As it always did, winter had gone on too long. The excitement & expectation of the holiday season was a distant memory, replaced by never ending cold rain, gray skies and mud. This intemperate weather had kept Elio Alboreto from riding his Ducati for weeks but one Saturday morning he could bear it no longer and rolled the big red sport-touring bike out of Pieri Lorenzo's garage.
"You're going to freeze your balls off you know" muttered the Chief as he watched his old friend suit up for a ride to the SWA compound. He held his mug of coffee with both hands, letting its warmth suffuse his cold fingers. It was a large mug; this was hardly a morning for espresso.
Alboreto shrugged off his concerns; "I've ridden in worse. Besides, I'm only going in for a few hours to check up on the message traffic and do the monthly inspections on my dive equipment. I'll be done around noon." He looked to the gray but thus far rainless sky and added "Hell, if this weather holds out I might even take the long way home."
Lorenzo shrugged, not pretending to understand why his house-mate would brave the chilly day on a motorcycle when he had a perfectly warm & dry 4-wheeled vehicle in the garage. "Well, have fun." Strapping his helmet on Elio tipped his head in salute before firing up the pulsing twin-cylinder engine and motoring away.
_Delegation_
A short three hours later Alboreto had completed every task he'd set out for himself and even arranged his notes for the Monday morning conference call with Minister Petris. He took his time fortifying himself with a cup of hot coffee before the ride home...checking e-mails one last time and listening to the faint sound of Jacob Mehrandish's stereo a few offices away. The Canadian was listening to Molly Hatchet's 1979 Flirtin' with Disaster album and Elio approved (even if they were an American band). In fact, it was getting him in the mood to take a long ride before heading back to Lorenzo's villa.
Fate intervened in the form of a red pigtailed tornado that came rushing into his office clutching the City section of the previous day's Il Messaggero newspaper. "Good, you're here!" Marisa panted, "There's something very important we have to do!" She slammed the paper down onto his desk, folded to display a photograph of a massive cargo aircraft taking off. "The Antonov An-225 is visiting da Vinci airport today and only today! There's only once of them in the whole world!"
Casting a skeptical glance at her he asked "Since when are you interested in airplanes?"
"I'm very interested in airplanes" Marisa retorted with great seriousness.
"Jumping out of them..." muttered her handler.
"Yeah, that's cool" she answered with a smile before getting back on topic, "but this is really important. The An-225 is the biggest, fastest..."
"It's not the fastest!" came a harsh whisper from the hallway. Realizing she'd revealed herself by speaking a bit too loud Kara poked her head around the corner and gave him a little wave.
Rolling his eyes, Elio muttered "Won't you come join us, Miss Kara...and whoever else is out there." To his surprise the older girl was followed by Petrushka, Agapita, Henrietta and finally Amelia. "Okay, so I gather things are boring in the dorm today and you're all looking for an outing?"
Leaning over her Master's desk far enough to lift both feet off the ground Marisa groaned "Boring doesn't even describe it...there's absolutely nothing to do!"
"I don't know about that," Elio teased her, "you could always do your homework."
"Be serious, sir!" she pleaded, missing the irony in her own statement "And we all really do want to see that airplane. The newspaper says it's only making a brief stop in Rome to pick up cargo for Africa."
"Wouldn't Mr. Pagani be a better escort for something like this?" Alboreto asked, "He's a pilot and a huge aircraft aficionado."
Playing up her disappointed act a bit too much Kara pouted "Poor Michele is in London this weekend...he's going to miss it." Kara conveniently left out the reason she had not been taken along on her handler's business trip (she had managed to exceed her available mobile phone minutes by a factor of triple, and was therefore restricted to compound for the weekend...but there was no reason to trouble Mr. Alboreto with all those unimportant details).
"But I'm going to take plenty of pictures for him!" piped up Henrietta, as if on cue. Elio began to realize this was all rehearsed. Marisa would strike first, hitting him with enthusiasm and hoping their woeful boredom would evoke his pity. Kara came in with the second salvo, confident that her Good Karma would sway Mr. Alboreto the way it always did Michele. It was hoped that Henrietta's wide eyed innocence and selfless conviction to record the event for the unfortunately absent Mr. Pagani would provide the knockout punch. Elio decided it might be best to declare an end to this before Petra and Agapita could swing into action and play their part...although he was curious as to what contribution the stone faced Amelia would make to this scheme.
"Alright, I see no problem with this as long as your handlers don't object" Alboreto finally conceded, drawing excited grins and high fives from the girls. "I trust you've all cleared this with them?" he added, dampening the mood somewhat.
After a few moments of silence Kara took the lead; "Well, my Michele is out of town on important business. I really don't think it would be a good thing to bother him. He wouldn't mind, he trusts you Mr. Alboreto."
Petra stepped in next. "Alessandro & I had an argument on Friday. I don't care what he says."
"That really isn't how it works" groaned Elio, but he decided not to fight about it and went straight on to Agapita. "How about you?"
"Oh, Avise thinks I'm taking a 15 kilometer road march today" she chirped, happy that this was not the truth. Elio covered his face with his palm in frustration, but her story was no worse than the two that preceded her so he just moved on. He'd argued politics with the right-leaning Avise Mancini just the other day, so the opportunity to help his cyborg conspire against him felt just a little bit too appealing to pass up. It was not the older girls that concerned him most anyway.
"Your turn Henrietta..." Elio pressed on.
She obviously did not have permission from Giuseppe either but at least her appeal was well rehearsed; "But Mr. Alboreto...if I don't go who will take pictures for Mr. Pagani?" For good measure she flashed him her best puppy-dog eyes, they always worked on everyone else.
"Four down, one to go...how about you Amelia?"
Marisa's massively conditioned room mate did not try to look cute or tug at Elio's heart strings. "I have not seen my handler in three days" she replied in a flat monotone, "I am confident that he will not be distressed by my absence."
"I suspect you're right" agreed Elio. None of the four bomb squad girls possessed handlers who concerned themselves much with the comings & goings of their individual cyborgs. "What about your friends?"
Her emotionless expression never breaking, Amelia explained "I understand the prevailing perception that the four of us are inseparable, but if we did not afford ourselves sufficient periods of privacy it would prove a serious determent to our collective mental health. Bella, Cora & Diana have their own plans for the day."
Alboreto leaned back in his chair, already well aware that the promise of a long solitary ride on his Ducati had slipped from his grasp. In his mind he had already conceded to the girls' request but there was no point in making it too easy for them. "I see...so we have five extra cyborgs, not one of which has even asked their handler for permission to go off compound today?"
"But it's okay if we have a grown up with us," argued Henrietta hopefully, "and you're the most grown up of all the handlers." This caused Elio's bushy eyebrows to raise slightly and earned her a sharp nudge from Petrushka. The young brunette looked up at her teenaged sisters with a scowl and whispered "Well you're always telling me I should listen to you because you're older...Mr. Alboreto is waaaaay older than all our handlers so they hafta listen to him, right?"
"We'll talk later," hissed Kara, putting the matter to rest.
