Avenge Me

Ariana Funes-Diez is a 14-year-old immigrant from El Salvador.  Her family didn’t have a lot of money so she avoided her house and got involved with a rough crowd.  Soon she found herself befriending members of Mara Salvatrucha or, as they are commonly known as, MS13.  MS13 is one of, if not the, most dangerous gang in the United States where nearly all of their members are from El Salvador.  It is the only gang that has an entire branch of the FBI devoted solely to them.  On one particular day, Ariana is called by three of her friends; Joel Escobar, Josue Fuentes-Ponce, and Cynthia Hernandez-Nucamendi.  Joel is the oldest of the group at 17 and Josue follows close behind at 16.  Cynthia, like Ariana, is 14.  Contrary to common perceptions that these gangs are only in cities near the Mexican border, these four people live in Adelphi, Maryland.  A town not too many people know of but is 30 miles from Baltimore. 

The four teens’ life is a constant grind of thieving and grinding through criminal activity to get money.  They aren’t poor as their thieving and drug dealing brings more than enough money for a teenager in America.  Today is no different as they find a man who looks to have money walking alone.  The four teens gang up and attack him and drag him to an abandoned house that they already knew about.  They proceed to rob him and leave him to go home relatively intact.  Upon returning home, Ariana starts feeling guilty about what she did.  After a couple days, the guilt still weighs on her.  Hispanics are generally Catholic and guilt does play a role in their lives.  Obviously the members of MS13 find a way to ignore the guilt that the Catholic Church tries to instill on them but Ariana is becoming susceptible.  She decides that she is done with gang life.  She goes to the public high school in her community and inquires about enrolling.  She says, “Hablas Espanol?”

The administrator replies back in Spanish, “Yes I do.”

“I was wondering if I can go to high school here.”

“How old are you?”

“14”

“Do you have prior education?”

“Yes, but my English isn’t that good.”

“That’s okay, we do have classes for students that speak English as a second language.  It is April right now so the school year is almost over.”Ariana has a dejected look on her face but the administrator continues, “But, this is a good thing.  Where are your parents?”

“Not going to be helpful”

“Okay, we do still need to talk to any guardian you may have to get their consent for you to enroll.  Is that something that can be possible?”

“Yes”

                “Excellent.  So what we’ll do is enroll you in summer school to make sure that you have the knowledge you should have entering high school.  That way you won’t lag behind the other kids when you start as a freshman next year.”

                Ariana smiled and said, “Thank you very much.”

                “No problem, now please let me have your parent or guardian’s number so I may enroll you.”

                Ariana gives it to them.  The administrator makes the phone call and her parents agree to let her go to school.  They are happy that their daughter no longer wants to get involved in gang life.  Cynthia calls Ariana and says, “Hey Ariana, do you want to grab something to eat?”

                “Sure”

                Ariana meets up with Cynthia and Cynthia tells her about another mission Joel has thought up.  Ariana says, “Honestly, Cynthia, I’m done with this life.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “I want to go to school.  Get a real job.  I don’t want to keep looking over my shoulder for the police.  Now with Trump being president, you got that guy that Joel told us about that single handedly faced down a cartel and defended the border in Arizona.  I mean, our enemies are pretty big.  I just want to go the safe route.”

                “You mean the boring route?”

                “Yea, I guess I do.  I mean I couldn’t sleep after we beat up that guy.  He was just so defenseless and there were four of us.  I just can’t live with the guilt.  I’m not cut out for this shit.”

                “Well Joel and Josue aren’t going to be too happy about this.”

                “I know but you don’t need me.  You can do what you do without me.  I’m not fucking anything up for you guys.”

                “I believe you but they might not.”

                “I got to do what’s best for me.  I don’t like this shit.”

                “So you think you’re too good for us?”

                “No, I’m not better than you guys.  I’m not saying for you not to do it.  You do you but let me do me.  That’s all I’m saying.”

                “I feel you” Cynthia gave Ariana a hug and they went their separate ways.  Ariana expected to hear from Joel and Josue but she would tell them what she told Cynthia.  She was done.  Little did they know that suspicious minds would rule the day. 

                When Joel and Josue found out about Ariana from Cynthia, they immediately believed she was going to tell the police what they did and rat them out.  The number one rule in gangs is not to be a rat.  Joel and Josue grabbed their trusty machete’s and Cynthia grabbed a baseball bat and they headed toward Ariana’s house. 

                Ariana was walking to her summer school class when she saw Joel, Josue and Cynthia who looked really mad.  She knew this was coming so she took a deep breath and walked towards them.  She said, “Look, I’m going to school now, can we talk about this when I get out of class?”

                Josue punched Ariana in the stomach and grabbed her hair dragging her towards a creek.  Ariana tried to scream but Joel slapped his hand against her mouth as they dragged her away.  Once they were off the road in a more secluded area, Joel took out his machete and chopped at Ariana’s handspring.  She hissed in pain and collapsed to her knees.  Joel, and Josue used their fists mostly but did use the machete every now and then while Cynthia used the baseball bat to strike Ariana repeatedly calling her a rat.  Ariana started crying and tried to tell them that she didn’t tell anyone anything but she kept getting interrupted by blows to her face or other parts of her body.  Suddenly everything went black and Josue, Joel and Cynthia didn’t stop until Ariana had ceased breathing.  Josue grabbed her arms and Joel grabbed her legs and they lifted her up and tossed her in the creek like she was a piece of garbage.  They washed the blood off their weapons and the boys put their machetes in their holsters while Cynthia carried the baseball bat over her shoulder as they walked back to the road. 

