When the red sun reflected equally in the ocean and the sky, Sebastian Rivera stood to his feet. He had risen early, hit the water of the bay as soon as he could manage, and cast his line out into the quiet waters, hauling in as many fish as he could catch. When he analyzed the reason, he had to laugh at himself. Somehow, he still felt like his current life was a dream; like he would wake up one day and find his cousins sleeping on mats beside him, his Tia Alma snoring up at the ceiling above them all. His mom would be in the next room with whatever amante she had fallen for lately. For Sebastian, the men varied from nice guys who would kick the soccer ball around with him to criminals who would beat Sebastian if his mother wasn't around to intercept the blows. Every day now felt like heaven - and Sebastian had spent too long in hell to expect heaven to be real.

Still, his aunt had done her best to take care of him, and her oldest son, Luciano, had watched out for the gangs. At one point, Sebastian had fallen in for a time with some gangbangers, mostly because they had challenged him to sprint across the railroad tracks only seconds before a train barreled past. His success had spurred such an adrenaline rush that he preferred it to the drugs the guys offered him a few days later. When Luciano had found out about the train, the older cousin had dragged Sebastian back to Tia by the hair.

“Tia,” Sebastian had pleaded. “I'm sorry! I won't do it again!”

It was the only time Tia Alma had raised a hand against him, and he never forgot it. “If I ever catch you hanging with those boys again, I'll lock you in the room, and you won't leave until the police come take you away!”

Sebastian believed the crazy look in her eye, and he stayed away from every gang that came after him for years. Turned out, Sebastian had sprinted across the tracks so quickly that he had gained a reputation. El veloz, they had called him, and he had used the fame for his fortune. His cousin spread the stories of how many times Sebastian had evaded capture, so everyone believed he couldn't be caught. If anyone tried to catch him up in a gang initiation, then, Sebastian would hide and listen as his pursuers would discuss how quickly he had run away, sometimes attributing superhuman speed to the young kid to cover their own failure.

“When you are out, then I will get out, too,” Luciano would claim, and the elder cousin paid a high price for protecting his little primo. Beat-ins stopped the gangs from seeking revenge on the family, and Luciano suffered through many. Somehow, he also managed to portray himself as the most incompetent gangster on the planet, failing to hook kids on the drugs he gave them, missing every shot on the drive-by, somehow letting every girl escape whom he was supposed to punish. He did manage to score a lot of booze, though, so the hierarchy kept him around rather than just kill him.

Ever since Sebastian had finished high school, he had wondered about his cousin. Luciano had disappeared the day before graduation, and Sebastian couldn't know for sure whether Luciano had finally fled the territory or had run out of luck with the original gangsters. He would have liked this, Sebastian sighed as he watched the rainbow sunrise shimmer through the rippling waves. Though Sebastian threw most of the fish back, knowing that he could live on his own brought him a measure of visceral peace.

Of course, his classmates would have felt appalled at the idea of subsistence fishing. Most of the students at Brown had arrived with their designer satchels stuffed full of high-dollar luxuries. For Sebastian, though he fully expected to compete well against his classmates during job recruitment, he couldn't quite leave behind that desperation that woke him every morning at 4 a.m. to fish for his life. Someday he would feel secure enough to sleep in, but five years had not yet settled his past and left it where it belonged. Everything but Luciano, who too often haunted Bash’s thoughts. Until he knew what had happened to his cousin, Bash would say a prayer for him every day.

Sebastian quickly packed his tackle box and secured the pole to the back of his bike. Fortunately for him, the “save the planet” craze had made bike-riding fashionable, and his friends thought him uber-responsible with his refusal to bring his car to school even in winter. If he had no car to bring, no one needed to know, and he managed to hitch rides with friends or on the bus whenever he needed to travel any length. Two options equally as responsible: mass transportation and carpooling. Sebastian smiled at the thought. Poverty and desperation, he grinned. Not quite a winning combination, but he had proven just as clever in eluding the discovery by his friends as he had the gang bangers back in Langley Park.

He rode back into the darkness and made his way up to his dorm. Though most grad students had left campus housing, Sebastian had played responsible and taken the job as residential adviser. The added advantages of cheap rent and steady pay sweetened the deal enough for Sebastian to endure the ridicule of his friends.

“You love Brown so much, you're going to stay forever,” they teased, to which he replied, “Where is your sense of civic duty?”

The response made all of his friends predict a future in politics for Sebastian, but he had no desire to pursue such an end. In his experience, politicians could be bought by the cartels, and Sebastian wanted no part of the cartels. He had seen too much of their hooking, manipulation, and slavery to want more.

As he approached the eight-story building that had served as his home for the past year, a figure detached itself from one of the rows of trees that lined the path to the door. Sebastian could not recognize the face in the lingering darkness, so he slowed in preparation of an unforeseen danger. Old habits died hard, and even after five years of relative calm, Sebastian could not escape the idea that someone from the old neighborhood might find him. Plenty of students at Brown used drugs, though likely procured from less seedy and closer means than Langley Park gangs.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Sebastian Rivera,” a voice intoned – a voice Sebastian knew as well as his own.

“Luciano?” he gasped involuntarily.

“It's Luke now, but, yes.”

Sebastian couldn't help himself; he lunged at his cousin and wrapped him up in a bear hug. Once Luke realized that Sebastian didn't intend to attack him, he let loose a boisterous laugh.

“I wasn't sure exactly how you would respond to seeing me,” Luke admitted. “Once people escape, they usually withdraw from anyone who reminds them of the old life.”

“Luciano Lopez!” Sebastian chastised. “I owe my life to you. There is almost no circumstance that would keep me from wanting to see you. I was afraid you were dead!”