Paying little attention to the conversation behind her, Marisa was trying hard to seal the deal. "Elio, please? We promise we won't be any trouble..."
He put his hand up to indicate that she could stop. "Alright. But my car will only carry four passengers...two of you will have to ride in the boot." The gullible cyborgs took the bait looking around at each other with dismay, their attention eventually focusing on the two smallest members of the party.
"Oh...No! I don't want to ride in the trunk!" protested Henrietta. Marisa too cast a distressed look at her handler, hoping desperately that nepotism would disqualify her from this indignity, but Amelia noticed Mr. Alboreto's motorcycle helmet sitting on the shelf behind him and gave her room-mate a subtle tug on the sleeve to let her know they were all being led on.
"You didn't even bring the BMW today!" Marisa protested (wearing a relieved smile), but by this time her Master was already filling out the necessary paperwork.
"Kara, take this form over to the motor pool and pick us out a van" he instructed.
"One of the Fiorano's?" she asked, taking the paper from his hand.
After thinking for a moment the handler replied "Nah, get one of the big Transits. I don't relish the thought of driving it in airport traffic but those Fiorano's are a touch small for six. I'll go sign you all out...meet me in front of the office building." Elio grabbed his coat and left, ushering the girls out of his office as he went. "10 minutes, in front of this building" he reminded them before heading downstairs to record the outing in the CQ log.
_Traffic_
The battle for control over the radio was short and ended in a decisive victory for the youthful contingent. By virtue of having provided her own handler to chaperone the outing Marisa had the honor of the front seat, uncontested by her cyborg-sisters. Knowing that the musical tastes of the red-read generally ran parallel with his own Elio confidently instructed her to pick a radio station. The move backfired; instead of going straight for the usual guitar rock & blues station the fratello listened to on their own Marisa sought a consensus from the others and Alboreto found himself subjected to the latest "top 40" pop hits.
Adding to the handler's trials was the realization that a significant portion of Rome's population seemed to have read Il Messaggero and traffic reflected this fact. As soon as he pulled off the Circonvallazione Elio found the A91 leading out to DaVinci Airport in Fiumicino backed up at a crawl and the lumbering Ford Transit he had chosen was hardly a vehicle capable of negotiating the snarl nimbly. "We're not going to miss it are we?" asked an anxious Agapita, consulting her wristwatch and the newspaper story at intervals bordering on the obsessive.
"We've got plenty of time" Kara assured her.
"And if it gets too late" added Petrushka, "Mr. Alboreto can just use his government ID to cut straight through the traffic. Does this van have lights & sirens?"
With a disapproving scowl Elio answered "No; and furthermore our credentials are intended for official use...not sightseeing trips." That pronouncement put a conclusive end to the suggestion but Alboreto inwardly regretted cutting himself off from an option he'd actually been considering, if only to escape the grating teenage pop music just a few minutes sooner.
Reprieve came just a few kilometers down the road as they passed the main terminals & special event lanes opened up, segregating the curious out of the main flow of traffic and guiding them to special spectator areas near the Satellite terminal. There, in spite of Alboreto's dictum that they not abuse their SWA credentials to gain preferential treatment, he maneuvered the Ford into a VIP parking lot, ushered there by a young Carabinieri conscript who had spotted the Transit's government plates. This act did no escape the cyborgs' attention but nobody complained, as it rescued them from a long walk to the viewing area.
"Everyone stay together!" barked Elio as his pack of cyborgs exited the van and immediately began to drift. "This is a big crowd so I don't want anyone getting outside a three meter radius of wherever I am. Kara are you listening?"
"Yes Mr. Alboreto!" she replied quickly, but she & Agapita had already wandered outside his three meter perimeter to look at a map posted on a telephone pole.
By this time the sky had cleared a bit; it was still cloudy but patches of blue poked through. Joining a river of aircraft buffs the SWA contingent made their way down a muddy path to an elevated viewing platform which overlooked the main runway and taxiways. The main attraction of the day was not scheduled to arrive for another hour but the place was already getting crowded. It was past noon by now, so there were plenty of smaller aircraft to watch, taking off and landing according to their regular schedules. Alboreto saw little of this though; he was engaged in a never ending head count as his six young charges jostled for more favorable viewing space in the crowd. It was the older three he was having the most difficulty with; Kara, Agapita & Petrushka were constantly testing the limits of his three meter perimeter, often exceeding the invisible boundary. Henrietta for her part was no trouble. Terrified of losing Mr. Alboreto and being left behind she hung close to him, never out of arms reach. 'Etta stopped short of holding his hand however, as Marisa kept a close eye on the situation, issuing a low growl whenever she judged that her cyborg sister was getting bit too close for comfort. Henrietta had to be satisfied with holding onto Mr. Alboreto's coat-tail, which did not arouse Mari's possessive instincts as badly. Although she did not know it 'Etta was actually doing Elio a favor; left to her own devices Marisa would have been just as bad as the older girls, wandering away in the crowd in search of a better spot to watch from, but as long as Henrietta was there challenging her territory the red head did not stray out of arms reach from Elio either. Silent Amelia was no trouble at all, she seemed content to stand within the three meter circle and scan the skies above for a first glimpse of the massive Russian cargo plane.
"Kara, Petrushka! Quit wandering off!" Alboreto barked, "And where the bloody hell is Agapita?"
"I'm right here sir" she answered, Elio had to spin around to see the dark haired girl, almost knocking down the underfoot Henrietta as he turned.
"Stay where I can see you! All of you stay where I can see you."
"We're just trying to get a better look at the flight-line" protested Kara.
Slowly losing his struggle to remain patient with them Elio snorted "Well fine, as long as you stay close...eh, Primary Command; Stay within three meters!"
"That's not a real primary command, sir" pointed out the literal & straightforward Agapita, arousing his temper.
"Well how about go and wait in the van? Do any of you like that one more?" he threatened.
Chastened, the girls were silent but more careful to remain within Mr. Alboreto's circle. Marisa finally tugged on his sleeve and said softly "Elio, none of us can see anything." He took a look around and admitted that she was right. Even Petra, the tallest of the group, stood on her tip-toes, straining to see over the heads of the other spectators. It was not just his own cyborg who looked upon him hopefully, Elio was locked in the imploring gaze of all the girls.
"Alright, damn it, fine" he conceded at last, "everyone follow me and stay close!"
With the cyborgs in tow Elio left the viewing platform. Flashing his government ID at the Carabinieri assigned to crowd control duty (they seemed more than happy to have seven less tourists to deal with) he led his charges out of the public spectator area to a nearby flight-line gate, where he was challenged by an airport security officer. "Signore, you've reached a controlled area. There's plenty of room for spectators right back..."
"Here you are, Officer" Elio interrupted him, handing over his credentials for inspection. With a nod the security officer accepted them but retired back to his guard-shack to consult his superior. The pair of them came out less than thirty seconds later.
"Your clearances are in order, sir," the senior man answered in a polite tone, "but I don't understand what business the Social Welfare Agency has here. We weren't notified of any organ transport occurring today."
