Chapter 7: She makes them change the balls.

Portuguese idiom: trocar as bolas
Literal translation: Exchanging balls
Meaning: Getting confused with something.

Rio de Janeiro
Flamengo Beach
Friday, 2:40 am

Next morning they spend the morning hitting the shops, buying clothes so they could stay until Monday in Rio.

They frown when they see the prices, as after a simple math they see they are paying a lot more than what they would pay if they bought the same thing in US. They ask the shop clerk about that, and she explained, in strong accented English, that it was due to the heavy tax load in Brazil.

They report back to Gibbs, and inform him that they had found their target, and that they set up a meeting for the following day.

Gibbs tells them to ensure to convince her to stay, as their investigation on their end had run out of steam.

Apparently, the money coming into Captain Davis account came from several important people in the Navy. But those, when inquired of the reason they were giving money to the Captain, all denied even meeting the Captain.

They had never heard of the man before.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

Rio de Janeiro
Flamengo Beach
Saturday, 12:40 am

On the scheduled date and time, they take a taxi and go to Flamengo Beach. They are a little weary of the taxi driver, who also had the same maniac smile on his face than the first taxi driver who robbed them blind.

They just breathe relieved when they arrive at their destination, pay and see him leaving in a hurry back into the traffic.

They look at the beach. The blasting sound of Brazilian music can be heard from where they are standing several yards away from the huge crowd dancing. There is some kind of party going full force, and they start walking towards the repercussion noise, looking for the LifeGuard station 22.

However, as they approach the crowd in the party, they frown as they see something very curious. Every single woman, man and child in the party is wearing red clothes. Red shirts, red dresses, red trousers, red shoes. They look around, and the singer on the stage, singing to excite the crowd jumping on the sand, is on a red top and a white shorts.

"You gotta be kidding me," says Tony as he looks around.

"She did it on purpose." Tim looks up and down the beach, and realizes that there is no way they will be able to find her in this mess.

"She's smarter than we thought."

"How are we going to find her?"

"We try."

They go around, examining the women's faces as they go, but the girls look at them and smile, but none is the girl from the passport and video. They walk around for an hour, circling the LifeGuard station and after they approach the sixth wrong woman, Tony gets fed up.

"Why did she do this? How are we going to find her in a red dress in a party where everyone is wearing red?"

Tim frowns and leans against one of the threes on the covered area, looking around trying to find her. He had memorized her features, as he spent most of the night going through her travellog and her personal pictures at Facebook.

He stands straighter as he sees a white skirt fluttering in the sea breeze behind a tree, a couple of yards away, and a small tanned face peeks from behind it, staring at them distrustfully.

It's her.

"Maybe," he stares at her, their eyes cross, and she looks frightened and hides behind the tree again, "because she's the only one not wearing red."

"What?"

McGee starts walking towards her and she glances again at them, notices she was caught. She turns around and walks away quickly. McGee and Tony start following her, a small brunette woman in a flowered white dress. She crosses the avenue, walks down the block and enters a restaurant further down the road. They cross the road in a hurry, as soon as the signal turns green, rush to the same restaurant they saw her entering, but they don't see her anymore.

They keep walking, and Tony sees the tail end of her skirt behind a column. He points it to Tim, and they approach and divide, and when she goes to take a peek on one side, McGee surprises from behind, and she gives a little girly scream, scared.

"Oh, what the… Didn't your mother teach you never to frighten people?"

"My mother taught me a lot of things," he looks down at her, studying her face and comparing to the one of the pictures he saw the whole night, and decides that her pictures did not do justice to her beauty. "One of them is not to deceive people."

She sighs, and looks up and down at Tony and at Tim, "I wasn't deceiving you."

She looks around at the restaurant, and waves to a waiter, asking for a table. "I was being careful. You Americans can be very sneaky, and I do not trust you."

She stares at him, her eyes serious and with a small frown on her face.

She speaks to the waiter, who guides them to a small alcove at the back of the restaurant. They notice that a very muscular man stands on the counter, and stares at them with a very unfriendly
face.

"Listen, we need to—"

"Shut up. I don't want to hear your voice." She interrupts Tim rudely. She motions for them to sit down. A waiter arrives, and she speaks in rapid Portuguese, and the waiter leaves.

