Chapter Nine

Alex's men flew back up the stairs, then immediately reappeared, followed by an even larger herd of men in dark suits, with Oscar bringing up the rear.

"Send in the Cavalry," Jaime said softly.

"Jaime - when you called the red line and then didn't say anything, I knew you needed help," Oscar told her.

"OSI," one of Marcos' men told him grimly. "I didn't get to Rawson."

Alex sighed in dismay. "Look, you can do whatever you want with me. Send me to prison; hell - kill me if you're so inclined, but please...he's got to make this phone call."

"Not a chance," Steve said, re-claiming his wife for himself with his own arm around her waist.

"You don't know what you're doing," Alex pleaded. "People are about to die - important people."

"Ah...no. That's why you're in there and we're out here," Steve responded. "Not gonna happen."

"You're OSI?" He actually seemed panicked. Jaime nodded the answer. "Well, your President is one of the people I'm trying to save." He looked directly into Jaime's eyes. "I'm trying to stop an assassination plot. Please...we've got less than five minutes left. I know you have no reason to trust me right now, but I'll explain all of it, I swear! Just - please - let one of my men use the telephone."

Jaime and Steve looked at each other in total shock, then both turned to Oscar. No one said a word.

"We're almost out of time," Alex said frantically. "My men will take the terrorists down, but only with my say-so."

Jaime's eyes grew wide. "Oscar...he's right - I shouldn't believe him, and I'm not sure why, but I do. I think he's telling the truth."

Oscar trusted her instincts, and turned to his men. "Take one of them upstairs. As soon as they're done, get Washington on the phone. Find out exactly what's happened." He turned back to Alex. "If you're lying, you're going to wish they'd killed you."

The men headed up the stairs once again, and returned minutes later, the OSI operatives looking as pale as bone-china.

"He wasn't lying," one of them stammered. "There were assassins...six of 'em...and then the pilots got off of the 'copters and took all of 'em out."

Jaime stepped toward Alex's cell. Steve stayed back, knowing she needed to take care of this herself.

"Let's hear it," she told Alex. "Start with this one...Who are you, really?"

"I am Alexander Marcos. Everything I told you was absolutely true. I do own a helicopter charter service. Two weeks ago, I was approached by a group of men who hired us to transport them to four separate nations' capitols. Later, they asked for my other two bird's as well. It sounded strange, so I did a little clandestine digging and found out what they were up to. I chose a half dozen of my best pilots - specially trained in defensive maneuvers since we sometimes transport heads of state - and assigned them to this job."

"Why didn't you just report this to authorities?" Jaime asked reasonably.

"I was already being watched, suspected, and I was afraid I'd be locked away by your government and then be unable to stop the killings from taking place. I'd planned to step forward as soon as it was over."

Steve stayed where he was, but couldn't contain his question any longer. "Why did you find it necessary to hurt my wife?"

Alex was stymied. "Your -?"

"My wife," Steve repeated.

Alex looked from Jaime to Steve and then back again, trying to find the words. "Susanna..."

"Jaime," she told him softly.

"Jaime. I can never apologize enough for what we did to you. To both of you. Most people who come here have reservations well in advance, and I know they're booked solid. The day you arrived, my men informed me that you had no advance reservation, that arrangements had been made the night before. I thought you were one of them, sent to stop me. I couldn't allow their plans to succeed." Alex got up and moved toward the bars, toward Jaime. "Once I started getting to know you, I thought maybe I'd been wrong, and maybe you really were a rich girl from the States, here to spend Daddy's money. Then they caught you on the phone, and when you came up from the cellar with...him, well I had to go back to the original assumption. And, like I said, there's was no way I could let their plot go forward." He reached up to touch her hands on the bars, but thought better of it and put his own hands down again. "I am beyond sorry that I hurt you...and your husband. I need you to know one thing for certain, Jaime. I didn't tell you the entire truth, but I also never lied to you - not once. And when I said I was falling for you, well, that was honest as well."

Jaime was touched by the last sentiment, although she didn't allow him to see that. "Alex," she began slowly, "you know we have to take you back to the States with us."

"I know. It's worth prison, though, now that everything is all over and no one was killed."

Jaime looked toward her boss, certain there was something he could do.