"Oh it's nothing like that" Alboreto assured him. "These are some of our SWA patients; we're just on a field trip to see that big Russian cargo plane like everyone else here. Some of the younger ones can't see over the crowd."
The airport security officers looked upon the girls with puzzled expressions. "Patients? None of them look handicapped."
Elio replied with a devilish grin "They're all mentally handicapped." The statement drew a few dirty looks from the girls but they could do nothing to protest, Mr. Alboreto was abusing his government credentials for their benefit after all. "We won't get in anyone's way, I guarantee that."
Seeing no reason to argue the senior guard gave them a nod and stepped aside, allowing them through the gate and onto the windswept airfield. "Enjoy the show." They did not even protest Henrietta bringing her camera into the restricted area.
Once they were clear of prying ears Kara smiled broadly and said "Thanks Mr. Alboreto, we owe you one." Conscious of the favor he was doing them all the girls joined in to express their appreciation.
"Just behave yourselves, don't touch anything and don't get into anything you're not supposed to" he admonished. "How much time do we have?"
"Any minute now" answered Petra.
"It is right there" announced Amelia, pointing toward a seemingly empty patch of sky. The girls oooh'ed and aaahhh'ed excitedly but neither Elio nor the platform full of spectators above them could see a thing. Minutes passed and although the ordinary humans were still unaware of how close the big aircraft really was the cyborgs tracked it easily. Even when the plane disappeared behind clouds they locked onto the distinctive sound of its six engines with their extraordinary ears.
At last the cargo plane made its final turn and began an approach to the tarmac, finally becoming visible to Elio and the rest of ordinary humanity, first as a speck descending from the clouds but slowly taking on the recognizable shape of an aircraft as it got closer. "Here it comes!" chirped Henrietta hopping in place as the An-225 approached.
"Well don't forget the photos!" Agapita admonished.
'Etta blushed a bit and replied "Oh, right!" raising her Nikon. By now all the civilian viewers on the platform could see it clearly and Henrietta's shutter was not the only one clicking. Even Elio felt in awe as the immense machine seemed to float in; it seemed impossible that something so large could even gain flight.
In sharp contrast to its slow, graceful approach the giant Antonov's landing was loud and dramatic. A huge puff of smoke burst off two sets of fourteen tire landing gear (and again when the four nose steering tires touched down) and seconds later the aircraft roared past with all flaps & air brakes deployed. Even over a hundred meters away Alboreto and the cyborgs could feel the whoosh of its turbulence as it passed.
"That was cool!" Marisa exclaimed once the aircraft had passed and all her cyborg sisters chattered in agreement. In minutes the airplane had taxied back to its assigned cargo loading pad which was conveniently within view of the spectator viewing platform.
"What's happening?" gasped Henrietta, lowering the camera from her eyes, "Is the front of the plane broken?"
Giggling, Kara touched her finger to 'Etta's chin and pushed the younger girl's jaw up. "You're going to catch flies like that. The whole nose section lifts up so they can load it from both ends." With the help of Petrushka's smart-phone (her own being securely locked in Michele's desk drawer as a consequence of the recent misunderstanding about her bill) she began rattling off statistics about the An-225.
With the cyborgs occupied Elio was able to take a proverbial step back and relax for a moment. He worked out the timetable in his head...another hour or so for loading, then they would watch the take-off...maybe 45 minutes struggling through traffic to get back to the A90...the girls had missed lunch at the dining hall so he'd have to take them somewhere to eat, that would take another hour...then back to the compound. That left a few hours to take a ride on the Ducati before the winter sun went down. All in all not a bad day.
Ninety minutes later the cyborgs & civilian spectators watched as the massive one of a kind cargo plane lifted off and banked over the crowd dramatically. In a heroic effort to keep the -225 in her viewfinder until the last possible second Henrietta nearly fell over backwards (saved by a quick catch by Agapita), providing a humorous punchline to the sightseeing expedition.
Elio immediately set about shepherding his group toward the gate and parking lot. They were not entirely paying attention to anything he said, concentrating instead on their own spirited debate over whether the aircraft they had see could really be considered the largest since only one example had been built. Kara contended that the honour should belong to Airbus' A380 but it was a hard sell. There was no argument however that with its twin stabilizer tail the An-225 was the coolest looking of all the large airplanes.
"Stay together ladies!" ordered Alboreto, steering a few stragglers back into the group "I don't want to go back to the dormitory with less of you than I set out with...that would look very bad on my report."
"You wouldn't really leave any of us, would you Mr. Alboreto?" asked Henrietta, who was once again clinging to his coat-tail.
"You're not really gonna file a report on a sightseeing trip, are you?" Kara added with no less trepidation in her voice.
Elio did not answer either of them. "There's the van right up there" he announced, more to himself than anyone. He had reached his own personal mission successful point. None of the cyborgs under his charge had wandered off in the crowd, soon they would all be safely locked in the van and headed back to the SWA compound. Even if he took them somewhere to eat there was little chance of losing one at a tattoria. Elio used the cyborgs' appetites to urge them along those last few meters. "Alright, load up...everyone inside...the sooner you sit your arses down and get your seat-belts on the sooner we can pick a place to go for dinner." As he closed the door on the last of them Alboreto took a deep breath and reflected Not really all that different from a pack of normal kids, although never having spent a great deal of time around "normal" kids his basis for comparison was limited.
Hopping into the drivers seat Elio asked a question he knew would be popular "Alright, any suggestions for a place to eat?"
Agapita answered first, shrugging her shoulders and casually replying "You already know what my vote will be."
That made all the others laugh. "Actually" agreed Kara, "pizza doesn't sound like a bad choice at all." Heads nodded all around the back section of the Transit, and it seemed the only thing up for debate would be which pizzeria to visit.
Before firing up the engine Elio took a glance in the mirror to make a final head count. Marisa, Kara, Agapita, Henrietta, Petrushka...that makes five. "Wait a bloody minute...I started with six of you!"
All the cyborgs present looked around with puzzled expressions until Marisa observed "Where is Amelia?"
"Damn it all" cursed Alboreto, unbuckling his seat belt.
"We'll come help you look for her" Kara offered but the gray haired handler snapped "No, you will stay put! I don't need two or three more of you wandering off while I'm looking for my one missing sheep!" Slamming the door far harder than he needed to Elio hurried off to locate the missing bomb-squad girl. She was the last of the party he'd expected trouble from and as he pushed against the flow of the departing crowd Alboreto wondered exactly how he could effectively chastise a cyborg who seemed to have no emotional reaction to anything.
"Back again?" asked the gate guard who had allowed Elio and his charges into the restricted flight-line area but the old spy was in no mood for conversation. Despite the man recognizing him he flashed his ID purely out of habit, grumbling "I'll only be a minute this time."
Luck favored Elio on this occasion; Amelia was close to where he'd left her. After breathing a sigh of relief (losing a cyborg on a sightseeing expedition would have been difficult to explain to Jean) Elio hardened his visage and snapped "Damn it Amelia, didn't you see us leaving?"
