"Yes….the smell and this fire brings back some very bad memories for me, mija. I just need to get my breath," he turned away from the crowd and walked away with Angie following, concerned still for his welfare.

They sat down, upwind of the smoke by Syd Waterstreet’s trailer. Angie got her uncle a glass of water and stood by as he coughed and wheezed. His face turned red, then purple and then bluish as he strained to breathe.

"It is alright…give me some time," he told her breathlessly, "white phosphorus was dropped in the fields sometimes where they made us work while I was in prison in Cuba. It would burn through the foliage and the people if they were too close. As it was, it got into my lungs forever, I think. I have seen it kill many."

"But why? Why would they use it?" Angie asked, kneeling on one knee beside him as his color started to return slowly.

"People escaping in the forests and swamps- they would drop this chemical and it would burn through everything. They did not have to do a search with dogs and men on the ground- they could simply dump this out in canisters to the ground and all would be revealed. It didn’t matter if people who were not escaping got caught as well. It saved them time…"

Angie could not imagine what he had gone through during the 13 years since her exile. Her mother’s image suddenly came into her head, the last time she had seen her, standing by the edge of the rocks, the General having let her mother see her family leave on a small fishing vessel. Her father had held her tightly in his grasp as she kicked and screamed to the boat. She still had so many questions.

"You alright?" Rollie was standing behind her, looking down at her uncle. He was drenched in perspiration from hauling equipment out and grabbed a bucket of water himself from the faucet nearby.

"You should douse yourself, Mr. Tyler," replied Guillarmo. The phosphorus can go right through you unless you smother the oxygen. That is what it loves."

"Planning that right now, mate," Rollie replied, pouring the water over his head and shoulders and filling the bucket back up again for another drenching.

"Rollie, the IXB? Is it completely gone?" Angie asked, already knowing the answer.

" ‘fraid so, the Xenon gas canister inside the IXB blew the smithereens out of it. Someone really wanted it totally useless as well as everything in that trailer." Rollie sat down beside them, catching his breath as Angie looked back at the crowd and what was left of their equipment. This would put them way behind schedule. Rollie touched her hand slightly then, "hey, we’ll build another one, Ange, bigger and better."

"Yeah," she replied, shaking her head, "but this one was special, Rollie."

Rollie looked up at her face, her jaw clenched and eyes slightly tearing. Both of them could get so attached to their creations. Others outside of special effects just couldn’t see the relationship or feel of pride when their gadgets worked their magic. They were more than machines, computers, lasers…they had a part of the creator in them.

Dani Van der Glas walked up to Rollie then, having been in wardrobe since early morning. She was covered in a Carmelite nun habit, her hair completely covered by cap but her beautiful, fine-boned features still made her stand out. She was waving her hand in front of her nose and coughing slightly.

"Rollie? What a nightmare! I heard the explosion! It was terrible. Are you alright?" she asked, as he stood up and she took his arm.

Angie looked at her in total amazement. She imagined the tall model having to really exist in a Carmelite nunnery and smiled inwardly.

"Angela! You look dreadful! You haven’t had a chance to even change clothes," Dani said, looking down at Angie who realized that she had pulled on the Mr. Lifto t-shirt again after looking for her clothes that morning in a furry and not being able to find her suitcase.

Rollie looked a little bemused in the seriousness of their situation at the moment and Angie looked down at the star’s feet covered in her numerous toe rings and an anklet bracelet.

"Hey Dani, I know that the Carmelite vow was poverty but you bring new meaning to St Teresa’s discalced attire," Angie told her, smiling as her uncle coughed and realized that his niece was a lot like her father, Manny.

Dani turned back on her heels and came face forward with Angie who had stood up. Rollie stood between them. "Now girls…" he warned.

"You can’t talk to me like that, Rollie? She can’t talk to me like that!" Dani shouted, stamping her bare feet in the dirt and grasping his arm tightly.

"Ange, come off it now," Rollie told her, stepping in between them.

"Me?!" Angie was furious. Her IXB was a piece of molten metal and this woman was throwing poisonous darts at her every second they were together.

"You called my wardrobe discalculated!" Dani came back at her, fuming that anyone would criticize what she wore.

"I said, discalced…" Angie said in retort, "it means, shoeless!"

Dani’s mouth had opened to protest, then let what Angie had just said sink in, "Oh," she said, shrugging her shoulders, "So, the rings will have to go?"

"My guess would be yes," Angie replied, folding her arms across her chest.

Rollie gave Angie a dirty look, and Dani just shrugged again, "Oh well, I can do it. I am an actress. I can suffer for my role, you know."

