A/N Thanks so much for all the reviews! I'm slowly trying to reply to them all, I appreciate you all so much!

Disclaimer: I don't own Covert Affairs. Any of it.

Meanwhile in Brazil

Annie was thoroughly lost. She had followed the noise of the asset screaming into a narrow favela (slum) alleyway, only to find that it wound back and forth with no perceivable organization, with little brick and tin huts cropping up in the most unlikely places and most of the turns she made resulting in dead ends.

If she had checked with Auggie before rushing in he could have told her that the slums in Brazil are often built that way deliberately so the police are unable to find and arrest drug lords without being ambushed themselves first.

But no, she had ignored his orders, and then tripped over a piece of trash and fallen flat on her face, crushing the small mechanism Auggie had given her as a tracker in the process. She had no idea if it was still working or not but when she had tried to get back to the taxi at that point she had already been irrevocably lost and disoriented.

She was now at a dead end of yet another pathway and she could hear the asset screaming again. Joan had said that Carolina grew up in the slums. If she could get her away from her kidnappers she would probably know how to get both of them out of here.

She tried the door she heard the screaming coming from and found it unlocked. Cautiously creeping into the dark room she closed the door behind her waiting for a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark.

Suddenly she found herself pinned against the wall, hands held behind her back and someone's large hand covering her mouth, muffling her screams. She could hear men whispering indistinguishable words, all she could pick up was,

"Americana!" They dragged her through the house, there were three of them, strong Brazilian men, arms bulging with muscles, and struggling was futile. She found herself being tied securely to a chair in a room where there was mercifully at least a light on. Turning around she saw the asset sitting in a couch behind her smirking before the men blindfolded her. In heavily accented English one of them began to speak to her.

"We knew the Americans had decided to take an interest in our dealings. Did you really think a Brasilian would break the bonds of family and community to turn in her own people just because she was in love with someone from a rival gang? But see that is the problem with you Americans, you do not see family as something sacred and unbreakable. Oh don't worry, your precious asset was not deceiving you exactly, she really did consider it, love is powerful. But ultimately she realized that if she lost her family, all of the love in the world would not be able to make her world whole again. You see, to a Brasileira, family is everything." Annie struggled to undo the knots in the rope which held her hands tied behind the chair but the men had known what they were doing, the knots were rock solid and too tight for her to wriggle out of anytime soon. The man continued.

"This, this is why the police will never be able to break up the drug cartels here. Our bonds of loyalty to each other run too deep. Oh sure, we are not her biological family, but all of us grew up as orphans in the favelas together, learned how to survive together, and that has created the same bond between us. Do you see now why Carolina so willingly told us all about your little deal. Although to be fair, it did require just a little bit of coercion on our part to begin with."

"Why are you doing this to me? I was just a lost visitor to the favela, trying to find one of my friends. I have no idea what you are talking about!"

"Ah querida, we know everything about you, struggling is pointless. But don't worry, we won't kill you. We have much bigger plans for you." The second man reached down to her pockets and patted her down until he found her phone hidden in the inside pocket of her jacket, throwing it to the first man. Annie wished she could at least see the men so she would be able to identify them later. She knew there had been an extraction team 10 minutes away and that they would have at least known her last location before she fell and crushed her tracker. She had wandered hopelessly in circles from there though so there was no telling how long it would take the team to find her. Although if the men used her phone hopefully it would send a strong enough signal even from here where there seemed to be so little cell coverage, for Auggie to triangulate her location.

The men hit a button on her phone. She wasn't sure what it was but when Auggie answered she realized that they had redialed the last number she called. In relief she heard his voice and knew that somehow Auggie would find a way now to make everything okay. The men had him on speakerphone and she could hear him calling her name frantically.

"Annie? Annie I need you to talk to me, where the heck are you?" She shouted in the direction from which she could hear the phone,

"Auggie, help!" One of the men immediately put his hand roughly over her mouth, muffling anything else she tried to say, while the other one spoke to Auggie.

"As you can hear, we have your young lady, quite beautifully tied up if I do say so myself. We would dearly like the CIA to back off out case. And in fact, we would also like it if you would transfer us enough money to restart a lives for ourselves elsewhere where you will never find us again. Now, you should understand that if you have sent someone in to follow this young lady, they will never find her. This favela is built like a labyrinth, and it is controlled by our gang. No-one here will help any foreigners because they are too scared of the repercussions, so your people will have to search every single house in this overcrowded slum manually to find her. If they survive that long." Annie heard Auggie sigh in despair.

"What do you want us to do?"

"We would like $10million in US dollars, cash please. You have exactly 24 hours. We will swap your asset for the money at the entrance to the favela at that time." Auggie replied calmly.

"Let me talk to her, I need to know she is unharmed first. If you harm her you will never see a cent of that money do I make myself clear."

"Oh don't worry; as long as you comply with our demands, your little friend is perfectly safe."

"Give her the phone." The man who had his hand covering her mouth let go and the negotiator held the phone up to her ear. She croaked breathily,

"Auggie?" He spoke briskly in reply,

"Annie. Sit tight; we will do whatever it takes to get you home. God woman, you really do know how to get yourself in trouble. Just follow all their demands and try not to do anything else reckless." Auggie sounded furious and she wasn't sure if it was directed at her or if he was so angry at the situation that he was unable to calm down even to speak to her.

"Okay. Auggie I'm so sorry." His voice gentled as he replied,

"Don't worry about anything right now, just focus on staying strong, okay. I've got your back super plum." In the midst of the tense situation Annie found herself almost laughing at the tongue in cheek referral Auggie was making to the one of the other times he had had to bail her out of a sticky situation. Then the man covered her mouth again and the phone was snatched away from her."

"24 hours. We assume you know where we are." She heard the sound of the call being ended and a deep sense of helplessness filled her.