replied, "Even if a few people escaped from the chaos back at the hideout, I doubt they would waste their time looking for us tonight. If they are, we are far enough from the river and deep enough in the jungle that a small fire will be practically unnoticeable. So we don't really have to worry about human company tonight. What I am worried is about the other kind, and I don't fancy spending my night grappling with a jaguar who decided that we'd make tasty snacks!"

Now as she looked at his face by the flickering firelight she was struck anew by how handsome he had become. The shadows cast by the fire played a languorous dance across his face giving it a mysterious, brooding cast. His eyes were focussed on the flames, the small frown between his brows indicating that he was deep in thought. The blankets were loosely wrapped around his legs and he had taken off his jacket. Looking at his powerful arms encased in the thin sleeves of his shirt, she remembered how it felt when she had hugged him earlier. Suppressing another shiver of desire at the memory of being wrapped in those arms, she firmly slammed the door shut on that train of thought before her imagination conjured up something more than a simple embrace.

She cleared her throat to get his attention and when he looked at her she said, "You told me you were going to explain things once we were settled for the night. Well, explain away! You know how much I hate being in the dark and considering that I have been stumbling around blind since the beginning of the case I would very much like to be enlightened!"

Frank smiled at that and replied, "Well, what do you know so far?" "I know that Giovanni's drug and arms dealing connections are not the only things worth investigating if what you said was true. When we took on the case it was a simple investigation of his assets and finding evidence to support our claims. When we did find the evidence and had to launch a sting operation on short notice, we ended up being stung ourselves!" At this point she looked at him accusingly. She continued with narrowed eyes, "I think someone tipped him off that we were investigating him otherwise there is no way that he would have caught on to us so quickly. So not only did my mission derail, but I led my team right into an ambush!"

Frank leaned forward with an apologetic sigh and looked earnestly into her eyes, "I am really sorry for what happened at the airfield, Nan but believe me I had no choice." He leaned back again and turned his gaze on the fire once more. "Let me start from the beginning.

"As you now know, I work for the Network along with Joe. About six months ago, after the election of the Mexican President there were murmurings of dissent and dissatisfaction on the underworld grapevine about his liberal policies. Also his stronger stance on border security and crackdown on drug, arms and human trafficking made him pretty unpopular with many of the Families and other drug lords. We weren't too concerned until we got pretty strong indication three months ago about a potential assassination plot. The current government is doing a lot for the many problems Uncle Sam usually has with Mexico so the powers that be are taking any threats against the new regime seriously. Our lead pointed to a possible connection with Giovanni so I went undercover and joined his security personnel while Joe worked on the outside as my contact. I eventually worked my way up to his personal security team. I was actually on security detail the night of the ball."

"I knew it!" Nancy exclaimed. "I saw you at the ball. I thought I was seeing things, especially since..." She trailed off with a slight flush at what she almost revealed, that she had been thinking of him just before the ball. She continued hastily, hoping he wouldn't comment on her little lapse, "I am never going to question my instincts again!"

Frank tilted his head to look at her, the amused smile on his lips indicating that he had noticed her lapse but was willing to let that go for now. His smile deepened and his gaze grew warmly caressing as he said, "Yes, I did see you at the ball. I certainly didn't expect to see you there that night, but it was impossible not to notice you wearing that ravishing, arousing gown." His voice dropped to a purr, "The embodiment of grace, elegance and sensuality in a crowd of gaudily over-dressed rich snobs of questionable legality...You certainly caught Giovanni's eye!" He finished with a teasing twinkle.

Nancy, who was growing increasingly flushed and uncomfortably warm under the weight of his gaze and the sound of his voice uttering such outrageously provocative compliments, pounced on his last statement with no small amount of relief. "And a more repugnant egomaniac I have yet to meet! I don't really know what it is about money that makes a short, sweaty, slimy, slobbery little man think he is a Casanova! Though I have to say, he is positively a heartthrob next to Carlos."

Frank sobered immediately at the mention of Carlos, "Yes, Carlos is a particularly disturbing piece of work. He takes an almost childish pleasure in pain and torture, and for all his brutality he has a sharp cunning, which makes for a particularly dangerous combination." He turned to her and said with quiet intensity, "Carlos had been originally tasked with breaking you today, but I manufactured a crisis that took away his attention. I would never have stood by if that cretin was the one to torture you. I would never have allowed him to lay a finger on you, my cover be damned."

Nancy was deeply touched by his admission. While her professional side disapproved of his jeopardizing his mission just to save her from some pain, her feminine side found the idea of Frank willingly risking his cover to save her from Carlos' attentions to be intoxicating. And for all her competence and bravery, she acknowledged that the thought of Carlos even near her filled her with a nearly paralyzing horror, and she was deeply thankful that Frank had been insightful enough to sense it and save her from that fate.

Impulsively, she reached out and took his hand. As he looked at her she gave him a grateful smile and squeezed his hand. He squeezed her hand back in response. No words were necessary for him to understand what she was thanking him for.