"I was aware of your departure" she replied in a monotone that betrayed no worry at being left behind nor anger at being forgotten.
The experience of scolding Amelia was just as odd & awkward as Elio had anticipated. Marisa, or indeed any of the girls he found cause to raise his voice to could be expected to cower before his anger but the emotionless Amelia seemed unaffected...yet at the same time utterly attentive to his words. "Well why the bloody hell didn't you follow when you saw us leaving?"
"I was obligated to follow my primary orders" she answered.
"And I ordered you to stay close to the group!" the handler barked, "Now let's get to the van...I had to leave the others to come look for you."
She did not move her feet. "Sir, I must..."
"Not another word!" Alboreto snapped, "You can explain later, we're leaving."
Back at the van Henrietta fidgeted nervously, watching out the windows as strangers passed by on all sides. Many of these strangers wore blue coats or jackets. Many of them looked upon the Transit's government license plates with unhappy scowls. "When do you suppose Mr. Alboreto will be back?"
Petra did not answer her directly "I just wish he'd left us the keys so we could listen to the radio."
"Use the speaker on your phone" Kara suggested, but Petrushka objected "That'll run down the battery? What if Alessandro calls?"
"I thought you two had a fight and you didn't care what he had to say?" teased Kara, raising the red-head's hackles.
The two did not have the chance to continue their debate; Elio returned at last, keeping the subject of his search in front of him this time so that she did not slip away again. Once Amelia was inside and the door shut behind her Alboreto came around to the drivers seat. "Head count...everyone is here this time, right?" he muttered, annoyance evident in his voice.
At first nobody answered, so it fell to Marisa to reply timidly "Yes sir, all six here." With a nod Elio put the Transit in gear and forced his nose out into the slow moving river of automobiles.
About a hundred meters down the road the speed of traffic picked up. With the grumpy Mr. Alboreto's attention occupied by driving Agapita ventured to ask in a low whisper "Amelia, where were you? Why didn't you follow us?"
The bomb squad girl was silent for a few moments before replying softly "I have been ordered not to speak another word."
With a frustrated groan Elio called back to the overly literal cyborg "It's fine Amelia, you can speak now" adding under his breath "I'd love to hear this too."
"I detected the odor of explosive compounds."
All six cyborgs were thrown forward against their seat-belts as Alboreto jerked the big Transit van off the road, skidding to a halt on the gravel. "You detected, what?"
"Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramin e and Pentaerythritol tetranitrate in roughly equal concentrations" answered Amelia, "I could not successfully locate the source of the odor."
All her sisters sat with their jaws wide open, Petrushka finally venturing "Cyclo-penta-tetra what?"
"These are constituent components of Semtex H" Amelia explained in her flat monotone voice.
"Then why didn't you just say Semtex?" muttered Kara, rolling her eyes.
"Because I did not detect the other necessary compounds" replied the bomb-squad girl.
Elio turned around in his seat "Girls, quiet...Amelia, what are other uses for those compounds? Could you have been smelling something harmless?"
"Pentaerythritol has medical uses but cyclotrimethylenetrinitramin e is exclusively used in the production of explosives."
Alboreto was silent for almost a full thirty seconds; all of the girls anxiously awaited his next few words. Finally, he said "Kara, climb up here and take the wheel. I'm going to go stop traffic so you can make a U-turn. We're going back to the flight-line."
Eager to help but not eager to attempt a tight U-turn in the large vehicle, Kara unbuckled her seat-belt and offered "I could just hold traffic for you."
"What do you think the chances are that a line of Italian drivers will actually stop and wait on the orders of a 16 year old girl? No, I'll handle the traffic...I can start waving my ID around if anyone gives me any guff." He hopped out of the drivers seat, adding "The rest of you spot for her, help out as much as possible but stay inside the van."
Cringing, Kara climbed forward and slid behind the wheel. Backing Michele's Lamborghini was difficult but at least that didn't require much room. This was the first time she'd have to maneuver something this big and pulling a U-turn in the middle of a traffic jam was less than a friendly learning environment. Adjusting the mirrors, Kara asked "What's going on behind me?"
"Mr. Alboreto is yelling bad words at a man in a green car" reported Henrietta dutifully.
"Punch him in the face boss!" shouted Mari, hanging out the passenger window but she was silenced by Agapita who snapped "Not helpful!"
"He's waving for you to go" Petra observed. With a nod Kara put the van in gear and began creeping back out onto the road surface with the wheel at full left lock.
"No, stop!" exclaimed Henrietta, "Okay you can go...eeek, STOP!"
"Damn it 'Etta will you relax, you're freaking me out!" Kara snapped. The younger girl shrank down into her seat and pouted "But Mr. Alboreto said we should help."
Between fits of jerky forward motion and clumsy stabs at the brake pedal the Ford at last began to make progress, but Kara failed to get fully turned around in the space she had, requiring a 3-point turn across both lanes, one that inspired much cursing, fist waving and horn blowing from the line of traffic that Elio held at bay. When she finally got pointed in the right direction, in the correct lane Kara breathed a mighty sigh of relief, surely her ordeal was over now and the adult would re-assume driving duties. To her dismay Mr. Alboreto did not come to the drivers side to relieve her though, he jogged around to the passenger seat and hopped in (shuffling Marisa to the back). "Take us straight to the gate we walked through earlier" he told the stressed out teenaged cyborg, pointing in the general direction.
"Umm..." Kara stalled "...traffic is still really heavy."
"Just be careful but aggressive, stick your nose out there and they'll make room for you" replied Elio, adding in a softer tone "Driving isn't all about Ferrari's on the Autostrada, this is important too."
"Yes sir" she answered, easing forward and regretting more and more every minute her decision to defy Michele's edict that she stay confined to compound.
With all traffic headed in the other direction it did not take long to reach the flight-line access gate. "Back again?" asked the same guard who had checked Alboreto's papers just two hours ago, and again when he'd come back for Amelia.
Elio did not have to act frustrated, his feelings were genuine. "It appears we've left something important behind." He did not elaborate, leaving further details up the the guards imagination. "I'll need to take this thing on the flight-line this time...I guess I'll need a vehicle pass for it." Although the man had already seen it once Alboreto presented his government ID again as a reminder that his clearance was "all access."
He did not have to wait long; the supervisor walked over with a laminated pass. "Just display this thing in your windshield and stay between the yellow lines. You'll need to check your tires for stones or debris before entering the controlled area."
Poking her head up into the front seat area Marisa interrupted, asking "Why's that?"
"Mari, sit down and be quiet" Elio responded gruffly but the security supervisor was more willing to explain.
"If a stone caught in the treads of your tires gets carried onto a taxiway it could get sucked up by a jet engine and do a lot of damage."
"Like that time we vacuumed up all those rocks," chirped Marisa, remembering an incident from the dormitory, "and Ms. Ferro got really angry about having to replace the vacuum cleaner!"