 

                While this was going on, a Greek couple, Nouno and Abby were sitting in their kitchen thousands of miles away in Phoenix, Arizona.  Abby was looking on her phone and said, “Did you see this Nathan Robinson dude?”

                “No, never heard of him”

                “He’s one of these ivy league assholes that thinks he knows everything”

                “Ah, the ‘since I dominated academia, I know how the world works’ people.  Lovely assholes”

                “Yea, well you’re going to like this?”

                “What did he say?”

                “That there’s going to be a bloody revolution to oust Trump”

                “Oh really?”

                “Yea, history is full of taking down tyrants”

                “Yea, you know how tyrants cut taxes so you can keep your own money and can’t even build a full wall on the border.  A tyrant that renegotiates trade deals.  I remember Louis IX doing that.”

                Abby laughed and said, “And remember how Hitler and Stalin moved an embassy.”

                “Oh, yea that was so bad for the poor in Russia and Germany.”

                “I don’t understand how people this smart can be so retarded”

                “Their professors know how to brainwash them.  They’re basically cowards.  They think professors are smart so they listen to them.  I can’t really explain how this happens but stupid people kill themselves, it’s individual but intelligent people get convinced that they’re making a statement.  They want their suicide to mean something so they take out many people.”

                “Well he’s not a suicide bomber”

                “What do you think would happen if liberals attacked conservatives physically?”

                “They do it all the time.”

                “But what if it was on a scale of a revolution?  What if the conservative fought back?”

                “Well, we’re the ones with the guns.  We’re the ones with law enforcement and military personnel.  We’re the ones that are blue collar and living in the real world and not academia.  We’re the ones that have people who actually have been in a non-controlled combat situation.  So, yea, umm, I don’t think it would end well for them.”

                “Even if things were equal, the people trying to oppress never fight as hard as the people trying to stop being oppressed.  Think about the American Revolution.  The British army was better strategists, better trained militarily and more experienced but they lost because the colonists fought harder because they were fighting for liberty and England was just fighting to keep one of their colonies.”

                “Well, the South was fighting for their freedom and independence and they lost.”

                “They were heavily outgunned and outmanned.  Who fought harder though?”

                “Well, okay fine, the South did.”

                “So imagine if the side that’s fighting for liberty has the other side outgunned.  Given that Hillary won the popular vote, it may not be outmanned but given how their side has so many snowflake pussies...I’m not sure who has more men.”

                “Even if we give them outmanned, we have them outgunned and we have more incentive to fight”

                “So, what would happen?”

                “Yea, Nathan Robinson’s bloody revolution would end up being a mass suicide”

                “There you go.  I say bring it, something needs to wake up these swamp rat Republicans who always want to take the high road.”

                “Yea, the problem with these battle hardened real bad asses that we have on our side is that since they know what combat is all about, they avoid it.”

                “True statement.  So let Nathan poke the bear.  And let’s hope that more bears like us wake up.”

                “You know people are beginning to know about us.  Nationwide there’s articles about us.”

                “I actually don’t like that.  I prefer to work in the shadows.”

                “I know, but this is our reality.  I guess we’re making a difference.”

                “Yea”

                Just then they got a phone call from Nouno’s niece Gia.  Gia said, “Hi Uncle Nouno”

                “Hi Gia, what’s up?”

                “I wanted to come visit”

                “Don’t you have school?”

                “No, we’re on spring break”

                “Oh, alright, well you know you’re always welcome.”

                “Alright great”

                Gia lives in a western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.  She is 16-years-old, stood at 5’6” and although she turned a lot of heads, she was always a little girl in Nouno’s eyes.  He loved her more than he’d ever loved anyone else except maybe Abby.  Gia had tested in the genius level in school but Nouno never told her that he didn’t put much stock in those IQ tests.  He was a psychology major and knew the flaws in them but he didn’t need a test to know Gia was smart.  He got it from interacting with her. 

                When Gia arrived, she ran at Nouno and jumped in his arms.  Nouno wrapped his arms around her and squeezed holding her in midair long enough for it to get a little awkward.  The truth was, Nouno always had trouble letting go of Gia when they embraced.  Nothing made him happier than having her in his arms.  He finally let her down and Gia gave a wry smile.  They sat down to dinner and Gia, Abby and Nouno were talking.  Gia was a Democrat most mostly because it was popular.  She wouldn’t fit in if she wasn’t and as cheer captain, her popularity was key.  She spoke with Nouno often so got the other half of the argument but since she never saw it on the mainstream news; she figured he was just a conspiracy theorist corrupted by the vast right wing conspiracy.  She said, “So your boy Nunes was talking about Mifsud again”

                “Yea, well if you discredit that, then the entire hoax falls apart.”

                “Well, Mueller said he was a Russian asset.”

                Nouno said, “And presumably they knew this in July 2016 since that why they opened crossfire investigation based on his talk with Papadopoulos”

                “Right”

                “So when he was in the Capitol building talking to congress in February 2017, why did they let him go home?  Why was he even allowed to be in America if we knew he was a Russian asset?  How did he get away?”

