Consciousness returned first in a trickle, then a sudden, terrible rush.

Carmelita lurched up, fighting to move, to keep moving, following the last directive her body had been given. All that was weighing her down now was soft sheets.

Rosa was-!

There. In a bed across from her. She looked even worse in the light. Eyes closed, breathing strained.

But someone had bandaged her, and laid her out in a bed. Carmelita had been given the same treatment herself. When she propped herself up on her elbows, she could feel the dressing on her various cuts and scrapes. The pain was omnipresent, but manageable. More or less.

"Oh my, you're awake!"

Carmelita dragged her eyes to the door. A capybara with wide, dark eyes was watching her attempts to sit up with no small measure of concern. She hurried over to her bedside.

"Please don't strain yourself. You and your friend were quite badly injured when you arrived here…"

Her words jogged Carmelita's memory, images coming shakily back into focus like photographs taken with a damaged camera. Spotting a building through the brush. Rosa's weight on her shoulders, demanding both of them find a safe place to rest.

The twist in her stomach, nonetheless, when she got close enough to make out the word-

"Orphanage."

"What was that? Oh, ah, yes. This is Casa Hogar Refugio, dedicated to the little ones of the mining village… back when there was a mining village, at least."

Carmelita managed to look over the capybara's shoulder… and confirmed, with a variety of negative emotions, that there were several young faces peering at her and Rosa from the doorway. In the first flash of hardness the capybara had shown, itself perfectly maternal, she followed Carmelita's gaze and sent them all scattering with a firm look.

"Well," she added. "The village may be empty, but work like this is never quite finished…"

"This is bad. We can't stay here."

Carmelita redoubled her efforts to get off the bed. She succeeded, too, despite the capybara's protests.

"My name is Constable Carmelita Montoya Fox, Interpol." She managed to get through most of that without tripping over her words. She had to grit her teeth to work through a fresh surge of pain, but baring her fangs like that probably only added to her authority. Probably. "With me is…"

She realised that the only person whose full name and rank she had gotten was Ramírez. The team's file had been vague otherwise, and there hadn't been many opportunities to talk.

"That's Rosa," she said, lamely. "Who is also a cop. Both of us were targeted by a dangerous man. If we stay here for any length of time, you'll be endangered too."

"Please, Constable, try to breathe. I… I don't doubt you've been through something terrible. Certainly your wounds speak to that. But what kind of man would attack an orphanage?"

#

"The kind that collapses a mine full of dozens of people to specifically take out six."

"My thoughts exactly. I tried telling her as much, but-"

#

The capybara simply shook her head. "You need to slow down. Please, perhaps if you started from the beginning…?"

Carmelita forced herself to take a slow breath. Every second she spent here weighed on her, but this woman wasn't bending to her authority. No doubt Carmelita, young enough to pass as a college student, just seemed like another unruly child. "Fine. I didn't catch your name, by the way."

"Oh, yes. I am Aida. And you said you were Miss Montoya?"

"Constable Fox," she corrected. "Interpol sent me here to confirm the arrest of a powerful criminal who goes by 'El Diablo'. Does that name mean anything to you?"

Aida didn't reply immediately, but the way she suddenly avoided Carmelita's gaze was answer enough. "…This country has a long history. There is always someone. Some name that the children invoke in their games of pretend. I try to shelter them from such things, but…"

"They'll always find out. They can't stay here forever, can they?"

"No," said Aida softly. "I suppose they cannot."

"Neither can we. El Diablo wants Rosa and I dead. He has already demonstrated that he doesn't care about collateral damage to make that happen. He apparently had no qualms about collapsing a mine that he stood to profit from. I very much doubt he'll pause long for an orphanage."

Carmelita was a little surprised at how steady her voice sounded. It was like she was recounting someone else's problem, not a deadly situation she herself was trapped in. Perhaps she was so deep in trouble that her mind had given up on the pointlessness of panic.

Her certainty didn't seem to soothe Aida's nerves at all. The smaller woman was still having difficulty meeting her gaze.

"Please don't say such terrible things. You may not have gotten the best impression of this country, Constable, but I promise you that this is a safe place. A local would not threaten our orphanage."

"Really? That's nice. But the files on this man are incomplete, and we don't know his birthplace for certain. Estimates range from the Santa Cruz Province of southern Argentina all the way up to a small town in Texas."

"…I see. But his men are local, at least?"

"Seem to be." Carmelita sighed. "I'm a lot less sure of the information we have, after what happened. We…" She straightened herself a little. "The best course of action now is for me to report in with my superiors. I'm sincerely grateful for the first aid, but I'm worried Rosa is going to need more than just bed rest."

"Yes, you may be right…"

"Once she and I are out of here safely, then maybe…" She shook her head, focusing herself. "One thing at a time. Can I make a phone call?"

"I'm afraid not. I am sorry."

Carmelita couldn't help but glance around the room. The building seemed old, but not ancient. "Don't tell me you don't have a telephone here…?"

"Oh, we do. But it doesn't seem to be working at the moment."

Instantly, she tensed. "Since when?!"

"For about three days now. I've been trying to arrange repairs, but it's hard to get anyone out here, of course…"

That ruled out the worst scenario - that El Diablo's men had cut the phone line as they closed in on this building. She was able to at least rule out that paranoid vision, but that still left her with several crushing problems. "So, if I was to try to get a message to the federal police, or out further to Interpol…?"

"I'm sorry. A man drops off food twice a week, but he was here just yesterday, so…"

"We're alone out here," she said, feeling the full weight of those four words.

"Yes. I would like to have you and your friend seen to by someone who knows more about medicine, but that might take some time…"

Carmelita sat up fully, mostly to prove she could. Her back was bruised and her limbs ached, but she still showed no signs of internal damage.

