Lee stared in disbelief at the destroyed building. He was stunned by the damage. The large marble structure had been completely flattened by the explosions. He could have sworn that Christophe didn't have a backup plan. He didn't even want to think about the repercussions for his career, never mind the total breakdown of relations between Mareki and the United States.

Amanda coughed beside him and he eased an arm around her waist, "are you okay?"

She nodded and coughed again, "I'm okay. But Lee?"

"Hmm?" He grunted his response to her question, never taking his eyes off the remains of the parliament.

"Where is everyone?"

Now he turned to her. "What?"

"Where is everyone? We haven't checked in at all. Nobody's heard from us since we said the bombs would be going to the airport. Shouldn't someone have been here to get people out of that building? Shouldn't Mr. Melrose have had a team here, just in case we didn't manage to stop Christophe?" She shivered some and moved closer to him, despite of the oppressive heat.

"Yeah." He furrowed his brow, "actually, yeah someone should have been here. Billy should have had a team here. Francine was supposed to be running point on this one."

Lee turned back to Turoro, "Where are the American agents that are supposed to be protecting this building?"

Turoro never turned his attention from the sirens responding to the wreckage of the plane. "There are no American agents here. There haven't been any American agents here. You two are the first Americans I've seen at all."

Lee just stared at the man. None of this made any sense. Procedure stated that if an agent missed a check-in then teams would be sent in, depending of course, on the nature of the assignment. Procedure also stated that there be some kind of plan B in a situation like this. So, where exactly was plan B?

"Oh my gosh, Lee. Do you think Christophe's men got to Francine? He could have had people here too. I mean, he had Sullivan, didn't he?"

Francine sat in the overheating Jeep swearing under her breath at the tangle of traffic. Getting across the city of Vakesh shouldn't have taken 10 minutes, instead she hadn't moved in 20. There was some kind of detour up ahead too. This day just couldn't get any better. First, Lee and Amanda went missing, then she had to fight the Prime Minister just to get her people stationed at Parliament, then Christophe had managed to get to the city limits, which didn't give her much hope for Scarecrow and Amanda, and then, even after Lee and Amanda surfaced she couldn't manage to get across the city to get them.

Looking down at her radio, Francine had a brainstorm. Shaking her head, she picked up the mic and thumbed the button. "This is Agent Desmond. Lt. Turoro, if you're reading this please respond."

Static answered her and she repeated her call. This time she was answered by a gruff, "Turoro, what is it that you want?"

"Lt. Turoro, are those Americans still there with you?"

"Yes, they are here still. Is there a problem?"

"No. No. Let me speak to Agent Stetson."

There was a long pause, not even static snapped across the connection. She stared at the radio, hoping that it hadn't gone dead too. Not that that wouldn't be par for the course.

Her heart jumped when she heard, "Stetson."

"Lee." She couldn't hide the relief in her voice. "What's your status?"

"Francine, where the hell are you? How in the hell did Christophe get into this building?"

"Lee, I don't know what you're talking about. The Mareki army shot down Christophe's plane before he got into the city limits."

"I saw that Francine. But damn it, how did he get into the parliament building?"

"Lee. The parliament building is fine. I'm about a block from your position. Let me call into Billy. I'll be there as soon as possible. Don't go anywhere."

"Yeah, yeah, fine alright."

"Oh, and is Amanda with you?"

"Yes Francine." She could hear the frustration in his voice. She wished she knew what he meant about the parliament building.

Lee turned his attention to Torero's truck when he heard Francine's name. He couldn't make out much of the conversation. The connection was terrible and he only had Torero's end of the conversation. He instinctively stepped in front of Amanda when Turoro asked if there was a problem and aimed his AR-15 at them. Instead of shooting them however, Turoro glared at him then motioned him to the radio.

His conversation with Francine just frustrated him more. She obviously didn't know what she was talking about. There was nothing about the parliament building that was fine. It was a pile of rubble and dust. How could that be fine? He was relieved however to find out that she was only a block away from them. He'd get answers when she got there.

Handing the mic back to Turoro, Lee went back to Amanda.

"What was that all about?"

He shrugged and ran his hands through his hair. She watched as he assumed his now familiar posture of frustration. She tried to control her grin as he put one hand on his hip and raked his left hand through his hair again. She knew he wouldn't appreciate that at all. And she didn't really want to be on the receiving end of his explosion.

"Lee, calm down. Francine will be here any minute. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explanation for all of this."

The hand that was on his hip motioned broadly at the remains of the building behind them, "I can't even imagine a perfectly good explanation for this!"

Holding her hands up in defeat, she turned from him and shielded her eyes from the glaring sun looking for Francine.

"Uh, Amanda…"

She cut off his apology, "look. There's Francine."

Sighing, he nodded and led the way to the green and brown CJ.