The muscular man folds his thick muscular arms, and his biceps bulge.

"Ms Rodrigues, we –"

"I told you to shut up." She stares at him furious. "I'm the one doing the talking here. Not you."

She sits down, and Tim and Tony look at each other, confused. She closes her eyes, and takes several deep breaths to calm herself.

Finally she opens her eyes, and studies these gringos before her.

"I'm going to give you two a fair warning, and then I want you to leave. I want you to stop calling my mother, stop bothering my father. They are not going to bow to your extortion game again. You should be ashamed of robbing the innocent blind, I agree that they are gullible, but they are innocent people. You robbed my parent's life time economies, and for all that I should ask my friend Jonas there," she points to the muscular waiter, who stands up and stares at them with fury, "to give you a lesson you would never ever forget, but I will let you walk out of this place with your lives, as long as you stop contacting my parents, do you read me?" she says almost hissing with fury, her eyes burning at them.

"Ma'am," Tim tries to talk, but she hits her closed fist on the table.

"You are bastards! You robbed my parents, and I should order you arrested. But I have no proof, so all I have to say is GET OUT OF OUR LIVES!" She shouts at his face, her voice quivering with fury.

She stands up to leave, but Tim grabs her hand and forces her to face him. Jonas, the gorilla, stands up and is ready to charge, when he speaks to her.

"We're not here for your parents." She frowns at him, and raises her hand, stopping Jonas, who seems ready to get into a fight.

"What?"

"We've never contacted your parents. We don't even know who your parents are. We're not here for your parents." She takes a step back, but her wrist is still being firmly held in Tim's hand.

She looks confused, and looks from Tim to Tony for a moment, "Aren't you the crazy Americans who invited my mom for a Pyramid business again?"

Tony shakes his head, "no, we're here for you."

"Why?" she tries to get her wrist out of his hand, and he finally releases her. He stands up, and stares down at her.

"We're here because we believe you witnessed a crime while in Georgetown, and we need your testimony. We're cops and we were sent here to protect you." Tim studies her face, and he sees her fury slipping away. Pure terror inundates her features for a second, before she takes control of her face again.

"I'm Timothy McGee, the cop who contacted you two days ago through your photoblog."

She stares confused at him, studying his face with untrusting eyes.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

She turns around, and starts leaving.

"Anna," he grabs her arm, and Jonas takes another step towards them, but she holds him in check just with a wave.

She studies his face, takes a step forward, and says very close to his face, "I said, I have no idea what you are talking about. Go back to your country. You are not welcome here."

He stares at her, and he can see her fear behind the brave mask she is wearing.

"I can't."

She turns around, and walks down the corridor towards the entrance of the restaurant.

"Anna!"

She ignores him, and goes out to the restaurant to the street. Both Tim and Tony rush after her.

"Anna!"

"What?" she turns to them, aggravated.

"You are in danger."

She laughs, as if he is telling her the joke of the year.

"Danger? Please, I live in Rio, I thrive in danger. Why don't you go back to your nice life with your fancy clothes and cars and leave me alone."

She turns her back at them and starts walking away.

They get to the stop light and she stares at it impatiently for it to become green.

"Please listen to us, we came all the way from DC to talk to you. We need your help to solve a crime and you need our help, because you are in danger. They are people who -" says McGee, pleading at her.

She glances at him, her feet in encased in low heels hitting impatiently at the floor. She turns and glares at him, "Listen to me, gringo, if you think—"

A shot is heard, and Anna immediately gets tense, looking around.

Tony and Tim instinctively cover her body with theirs, each one on one of her sides, and look around looking for the source of the shot.

"Ah, merda," mutters Anna, staring at the mass of people running in a stampede a few blocks down.

"What's happening?" asks Tony, looking at the people running towards them.

"Arrastão." She ignores the red signal and starts running into the other direction, running between the cars which are playing their horns in a cacophony of sounds. The Americans stand still, staring mesmerized to the wall of people moving towards them. "RUN, YOU FOOLS, RUN!"