Angie couldn’t believe she was so incredibly oblivious to the real world. Dani smiled at Rollie and he whispered something in her ear. The model giggled and walked off as Angie wondered what he had said to her.

Guillarmo decided that this would be a good time to get a newspaper and walked off himself, not really missed by his niece at this moment. She was a stubborn, opinionated woman and she fought like a cat, he thought, grinning to himself. Rollie Tyler really didn’t know what he was getting himself into if he pursued her.

Rollie just stood there, looking at Angie. She looked up at him, shrugging her own shoulders, mimicking Dani, "What?" she asked him.

"Why are you so rude to Dani?" he asked then, really not getting it as far as Angie was concerned.

"Uh, what?" she replied, incensed, "ME? You have that backwards, Rollie Tyler!"

"Come on, ever since you found out she was in the movie, you have made fun of her, criticized her and been very ugly to her," Rollie said, as if she was a child being scolded.

"You know what, Rollie?" Angie had been pushed just enough. He was still flirting with the woman, found no fault in her and was really getting to get on her nerves, "Shove it!"

She marched off, leaving him there to ponder what he had exactly said that had made her so angry. She realized then, after sitting in the air-conditioned stunt trailer to cool off, that she had come off childishly. Why did she have to trade insults with Dani. She knew she felt inferior around her. Why not? The woman was gorgeous! Rollie had doted on her when they were dating. He treated her like a woman too. That was it, Angie told herself. Rollie really did still see her like a little girl. Once in a while, she could get him to see her differently but she still hadn’t convinced him entirely.

She hadn’t noticed Bill Yates staring at her from across the room, drinking a beer on the couch.

"Hey Bill," she said, coming out of her thoughts, wondering why he was hitting the beer so early in the morning.

"Angie, terrible thing about the trailer," he replied, looking at her, tipping his cowboy hat back with his beer bottle.

"Yeah, strange thing, you know. But I can’t figure out why the F/X trailer?" Angie said, puzzled still. She stood up and walked toward the door. Bill stood up, taking another swig of beer and suddenly blocked her passage.

"Angie," he said, his voice low and husky, "Damn, I don’t see why you waste all your time with Rollie. He doesn’t appreciate you, does he?"

She looked up at him, shocked. Bill had always been so friendly and well, not like this. He was leering at her, his eyes focused on her breasts, his face flushed. He had pushed himself up against her and she swallowed hard. His mouth came down on hers hard and rough as she fought to get out of his grasp. He had groped his other hand up her shirt as he pinned her down, going for the floor. She tried to fight him. Not again! She would not be humiliated again. He had his hand now tight over her mouth as he put his weight against her. She tried to scream but she couldn’t get air. He was saying something in her ear, something hideous…

There was a noise behind them. Someone was yelling and she began to kick. He was up and there was some commotion. She was trying to keep from passing out for he had ended up with a chokehold on her windpipe and with the release and air, she was dizzy. She tried to get up, coughing and crying hysterically. She looked up and it was Dani who was trying to help her up.

"My God, Angela," she was saying, "who was that?"

Angie sat back on the couch, her breathing was fast and raspy as she looked at Dani in bewilderment. She had saved her life.

Angie coughed again and took a deep breath, "He tried to kill me!"

"Who was he?" Dani asked, stroking Angie’s hair back from her forehead.

"He, uh- he looked like Bill Yates…" Angie forced out but the realization from what the man had told her when he had her pinned on the ground was revolting and chilled her to the bone.

Other people had come into the trailer. Dani must have yelled loud enough when she had come in on the two of them in the floor and it had brought others. Rollie was beside her in an instant as others peered from behind Dani.

"Rollie…" Angie cried as he pulled her into his arms, "Rollie, it was Loubar. He had disguised himself as Bill Yates! He tried to kill me…he tried to…" but she stopped, realizing the people around them and the scene that she was causing.

"Okay, hey Ange, it’s okay…" Rollie began, consoling her and held her. Dani had done the most helpful thing she could and had whisked everyone away and shut the trailer door. She stood back near the door as Rollie and Angie stayed huddled on the couch.

"How did you know, Angie?" Rollie asked softly, knowing she was on the verge of a breakdown. His eyes met hers with such a intenseness and she looked down, embarrassed for a moment.

"He said… he said like before, "think of Tyler when you feel this…" Angie began and Rollie knew what he had told her in startling clarity.

"Angela, you are going home. I want police protection on you 24 hours a day. I’m calling Mira. This can’t happen again. The F/X trailer, the second time he has attacked you," Rollie said, his mind racing.

"NO!" Angie protested, pushing him away, "I will not go home. I want to be here, with you. Rollie…I won’t go."