Luke shook his head. “I considered that you might think that when I left, but I knew you were about to leave, and I had run out of luck with the Perucañas. If I hadn't left when I did, I wouldn't have gotten out. I would have come back for you though, if Mariana had called to ask me. I was keeping track of you through her.”

At the mention of the name, both men grew silent. Sebastian had no idea what had happened to his younger cousin. Apparently, Luke had an idea, and Sebastian didn't know if he wanted to hear it. Instead, he started in with the second most pressing question nagging at his brain.

“What have you been doing for the past five years?” he begged.

Luke chuckled, reluctance washing over his features. “Well, funny you should ask, because I've been sent to recruit you for my new business opportunity.”

Code words. Sebastian knew them well. For a moment, visions rose before his eyes: beat-ins and initiation rites; loyalty and swearings in; death, murder, and mayhem. Luke had said he had gotten out, but now he was using covert terms the gangs used to mask their activities in legitimacy. Maybe Luke hadn’t gotten out – maybe he was using a partial truth, and in reality he had just joined a different gang. None of the words that followed contradicted Sebastian’s impression.

“We like to recruit in places like this because we need the brightest minds around to do the job that is asked of us. But I'm not going to lie to you: it's a tough job. If you sign on, you'll have a lot to learn and a lot to endure.”

“What are you talking about, Luciano? Business opportunity? Sign on? A lot to endure? You and I both know what that means. Are you recruiting for a cartel now? Is this all a gimmick?”

The boisterous laugh rang out again loudly and clearly, shattering the morning's dusky stillness. “Not a cartel, Sebastian. You will have some serious trouble once you’re out of school if you assume everyone who offers you an opportunity is from a cartel. No, I’d say both of us have moved past that now. I’m recruiting for the CIA.” It was a calculated risk to tell him, but Luciano would always find it hard to lie to his cousin.

“Are you kidding me?” Sebastian's voice rose at least an octave, his shock at the news surpassing even his mistaken belief about the gang.

“I am deadly serious,” Luke replied, a sudden solemnity transforming his features. “I thought I could help more people. Then after Mariana...”

When Luke didn't continue, fear clutched at Sebastian's gut, overcoming his earlier reluctance. “What about Mariana?”

“I didn't come here to talk about that,” Luke reassumed his casual demeanor. “I came to tell you that the CIA wants to talk to you.”

“But-”

“I don't want to talk to you about it now. Just come in and meet the recruiter, and you can find out there.”

Anger replaced Sebastian's fear, and he abruptly rounded on his cousin. “If you think you can strong-arm or manipulate me into meeting with the government, you don't know me very well. I wouldn't think you, of all people, would resort to such tactics.”

When Luke glared into Sebastian's eyes, Sebastian lost all of his anger. A profound pain resided behind his cousin's expression, and though he wanted to press, Sebastian could not prick at a wound that obviously ran so deep.

“I'm sorry, Luciano,” he offered with more gravity than he had held before. “You know, I love her, too, and I just thought you were trying to lure me in by not telling me. I can see that it's painful for you to talk about.”

“So, will you come in?”

Sebastian scoffed at the request. “I'm sorry, Luciano. I escaped one prison. I won't willingly enter another.”

“I think you're overstating it, Sebastian. You think I would put myself in prison?”

“For Mariana? In a heartbeat.”

Luke didn't reply.

“So, how did they lure you in?” Sebastian continued.

“They didn't lure me in. They made me an excellent offer, and since I saw no downside that I couldn’t handle, I said yes. It all happened before Mariana went missing – a few weeks before your graduation.”

“What happened?”

“Well,” Luke shrugged, “a man approached me, a man I had seen hanging around the Perucañas, and he nearly got himself punched in the face for his trouble. He came to me in the alley behind Pablo's, and I thought he was trying to corner me so he could kill me or steal my phone or something. But all he wanted to do was talk. He had seen how I protected you from the gangs, and he had watched me for long enough to realize that I kept blowing the rites on purpose. Apparently, I had a skill that he found valuable.”

“Understandably. You not only kept yourself alive and out of trouble, but you managed to protect the life and property of everyone you were tasked to destroy.”

“Heh,” Luke huffed. “You make me sound like a superhero.”

“You kind of were, Luciano. Definitely to me.”

“Well, not enough of a superhero,” he murmured, and the pain returned to his eyes. Shaking himself, he continued. “At first, I didn't want to talk to the guy. What he was talking about sounded dangerous, and I had spent my entire life trying to avoid danger. I left with him, though, just before you graduated. I kept tabs on you through my mom and sister, and I knew you had safely gotten out, so I stayed with him for several weeks. Still, I wasn't sold on it for a while – not until… so I understand your reluctance.”

“So, what changed your mind?”

Luke shook his head again. “It's complicated. And look, you don't have to decide right away. But they like you. I mean, before I even thought about recruiting you, they heard my stories about your quickness, both mental and physical, and then they heard you got into Brown. It was an instant fit. They let me finish college – paid for it, in fact – and then they asked me to recruit you.”

“You finished college already?”

“Undergrad in two and a half years. Besides my regular classes, I took online classes, short terms, whatever I could to finish early. I had made my decision, and I wanted to go forward with it.”

Sebastian couldn't help a smile. “That's the Luciano I know. Better at everything than everyone, but still works harder because he's not satisfied.”

“I’m in my final semester at grad school – U. Conn, Public Affairs. No commitment, Sebastian. Just come have lunch with me and a friend.”

“Fine,” Sebastian agreed. “You want to come in? I'll make you a coffee.”

“Can't. Your stubbornness has already made me late for my next appointment. I'll contact you with the details of where to meet.”

“You don't have my number,” Sebastian contradicted.

“Yes, I do,” Luke grinned. “See you in a few days.”