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perfect, but it was fluent enough. “You and your baby need medical care. I’m not going to give you money, but I’m going to take you to the place on this card—Casa de Esperanza. Maybe you’ve heard of it? They’ll help you.” She hoped she was telling the truth.
     
    Vicki caught a flicker of recognition in the fevered eyes; then the Mayan girl nodded dully.
     
    “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Holly grabbed at Vicki’s arm again. “See what I mean? I ask you for help, and you brush me off. Someone else comes along, and you jump to be there for them. We’re talking the future of our planet here, and you’re worrying yourself over every beggar with their hand out. Where are your priorities?”
     
    Vicki thought of several sharp retorts, but Holly looked so upset that she just said gently, “Right now my priorities are a couple of sick kids who need medicine and food and a bed.” Switching back to Spanish, she said to the Mayan girl, “Wait here.”
     
    Vicki walked over to the nearest cabdriver and motioned to the waiting mother and child. “How much to take all of us to Casa de Esperanza in Zone 4?”
     
    The driver’s nostrils flared into distaste “One hundred quetzals.”
     
    At least twice the normal fare, but Vicki was not in the mood for quibbling.
     
    Wresting open a back door of the cab, Vicki half guided, half pushed her two passengers inside. Sliding in after them, she shut the door and looked at Holly. “I really am sorry. I don’t want to run off on you, but I need to go now. I hope you can understand. I promise I’ll call you as soon as I can, okay?”
     
    “So that’s it?” Holly leaned on the door. “You’re turning me down without even talking about it? You’re telling me to just throw in the towel and let them get away with it?”
     
     “I’m not telling you to do anything,” Vicki responded evenly. “You asked what I would do. Well, that’s easy. Exactly what I’m doing right now. Just walk away. Consider the occasional sidetracked animal the price for doing business in Guatemala and concentrate on all the other good you’re doing. If you’re really concerned, contact your superiors back Stateside and ask them to require accountability for future funding.”
     
    The driver had started the engine. Giving him a nod, Vicki added, “Holly, I promise we’ll talk more tonight. No matter how late you finish up, give me a call. Meanwhile, don’t do anything foolish.”
     
     “Oh, don’t wait up for me.” Holly stepped back. “If that’s the best you can do for advice, I’ll handle the rest of it myself.”
     
    “The rest of it? Holly, what are you talking about?”
     
    “Oh, believe me, the animals are the least of it. But, hey, you’ve got your priorities.”
     
    “Holly—”
     
    She had already swung around on her heel, and the taxi was moving away from the curb.
     
    Leaning back with a sigh, Vicki didn’t bother to watch her storm back through the glass doors.
     
    In the years she’d been in this business, she’d seen countless volunteers like Holly come and go. Not just American. British too. European. Australian. They were all the same. Young. Idealistic. Determined to save the world—or at least their third world portion of it.
     
    They arrived with backpacks over their shoulder, cameras around their necks—and a cause. Each sure his or her own cause was the most vital to the future of the planet.
     
    And equally sure they had only to throw enough of their Western technology and money to solve the planet’s problems. That the corruption and evils they encountered were never by any human choice but unavoidable circumstance.
     
    But most would be gone soon enough, anyway. Broken against the hard reality of this place and the enormity of the mess they’d found. Or because they’d accumulated enough picturesque facts and photos to put themselves on the map with a scholarly dissertation that established their own future in