"Mari, sit down and be quiet" Elio repeated, putting his hand on her head & pushing his cyborg into the back seat this time. "Grazie officers...Kara, roll ahead very slowly while I check the tires."
_Decision_
Finally standing where they had watched the An-225 earlier Elio set Amelia to work looking for the smell she had detected. "The rest of you fan out and look for anything suspicious."
Silent and intent upon her task, Amelia walked slowly, mouth open and nostrils flared to allow herself the best chance of locating the elusive compounds. Semtex was notoriously difficult to detect...Elio knew even the formidable abilities of a cyborg might not be enough to find this proverbial needle in the haystack.
Beatrice had been the first cyborg with the valuable "sniffer" talent but she was long gone, killed by the blast that had nearly brought down St. Mark's Campinelle in Venice. Triela had been the only witness to Beatrice's last few moments, and she reported that the emotionless girl had in fact lifted a 500kg warhead and tossing it out the window before it detonated. There was no reason to doubt Triela's account; Beatrice had saved the tower and everyone inside.
In her place were no less than four bomb squad girls. When Beatrice was constructed the applications for her enhanced sense of smell were yet unexplored but explosives detection turned out to be the area where the Series One cyborg was most useful. As a result the Second Generation bomb squad girls had olfactory senses tuned specifically to identify explosives and the compounds used to create them. Their sense of smell was still far superior to that of a normal human but they lacked the tremendous range their predecessor had possessed. In tests, Beatrice had demonstrated her ability to pick out a single sock that had been washed with different detergent from the rest of the SWA laundry; she had located one piece of over-ripe fruit in a shipment of 20 cases and with her handler's help tracked a squad of GIS commandos over 8 kilometers of open country, blindfolded.
While impressive, Beatrice's nose had been staggeringly expensive...in the interest of cost cutting Amelia's abilities (and those of her bomb-squad sisters) were focused mainly toward things that had the ability to explode. This wintry afternoon though she was left, literally, without a scent. Turning to Mr. Alboreto she reported "The chemical compounds are absent now."
"You're sure?" muttered the handler. He wasn't sure if that was good news or not. The best case scenario (indeed the only good scenario) was immediate confirmation of a false alarm...anything else was sure to turn into a huge mess.
Showing neither relief nor disappointment Amelia nodded to the affirmative. "I can not detect the compounds at all, it is as if they were never here."
Kara asked "Are you sure you didn't make a mistake the first time?"
"I have considered that possibility," answered the bomb squad girl, "but it is outside the scope of my authority to dismiss the indications I have previously detected. Standing orders dictate that I must report all evidence of unexpected explosive compounds."
"Thereby shifting the responsibility firmly onto my shoulders" muttered Elio under his breath. Pulling his Agency satellite phone from its belt-holster Alboreto reluctantly dialed.
"Tourism Promotion Agency, Central Rome office."
"This is Alboreto, Section Two...I need to be put through to Jean Croce, ring his home number if you need to."
After a few moments the switchboard operator replied "Transferring you through now, Sir."
"This is Jean."
"Jean, it's Elio...sorry to bother you on the weekend but I've got a group of the girls here at da Vinci airport and we've got a possible situation brewing."
"Yeah, I saw the CQ log...you've got six of them. Why couldn't you have taken Rico as well? She's driving me crazy."
Elio was surprised "You're at the office?"
"I just came in to read the message traffic, take a peek at the log and get my notes straight for the Monday morning conference call with the Minister" answered Jean. "What's going on at the airport?"
"Amelia thinks she smelled PETN and RDX. We're back at the location investigating but she can't pick up the scent again" explained Alboreto.
"Semtex..." growled Jean, "...that's not good. I'll contact the Military and the other Agencies to see if they have anything going on that they failed to tell us about, I'll need you to continue investigating."
"I intend to," Elio replied, "but I need you to send a driver to bring some of the cyborgs home. I'll keep Marisa & Amelia with me but I can't search the airport for explosives and keep and eye on six cyborgs at once. Kara could drive the van back I suppose, but traffic is pretty heavy and she's not too confident with such a big vehicle. The last thing we want is a fender-bender with four unsupervised cyborgs in the car...that's likely to result in Henrietta freaking out & opening fire into a crowd of civilians."
"Agreed," Croce answered with a tiny but audible snort of laughter, "so just keep them all with you."
"I beg your pardon?" muttered a surprised Alboreto.
Jean was quick to answer "Things are pretty slow here today, we shouldn't need them for anything. Go ahead and use them to investigate."
"This is not going to make things easier..." Elio objected but Jean remained adamant.
"You have half the available cyborg force with you for Christ's sake! Most of them are Series Two teenagers...just point them in the right direction and see what you can find out. How are you armed?"
"Just the basics" Elio answered, aware that Jean was trying to draw him off topic. "The girls never leave compound without their handguns...I doubt any of them have more than one spare magazine."
"That's more than enough" replied the Field Commander "if you do discover anything just hand it off to airport security forces. There's no need to risk exposing the cyborgs in such a public place." Jean took a deep breath before finishing "Hopefully it's nothing. Keep me up to date." With that Croce hung up, eager to terminate the conversation before Alboreto could continue arguing against keeping all six cyborgs on the job.
Thusly defeated, Elio slid his satellite phone into the holster on his belt. Alright, let's see what we can do. Hopefully Jean is right and this is will amount to nothing. All the cyborgs watched him expectantly until Agapita finally piped up, asking "Orders, sir?"
"We'll break up into teams" announced the handler, "Kara, you're fairly familiar with airport operations right? Get over to the cargo terminal office and bluff your way into getting a look at today's shipping manifests."
Kara wore a horrified expression; "All of them?"
"That will be a lot of paperwork" considered Elio, scratching his beard as he thought. "Actually, just look over all of today's MSDS sheets...that shouldn't take as long."
"What's an MSDS sheet?" asked Petrushka.
"Material Safety Data Sheet in English" explained Kara, "Gives all the pertinent information on a particular chemical. You have to carry one on any potentially hazardous cargo...especially explosives."
Elio continued; "One of you go with her."
"I'll go" volunteered Petrushka but Alboreto gave her a look-over and shook his head.
"I don't think so...Agapita, you go help Kara at the office. Nothing personal Petra but you're dressed like you're on your way to an all-night rave, not exactly office attire. You stay with Amelia & I."
Henrietta piped up, afraid that her role would be to guard the van. "What about me, sir?"
Alboreto turned to the two youngest girls. "Mari & 'Etta, you two are small and fast...I need a quick look-over of all the cargo containers but don't let yourself be seen by any airport personnel. Can you do that for me?"
Henrietta looked out over the expanse of wet, windswept tarmac, taking in the huge airplanes and unfamiliar looking ground equipment with trepidation. "You want us to go alone?" she asked.
"Don't worry," teased Mari, "if you get scared I'll be with you."
At any other time Marisa's antagonism would have been a maddening distraction from the task at hand but right now it was exactly what Henrietta needed to get her moving. "I am not scared!" she snapped back.
