Author's Note: Hola! Thanks for all the reviews! I know this chapter is short, but the plot it getting much thicker and is getting difficult to write in a day. I'm just glad I still have readers. Enjoy lucky chapter seven!

Disclaimer: Covert Affairs is not my property.

Auggie scowled. "This day just keeps getting better and better," he mumbled.

Marco Sanchez stood and began walking around the room, passing his guard that had planted himself by the door. "What is your name?" he said after a moment.

"Paulo," replied Auggie.

Marco spat something out in Portuguese. Auggie shrugged off whatever comment it was and said, "If that was supposed to be something offensive, I didn't get it."

"You are not Portuguese! You are not even Hispanic!" Marco exclaimed.

"You're very good at observing things," Auggie commented wryly.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a fist connected with his jaw. Auggie felt his body reel backward, and it took his mind a moment to connect with the pain and the rest of his body. Wham! He hit the ground with a surprised thud, and felt a hefty foot plant itself on his chest, pinning him down on the floor.

"Leave him alone, Hector," ordered Marco, apparently in front of Auggie. "In fact, leave us. The boy is so small and scrawny a child could beat him! Wait for me outside the door."

Hector must have complied, because there was the sound of a door opening and closing with a loud clang. Auggie struggled to stand again, throwing his arms about disoriented until he found a chair to pull himself up on. He had never been called scrawny; never in his entire life! He was a warrior for pete's sake, and if he was being called scrawny, how big was Marco Sanchez? Auggie heard Marco walk around the room and pull the drapes, then rummage around in his desk for something. Finally, when Auggie was upright again and had oriented himself, he heard Marco coming back towards him.

"Sorry about that; Hector goes a little overboard sometimes," Marco said, and Auggie felt a cold, oily substance be smeared over his eye. Auggie flinched and brought up his hands to defend himself. "Stop!" Marco hissed. "Just do as I say, and all will be okay."

"How on earth am I supposed to trust you?" Auggie hissed. The substance stung.

"I know where Annie is," Marco replied. "And if you value her life and yours, you better trust me. Now, you are not my contact from my people. I did not ask for an extraction from yours. I presume you are with the DPD?"

Auggie shook his head. "I am from nobody. Annie is a friend of mine, and I work with her. But I wasn't sent."

Marco scowled. "How did you know that she was in danger?"

"She used a code especially for me in her message a couple of days ago. 'Tell August I said 'hi'.' I could hear in her voice that something is wrong."

Marco unexpectedly laughed. "Well, if she lives, she will make a great agent. Yes, it is good that you are here; she needs medical attention as soon as possible. I will tell you what happened; but first, I need you to scream. I am supposed to be beating you; the stuff I will now be putting on your face is makeup; for you need to look beaten."

Auggie felt like he was dealing with the bipolar agent, but he didn't know what else to do. He didn't trust Sanchez at all, but he needed to know where Annie was. "Do what you have to to complete your mission," his mind said. Auggie took a deep breath and cried out with a tortured scream.

For the next five minutes, Auggie yelped and hollered while Marco yelled and commanded. A chair was broken somewhere, and anything that was glass on the desk was whole no longer. Auggie could hear Hector laughing outside, and he felt happy that at least Hector was fooled. Finally, Marco (in a very exaggeratedly loud voice) said, "NOW YOU WILL GIVE ME YOUR INFORMATION!"

Auggie rubbed his ears to get rid of the ringing left in the wake of Hector's proclamation. "Okay, OKAY!" he played along. "I'll tell you anything you want to know!"

Auggie heard Hector walk away, and he smiled. Marco also heard it and waited for a beat. "Okay," Marco began. "First, my story. I have been an agent for a long, long time. In my agency, agents do not last long at all. But I was a prodigy; I lasted the longest of my group. How I did so was not always honorable. You see, to be accepted among bad men, you also have to appear to be bad yourself. I sold arms and dealt in drugs as well as any man; only all my dealings went back to the government. But to secure my position among them, I embezzled some of the money into a secret account."

Auggie could see where this is heading. "How much did you trick your government out of?" he asked nervously.

"Many, many, many dollars," Marco replied. "Let us just say that I can retire and live like a king for the rest of my life... about forty times."

Auggie paled. "So, this is your last mission?"

"My sins finally caught up to me," Marco confirmed. "My people found out what I did. I was already scheduled to go on this mission; so they didn't want me back from it. I was supposed to arrive here, and an informant was to tell Valmor who I really was. I was then to be killed in the line of duty, dying like a hero to my people. I wasn't even aware of their plan until I tried to call for an extraction; I had already been cut off. But you see, much went wrong with their plan. First, I was supposed to go in alone. The only reason the DPD was involved was because of the rogue agent Ben Mercer. Your CIA director Campbell or other wanted her with me on this mission because of her expertise in dealing with him. Personally, I thought this mission was a little too much for someone so inexperienced."

Auggie nodded in agreement. "I thought the same thing when I heard it too," he mumbled. "I wonder if that is why I was forced to go on vacation at the exact time the mission was going down; I would have stopped it before it got too far."

Marco sighed. "Well, I wish you could have stopped it. Everything backfired on us. The informant told Valmor a spy was among him, but he did not suspect me in the least. I am very well established in the cartels. Instead, they believed Annie was the spy. They kept her healthy long enough to keep in regular contact with you, and I 'played along' by 'pretending to be a master spy.' If only Valmor knows how sick his humor really is... at any rate, now my government won't take us out. They want me dead, and if that means killing your friend, so be it."

"Why did you not call for help on our side?" Auggie asked angrily.

"Because of who is in charge. Jai Wilcox. Tell me, you work with him and don't know who he really is?"

Auggie frowned. "No, I don't know who he really is. Who is he?"

Suddenly, the pair heard steps in the corridor. "Quickly!" Marco whispered. "Get into that chair!" He then ran and threw the makeup into a desk drawer.

Auggie turned around, waving his hands hoping to hit a chair. It was all in vain. "Where?" he asked desperately.

Suddenly, he felt Marco's iron grip shove him into a seated position. It felt very disconcerting, like he was being shoved through air, but a chair did catch him. Just as Marco righted himself, the door opened. In walked Hector with a new pair of footsteps.

"Marco, my friend!" shouted none other than the infamous Valmor. "Caught another, have we?"

"Yes," Marco spat. "Another little cub putting its head where it doesn't belong."

Valmor inspected Auggie. "Wait; he is blind! Is America's budget crisis so bad that they have resorted to this? What is your name kid?"

"Paulo," spat Auggie, "and I have no idea what you are talking about."

"Of course you don't," Valmor mockingly crooned. "Marco, did you get anything out of him?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Marco replied.

Valmor thought for a moment. "I have a feeling we will get much more from him later. For now, put him with the girl; it makes no sense that these two should dirty two guest rooms. Housekeeping would never let me hear the end of it."

Hector was only too willing to adhere to that order, and Auggie felt himself be yanked out of the chair. "We'll be seeing each other later; or at least, I will be seeing you," Valmor sneered.

Marco also added in his two cents. "I also hope to have the chance to get you back for what you said about my cousin, Jai," he replied venomously.

Auggie scowled in their general direction, but inside his heart was light. He was going to be put in with Annie! And maybe, maybe the great Marco Sanchez would have a plan.