                Gia thought about this and said, “Well, Papadopoulos lied about meeting with him”

                “He was wrong about the date they met”

                “Right and that 10 days exonerated him”

                “Really?  So he’s no longer a Russian asset if he talked to Papadopoulos 10 days after he actually did?”

                “No, I mean, I don’t know.  I don’t follow this as closely as you.”

                “Just use your common sense.  Why would the date matter for him to be a Russian asset?  They interviewed George (Papadopoulos) in January 2017, five months after they opened the investigation because George talked to Mifsud.  So, they knew he was a Russian asset before talking to George.  Why did they let him go?”

                “I see what you’re saying and I don’t have an answer but that doesn’t mean that Nunes is right when he says that Mifsud is linked to a contractor or a campaign.”

                “Wait what?” Nouno said

                “You didn’t hear about this?”

                “No, I didn’t hear about this but I’m intrigued.”

                “Well, he gave the whole history about Mifsud being Malthese…”

                “Yea yea, I got that, he lives in Italy.  He was a diplomat for Malta and he’s photographed with multiple British intelligence people.  He’s got to be a great Russian asset if he’s infiltrated all of these western intelligence agencies.”

                “You forgot that he taught FBI officials and trained them”

                Nouno gave her a sideways expression of interest and said, “I didn’t know that.  I mean, I knew he was a professor but he taught FBI agents?”

                “Yea, but just listen to yourself”

                “I did”

                “Well, just think about it.  If everything you said was right and he’s got all these British intelligence contacts is it really a far stretch that he knew Christopher Steele who was an MI6 agent?”

                “Or if he was with the FBI, maybe he was tied with Fusion GPS.  You said contractor or campaign.  That could be the Hillary campaign and since the FBI is owned by Hillary, then they would help them by hiring Mifsud.”

                “Well, Ochman’s Razor seems to say that he knew Steele.  Glenn Simpson of Fusion GPS hired Steele to add color to the article he wrote in the Wall Street Journal Piece ‘How Ex-Soviets use lobbyists to Help Woo Washington’ or whatever it’s called. Steele knew Mifsud since Mifsud does a lot of work in London and has many British intelligence contacts to help get dirt on Trump by meeting with campaign members, in this case Papadopoulos”

                “Gia, do you understand the implications of what you’re saying?”

                Gia looked back and forth and said, “Not really, you always said Mifsud is a western intelligence asset, I’m just telling you it’s British.”

                “No, Gia you linked Mifsud to Steele.”

                “Yea”

                “That means that I was wrong.”

                “Wow, you never admit when you’re wrong.”

                “No, I just have to be proven and not many people are able to do it”

                Gia smiled and put her elbows on the table and rested her chin on top of it and smiled widely and said charmingly, “Do tell me more how you were wrong.”

                “I thought that all these different people independently tried to attack Trump.  You had Hillary Clinton who paid Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on Trump and they hired Christopher Steele to launder the information into the FBI.  This will lead to a FISA on Carter Page.  Then, separately, John Brennan of the CIA used the Cambridge professor Halper to set up surveillance operations in London to set up members of Trump’s campaign.  Then, separately, you have Joseph Mifsud who meets with Papadopoulos to tell him that he has dirt on Hillary because he’s a Russian asset and the Russians hacked Hillary’s servers to get these incriminating e-mails.  Then a month later, Downer meets with Papadopoulos to try to get him to repeat the Mifsud information to make him seem like he’s fishing for dirt on Hillary from the Russians when he wasn’t”

                “Right, and George said that the FBI asked him to wear a wire”

                “But he refused”

                “Okay, so how were you wrong?”

                “It’s not three separate operations.  It’s the same one.  John Brennan used his CIA spy Stephen Halper to set up members of Trump’s campaign.  Halper taught a course with a Russian Trubnikov, who was Christopher Steele’s source for the anti-Trump information.  We know this because he told Kathleen Kavalec of the state department 10 days before the FISA.  Hillary Clinton paid Glenn Simpson and Fusion GPS to get information on Trump.  He reused an article he wrote in 2007 but he needed color, which he got from Christopher Steele who was talking with Halper’s co-teacher and knew Mifsud so had Mifsud help him set up members of the Trump campaign.  It’s all the same conspiracy.”

                “At least you admit it’s a conspiracy theory.  I shouldn’t have mocked you and fueled your little theory.”

                “I don’t mean conspiracy theory, I mean criminal conspiracy.  Like meeting to commit a crime.  If we sit around and talk about killing someone, that’s conspiracy to commit murder.”

                “Like you a Aunt Abby do all the time” she said with a mock smile

                Abby said, “That’s right!”

                Gia looked away and said, “Well I’m not going to convince you that you’re wrong about the whole conspiracy theory.  I can’t believe I’m doing this but I’m going to add fuel to your fire again.”