"You're not faster than me either" taunted the red-head, dashing off to a head start.
"Yes I am!" Henrietta gave chase, leaving Elio to wonder if sending the pair off to work together was a huge mistake. Now he was left with Amelia & Petrushka.
"Sir," asked the older red-head, "what are we to do?"
Alboreto shrugged his shoulders and admitted "There isn't much for us to do...poke around as much as we can without attracting too much attention...wait for Croce's call and for the other teams to report in. At least we've got the best nose on the team with us. Let's get going."
_Adventures at the Airport_
Reaching the cargo terminal office without crossing the active flight-line would require a long hike so in the interest of expedience and the preservation of her expensive Christian Louboutin boots (the access roads were a mess of mud and slush) Kara insisted upon hailing a taxi; a suggestion which did not meet with any resistance from Agapita once Kara volunteered to pay. It was not difficult to find a cab, dozens plied the access roads ferrying passengers to the terminal buildings, long term parking lots and into Rome.
While it was a bit odd to find two teenaged girls waving him down from the side of the road the driver of a particularly ugly Fiat Doblo cab did not turn down the fare. "You have no bags?" he asked them in Eastern European accented Italian.
"No bags" confirmed Kara, hopping inside, happy to be ensconced in the warm vehicle. Agapita wasted no time sliding in beside her, and they were underway. "We need to go to the cargo terminal."
"Can't take you there" the driver informed them, "need a special pass."
"We have the passes" Agapita argued but the driver was stalwart.
"Need a special pass for the car, I can only take you to passenger terminal" he explained, employing an apologetic tone that neither girl considered genuine.
Wrinkling her nose, Agapita muttered in her cyborg-speak voice too low for the driver to hear "This is utter rubbish...he just wants to drop us at the passenger terminal so he can pick up his next fare quicker."
"Fine, I don't feel like arguing" Kara answered in the same quiet voice, "we'll just cut through the main terminals and find our way to the cargo office. We need a cover story."
Agapita looked puzzled; "Mr. Alboreto didn't give you one?"
Unconcerned, Kara began concocting a way to explain their need for access to the shipping documents. "Hmmm...let's tell them we're clerks at Ciampino Airport. Something got screwed up at our office..." she cocked her head sideways and tried to draw her sister-cyborg into the process "...what do you think?"
"Eh, if we work at Ciampino what are we doing at Fiumicino?"
"Duh! That's what I need help figuring out."
"Okay, okay," replied Agapita, "you screwed up and sent the paperwork for a shipment leaving out of Ciampino to the wrong airport."
"Why do I have to be the one who screwed up?" Kara protested.
"Well I certainly didn't" answered Agapita bluntly.
The taxi pulled to an abrupt halt in front of Terminal A. "€12.43 per favore" announced their driver in an impatient voice. Agapita took advantage of her seat on the right side, jumping out quickly and leaving Kara to pay.
Something in his peripheral vision caught the attention of baggage handler Genco Bartelli but by the time he turned his head to look the phantom was gone. That in itself was not strange, he and his amicos sometimes favored a shot of grappa after lunch and with a chill in the air this day had been no exception. Still, so strange had this vision been that Bartelli stepped away from his work to investigate.
"Hey, Genco!" called out his co-worker, "Take a piss break later, we got work to do!"
"Just a minute Nani..." he called back, poking around two food service trailers that were waiting to be lifted and loaded onto the upper passenger deck. "Did you see anything weird over here? A person?"
"I didn't see merda...and I'm not looking either" retorted the frustrated Nani, tossing a heavy steamer trunk which he'd have preferred to have Genco's help with.
"Fine" Bartelli finally sighed, returning to work. He was silent for the next few minutes until Nani finally asked "Alright, what did you see? I know you want to tell me."
"Not if you're going to be an asshole about it."
"Madre Mia," groaned Nani, "he gives me the silent treatment when I don't ask and calls me asino buco when I do."
"Fine," Genco conceded "I thought I saw a little girl."
Nani muttered in disbelief "Out here?"
"I'm just telling you what I saw."
Less than ten paces away two girls did indeed lie hidden in the shadows. "I know that man saw you!" hissed Henrietta, "His head snapped around and he went to look right where you'd just been standing."
"He didn't see anything" Marisa snapped back, "or else we'd have been caught."
"You would have been caught" retorted 'Etta. Her red headed counterpart just rolled her eyes and went back to work. They had searched about a third of the flight-line so far, ducking between baggage carts and fuel trucks, inspecting everything they could with noses, ears and eyes without any genuine idea about what they were looking for.
"Next one is your turn" Marisa said, pointing out a cargo box awaiting its turn to be loaded aboard a nearby Airbus A330. The chestnut haired cyborg checked in both directions and dashed out of her hiding spot, whipping around a corner and back into the shadows before anyone cast a glance in her direction. She shot a glance back to Marisa who confirmed that she had not been seen with a thumbs-up sign. The container still had its lead shipping seals intact so Henrietta could only sniff this one around the door.
She recoiled immediately, wobbling drunkenly for a moment as she fought the desire to retch. Mari sprinted out of hiding and joined her. "What's wrong?"
Still reeling, Henrietta replied "This one smells like a big bag of wet garbage." The red headed girl laughed, so with a snort of indignation 'Etta challenged her to "Smell for yourself!"
"No way!" Marisa giggled, "I'll just take your word for it."
"Fine, next one is yours" Henrietta muttered. With a nod Marisa moved on to the next cargo box, this one had an open door. She stuck her head inside and waved her hand frantically, summoning her partner. 'Etta dashed over and asked "Did you find something?"
"I don't know," Mari said gravely, "give it a whiff...tell me what you think."
Neither Henrietta nor Marisa had the explosive detection prowess of their sister Amelia but they were each at least as good as the best electronic bomb-sniffer on the market. The young Series One girl stuck her head inside and inhaled deeply through her nose. "Ugh! There's no explosives in there!" she snapped "It smells like a dead rat!"
"It smells like about a thousand dead things crawled up inside one great big dead thing" snickered Marisa, amused at her practical joke.
"You did that on purpose!" Henrietta protested, stamping her foot on the wet pavement, "You'll never run out of new ways to be gross, will you?"
"Don't be such a dork" Mari admonished, "betcha can't think of a better one than me."
"Betcha I can" she retorted haughtily, crossing her arms, "next container is mine."
The pair had to cross a fifty meter expanse of pavement to get to their next target, which they did by hopping aboard a baggage train and ducking down to blend in with the suitcases. When they reached the next group of cargo containers the cyborgs rolled off and Henrietta did not hesitate to give the first one a look over and sniff check. "This one's not so bad" she reported, "a little musty."
"You're going to have to do better than that" teased a smug Marisa. Henrietta ignored the rotation that the two had been observing and stuck her head inside the next container. This one was a winner.
"Oh god," she groaned, "it smells like a week of Rico's socks stuffed into an armpit." That drew peals of laughter from her partner. "It isn't funny!" 'Etta snapped.