"He’s not going to stop, Angie. He will kill you!" Rollie told her, taking hold of her arms and shaking her to get her to understand.

"He could have killed me the first time, Rollie but he didn’t. He doesn’t want to kill me. He wants you…"

"I can’t seem to protect you anymore," Rollie said to her in a pleading, exhausted voice as he leaned his forehead against hers. She then wrapped her arms around him, feeling his exasperation and fear along with her own, but she would not go home and be without him.

"Come on, let’s get out of here. I’m calling Mira- this day is a wash for us. Syd has called in the producers for a meeting this evening. We might be going back to Madrid at least for the night. Think you are up for a ride back to the big city?" he asked her, pulling back from her and kissing the tip of her nose.

"I’m right beside you," she answered, smiling a little. Dani was standing at the door, looking like she wanted to be anywhere but in the trailer at that moment.

"Dani, listen, I want to thank you for what you did," Angie began, as she faced her rescuer. Dani looked a bit shaken herself but touched Angie on the shoulder gently.

"I just wish I had kicked him good in the balls, you know?" Dani said in response in her thick accent making it sound comical in a way, but her look was serious.

"Dani, what can I say, you got a great pair of lungs!" Rollie told her, smiling as Dani beamed, "I just wish we could have caught the bastard."

"You two go on and Angela- you get some rest, okay. Tyler, you make her rest."

Angie looked at Dani once again with the feeling that something good had finally passed between them. She smiled at her and they stepped out of the trailer into the noon day sun. Angie was looking for her uncle but he was not in sight. She wondered where he had gotten off to but really did want to go back to the villa and just lay down. Rollie pulled up the sedan and she got in, waving back at Dani as they drove off toward the west of Avila.

Back in the villa, she went to bed, Rollie finding her suitcase pushed underneath the bed where she would not have been able to reach this morning. He had thought he had left the luggage near the door from the night before but in the lateness of the hour, maybe he had been mistaken. He watched her sleep then, sitting up in a chair next to the bed on guard. He rubbed his eyes, wondering why Loubar wanted to hurt this girl so much, wanted to get at him so badly that he would use Angie like this. The fact that he had almost succeeded in raping her, this time in an ugly, forceful manner was filling him with a rage that he could hardly keep inside.

Angie woke around four in the afternoon. Rollie was sitting in the chair, his eyes met hers without any words spoken. He came over to her as she pulled herself up in the bed and sat beside her. He kissed her shoulder where her camisole strap had fallen off draping the top of her arm and she smiled.

Syd came by around five and picked them up in his landrover. The mood in the car was more serious. Syd was not cracking jokes with Rollie. In fact, it was quiet for most of the trip. Angie had put on a sleeveless, black dress and sandals for the trip and Rollie had gone casual. The meeting with the producers would take place when they arrived at the Agumar and Syd had the pedal to the floor on the way back. Every now and then, Rollie would turn and look at Angie who would give him a reassured look.

At the Agumar, they went straight into the meeting. Syd told everyone of the misfortunes of the early morning and the local police involvement. Production just wanted figures and names and a resolution. A shouting match between Syd and the men in Armani ensued and Rollie and Angie found themselves in the backwash.

"Come on," Rollie told her, after some give and take between the parties, "Let’s get out of here. I have said all I am going to say."

Angie couldn’t have agreed more- his part had been rather small in all of the negotiations. The IBX had cost a pretty penny for replacement and they were in the hole, but what was new?

Outside the suite, he led her down the hall. Rounding the corner, Angie spied a man going back into a room directly across the hall from their room. She barely had seen him but she was sure she smelled the undeniable aroma of cloves. She had left a message back at the villa for Tio Guillarmo because he had not returned but then, he had told her that morning that he would be doing some sight-seeing.

"Rollie?" she asked, "Do you smell that?"

"What?"

"Nothing, I thought I smelled…"

He had opened the door to their room and she couldn’t believe her eyes. The room had been torn up, pillows ripped open, cushions in the floor. Their suitcases had been rifled through and the doors from the dressers and side tables had been tossed onto the bed.

"Great, I promised you some relaxation and what do you get?" Rollie said, as they looked around in dismay.

"This is just getting to be the norm," Angie replied as she closed the door behind them, "Someone wants something and thinks we have it with us."

Rollie suddenly silenced her pointing to the window with the curtains billowing inward toward them. A small patio was outside and from the way Rollie was acting, she knew they were not alone. He crept up as she got on the other side of the window. On the silent count of three, he threw a pillow from the couch up in front of the window.

A quick puff of air, with polyester foam exploded from the pillow as the silencer’s bullet hit its mark.