                “Go on”

                “This is like the three blind wise men inspecting an elephant”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Well, there’s three wise men that are trying to make sense of the world by feeling for animals.  They approach an elephant and one blind guy is feeling the trunk and says, ‘This animal is muscular and cylindrical, kind of like a snake.’  The other wise man feels the legs and says, ‘This is a large animal built wide like a tree and goes about 10’ in the air because even when I raise my arms I can’t get to the top’ the third wise man is at the tusks and says, ‘this is a hard shelled animal that has a pointy tip to fend off predators.’  What the three wise men don’t understand is that it’s not three different animals, it’s the same animal.  Neither has any idea what the elephant actually looks like because they’re unaware of the other two’s information or don’t know to combine all their information to put a picture of one animal.”

                “I know you’re trying to mock me, but yea, that makes a lot of sense and I think you’re exactly right.”

                Gia rolled her eyes and nodded, “Yea I thought you’d say that”

                “Do you have a rebuttal why you’re wrong?”

                “Like I said, I don’t follow this too closely.  George thinks that that since the FBI asked him to wear a wire that Mifsud is an FBI asset.”

                “That doesn’t make sense.  Why would the FBI ask George to wear the wire when they could just get their asset Mifsud to wear a wire?”

                “I don’t know, that’s what he said.”

                “I worked in a federal court house.  George was prosecuted through law enforcement.  If they had him wear the wire than it would come out that Mifsud was an asset in the discovery in court.  Then their asset is burned.  It doesn’t make sense.”

                Abby said, “Remember, everyone thought the plan would work and Hillary would win the election.  In that case, they just seal the court case and cover the whole thing up so the source isn’t burned.”

                Nouno contemplated this, “I guess but I still think Gia’s explanation that Mifsud is Steele’s source makes the most sense.”

                Abby said, “I agree, I’m just playing Devil’s Advocate about what George thought.”

                “Alright, well, I think it’s less convincing but maybe.”

                The week went by uneventfully and then Gia went back to Ohio.  What they didn’t know is that someone was watching them.  They knew that Nouno’s neighbors were on call to defend them if need be so they needed to strike away from Phoenix.  They had a new idea now and one of the people watching had gotten on Gia’s flight on standby. 

After they dropped Gia off at the airport, Abby said, “So, I didn’t want to say this while Gia was here but I got another mission.”

                Nouno was driving but turned towards Abby and said, “Alright, so where are going?”

                “Baltimore, well technically Adelphi but it’s only thirty miles from Baltimore.”

                “What happened?”

                “Three teenagers brutally beat to death a 14-year-old girl with machetes and a baseball bat and tossed her in a creek.”

                “Alright, so since there’s three of them, we should probably get some backup.  We don’t believe in fair fights.”

                Abby smiled and said, “Yea, especially when you find out that they’re MS13.”

                Nouno nodded gravely.  He said, “Yea, then we definitely need backup”

                “Come on babe, if we took down cartels, we can take down MS13”

                “This is the most dangerous gang in America”

                “When has that stopped us?  Our whole MO is to go after dangerous people so they stop hurting innocent Americans”

                “You’re right. I’m not saying we shouldn’t take it.  We just need to be careful.”

                “Alright good, because I get to join in on this one”

                “What do you mean?”

                “One of the killers is a girl.” Abby said with a smile

                “Alright, she’s all yours.”

                “I know, you don’t think boys should hit girls but when girl beat people to death with baseball bats, I think an exception can be made.”

                “I don’t”

                “That’s why you got me” Abby shrugged her shoulders charmingly “To do what you won’t”

                Nouno chuckled and said, “Yea, you’re a tough chic”

                “And only a tough man can get a tough chic like me” she said with sass in her voice.

                Abby booked flights for two weeks from that date to go to Maryland.  As they were flying there, Abby said, “So Loretta Lynch and Comey are turning on each other.”

                Nouno said, “How so?”

                “Comey testified under Oath that Lynch, being the Attorney General and his boss, told him to call the Hillary e-mail investigation a ‘matter’ instead of an ‘investigation.’  Lynch testified under oath to congress that she never said that and had never told a witness specifically what to say and she never would.”

                Nouno said, “Well, with all those negatives it seems to me that she’s trying to cover up that she’s lying.”

                “He doth protests the most”

                “Yea, I don’t really think that’s always true and the whole ‘double negative proving positive’ thing is thin at best but Lynch, despite being the attorney general at the time, seems to be evading any investigations or scrutiny.  I don’t really trust her.”

                “But Comey is a known liar and a snake.  He was also the FBI director so he knows how to be evasive too.”

                “Yea, but Comey is heavily scrutinized.  In today’s climate, shit always goes to the top.  The fact that it didn’t in this case makes me think Lynch is manipulating this somehow.  One of them is definitely lying and I have a gut feeling it’s Lynch but I may be wrong.  We are dealing with two liars.”

                “I actually agree.  Women know how to be sneakier than men”

                Nouno laughed, “Yea”

                Nouno and Abby landed and they got their bearing of Adelphi.  They found the easiest crematorium to break into but then Nouno said, “They’re MS13, nobody will care if they die.  I say we treat them like they treated their victim”

                “Toss him in the creek?”

                “Yea”

                “I’m okay with that.  Well, maybe the Baltimore harbor.”

                “That works for me.”

                Abby, Nouno and two like-minded friends of theirs met together to strategize.  They found Josue and Cynthia but couldn’t seem to locate Joel.  They started getting impatient so decided to get it out of Josue and Cynthia themselves.  Nouno and one of their friends went after Josue while Abby and the other friend went after Cynthia. 