Something clicks inside them, and they follow Anna running away from the crowd. More shots are heard, so are the screams of the people. Somehow, they instinctively know that they will be in trouble if they are caught in the unruly wave of people. Anna turns to the right, and they follow her, and the people keep on running straight on the street. She runs two other blocks, and looks back, and the Americans are terrified, but still after her. She stops to catch her breath, and they stop too.

"So, what now?"

Another shot is heard, and they see a mass of people coming from other street.

"Shit man, where are they coming from?" asks Tony, his hands on his head. He sees people in red and black jerseys fighting with people in white and black jerseys. It's a free for all, everybody hitting every body.

Anna looks around, sees an open door of a building and grabs them by their shirts and rushes to it. She shuts the door violently, and runs down the dark corridor until she gets to the stairs. The two Americans run after her, and follow her as she climbs the stairs two steps at the time, all the way to the third floor. She stops, looks around, and tries the doors of the floor. They see her terrified efforts, and go to the other doors, looking for one that might open and give them refuge.

"Come on, come on!" Locked. Locked. Another Locked.

Anna tries the next one, and that one opens. She waves at them, and they rush inside and freeze staring at what they walked into.

She closes the door violently after they go through the threshold, resting her body against it and putting on the chain, locking the three locks with the keys hanging from a keychain on the door.

She closes her eyes, and leans her feverish forehead against the door, the tremors of panic slowly taking over the adrenaline.

"Ah, Anna?" Tony calls her out softly, and she doesn't open her eyes.

"What?"

"I think we're in trouble."

"Why?"

"You better take a look at this," says Tim in a soft voice.

Anna opens her eyes, turns and freezes as she sees where the hell they entered.

Out of the fire, straight into the frying pan.

There were three people in the room, all staring at them with surprised faces. Almost as surprised as Anna and the two Americans.

However, all three were naked on a sofa bed on the living room of the small apartment, two were obviously transvestites due to the fake boobs and faces in a very delicate make up, and the only man between them was on his knees, each hand holding one of the erect sexual members of the transvestites.

There was a moment of silence, in which time seemed to freeze. The taller transvestite's face twisted in a mask of fury, and opened his mouth to shout at the intruders.

Successive shots are heard, and the two Americans and Anna instinctively drop to the floor. The transvestites and the man jumped to the makeshift bed, and started shouting in Portuguese.

Tony and Tim crawled closer to the window, trying to look at the gunfight downstairs.

Anna turned at the people in the bed and hissed for a long time in Portuguese, pointing at the Americans, the window and the door.

The transvestite answered, and Anna spoke again, and grimaced as the sound of an explosion was heard.

She glanced at the Americans, and she saw Tim taking a peek of the fight downstairs. She rushed to him, grabbed him by his collar and threw him against the wall, her body pressing against him as more shots were heard.

"Do you wanna die?" she hissed at him between her teeth.

He stares at her, feeling her body against his. He gulps, and stares at Tony, who crawls away from the window and leans against the wall, sliding slowly to the floor in defeat.

"No," he says, staring at her eyes. He feels her breasts pressed against his chest, and he is feeling the adrenalin coursing through his veins.

"Then stay the fuck away from the fucking window." She hisses at him, and stares at the open window, and at the battle being fought downstairs.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"We're in civil war, an unnamed one. More people die from gunshots in Rio in a normal day than in some battle zones around the world."

They were sitting on the floor, sipping strong Brazilian coffee. The man and the transvestites had put their clothes on and were sitting on the sofa.

After some rapid fire Portuguese, one of the transvestites brought some cups of hot steaming coffee for the invaders of his home.

They hear more screams and fighting downstairs. The battle is not over.

"Why don't the police interfere?"

Anna laughs, but her laughter sounds hollow, "they are worst than the bandits. Totally corrupt. The very few who aren't corrupt can't really do their jobs without having a hard time with the corruption that runs free in the Police corporation."

Anna looks at the window. "There was a football game this afternoon. Botafogo vs Flamengo"

Anna shakes her head, "You Americans like to put different names on things, so you call it soccer. Only your American football is deemed worthy of being named football. But all over the world, the word is football. As it should be."