"Yes it is," contended Mari, "that was a good one!" From that moment on the duo took turns sticking their heads into or sniffing around the door-seals of each cargo container and concocting new & revolting ways to describe the contents.
Agapita & Kara were now on the departures concourse of Terminal B, finding the journey to the cargo terminal more difficult than they had predicted. The entire building was geared toward shepherding passengers to their gates, not to the cargo office. Compounding their difficulties was a reluctance to draw attention to themselves by asking for help from the airport staff. This disinclination was mostly on Agapita's part, her training being focused on stealth as opposed to Kara's education in public relations.
"We're going to have to talk to somebody eventually!" Kara protested as the pair jostled with tourists for position in front of an airport map (marked with a convenient red Tu sei qui dot) and tried to make sense of it in relation to the Google Earth image on her partner's phone.
"Well that's inevitable," retorted Agapita "but the less we can go asking about the better if you ask me!" She lowered her voice to cyborgs-only volume and continued "Amelia thinks she smelled explosives...now if we spend all day talking to airport personnel and asking questions about the cargo terminal, then a bomb goes off who do you think they'll suspect?"
Kara snorted in disapproval. "That's defeatist...we ought to be able to stop this thing. Oh...hold on, look over there!" She hurried off toward a row of shops.
By the time she turned around Agapita had almost lost Kara. She spotted her counterpart heading for an expensive clothing boutique. "Oh, honestly!" she muttered in annoyance. But it was not the boutique where Kara stopped, but a rather ordinary news stand which just happened to have a selection of generic reading glasses on offer.
Agapita stomped over in a huff but just as she came to a stop Kara reached up and tried to slip a pair of heavy black framed eyeglasses onto her face. Instinctively, she recoiled as any cyborg would have upon seeing an unexpected object being propelled toward her vulnerable eyes. "What in Heaven's name are you doing?"
"Changing your appearance a little" answered Kara. "Just try these on. It's something Mr. Rissi showed me...when people are asked to remember a face they focus on details, not the overall look. My eyes for instance, I look Asian. That's the first thing people are going to remember...not my height or facial structure."
"So me wearing fake glasses are going to hide your eyes?"
"No, it's just a distraction" answered Kara, slipping the frames onto Agapita's face "give them something else to focus on. Besides, they look cute on you."
Temporarily disarmed, Agapita allowed her sister to slip the thick black frames onto her face and regarded herself in the mirror. "You really think so?"
"Oh definitely, kinda hipster" Kara assured her, "you should wear fake glasses more often."
Disarmed by the compliment Agapita gave in, although she waited for the better funded Kara to pay for her new accessory. A few euros were exchanged and Kara took off. Agapita followed a few steps behind but stumbled and nearly walked into a post. "Kara!" she hissed in an annoyed tone, "I can't see a thing in these!"
_Struck Out_
After a few hours of searching Henrietta & Marisa returned, finding Amelia, Petrushka & Mr. Alboreto not far from where they had left them. "Find anything?" muttered a very bored Petra.
"Henrietta found a cargo container that smelled like a block of moldy cheese wrapped in underwear and stuffed in an old fish" reported Mari with enthusiasm.
Her handler rolled his eyes and growled "Did you find any explosives?"
"Nope...not a thing."
He and Petrushka groaned in frustration. There had been no word back from Agapita & Kara...and they had no leads to investigate themselves. For her part Amelia continued to pace the same 50 meters of tarmac, constantly sniffing the air for any trace of what she had smelled before. She provided a brief glimmer of hope when the faint hint of PETN caught her attention, but she lost it just as quickly when the airport catering truck passed. Everyone was beginning to think this was all a big wild goose chase.
"Mr. Alboreto," asked 'Etta, "what do we do now? How long are we going to wait?"
The gray haired handler had no good answer to give her. "It'll be a while longer, lass" he answered, "Jean is checking in with his military contacts and we still haven't heard back from Kara & Agapita. This is not something we can just dismiss I'm afraid."
"Yes Sir" replied the little brunette, but the disappointment was evident in her voice. Cold dampness and boredom were taking their toll on the whole team. Well focused cyborgs with a clearly defined objective in sight could battle through the harshest conditions but such clearly defined objectives were in short supply here. Elio was unsure how long he could keep the girls going with no quarry in sight...he even admitted that frustration was chipping away at his own resolve.
"We need a change of scenery" he announced at last, "everyone in the van, we'll go over and see how your two sisters are doing at the cargo terminal."
To all but one of his cyborg charges he did not have to ask twice. Cold and bored, Henrietta, Petrushka & Marisa were eager to pile back into the van for a drive. Only Amelia remained behind. "This is where the chemical compounds were detected. Is it advisable to depart this area?"
"Amelia lass, you've been sniffing up and down this stretch of flightline for an age" Alboreto answered, "if there was something in the air you'd have smelled it an hour ago. It's time for us to change tack." He ushered the last of his troops into the Transit and fired it up; the girls luxuriating in a few minutes with the heater ducts blowing as he they crossed the taxiway to the cargo terminal.
"Isn't there supposed to be a reward at the end of an epic journey?" groaned Agapita, pouring over endless piles of paperwork.
"I'd settle for some coffee" Kara sighed. Since passing through the passenger terminal the pair had been through an ordeal. After being given bad directions by a uniformed security officer (who challenged their credentials) they wound up in the airport garbage processing facility. From there they managed to beg a map from the supervisor (who challenged their credentials) but at least they got a ride from one of the garbage truck drivers. He could only take them half way though, and they were let off near a lost luggage depot manned by a single officious clerk (who challenged their credentials). Intensely defensive about his little kingdom of misplaced suitcases he refused to let the girls pass through, directing them to walk around his department. At least these directions were good, even if they did call for trudging through another few hundred meters of snow & slush. Arriving at the cargo terminal at last (where their credentials were challenged) Kara & Agapita had to embellish their story about being clerks from Ciampino airport in order to be allowed access to the MSDS documents.
"If you two are shipping clerks why are you carrying Social Welfare Agency ID's?" asked a suspicious office supervisor.
"Well, you see..." Kara concocted her story on the spot, "...it's a work-study program."
Agapita picked up on her fabrication and ran with it; "We've both missed so much school while sitting in the hospital that the SWA let us into their special vocational school program. There's a lot of kids & teens with similar stories, so the Agency has their own school system."
The office manager grumbled something under his breath about taxes but accepted their story. He led them into a room where the girls hoped to find a computer & a well organized spreadsheet program. Instead there were seven large boxes of hand-written shipping forms, each with a photocopied MSDS stapled to it. "This is it? Don't you have a database? Are these even in any logical order?" asked a distraught Kara.
"The night shift organizes and files these, but they don't get here until six this evening. Until then, this is all the hazardous cargo shipping docs for today" answered the unconcerned office manager. "If you want you can put them in chronological order...it'll be educational."
An hour later both girls felt buried under a mountain of unintelligible forms. "How does Monty do this?" groaned Agapita, "I'd face a dozen Padans right now if it meant I didn't have to look at another one of these. Can you believe this handwriting? Can you even read it?"
