Many hours later, our plane landed in Mexico City. I woke up and realised that I had slept soundly. This relieved me, as my angst was less apparent now that I had rested. My relief didn't last for long, as armed men surrounded us, as we left the aeroplane. While I don't speak Spanish, I quickly realised that these were not government officials.
They threatened us with their guns and instructed us to enter a military truck. After that, we were blindfolded and gagged. I cried, and my only relief was that I could feel Alex's warm hand holding my hand. This didn't help, as I could feel Alex's emotions, and he was as fearful as I was.
Eventually, the truck stopped, and the men led us to their leader. I recognised him as Jesus Ortega, the infamous drug kingpin. He was fiddling with his gun, sitting by a table filled with banknotes. He smiled at me, displaying several golden teeth, and a missing buck tooth.
"Miss Hines and Mr O'Neill. Welcome to my humble estate!" Jesus said with fake pretence.
"I'd feel more welcome if you extended us a formal invitation, instead of kidnapping us at the airport," I said with a ferociousness, that surprised everyone in the room including myself.
Jesus laughed loudly, looked at Alex, and replied. "Ha-ha. You sure have a fiery wife, Mr O'Neil. She must be good in bed. I might try her myself."
"Stay away from Sabina! Tell us what you want!?" Alex responded. While he tried to sound firm, I could sense that he was terrified, and his voice trembled as he uttered the words.
Jesus shrugged his shoulders and replied nonchalantly: "Very well. You can keep your pale skinny bitch. I get enough action anyways. I brought you here so you can endorse my campaign to become Mexico's new leader. "
"No way! Mexico already has a president, and you are nothing but a murderous drug lord." I replied defiantly.
"Is that so? And yet your husband is already funding our little rebellion. Tell your wife, Alexander," Jesus said and smirked.
"I don't know what you are talking about?" Alex replied in confusion.
A beautiful Latin American woman entered the room. Jesus Ortega stood up and bowed theatrically. "Miss Sabina Hines, may I introduce you to Sandra Santiago from the Escuela Mexico foundation," Jesus said and smiled a crooked smile.
"It is so nice to see you again, Alex. And this must be your wife? You make up such a lovely couple," Sandra said with a big seductive smile.
"Alex? You know this woman?" I hissed, and I gave him a furious stare.
"I didn't do anything like that," Alex said defensively. "I just donated some money to her organisation. She approached me and asked for funding for her projects to provide education to the poor in Mexico," Alex continued.
"A very generous donation. How unfortunate that you were so mesmerised by Sandra, so you forgot to run a background check on her charity program!" Jesus said with a big grin.
"Let me guess, the charity funded your rebellion instead of providing schools for the poor" I replied sarcastically.
"You are a smart woman, much smarter than your doofus husband" Jesus replied.
I felt the anger bubbling inside of me. Alex had made a big fuzz about me paying to meet the World Bank CEO without consulting with him first. And now it turned out, that he had donated a lot of money to a terrorist group, just because he couldn't see past the superficial charm and beauty of this Mexican bimbo!
I was interrupted in my thoughts when Jesus spoke again: "Don't look so sour, Miss Hines. Your clueless husband might just have saved your lives."
"And why is that?" I asked in bewilderment.
"Well, Pierre Beaumont and the World Bank wants you dead. I can give you to them, but I am not their lapdog. I might find you more useful alive!" Jesus said and smiled callously.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Well, you can give me legitimacy. I made a sample video with some of the money I made from the bogus charity. I want you to feature in videos as Building A Better World's CEO, where you praise the work we are doing," Jesus said.
"What if we refuse?" I responded, while holding in my anger.
"I have some ravenous hungry attack dogs in the basement. I am sure Pierre Beaumont would love to see the video of those ravaging dogs sharing the same meal: you're the menu of the day" Jesus responded and laughed sadistically.
"Vamos guardias," Jesus shouted out. The guards grabbed us and led us to the basement, where we sat in a damp underground cell, surrounded by starving wolf-like dogs ready to eat us alive if we tried to get out.