She looks at Tim and Tony, and smiles faintly, as they look ridiculous sitting on the floor with their long legs before them with tiny coffee cups in their hands.

"The organized fan clubs of these teams use the sport as an excuse to settle their differences on the field outside the fields. Thus, the fights."

"They were armed, we heard the shots."

Anna nods, "only the innocents are not armed in Rio. And the innocents usually end up dead. The drug lords, the traffic dealers, the pushers, the cops, violence is all a viral disease that spread out in all levels of society. No one is safe."

She puts her coffee cup on the floor, and hugs her legs covered with her simple white skirt, "so, there is no hope."

They hear the sound of sirens, and the sound of the fight diminishes and dies. Anna stands up, and slowly approaches the window. She looks down, and sees that the cops are dispersing the fighting soccer fans.

Timothy stands up, and walks up behind her. He stops a step behind her, and looks at the movement downstairs.

"Is it safe to go, now?" he says softly against her ear, and he sees her shivering as his warm breath touches her skin.

"Not yet. Soon it will be." She moves away from the window, and from him.

She walks back to where she was sitting, and collects her coffee cup from the floor. She walks up to the transvestite and puts the cup on his hand. He nods, and before he walks away, Anna speaks long and emotionally to him. She points to the other transvestite, and keeps talking for some minutes.

Tony stands up from the floor, and Tim approaches him, both watch Anna giving a speech in Portuguese to the two people.

Then she stares at the man, and speaks harshly at him for some minutes.

She turns to them, takes their coffee cups of their hands, put it in the hands of the other transvestite, and goes to the door, and starts unlocking the locks of it.

Tim and Tony can see that the transvestites are silently crying, and the man is blushing with shame. Anna opens the door, and calls them out.

"Come on, it's safe now. Time to leave this place."

They wave at the three people, and leave the apartment, and Anna closes the door after herself. They silently walk the corridor and start going back to the ground floor.

As they reach the ground floor, Tony can't hold his curiosity in check anymore.

"Anna, what did you tell them?"

Anna gets to the door that opens to the street, and looks up and down, "Come on, there's no one in sight."

"Did you hear my question? What did you tell them?"

She glances at him briefly, and walks out of the building. They follow her, and she slams the door shut.

"Nothing important."

"It seemed important to me," says Tim, studying her face. He sees her rolling her eyes at him. "It seemed important to them."

Anna starts walking, ignoring them.

"Anna!" Tim shouts.

"I told them that Jesus loves them, ok!" She stops and shouts exasperated at them. She stares at the two Americans, who now are looking as if she is crazy lunatic. She shrugs, their opinion on of her is not important anyway.

"I told them that God hates sin but loves the sinner, and He would never turn his back to them if they truly repent of their sins and seek Him with all their hearts. And…" she looks to the floor, "that there is a reason in everything He does, that He created a fight so I could hide myself into their apartment, meet them and deliver His word for them."

She hugs herself, and starts walking towards the avenue they were just some hours before.

"What about the other guy?" Tim rushes and starts walking beside her.

She glances briefly at him, but doesn't slow down her step.

"I told him he should be ashamed of his actions, because he was worst than them. They do what they do because they have no choice and need the money. But he is a liar. He should go back to his wife and kids."

They reach the avenue, and they look up and down to the leftover to the fight on the streets. There was broken bottles and garbage littering the avenue, as if a hurricane had gone through it.

"How did you find out he has wife and kids?" Tony is surprised with her deductive skills.

She glances at him, then says, "I saw the wedding ring when he served us coffee. And there was a plastic bag with children toys on the corner where he put his pants and shirt on."

Tony and Tim look at each other and smile.

"Let's go, we have a long way to go."

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

They take a bus to go to Anna's home in one of the poor communities in a hill. They travel for a long time, and Tony starts to feel antsy to stay in a packed full bus with nothing to do.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Five minutes later.

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

Twenty minutes later, and still in the bus.

"Are we –"

"Shut up Tony, or I'll shut you up," says McGee irritated, looking at Tony who raises his hands in surrender. Anna smiles at the two Americans, digs in her bag and brings a book out.

"Here, read something. Time will pass and you won't notice."

Tony pouts and takes the book. He opens it.