Frank cleared his throat and continued in a lighter vein, "Yes, as beautiful and stunning as you looked that night all I felt was dismay at the fact that you were most assuredly going to ruin all my plans." Nancy pinched his hand and interjected, "Hey!" Frank quickly snatched his hand back with a laugh and replied, "I was quite justified in thinking that Drew. You see, from what I had found out so far, I knew that there was a very important shipment going out that night. Not just drugs or arms. I knew that it was going out to his base in Mexico though we didn't know the exact location of the base. So I had to let that run go uninterrupted in order to be able to locate his hideout and find out more about what was in that shipment."

Nancy looked at him, frowning thoughtfully, "I thought I heard something like a footstep when I was in his study. But I was sure that my team and I had scouted out the house completely. The cameras were overridden as well, so I should have been warned about any other presence." Frank nodded, "When you were in his study downloading the data from his computer I was actually in a hidden passage between his study and the bedroom. Your team couldn't have known about that. I am guessing they had a few people on the serving staff as well?"

When Nancy replied in the affirmative Frank continued with a quirk of his lips, "They did an excellent job. The only reason I was in that passage at all was because I had recognized you and followed you once you left the ballroom. I had a hunch that the study was your ultimate goal so I got into the alcove before you could get there. I had to find out what you were doing if I was to ensure the success of my plans. I know you heard me then, and I also knew that you found the travel plans that idiot had carelessly written down; unlike Giovanni and Carlos I am familiar enough with your intelligence to know that you would figure it out even in such a limited time frame.

"On the other hand, I myself had found out something very disturbing just earlier that day and couldn't take the chance of Giovanni either cancelling the shipment or getting caught. So I told him about you being in his study, came up with the alternate plan and when you still came so close to ruining it, I'm afraid I had no choice but to clobber you over the head."

At this point he looked at her with another apologetic smile but Nancy was too intrigued to kick up a fuss about it. "What was it that you found?" Frank gave her a troubled look. "That there was indeed a plot to assassinate the new President but unlike our earlier suspicions it didn't have anything to do with Giovanni or the other Families."

When Frank fell silent she looked at him and found him marshaling his thoughts. After a couple of moments he turned towards her again. "I don't know if you have heard of it but 3 months ago there was a minor theft at one of the defense bases. It was the blueprint for a new explosive device the army has come up with. It is a variation on pressure triggered explosive devices or landmines as people generally know it, but it has been designed for a mostly defensive capacity. Since it was a pretty insignificant object to steal there wasn't a huge hue and cry over it though the investigation is still going on."

"And you found the blueprint with Giovanni? We have the assassination weapon?" Nancy asked curiously. "Not the blueprint itself but the components for the device," Frank replied. "If I wasn't already investigating Giovanni regarding the assassination plot I might not even have been able to identify it or make the connection."

"Did you neutralize the device?" Nancy asked. "No I didn't, for two reasons. Firstly, if they have the blueprint it is only a matter of time before they get the components and try to assemble it a second time. And the next time they try it we might not actually be in a position to stop them. But the most important and troubling reason was that I simply couldn't."

When Nancy gave him a puzzled look he clarified, "Almost as soon as we reached the hideout I was assigned to a bunch of trivial and unrelated jobs but the one thing they all had in common was that I was never on my own. There was always someone to watch me. Something must have tipped Giovanni off about me and the most I could do was walk around the house. I had no access to the airfield or the docks or the storage centers. I began to suspect that someone had blown my cover but there were only three people who knew about my being undercover; Joe, the director of the Network and the National Security Adviser."

Nancy's eyes widened at the implication. She asked softly, "You don't think...?" "I don't know what to think except that I know for sure that it wasn't Joe. I can't rule out any possibility though I think the most likely explanation is that it got leaked out somehow." He looked at her with concerned eyes. "It gets worse Nancy." Nancy simply waited for him to continue. Worse? What could be worse? "Earlier today I somehow, through sheer dumb luck, intercepted a call. It proved definitely that Giovanni was not the mastermind behind this plot but only the courier. The origin of the plot was not the drug families at all, as we had initially suspected but from within our ranks." At Nancy's gasp he continued somberly, "Not only did the order come from someone high up in the intelligence community, but the assassin is a rogue agent himself. And based on what I found he is most likely an agent from the CIA."

Author's Note :

Hi there! Remember me? Long story short, I was kidnapped and sucked into the Matrix from where I have just escaped barely with my life! Well, I wish I could use that as an excuse, but the sad truth - I lost my inspiration enough that writing was much more difficult than it used to be, and I was busy enough that I didn't feel too guilty about putting it off. And then I got a review after 4 months which effectively guilted me into opening my story and then, surprise surprise, the creative juices started flowing again!

So a big sorry to those of you who still check for updates and while I don't think I can promise to not fall off the grid again, my original promise stands - if I do decide to discontinue I will definitely let you all know. To make up for it, here's a new chapter! Hope you enjoy it, and a big thank you to those who are still sticking with the story. On a side note, I have made a few changes and additions to the chapters I had already posted; nothing glaring and no major plot line deviation. Just a little sprucing up that if you do decide to start from the beginning to refresh your memory, the story might read more smoothly now. I certainly like it better!