Rosa was another story. She looked like she was deep in a fitful sleep. Carmelita's medical training was limited to first aid, something Aida had clearly already covered. Beyond that, Rosa would indeed need a real doctor.

To say nothing of the chance that Ramírez and the others were still down there, injured and running out of oxygen…

She pulled aside the covers and swung her legs around, earning a worried gasp from Aida. Carmelita ignored it, entirely focused on surveying the damage for herself.

She would need a new pair of jeans after this, that much was obvious. Wracked with dust and new holes, Carmelita was surprised they were still retaining their overall shape. Her Interpol jacket must have been similarly bad, or worse - she couldn't see it anywhere. That left her in her white undershirt, which had survived the ordeal with relatively few tears, but a variety of dark stains on the outside… and some red stains on the inside, too.

The bandages were all holding. Compared to how things could have gone, she knew she was absurdly lucky. That one support beam had saved her life, and probably a long, long trip to the hospital too.

Luck was relative. Rosa had done worse than her, but still better than the others.

There was no doubt in Carmelita's mind: her fellow officer needed to stay in bed. If nothing else, she didn't have the capacity to argue on behalf of anyone else. Aida could focus on Rosa while she…

…did what, exactly?

One thing at a time. Feet on the floor. With a creak of floorboards, which seemed to echo through her whole body, she felt her balance come back to her.

She could stand up over her own power. Great. The first of one thousand problems, solved.

Aida was still frowning at her. "You really should stay off your feet for at least another few hours."

Carmelita waved her off. "I'll be fine. Can't waste any time, anyway."

"If you're sure," said Aida, with all the thinly veiled maternal disapproval she could muster.

But she wasn't Carmelita's mother, and there were bigger things to worry about. Her next step was clear. "Tell me you have strong coffee, at least."

At last, Aida's expression gave up some ground, her gaze on the floor. "I am the only permanent adult staff member of an underfunded orphanage," she said, quiet but firm. "Yes. I have very strong coffee."

"Good. I'm going to ask you for a cup of it, and hopefully that's the last you'll hear from me."

Aida seemed to be less willing to part with some of her precious coffee compared to providing free shelter and medical attention to two strangers, but Carmelita didn't back down. Near-death experiences carried a lot of psychological effects, and one of them was a newfound appreciation for simple pleasures. Carmelita wanted a good cup of coffee before the next pile of rocks threatened to crush her to death.

#

"Amen."

#

It was good stuff. Carmelita drank half a mug in total silence, somehow clearing her mind of thought. Focusing on pure sensation helped… even if that invited her aches and pains to make themselves even harder to ignore.

When she closed her eyes, she could see it all laid out. There were Ramírez, Edixon and Miguel still down in that mine, along with an untold number of miners, probably dead but quite possibly alive. There was Rosa, badly injured and bed-ridden, and there was Aida and her children all clustered in this building. Outside, there were still the two dozen or so thugs they had come here to arrest, including Rafael, Hector, and at the centre of it all, El Diablo.

And there was one, lone constable, with bruised limbs and a pounding headache and now, a somewhat burnt tongue. No equipment beyond her baton, and no way of calling in backup.

"…You've been quiet for a long time."

Aida stood nearby, still watching her with those dark eyes. Carmelita acknowledged her with a grunt.

"Do you know what you're going to do?"

Carmelita took another long sip of coffee. She was trying to buy herself time to put this in more optimistic terms. But phrasing things delicately wasn't one of her strengths. "…Only thing I can."

She put down the mug and looked Aida in the eye.

"The men who collapsed that mine are still out there. They did it for a reason. They might assume that the matter is settled now, but if they were driven enough to try it in the first place…"

"…then they'll want to make sure no-one survived. Is that what you're saying?"

It clearly pained Aida to talk about such dark ideas. Carmelita pitied her, but not enough to waste any time. "It is. Yes."

"Then… what should we do? The orphanage is emptier than it once was, but I still have nearly twenty children here. I can't just keep them all in the basement…"

"You can," said Carmelita, "for a little while. I don't think Rosa should be moved, so you can congregate in her room, too. Keep the curtains closed, and the children quiet. Can you make a game of it, maybe…?"

Aida frowned. "You speak so certainly," she said, which Carmelita felt was definitely not true of that last sentence. "Have you made a plan?"

"That's probably too… optimistic a word. But I know what I'm going to do. What I have to do is more like it…"

She drew herself up, and tried to ignore the various pains that motion earned her. Her body wasn't anything closed to healed. That, unfortunately, couldn't stop her.

"Those men will be sweeping the area. Collapsing a valuable mine was a risky move, so El Diablo needs to make sure it was worth the loss of revenue."

She had to think in those terms. It almost wasn't worth thinking that those luckless workers would be counted as a 'business loss' too.

"Backup will arrive eventually," she continued, "but not quickly enough. Until it does, it's my responsibility to ensure nothing happens to you or your kids. I shouldn't have gotten you into any of this in the first place…"

Aida looked like she wanted to object, but she said nothing. What could she say? That she would have turned her and Rosa away? Carmelita wasn't the only one with her hands tied.

That made her decision all the more important. "There's only one way to guarantee that you and your charges are kept safe. And that's to neutralise any and all thugs who come in this direction."

"What?!"

"By neutralise," said Carmelita, who realised immediately how that had sounded, "I mean arrest. I'm with Interpol. I have the authority to do that."

"I… don't think your authority is the issue, Miss Fox. You're still badly injured, your partner can't possibly help you, and I need to stay here. How do you intend to arrest thirty criminals who have no qualms about using lethal force?"

"Only way I can," she said. "One at a time."

#

"You are the hottest woman in history."

"So I've been told."

"By me."

"By you. Yes."