"This book is in Japanese." He looks further down on the book, and the illustrations on it.

"Hey, but that's porn!" He looks at Anna, barely containing his surprise.

"Not porn, Hentai." She says looking out of the window of the bus.

McGee can't hide his surprise either.

"You read Japanese porn?

"No, I just like the pictures." She smirks, and Tim keeps staring at her.

She feels his stare, looks at him, and laughs, "What? Are you a prude?"

Tim blushes and doesn't say anything. Tony laughs at them and starts reading the manga.

They reach the final stop and leave the bus. Anna guides them through tortuous ways up the hill to her home. They start climbing several sets of stairs, and Anna stops to salutes some men who are with folded arms on one level, dressed in surfer shorts and no t-shirt on. Their muscles are slim but powerful, but not as powerful as the Israeli Uzis they lazily hold in their hands. The men stare at the foreigners with mistrust, and talk a long time with Anna, who points at them and at herself, explaining their visit to her.

"Eles estão comigo. Conheci eles nas minhas viagens." (They're with me, I've met them in my travels.)

They nod talk in a portable radio, talk again with Anna, and allow them to continue their way up.

Tony and Tim walk by them, and their stare burns the Americans, who gulp and follow Anna very closely.

"Who are they?" asks Tony, who stares back at one of them, who touches his machine gun with the natural ease of a person used with heavy artillery.

"The dogs of war of the slum. No one comes ups or down without their approval."

"Why?"

She points up, and they see several men on the top of the houses up the hill, all of them with very have machinery, patrolling the narrow streets of the hill.

"Welcome to the real world, my world."

NCIS NCIS NCIS

They go up another set of steps, and start walking in a small pedestrian road until they reach a very humble house, made out of bricks. Ana gets her key, and opens the house, shouting to her parents that she is home.

They enter a small living room, approximately not over ten feet long to twelve wide. Its white walls were covered with landscape pictures, probably taken by Anna, and several pictures of Anna with two older people. A small brown sofa was in the furthest corner of the living room, and a small rack with a small TV could be seen to its left. A small round dinner table was to the right, close to an open door that probably led to the other rooms of the house. Its white chairs were still covered with the protective plastic from when they were bought. On top of the table, a small blue vase with a plastic flower bouquet tried valiantly to bring some color to the room.

It failed.

A small white woman, with dyed black hair with white roots peeking in between comes from the kitchen. She is dressed in a simple gray dress, in a very light fabric, and kisses Anna in both cheeks and points to the foreigners.

Anna speaks in Portuguese with the woman, who opens a huge smile, and then approaches them. She looks them up and down, cups Tony's face on her calloused hands and kisses him in both cheeks, leaving him with a surprised smile on his face.

She turns to Tim, glances back at Anna and says something that makes Anna blush and look down to the floor. The smiling woman looks up at Tim, cups his face and also kisses both of his cheeks. He stares at her surprised, as she takes a step, slaps him lightly on his cheek, and leaves him rooted on the spot, as she goes back to the kitchen talking nonstop in Portuguese.

Anna shakes her head and responds something, glances at Tim and blushes.

"What did she say?" His curiosity is biting him, and he squints at her when he sees her blushing even brighter under her tan.

She supports her hand on her hip, "she said that any friends I've made during my journeys are welcome in our house."

She turns and goes to sit on the sofa, gets one of the crocheted cushions on it and sits, hugging the cushion against her chest.

"No, after that, she said something else."

"Nothing important." She denies emphatically, but she can't meet his eyes, her hands nervously fidgeting with the crochet details on the cushion.

"She said that she has been praying for Anna to meet a good man, and that God finally answered her prayers," says a very thin man in a very heavy accent, coming from the door that leads to the bedrooms. His deep tanned skin is marked by the years, his hair is totally white, and he moves with difficulty towards the visitors. He supports himself on a cane, and as soon as she sees him, Anna runs to help him to sit on the love seat opposite to the Americans. The two Americans stand up, looking at him with respect.

She talks softly in Portuguese, and he supports himself on her arm until he sits, and lightly taps her hand and looks at the Americans with very intelligent eyes. His body might be failing him, but the mind behind those eyes watch the Americans with the same perspicacity from Gibbs.

