Target Alaska More Than She Signed Up For

Juliana walked up and down the dark deck of the ship. Gripped by fear, she could no longer think clearly. "If I return to the cabin, they'll find me," she thought frantically. "I could use my gun, but what good will it do, they'll shoot me. ¡Dios mío ayúdame! I wonder where Sean is, he might be dead."

The usually calm and collected bureaucrat had never faced this kind of danger. In nine years of investigating environmental crimes she rarely went to the field herself. Technicians did the dirty work of collecting and analyzing the evidence. Her job was to prepare reports and appear in court to support her findings, without breaking as much as a fingernail. The once shy Puerto Rican girl, raised partly in the Bronx, had risen high at the EPA on her analytical and technical abilities, but since transferring to the Criminal Investigations Division, she now lived a much more dangerous life. The CID was working on an unprecedented number of cases and the recent victories and increased regulatory power created an insidious black market for trafficking of toxic material. The job now demanded that investigators work more often with experienced and highly trained FBI agents.

Juliana received some training in the use of hand weapons before signing up for this mission, but she did not have the experience, the avocation or the constitution to work for such dangerous operations. Faced with this life-threatening situation, her heart was racing and she was short of breath. Her forehead was moist. She thought, "This is way more than what I signed up for."