Gabrielle Diana Santiago glanced around the bar and gracefully stood up next to her table, before walking out onto the small s

Gabrielle Diana Santiago glanced around the bar and gracefully stood up next to her table, before walking out onto the small stage. Slowly she began to dance, a style not far derived from the Spanish Flamenco, heels tapping on the wooden surface.

Eyes were drawn to her, her body moving sinuously in time with the music, a body kept fit through healthy eating and hard exercise. The music was not for her alone, as the Tango beat took over, a man approached from one side and whispered in her ear.

"I have an offer Gaby… Will you take it…?" The blue eyes flicked open, focusing on the man indicated by Caesar – the bar owner. Well dressed, and with an honest face, she gave a short nod, indicating that the man would be acceptable as her partner for the next dance.

The man smiled, taking her hand, he led her through the classical steps of the Tango, until Gaby chuckled, "You dance well my friend, yet you have a lot to learn, to be true to the Tango, you have to dance the Argentinean style, with your heart and soul."

The man smiled and relaxed his grip admitting he did not know the moves, asking her to show him. Grinning, she called one of the girls from near the bar, who took over the lesson.

"But I wanted Gabrielle to show me…"

The girl shook her head. "Gabrielle shows no-one, if you wish her to dance true Argentinean with you; you need to know what you are doing before you ask her to dance."

"But the other night…"

The girl sighed, "Ramon is the only man in this bar who can match Gaby for the Argentinean – yet it is not pure, Gaby detests him. She accepts the dance because he is the best that is available. One day… Someone will come along who knows the steps, who feels the Tango in their soul; that will be the night to see Gaby dance."

At 11pm, Gaby left the bar and returned to her apartment nearby, shadowed as always by a member of her security detail. They were quiet men, never intrusive, just watching out for trouble. Since her parents had been killed in a 'car accident' Gaby had been watched, as were her three brothers.

Eduardo, the eldest of the brothers, was currently serving in Iraq with the British forces. He had followed in their father's footsteps, boarding school, university and then the Army.

Benito and Alessandro, the twins, were still at university, but would soon graduate. Benito would return home, his studies in engineering complete, replacing his father in one of the family business concerns. Alessandro would probably follow Eduardo into the Army, something that would have made their father proud had he still been alive.

Gabrielle was the eldest of them all; in her mid thirties, she held the family business together, until her brothers returned home to claim the parts that were theirs. She too had been to boarding school, then studied Archaeology at university, specialising in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Gaby loved the night, feeling that she had been well named, her middle name being that of the Roman Moon Goddess.

It was also her paternal grandmother's name. There were those who said she resembled her English grandmother, being blue eyed and blonde haired, but her spirit was that of her father Gabriel, her heart belonged to Argentina, her soul to the Pampas that surrounded the estancia that she had called home as a child.

Pausing at the door to her apartment block, she motioned to Gonzalo, her guard for the evening. "I'll be turning in for the night, you can go back to your family, tomorrow we return to the hacienda."

Gonzalo nodded and turned to leave, yet as soon as he noticed Gaby step into the lift inside the block, he paused. Waiting for the doors to close, he then went inside himself, and took a seat in a nearby alcove. Miss Santiago had to have 24 hour protection – so it had been ordered and he would not sleep until he had been relieved of his duty.

Once inside the apartment, Gaby picked up her phone and dialled a number by heart. When the phone was answered, she left a simple message. "Our terms have been agreed to, we move out tomorrow night."

Cutting the line, she smiled, already feeling the adrenaline starting to creep through her body. Suppressing the feeling, she went to bed, willing her body to rest, she wouldn't get any for the next 48 hours.

Jackie Thorne was worried. Her husband's closest friend and business partner had returned from a job overseas and once again disappeared for three days into the clubs of New York on a drinking binge that would finally lead to their door at four am.

"Terry, you have to stop Dino doing this… One day he's going to kill himself…"

Removing his friend's boots and taking the blanket that Jackie had brought from the cupboard, Terry threw it over Dino's still form and gently escorted her back to their room.