                Nouno said in Spanish, “Hey are you Josue Fuentes-Ponce?”

                Josue pulled out his machete and swung it at Nouno.  Nouno ducked under it and already had his three inch steel assisted knife in his hand.  He used the one finger opening to spring the blade in place and jammed it into the back of Josue’s right knee causing him to drop the machete.  Nouno’s friend came from behind and while Josue fell to his knees, he jammed a syringe into Josue’s neck loaded with a sedative.  The friend depressed the plunger and Josue went silent as his eyes glazed over in unconsciousness. 

                Meanwhile, Abby and her bodyguard found Cynthia.  Abby put on a sweet voice and said, “Hey, I remember you, you’re Cynthia Hernandez-Nucamendi”

                Cynthia stared at Abby quizzically.  Abby was speaking in English, which Cynthia didn’t understand very well.  While she was confused on if she knew Abby, the bodyguard stabbed her with a syringe and depressed the plunger knocking her unconscious.  Abby caught her as she fell forward and the bodyguard helped toss Cynthia in the trunk.  Abby and Nouno already agreed that Nouno would get their room and Abby and the bodyguard would get the other room that the body guard and friend with Nouno were staying in.  Both were set up in plastic to help with the clean up. 

                When the sedative wore off, Josue was groggy as he woke up tied to a bed.  He struggled a little bit but realized it was pointless.  He said in Spanish, “Bendejo, you’re in for a surprise.”

                Nouno said with a smile, “Oh yea, the weird thing is you’re going to be surprised when I jam your machete in your chest.”

                “Oh I don’t think you’ll be doing that”

                “Why do you say that?”

                “Do you have my phone?”

                “You think I’m that stupid to let the GPS tell your little MS13 buddies where you are?”

                “Fine, we’ll use your phone.  You need to call this number.”

                The friend said, “Where’s Joel?”

                Josue said, “Careful.  Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.”

                The friend grabbed a pair of pliers and grabbed Josue’s pointer fingernail.  He ripped the pliers back and pulled the nail clean off to screams from Josue and a string of Spanish profanity.  When he calmed down he said, “Call the number” and spewed out the 10 digit number representing an area code and a number.

 

                A similar conversation happened with Abby and the bodyguard and they decided the bodyguard would drive a mile down the road in case it was a trap to locate them.  Nouno had the same thought but he went on his own.  They dialed the number and had no idea what to expect.

 

                In the western suburbs of Cleveland, OH,  Gia was walking to her car after buying some clothes at Crocker Park, which is a strip mall.  She put the bags in her trunk and got in the driver seat.  Unfortunately, she didn’t notice that someone was in her backseat.  He rose and Gia jumped but before she could react there was a rag over her mouth and nose and the last thing she experienced was the smell of ether as her eyes glazed over in unconsciousness.  The man dragged her to the back seat and lied her across.  He got in the driver seat and drove back to his motel.  He carried Gia inside and sat her down and tied her to a chair. When Gia woke up she screamed but the man slammed his hand against her mouth with his right hand and held a machete to the side of her neck with his left.  He said, “If I move my hand, and you scream, the next thing I hit you with will be this machete.”

                Gia nodded and the hand was removed from her mouth.  Gia said, “What do you want?”

                “To get you hammered”

                Gia noticed bottles of tequila, vodka and rum on the table.  She said, “Why?”

                “Let your uncle know you’re not too innocent.”

                Gia looked at him suspiciously and said, “Which uncle?”

                “You’ll see.”

                The kid poured a shot of vodka and said, “It would be in your best interest not to resist.”

                He straddled Gia and gripped her cheeks in his right hand.  He had put down the machete and using his left he poured the shot in Gia’s mouth and then plugged her nose as he forced her mouth shut with his right.  Gia swallowed because she had no choice and then coughed when he released her nose and mouth.  After 15 minutes, he used a breathalyzer to check her BA level.  When it was below .08, he forced a shot of Tequila down her throat and waited another 15 minutes before going to the rum.  He kept it going till the reading was over .2.  He then untied her and stripped her of her clothes.  He lied her horizontally on the bed and set up his phone camera to face them.  Every 15 minutes he checked and when she dropped below .08, he got her ridiculously drunk again.  In her drunken state, he got her to tell him her password to her phone.  Before he could call, however, his phone rang.  He answered the phone and said, “Hello”

                The bodyguard said, “I was told to call this number by Josue”

                The guy with Gia called Nouno from Gia’s phone and Nouno answered it and said, “Hey GIa, are you okay”.  The guy said, “I heard you’ve been looking for me.  Hold on, let me put your associate on facetime.”

                He facetimed the bodyguard and placed the phone so it could see Gia.  He then hit facetime on Gia’s phone for Nouno who accepted it.  He set the phone up and walked behind the bed in between Gia’s legs.  Nouno stared in horror.  Joel slapped his hands on Gia’s bare butt and said, “Say hello to your Uncle Nouno”

                Gia looked up and said groggily obviously inebriated, “Hey Uncle Nouno”

                Joel said, “We’ve been having some fun together.  I got to ask, are Josue and Cynthia still alive?”

                The bodyguard said, “Yes”

                Nouno was still staring in horror and Joel said, “One is, and the other?”