Anna speaks at him again, but he waves his hand and interrupts her, "We'll talk in English, so they won't be uncomfortable."

Anna sits back on the sofa and nods obediently.

"Dad, you shouldn't have left the bed."

"I'll sleep when I'm dead, and there is still life in these old bones."

He looks at the foreigners, who glance from Anna to him, then back to Anna again.

"You are Anna's father." Says Tim, as he compares their features.

The old man nods, "I'm Ricardo Rodrigues. What brings you to my home?"

Tim sits on the edge of the sofa, leaning towards Anna's father.

"We're here to protect your daughter. We're cops, Navy cops from America. We believe she witnessed a crime which put her in danger."

Ricardo looks at Anna, who is staring at her own hands without saying a word.

"Is it somehow related to the reason why you are waking up screaming in the middle of the night since you arrived from America?"

Anna blushes, and glances to the Americans then glares to her father.

"Dad, please!"

"What makes you believe you can protect her?" He turns to Tim, who nods at his concern.

"We're willing to put her under witness protection in exchange of her testimony, and we also would relocate her to America until the trial is finished."

Anna shakes her head, "That's not acceptable." She stands, and stares down at them, "I'm not going."

"Anna!"

Tony stands up, "Why not? We're offering you protection! If we found you, you can believe that the people who killed that marine will also find you, and then you will be in trouble!"

She turns to him, and hisses at his face, "I'm not going anywhere without my parents!"

They enter into a staring contest, and Tony has to admire her tenacity.

Anna's mother comes out of the kitchen, and says something in Portuguese. Anna rolls her eyes and hurries to help her mother.

Anna's father shakes his head, and signals for the American to sit down.

"I apologize in name of my daughter."

Anna glares at them, as she starts putting plates and cutlery on the table, as her mother rushes from and to the kitchen bringing pans with food.

"She inherited my stubbornness, I'm afraid."

Tony sits down, and Tim glances at Anna before looking at Mr. Rodrigues.

"She's not safe here. The people we're talking about, they are dangerous. They won't think twice before coming here and looking for her."

Ricardo nods, in deep thought. "Living is dangerous, my son. Every day you leave your bed you are not sure if you will be able to come back to it in one whole piece. My Anna carries the burden of responsibility on her shoulders. She doesn't complain, the only thing she asks is to escape for some weeks every year away from the prison without walls that suffocates her soul. But this time, death followed her during her retreat, and she is deeply troubled by that."

They look at her, as she sets the unmatched glasses on the table along with paper napkins.

Ricardo takes a deep breath, and looks at his daughter. Tim's eyes follow his, and both observe her and her mother setting another pot pan on the small table.

"Talk to her, maybe you can change her mind."

"Thank you Mr. Rodrigues."

"Ricardo, just Ricardo." He starts to stand up, and Tim immediately stands up and rushes to help him up from the love seat. Anna sees her father's struggle, and runs to her father's side. As they help her father, Tim's hand accidentally touches hers, and she recoils as if touched by a live wire.

Her father frowns as he glances at his daughter, who is stubbornly staring at the floor. He glances at Tim, whose face is burning with a blush that comes up from his neck, his face, and all the way to his ears, but his eyes are firmly set on Anna.

Ricardo smiles, and gives his hand to Timothy, "help me to the table, son."

Both Anna and Tim help Ricardo take the few steps to the table, and he sits on one of the chairs. Anna's mother smiles at the foreigners, and starts taking the lids of the pots, and the small house is inundated with mouth watering smell of freshly made food.

"Ah, you shouldn't bother," says Tony, standing on the tip of his toes to stare on the pots with enticing smells that are so tempting.

Anna points to two empty chairs, "we don't have much, but what we have is freely given. You would hurt her feelings by denying her the right to play host. Please accept."

They nod, and sit down at the table. Anna's mother, that later on they find out that is named Julia, says something to her daughter while she serves generous portions of a thick orange soup on the plates of the Americans. She also adds spoonfuls of white rice, and shows them the bowls with fruit and salad that they might serve themselves.