"I've tried Jackie… You know that… Ever since Cass was killed in that road accident last year he's blamed himself. Each time he comes back to New York he's reminded of the fact she's no longer here…"

Tears came to Jackie's eyes, nodding her acceptance of Terry's words. Yet it was so hard to see Dino like this. The cocky, self assured Dino, who liked to take risks, just for the hell of it; doing crazy stunts, creating trouble for nothing, was gone. In his place, a man, though his mind was as keen as ever, reduced in stature, part of him lost forever.

Jackie thought back to the time when he had finally realised that Cassandra Tyler was the woman he had been looking for, his delight in being with her plain to see. Cass, not needing to hide her feelings any more, radiant with love for the man she wanted to be with.

She and Terry had laughed, watching them making plans for the future, seeing a side to both that they never knew existed. Dino quieter, more tender, Cass more assertive… It was no surprise to either of them that one Valentines Day Dino had shyly admitted asking Cass to marry him.

They had celebrated together, the four of them, in a local restaurant they frequented when the boys were home. Terry and Dino had decided to close the London office – it was so much easier to work out of New York.

A few months later, when Terry and Dino had returned from a job in Bolivia, Cass had shyly announced that she was pregnant, prompting Dino to buy a round of drinks for everyone in the bar. None of them could have foreseen the tragedy that would occur a couple of days soon after.

Cass had left the office early, wanting to do some shopping, and had taken the direct route home from the mall. The weather had been miserable all day, overcast skies and a light drizzle, making the roads slippery. The driver of a fourteen wheeler had lost control of his truck, and it had turned sideways on the road.

Even though Cass had been in a SUV, it was no protection and she had been killed instantly. Terry had broken the news to his friend, distraught to see Dino crumple in front of him. Cass and their unborn child had become the focus of his life, and he could not imagine being without them.

Dino had tried to work the grief out of his system, helping the company teams extract hostages from several locations and slowly had returned to normal, but Jackie and Terry knew that he had merely hidden his grief away for when he was alone, and drank to forget.

"There must be something we can do."

Terry shrugged his shoulders, "If there is, I don't know what it is… Maybe Dino just needs time… Time for his heart to heal."

"and if it doesn't?"

Terry looked at his wife, the pain clearly showing in his eyes. "Then we'll have to accept that Dino is to end up in our spare room for a few days when we come home from a job…"

Jackie nodded, wishing there was something she could do…

Gaby smiled to herself as she saw the hostage handed over to the English K&R specialist, Alvaro being given the briefcase with the agreed 100,000 dollars inside.

She nodded at the family as they left, waving their thanks, happy that their husband/father was home again, after four months of worry. Not knowing if he were truly alive or dead. Within the hour, they would be out of the country, heading back to France, never to move to a South American country again, no matter what the company requested of them.

"Scavengers… That's what you are… a bunch of scavengers…" Gaby ignored the words, starting to walk back to the black SUV, but Alvaro turned and scowled at the man.

"You should be thankful we were able to get him out, we nearly lost a man back there – equipment costs money to replace… You of all people should know that."

The man frowned, "Who are you people… You turn up out of nowhere, offering to get my hostage away from his captors in exchange for money… Why do you do it?"

Alvaro laughed, "That is a question you need to ask my boss, for I do not have the answer my friend."

"How can I contact him?"

Alvaro laughed even louder… "You cannot… It is he who makes the initial contact, not the other way around. I will tell him that you would like to meet, but I doubt he would accept your invitation, he is a very private person."

Jumping into the SUV, he closed the door behind him and handed the briefcase over to the man sitting next to Gaby. Smiling, she drove down the hillside and two blocks further into the city before entering a garage, where the team quickly disembarked.

Antonio gave each man his wage for the work… 4,000 US dollars each, and sent the five of them home, with orders to rest for three days, before returning to base for the continuation of their training.

Gaby carefully checked the rest of the notes, finding the trackers quickly, and throwing them across the garage. Leaving the briefcase behind, she quickly threw the notes into a holdall and jumped into her car, a mustang convertible, and waved to Antonio as she drove out of the door.

Antonio chuckled. Picking up the notes she had left him, he walked to the lift and went down two floors before jumping into his own car. As he was driving down the street, he saw the police cars heading to the garage and began to laugh even louder.