                Nouno shook his head back to reality and said, “Yea, he’s alive”

                Joel said, “Good, that makes this easier.  See, I haven’t hurt your precious girl here.  I just got her wasted.  I haven’t fucked her…yet.  You know what we do though.  If you don’t let Cynthia and Josue go, I’m going to rape this little bitch again and again and again in every hole that my dick will fit.  Then after I’m bored with her.  After she has felt me inside of her in so many ways and tasted me.  Then, and only then, will I really have some fun with her.  You’ll never see her alive again and when you see her corpse, you won’t even recognize her after you see what I’ve done to her.  So, let my friends go.” He slapped Gia’s butt and said, “Her ass depends on it.”

                Nouno said, “I’m going to hold your friends until she calls me with her parents present and I know she’s okay.  Then and only then will I spare your friends.”

                Joel said, “I thought you’d say that.  Even though you don’t really have a bargaining chip, I’ll agree.  But if after this little encounter, I see you anywhere near Josue or Cynthia again, I’ll come back here and I won’t warn you next time.  You get one warning.  Next time, I do it.”

                “Understood” said Nouno

                Joel walked to the phones and clicked them off.  Nouno called the bodyguard and the bodyguard said, “Yea, I know, I’ll let the bitch go.”

                “Yea, sorry to drag you here.”

                “No apology needed.  I would do the same thing in your situation”

                The bodyguard went back to Cynthia’s room and Nouno went to Josue’s room.  He walked in and said, “We need to let him go.”

                Josue smiled and said, “You didn’t really like that phone call did you?”

                The friend said, “What happened?”

                “The other fucker is in Ohio.  He kidnapped my niece.  We’re waiting until I know she’s safe at home with her parents and then we’re going to let them go.”

                “Is Cynthia still alive?”

                “Yea, she is so we had all our bargaining chips”

                “Fuck, Nouno, I’m sorry.”

                “Yea, I know”

                It didn’t take long for a still drunk Gia to call Nouno.  She made it seem like she was drunk dialing but she made sure that he saw her parents.  GIa’s mom got on the phone and said, “Gia’s going to have to go.  She needs to get to bed.”

                Nouno managed a smile and said, “Yea, she’s fucking hammered.”

                “Yea”

                “You okay?”

                “Yea, I’m fine”  said Gia’s mom

                Nouno saw no indication that she was talking under duress.  She seemed to have no idea what happened.  He got off the phone and called the bodyguard.  They both released Cynthia and Josue and got them an Uber back to where they had abducted them.  The four of them stayed in Maryland for four days checking in to make sure Gia was okay.  They then flew back to Phoenix. 

                On the flight back, Abby said, “Look, think about what happened not what could have happened.  She just had some asshole grab her ass.  Unfortunately girls have to deal with that all the time.”

                Nouno said, “Not bare.”

                “Well, we wear thongs and dresses all the time, so yea it does still happen.”

                Nouno said, “I don’t want to talk about this.  I don’t even know if Joel is back in Maryland.  He could still be in Ohio.”

                “If he was, I’m sure he would have contacted us.”

                “What if he just waited us out?  They knew we were in Maryland.  They knew where we were.  We have no eyes on him.”

                “Try not to think about it.”

                “How am I going to do that?”

                “Well, let’s talk about ObamaCare”

                “It was retarded, end of discussion.”

                “Okay, but how would you do it if you were president?”

                “Well Direct Primary Care is getting popular now.  That’s with it not covered by Health Savings Accounts (HSA).”

                “What is that?”

                “You pay a monthly fee and have 24/7 access to a doctor of your choice.”

                “That makes sense”

                “So, I would eliminate the caps on HSA, allow the money to pass to your children if you die.  I would also allow you to use your HSA account for Direct Primary Care.”

                “Why not just not have the HSA and use the money you save to pay for it?”

                “HSA is taken before tax.  If you just eliminate it, you have more taxable income so it’s more expensive for the Direct Primary Care since you pay more in taxes than if you just deducted it before tax”

                “So now taxes act as a disincentive to do Direct Primary Care?”

                “Yup and people are still doing it.”

                “That sounds like a good idea.”

                “That’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Most of government spending is healthcare.  We have a massive debt problem so if we eliminate all government spending on healthcare, then we may be able to chop into this deficit.”

                “And medical care is paid out of pocket.  What about people who can’t afford it.  I know you say ‘tough shit’ but something has to be done for them.”

                “Same thing that lawyers do.  Incentivize them to do pro-bono work. Have drug companies and medical professionals get a tax write-offs for all free drugs or pro-bono work they do.”

                “That would solve the problem.  Kind of like how people give so much to charity to write it off their taxes.  But you know liberals will complain that they make so much money and now they’re not paying taxes if they do enough pro-bono work.”

                “Yea, liberals would complain about giving free medical care as a tax break.  They want to charge all Americans for it by doubling or more their taxes but when the people administering the care get a tax break and it’s free, now it’s a problem.  I don’t care about hypocritical liberal positions.  If they make that much money and they pay nothing in taxes, they offered a shitload of free healthcare and drugs depending on what industry they’re in and they deserve it.”

                “I agree”

                “Then, you know for catastrophic health care costs like cancer or something, you still have insurance.  But I would allow insurance companies to compete across state lines so that the premiums will be driven down.”

                “So, you have the free market regulating the price of seeing a doctor and the price of insurance.”

