Page 74 of Vistaria Has Fallen

“Calli?” Minnie prompted.

She looked at the headline.¡Escobedo ama Americanos más!

“Ama?” she asked Minnie.

“Um...love. Loves.”

“Escobedo loves Americans more,” Calli translated and sighed. “They’ve already crucified him.”

“Page two,” Minnie prompted.

Calli turned the page. Inside, they hadanother photo, this one a bad copy of her passport photo. Perhaps even a photocopy taken at the station that first night? They had her name,Callida Munro, emblazoned below the photo in bold, clear Times Roman.

“Oh God,” she whispered.

Minnie squeezed her wrist. “I think you need to leave Vistaria.”

Calli shut the paper, to stare at the front page again. The photo. She sighed.

“My geeky cousinCalli...the sultry seductress. Who’d have thought?”

“It’s not funny,” Calli said tiredly.

“No, not at all. In fact I could feel envious,” Minnie confessed. She pointed to the photo. “I look at that and see blazing passion, even love. The body language.” She shook her head. “I always knew Nicolás Escobedo wanted you. I just didn’t realize...”

“What?”

“You match each other.”

Calli folded upthe newspaper and gave it to Minnie. “Thanks. The rest of Vistaria will only see that their beloved President’s brother is out screwing American women, so how trustworthy are the Escobedos?” She got up.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m getting dressed.”

“You’re not going to phone him?”

“Hell, no.” Calli laughed dryly. “I’m going to stay as far away from Nick as geography lets me. I think you’reright. I need to leave Vistaria as soon as I can.”

“I’ll let Dad know. You’ll have to sneak into the airport.” Minnie left, shutting the door behind her.

Calli threw on jeans and a tee-shirt, the same clothing she had worn when she landed here. It seemed fitting she would leave that way. She had already packed, thanks to Joshua’s insistence. The two small packs sat next to her bed.

“Calli!Get down here!” Joshua yelled at the top of his lungs.

Calli flew down the three steps to the living room proper and hurried over to where he stood in front of the television, another copy of the newspaper in his fist. He turned up the volume.

Minnie sat on the sofa behind him, chewing her lip.

The screen showed the circular iron fencing around the legislative building, the big fountain inthe foreground and just off to one side. The cameraman must have been standing with one foot in the water, for the camera was elevated over the heads of the crowd standing before the closed gates. They were shouting, waving newspapers, chanting, brandishing their fists. There was screaming and people were shaking the ironwork on the gates.

Behind the barrier, five soldiers stood with their machineguns slung over their shoulders and held down by their sides—non-threatening, yet there to be used if needed. Their faces were inscrutable. They wore hard helmets and jungle fatigues.

The voice-over narration was fast and breathy. Panicked.

“This isserious,” Minnie said as Calli sat on the sofa next to her.

“What are they saying, Josh?” Calli asked.