Tony starts attacking the food, and moans at the taste, that it is divine. Tim takes a tiny bite, as he's aware of how tender his own stomach can be, and closes his eyes when his tastes buds are bombarded with a soft puree slightly tasting of garlic, sour cream and milk, with shrimps pieces in between.

Anna comes back from the kitchen with a juice jar, and offers them the freshly prepared juice.

"Thanks, what is this?"

"It is mango juice, freshly made. Very sweet and refreshing."

Tim gets his glass and holds it in the air so Anna may fill it. She leans down, and starts pouring the thick juice, and for some reason Tim's eyes are attracted to the small pendant she has hanging from her neck. Then his eyes fix on what is behind of the pendants, and he gulps. When she leaned down, her dress neck lowered, and he had a clear view of perfectly rounded mounds in bronze flesh, and the hint of a simple reinforced bra.

He blinks, trying to break the spell, and looks at his plate. He frowns at it, and puts a new bite of it on his mouth. He glances at Anna's father, who looks at him with a knowing expression in his eyes and smiles.

Anna serves Tony, whose face is practically buried on the plate, devouring the food, and sits down besides Tim.

"You don't like it?"

"Uhm?

Anna points to his plate.

"You don't like my mom's food. You are frowning at it."

He glances at her, and his eyes automatically lower to her boobs, and he mentally gives himself a head slap.

"No, no, no, it's delicious."

Tony takes a break and says between bites, "It's really good, what's the name of it?"

Anna smiles, and glances at her mother. Her mother starts speaking in Portuguese, and Anna translates it for her.

"It's Bobó de Camarão. Basically a thick mixture of manioc, garlic, onions, green peppers with shrimps on it."

Tony gulps his food, and tries to repeat the word. "Bobooooohhhhh diiii Kamarooonnn"

Julia laughs and Ricardo just shakes his head, and says, "no, bo-bó de ca-ma-rão."

Tony smiles, and tries again, "Bohhhhboohhhh diiii Kahmahroonnn"

Anna starts snickering, looks at her parents and the three Brazilians start laughing hysterically.

Tony and Tim smile, and try to say the word together, "Bohhhhboohhhh."

The whole table erupts in laughter.

NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS

"If I speak with my Boss back in America, and he agrees to put you and your parents into witness protection, would you come with us?"

The sun has lowered behind the hill, and even though it is still day, the temperatures dropped several degrees, and a nice breeze was blowing through the windows.

Anna frowns at her desert bow, as she eats another spoon of the passion fruit mousse her mother served as desert, and studies Tony, who is looking at her, between spoonfuls of the delicacy. Her mother and father had retreated to their room, in the back of the house, leaving Anna talking with the two foreigners in the living room.

"What makes you think your boss will agree?"

"Listen, we didn't come all the way here to fail. We were ordered here to bring you back to America to testify, and we are willing to negotiate. If granting safe passage to your parents is what will make you agree to come with us, we'll give it a try."

"What makes you think I care, Tony? It's just another man, who lost his life for a futile reason. It's not my problem. I do not care about him."

"Of course you care," says Tim, impatiently. He stands up and puts the desert bow on the table, and comes back to sit beside her. She is sitting on the sofa, one of her legs curled up under herself.

"You care, because we saw it."

She glances at him, her dark brown eyes staring at him. He notices that, depending on how the light hit them, they weren't black, but deep chocolate brown, with some lighter tones mixed in between.

"We saw you on the surveillance tape, how you tried to help him, even though that there was little hope for him. We saw you with those transvestites today. You care. You really care."

They stare into each other eyes, and he sees her resolve faltering.

"Sometimes, caring is not enough. You can't change the outcome of things regardless of how much you want it."

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." He quotes, remembering one of the several quotes his father would tell him.

She rolls her eyes at him, and he completes, "or, in your case, good women."

She stands up, folds her arms and walks to the small window, and stares at the narrow roads going down the hill.

"Come on," he leaves the sofa, and stands behind her, staring at her back, "let us at least make the call."

She sighs, and her shoulders lower in defeat, "make the call."

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There is no signal inside the house, so they climb by a small circular stairway to the roof. Once in the roof, Anna waves at the guards of the hill and puts her hands over Tim's shoulder, pointing to his cell phone.