                “Yea why not?”

                “I like it, the free market works in every other industry why not this one?”

                “Precisely”

Nouno and Abby arrived back in Phoenix and went home defeated.  Abby said, “So what now?”

“I don’t know, we became famous. I don’t care risking my life but I can’t risk Gia’s”

“Yea I know how you feel.  We had a good run, we made a dent.”

“I don’t even know if we can call it that.”

“I know but we did something”

“Yea” Nouno said with no conviction in his voice.  His phone rang and he saw Gia’s name.  He answered it and said, “Hello?”

“Hey Uncle Nouno”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, stop asking me that.  I want to know what you did to that asshole that kidnapped me.”

“Nothing Gia, that’s why he kidnapped you so I wouldn’t hurt him or his friends.”

“Are you fucking serious?” Gia said angrily

Nouno was incredulous he said, “What do you mean?  I’m doing this for you.”

“For me?! That piece of shit kidnapped me, tied me up, forced shots down my throat, and stripped me naked and molested me.”

“How did he molest you?”

“He grabbed my bare ass.”

“Did he do anything else?”

“What do you mean did he do anything else?  Isn’t that enough?”

“When I think of ‘molest’ I think of touching erogenous zones”

“Like the ass?”

“Never mind.”

“Grabbing an ass is sexual assault.  Why do I have to tell you this?”

“Did he stick anything in you?” Nouno blurted out and then immediately regretted it because he didn’t want to know the answer.

“No, but who the fuck cares!”

“Don’t worry, I still think he’s a piece of shit but Gia, it could have been a lot worse.  He promised me it would be if I got near them again.”

Gia stopped speaking with a  raised voice and said in a more understanding tone, “I know your scared” she then switched to a hurt voice and said, “I just don’t understand why you go around the country avenging strangers but you won’t avenge the person you claim to love more than anyone else.”

Nouno stated angrily, “Gia, how can you guilt trick me like that?  With the strangers, I don’t really get affected if something happens to them.  If it’s you, I’ll never forgive myself.  They know where you live.”

“He got me from Crocker Park”

“They followed you Gia”

“Probably, but if he’s dead, who cares?”

“Gia, they waited for me to arrive in Maryland.  Then they went to Ohio and set this whole thing up.  They know how to find us in their city.  If it happens again, you’ll die.  Don’t you get that?”

“So, I’ll go with you.”

                “MS13 is nationwide.  We take them out; they send someone else to you”

                “You don’t know that.”

                “I can’t risk that”

                “So you’re going to let them get away with it?”

                “I have no choice”

                Gia started crying, “No, you do have a choice.  You’re just cowering.  What the fuck did you think? That these horrible dangerous men would take what you’re doing lying down?  Yea, they fought back but they put their mother fucking hands on me.  The fact that you’re going to bend over and take it really hurts me.”

                “I’m trying to make sure they don’t bend you over and make you take it.”

                “Shut up Uncle Nouno.  I’m not scared and it’s my fucking life.  Fuck you.”

                Gia hung up the phone and Nouno looked up in shock.  He told Abby the whole conversation and Abby said, “She’ll understand eventually.  But, I’m not sure she’s wrong.  We can’t fold at the first sign of adversity.”

                “How can you say that?  You know how much Gia means to me.”

                “I mean a lot to you too and I almost got raped.”

                “He had a gun to his head the whole time but you put him in the triangle choke and knocked him out.”

                “So if I didn’t you would have let me get raped and did nothing to avenge me?”

                “I don’t deal with hypotheticals”

                “No, deal with this one”

                “Well if you were already raped, then I have less to lose and more to avenge.”

                “So, if he just kidnapped me, stripped me naked and grabbed my ass, you’d stop?”

                “Yes”

                “Well, I think I would have reacted like Gia.  I would have hid it better because you’re my husband and I need to stand by you but deep down, it’s nice to know that my husband would not cower to my attackers and avenge me.”

                “Why can’t you people just realize that I’m doing this because I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you?”

                “What do you do for me?”

                “We have people watching the house.”

                “And you don’t think your loyal army would go to Ohio to keep their eye on Gia?”

                “Well, you chose a life where you need someone watching your six 24/7.  Gia is innocent.  She needs to be a 16-year-old girl.  She needs to just be a high school student.  She didn’t choose this.”

                “Based on that conversation, I think she did.  You’re just making the decision for her.”

                Nouno took a deep breath and said, “I need to sleep on this.”

                The next morning Nouno said, “We need to fly Gia here.  Then all of us will go to Maryland.  Josue and Cynthia we kill normally.  As for Joel, that piece of shit is going to suffer.”

                Abby smiled, “There’s the man I married.”