Opening the garage doors, the police stopped and stared; equally surprised was the English K&R specialist, who then began to swear softly…

"A black SUV you said Senor, could you tell us which one…?" He shook his head; this team were smart, very smart, he was looking at 8 black SUV's all of the same make and model, all with similar plates. In the darkness he hadn't been able to make out the numbers.

A policeman collected the briefcase and trackers, hoping to get information from them, but he was not hopeful. This team were far too careful, this was the third time they had hired their services out to extract a hostage, and the third time they had escaped capture.

The K&R specialist thanked the detective for bringing him back to his hotel, and quietly went up to his room. The policeman thought he was upset and said nothing, but as he walked into his room, the specialist began to smile. He had recognised the way the team worked; it had been, what, nearly ten years since he had worked with such a professional group?

Sitting down on his bed, he made the first of two phone calls. The call went direct to London, to tell the company he worked for about the successful conclusion of his mission. The second went to Terry Thorne.

Terry put down the phone slowly, then rested his chin on his hands while he thought about the information he had just been given. Could it possibly be true? Were the Black Angels back in business? Quickly he stood up and walked into Dino's office.

Dino had recovered from his drinking binge, and now looked almost human. Terry sat on the edge of the desk almost knocking Dino's coffee flying, "John thinks the Black Angels are back…"

Passing over the information he had been given, Dino first looked sceptical, but then became more thoughtful… "It does sound like their style, but it can't be them… Who is leading them? Gabriel Santiago was killed in a car crash several years ago."

Terry nodded, "I know, but from the description of the team I was given, it certainly sounds like them."

Dino chuckled, "You would know, Gabriel Santiago was your SAS commanding officer's best friend wasn't he, before he returned to Argentina?"

Terry smiled, "Gabriel was a bit of a legend in the SAS, had this thing for night operations. No night vision goggles, nothing, just the senses that God gave him. It's part of the reason why his group became known as the Black Angels, they worked at night, dressed in black and with his name…."

"So has someone replaced him? How long has it been… four or five years since the accident and the Angels stopped working?"

"Longer, I met Gabriel when I had just started working for Luthan Risk… He came in to negotiate some contract; we spoke for a few minutes when he found out what I did before K&R…"

"How long did he work for them…?"

Terry shook his head, "He didn't, insisted that he had freedom to work for everyone, but he negotiated a deal with LR for the work he did for them."

"How good were his people?"

Terry grinned, "He had most of Northern Argentina covered, and also the borders with Bolivia, Uruguay and Paraguay. He mainly helped refugees escaping from Bolivia, but then got himself into the K&R business too. Either he would offer to send a team in to do an extraction, or pass on information as to the whereabouts of a hostage."

Dino whistled in respect, "Where was he based?"

"No one knows for sure, his family own a couple of businesses, based in Buenos Aires, but his father was a breeder of horses. Polo ponies mainly, they have an estancia near the Salado river out in the middle of the Pampas. The question I have to ask is, if the Black Angels organisation is up and running again – who's controlling it, and can we use them to get into Bolivia if necessary?"

Dino looked thoughtfully at the maps on the wall. He and Terry only had a small organisation, and they were spread pretty thin. Three negotiators and one extraction team in Europe, which also covered the Middle East if necessary. One negotiator in the Far East – which was purely by luck, as the guy also worked for the British Diplomatic Corps and Thailand was his latest posting.

South and Central America was kidnappers' territory. D&T had two negotiators and three extraction teams working there – and he and Terry would be called often to backup the negotiators when things got busy, which they did on several occasions a year.

"If this organisation will work with us, we can release one of the extraction teams and put them into Europe – it's getting a little warm over there again."

Terry nodded, "My thoughts exactly mate… Don't need you to go out risking your bloody neck like last time…"

Dino ignored the comment, which worried Terry, normally Dino would have answered him with some kind of sarcastic remark, but that part of his friend had simply disappeared after Cass' death. It was as if someone had told him the rules of life had changed – and Dino no longer wished to play the game, sitting off to one side, watching, instead of joining in.

"So are you with me…?"

Dino gave Terry a rare grin, though it was a shadow of what he would have shown in the past… "So… We're going hunting…"