They nod, as they know that there is no signal inside the precarious buildings, and the only place where you can get signal is on top of the houses.

However, the top of the houses of the hill were the watch towers for the guards, and they did not like sharing.

Tim smiles thinly at them, and starts dialing his new satellite phone they bought the previous day. He glances at Anna, whose arm moved from his neck to his waist, who is staring curiously at the top of the line mobile phone.

"You can let go of me now, I guess." He says, uncomfortable with her proximity.

She shakes her head, "if I let you go, you're easy target. A sitting duck. As long as they see you with me, and I'm not showing any sign that I'm uncomfortable in your presence, they won't shoot you."

He frowns, as he hears the phone ringing on the other side. "Really? Why?"

"They are jury, advocates and executors of the law on the hill. Everyone who lives here is under their domain. There is no robbery, no domestic disputes, no wife beating inside the limits of the hill. If such thing happens, all the wronged person has to do is to complain to one of the guards," she points to one of the armed guards, walking on top of the houses further up, "and they will dispense their law. Probably killing or mutilating the person, depending on the orders of the king of the hill."

"Oh…"he frowns at her, and gulps when she puts her head on his shoulder, hugging him by the waist.

"Relax, they won't harm you unless I ask them too."

She looks up and they stare at each other, a faint smile on her lips.

"Are you afraid?" She whispers, and his eyes lower to her lips, the phone still ringing on his ear.

"Very," he whispers back, and he starts leaning towards her.

"Gibbs." The line connects, and McGee jumps away from her.

"Boss!" He takes two steps back and takes a deep breath as he hears the familiar bark of Gibbs on his ear.

"McGee! What's happening over there? Why did you take so long to contact us?"

"Boss, we found her." He looks at Anna, who smiles saucily at him and goes to the edge of the roof, and sits facing the hill going down.

"Did you get her statement? Is she coming with you?"

"Boss, the answer is no to both questions."

"What do you mean, McGee? What's wrong with you? Just get her statement and get her out of there!"

"Boss, she has family here, she refuses to cooperate and to testify if we don't grant both her and her parents asylum."

"The deal was just for her, McGee. Witness protection is not a free green card lottery."

"I know, Boss, but," he glances up the hill, to the heavily armed men staring at him talking on the phone, "she's in danger here, more than what we have imagined before. If Captain Davis' killers don't find her first, she might be killed by the place itself or a lost bullet. Boss, we were almost killed today, and it was plain day light."

"McGee," says Gibbs, his voice resolute, "we need her insight, another Marine was killed yesterday, the same way Captain Davis was killed. Try to convince her to come, I will check with Vance, see what kind of deal I can cut on our side."

"Thanks, Boss. Meanwhile, we'll keep her safe and sound here."

"I'll contact you to tell you what it's decided here."

"Thanks Boss."

They disconnect. McGee smiles and waves at the guards, who wave back. He goes to the edge where Anna is sitting, staring down at the city below.

He sits down on the edge, and mimics her position, looking down at the city.

Hundreds of roofs, in various degrees of construction or repair, could be seen all the way down, until the point where the official road started, in a strange effect of bricolage. Further down, houses, bigger and in better state of repair, whirled down in narrow streets until they mixed with the buildings of the city. Far away, one could see the lights of the beach, with their skyscrapers and fancy expensive buildings.

In one side, luxury to the extreme, enjoying the breeze of the ocean. Just some miles away, the poverty of millions who struggled with the everyday just to make ends meet. Side by side, connected by the sea and the breeze.

She glances at him, then looks back to the horizon.

"What did your boss say?"

"He will talk with our director, and see if he can cut a better deal that includes your parents."

She nods sadly, "He won't."

He turns to her, her legs hanging from the ledge, moving them as one kid sitting in a chair too big for her to reach the floor.

"Why such pessimism?"

She shakes her head, and turns to him, "I'm not pessimist. I'm a realist."

She wiggles closer to him, and leans her head on his shoulder. After a moment of hesitation, he puts his hands over her shoulders, and hugs her against his side.

"Why?" he murmurs against her hair.

She sighs, and takes a while to answer.

"Because nothing good ever happens to me."

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