                Nouno called Gia and although she started the conversation annoyed she was giddy at the end.  She flew to Phoenix and then the original four and Gia flew to Maryland.  Another group went to Ohio to watch Gia’s house in case Joel showed up there.  It turned out not to be necessary.  This time they found all three in Maryland.  They split up in the same groups and when Cynthia saw Abby she stopped dead in her tracks and looked incredulously at Abby, which allowed the bodyguard to administer the sedative again.  This time Abby didn’t catch Cynthia and let her fall to the ground.  Gia walked by Josue and Josue whistled and said, “Mamacita, come here girl”

                The distraction was enough as Nouno injected the sedative into his bloodstream and tossed him in the trunk.  Joel was with Josue and pulled his machete out but the friend punched him in the stomach causing him to drop it.  Joel’s focus was on Nouno which made it easier.  The friend then jammed the syringe into his brain stem and shoved the plunger down.  They threw him in the trunk with Josue and went back to the hotel.  They lied Josue on the bed and tied him down over the plastic while Abby and the bodyguard did the same in the other room.  Nouno tied Joel to a chair and both Josue and Joel woke up at the same time.  Nouno chopped the machete down onto Josue midsection killing him instantly as he severed the major artery in the torso.  He turned to Joel and Joel stared at Gia and said, “I guess your uncle cares more about revenge than you.”

                Gia slapped Joel across the face and said, “Actually this was my idea.” With a smile

 

                Abby took a dagger and drove it in between Cynthia’s breasts and through her sternum.  They packed the corpses in the car and everyone but Nouno went to the Baltimore harbor to dispose of the bodies.  Nouno sat across from Joel and said, “It’s not going to be as easy for you.”

                “You really think we can’t get to her again?”

                “Nobody’s coming.  It’s just you three.  It doesn’t matter.  You won’t be around to know.  The cartels couldn’t touch me and I disrupted their drug trade.  Your little gang, it’s only if you make national news that you’re in danger from me.  I’m not fucking with your business.  They’re not going to be motivated enough to come after me.  You’re death will not be avenged.”

                “You willing to bet your niece’s ass on that?”

                “No, but I don’t have to.  I trust my men.”

                “We’ll see” Joel said with a sly smile

                Nouno stoically looked back at him and said, “No, we won’t.  I will, you will not see anything beyond today.”

                Joel and Nouno didn’t speak until they were rejoined by the four other people.

 

                The bodyguard and friend got to the Baltimore harbor.  It was late at night and they used gloves to toss the bodies into the harbor.  The police would just think it was another instance of gang violence.  They didn’t admire their work, they just drove back.  This time all five of them were in the room.  Nouno said, “Good night Joel and delivered the sedative intravenously again.”

                They helped Joel into the trunk and drove to the middle of nowhere.  They dug a small hole and buried a 4 X 4 piece of wood in it so it stood out.  They then duck taped Joel’s limbs to it with his hands behind his back and then wrapped the duck tape around his torso.  Joel woke up and looked around.  There were rocks and kindling at his feet.  The men were placing large branches from the rock pile to the 4 X 4.  Joel said, “What the fuck is going on?”  Joel’s view was unobstructed to Gia as the branches were at his side and behind him.  Gia walked up to Joel who said, “I didn’t do anything to you.  I let you go.”

                “You molested me”

                “I could have raped and murdered you.  You’re going to get mad because I grabbed your ass?”

                Gia smiled and said, “Yea, I am and I’m the only one that matters”

                “Come on, I showed you mercy.  You can at least show me some.  Kill me quickly like Cynthia and Josue”

                Gia looked at him quizzically and said, “How do you know we killed Cynthia?”

                “Educated guess.”

                “How come you speak English but Cynthia doesn’t.”

                “We don’t let our women talk to too many people.”

                Gia smirked and chimed, “Well, we American girls have a voice.”

                “So did you kill Cynthia?”

                “Yup”

                Joel noticed that Gia had the machete. He opined, “You have the machete, just slit my throat.  Make it quick.  You’re a good person, you’re innocent.  You’re a better person than me.  What does it say that I could show you mercy but you couldn’t for me?  Trust me, you’ll regret this.”

                Gia put down the machete and undid Joel’s pants and pulled them down with his boxers.  She said, “You stripped me, now I stripped you.”

                Joel uttered, “Okay”

                Gia grabbed the machete with her right hand and yanked Joel’s scrotum and genitalia squeezing the scrotum as hard as she could.  Joel gasped in pain and made choke like noises enduring the pain.  Gia then slammed the machete down cutting his shaft.  It took a couple whacks before she got the penis and scrotum off and said, “See, now I can’t hurt you by squeezing your balls anymore.”

                Joel screamed out in pain and said, “You fucking bitch!”

                Gia jammed Joel’s penis and scrotum into Joel’s mouth and asked for the duck tape.  The men were still cringing from what they witnessed so Abby handed her the strip.  Gia taped Joel’s mouth shut with his mouth still filled with his own genitalia.  She grinned and declared, “I kind of wanted to hear you scream but this seems much better.”

                Gia stepped out of the rock circle and the men finished surrounding him with branches.  They lit a newspaper and threw it on the kindling.  The fire caught fast and Nouno and the bodyguard sprayed the branches with lighter fluid and watched the flamed climb higher.  Joel struggled against his restraints as he tried to scream but they were muffled by a full mouth and duck tape that is flame retardant.  The five of them watched until Joel was no longer struggling.  They then got into the two cars they took there and drove off. 

                Gia went back to Ohio and the other four returned to Phoenix.  Nouno called the security that were nice enough to move to Ohio.  They were compensated but assimilated nicely in Cleveland always keeping an eye on Gia.  Whether or not they were the deterrent to cause this or not, MS13 never went near Gia.  Abby and Nouno laid low waiting for their next victim.  Joel was wrong, Gia had no regrets.