At SHIELD’s psychiatric hospital, the Falcon and Leila are pronounced free of the brainwashing inflicted by the Night People (issue #202). They and Captain America head back to New York by jet….
Meanwhile, in the Central American nation of Rio de Muerte, a pair of rebellious slave laborers are brought before the nation’s dictator, Hector Santiago, known as "The Swine." When one complains about the meager rations the laborers are fed, Santiago forced him to eat a luxurious meal until he dies from the abundance. When the other prisoner denounces the sadistic Santiago, The Swine "diagnoses" him with the plague and executes him on the spot….
Later, Steve and Sharon, Sam and Leila are out at a restaurant, where Sharon starts to air her displeasure at Steve’s dangerous job as Captain America. A commotion breaks out when their waiter, Felix, is accosted by a pair of men wanting to take him back to the prison he escaped from in Rio de Muerte. At first Steve and Sam don’t want to become involved, since it looks like a valid arrest by law enforcement officials but when the thugs draw their guns in the crowded restaurant, they are forced to intervene, punching out the tough guys and allowing Felix to escape. Steve takes Sharon home, hoping to mollify her anger at his penchant for attracting trouble. As the two bicker, the baddies from the restaurant, needing a replacement for the prisoner they lost, fill her apartment with gas, knocking them out. Discovering a superhero costume under Steve’s clothes, they congratulate themselves on their prize and cart him off. Elsewhere, Sam has a premonition that Steve is in trouble but Leila persuades him he is imagining things….
In Rio de Muerte, as The Swine continues to torment the slave laborers, his men discuss their leader’s own weakness: his beautiful cousin Donna Maria hates him but waits for the real man who will someday arrive to break him….