Kara shook her head. "I wouldn't understand it even if I could read it. Look at some of these chemical names...trichlorofluoroethane? What the heck do they even use this stuff for?"
"I don't know, it looks like they filled these forms out with work gloves on though."
"They probably were" a new voice entered the conversation. Mr. Alboreto strode in, ushered courteously by the same office supervisor who just an hour ago had been so uncooperative to the girls. The rest of the cyborgs followed in tow.
"These girls are looking for the same documents you are" the man informed his VIP guest, "I can get rid of them if you'd like."
Elio waved him off. "No, they work for me."
"Oh, I see. Is there anything I can get you?" the manager asked as he pulled out a seat for Elio.
"Yes, we could use a printout of all regular shipments of explosive materials that pass through this airport" Alboreto answered.
The man thought for a moment and replied "We don't have that data on hand but I can get it for you." Elio thanked him with a nod.
Kara & Agapita sat slack jawed, feeling astonished and disgusted at the same time. "That jerk didn't even want to let us in the building" muttered Kara, "and he bends over backwards to please you?"
Elio shrugged and replied "That's one of the disadvantages of being locked in at age sixteen. Believe me there's enough disadvantages to being at the other end of the age scale too. That chap is going to compile a list of regular explosives shipments but it's today's action we're more interested in. Have you found anything?"
Agapita shook her head. "No sir, and it's going very slowly...these forms are absolutely unintelligible, illegible and indecipherable."
"Don't waste your time trying to read the entire form" instructed the handler, leaning over the table where Kara & Agapita had stacks of MSDS forms laid out. "There's a hazard identifier right here...see, this one is a skin irritant, not what we're interested in. Just go through them fast and sort out anything with an explosive hazard for closer inspection."
"So we just wasted a lot of time?" Kara groaned.
Petrushka rolled her eyes and answered "Not as much as we wasted just sitting out on the taxiway."
"Girls, each of you take a stack...sort out anything we're not interested in. Corrosive, no. Oxidizer, no. Flammable, no. See, here's an explosive hazard, put those in this stack so we can have a closer look."
"This is not super cool secret agent work" muttered Marisa, sitting down in front of a stack of crinkled paperwork.
Henrietta shrugged and looked on the bright side "At least we're not still outside in the cold."
_Fatigue_
Three hours of pouring over forms had reduced the stack but produced no leads. There had been several shipments of explosives but none of them were the Semtex Amelia had smelled. Jean had called back as well; no military agency had explosives moving through the airport in secret this day. "Keep investigating for another few hours," instructed the Agency's second in command "if you haven't found anything by then call it quits. It's beginning to look like absolutely nothing."
Alboreto was beginning to arrive at that conclusion as well. His 6 cyborgs had pretty much gone over every bit of paperwork made available to them with nothing to show for it. They were bored and tired, ready to give up and return home to the compound. Marisa already had her head laying on the table, using a stack of MSDS forms as a pillow. Henrietta was fighting off sleep in her seat, catching herself from falling over every few seconds. The older girls wore downcast visages and looked to their supervisor with tired, sunken eyes. Only Amelia showed no outward signs of fatigue but even she fumbled over the papers she read over for the third and fourth time. His team was not at its best and it was unfair to push them further on what was looking like a fruitless endeavor. If there was indeed Semtex at da Vinci airport there were other security forces that could catch it...the SWA did not stand alone in safeguarding all of Italia.
Elio gave Marisa a nudge. "I'm awake!" she blurted out, sitting upright.
"Just barely" muttered her Master, pulling out his wallet. "I saw a drinks machine down the hall. You all look like you could do with a jolt of caffeine & sugar." He handed Mari a €10 note. "Go on, take a break." Agapita, Petrushka, Kara, Henrietta & Marisa needed no further urging, they got up from their seats in the dreary office and trudged down the hall in search of much needed refreshment. Only Amelia remained. "Go on, don't you want a soda as well?"
The impassive cyborg looked up at him and replied "Caffeine would be welcome at this juncture, but I do not wish to alter my senses in any way. The possibility exists that I may still be able to detect the PETN and RDX odors again."
"Amelia, have you considered that this may have been a false alarm?" Elio suggested, lowering himself to her eye level.
The bomb-squad girl showed no emotion. "It is outside the scope of my authority to dismiss the indications I have previously detected."
"Yes, yes, I understand that lass" replied Alboreto, "but what is your honest opinion on the likelihood of a false indication? Are you absolutely sure of what you smelled?"
She was silent for a few moments before answering; "Sir, I am absolutely positive that I detected those chemical compounds. Were it withing the scope of my authority I would not call off the search...I would double it."
"I understand" sighed Elio, "but that presents us with a problem. We have no more leads. Short of declaring an emergency and locking down the whole airport there is nothing else we can do."
"I am sorry, sir" Amelia replied. "But I was unable to lock onto the scent and follow it either time. It was masked by more powerful scents in the area."
"Like what? Tell me everything."
Amelia paused, as if recalling the exact tableau of aromas she had been experiencing in those two brief instants. "There is a strong ambient scent of aircraft exhaust in the area. A flightline vehicle was being driven with the parking brake engaged, I could smell the brake lining burning. Catering trucks passed both times, masking the scent with food odors. Petrushka's perfume is present at high concentrations...Kara's at slightly lower. One of the sightseers was accompanied by a service dog. Several cargo containers had been freshly paint..."
Tossing his hand up Elio stopped her. "You said the catering truck masked the scent. Was a catering truck present both times you smelled the chemicals?"
Amelia's eyes lit up, the most emotion Alboreto had seen her display all day. "Affirmative, sir. I can not confirm that it was the same vehicle, but it was the same type at both instances."
That could be it, Elio though and he could tell Amelia was thinking the same thing. A catering truck had full access to the flightline...and it moved around so it easily could have slipped through Henrietta & Marisa's search of the area. "Girls, hurry up out there! We have to get moving?"
"What's wrong?" asked Petra.
"I'll explain in the van," the handler replied, "Signor, where is the catering service located?"
"Eh...for the terminals or the airlines?"
Amelia answered "The trucks which convey aircraft meals."
"They're made by a catering service off premises," the office manager explained "but the trucks park here." He indicated the location on a map; it was not far away.
"Good, grazie...lets go" ordered Elio and the girls fell in behind him.
Darkness had set in by this time. Amelia was in the front seat of the van, and immediately spotted the truck she had seen earlier. "Directly in front, sir" she indicated, pointing at a line of Mitsubishi Fuso straight-job trucks unloading under a well lit overhang area. Rather than charge directly in Alboreto dimmed the headlights and pulled in behind a garbage truck, hiding the Transit from view. "Amelia, come with me...the rest of you spread out and be ready for action. Stay in teams of two & three, surround the target area as best you can. Do not reveal yourself unless absolutely necessary. Come on Amelia."
Under cover of darkness the pair crouched low and crossed the distance between their hiding spot and the catering trucks. They got within 10 meters but stayed hidden to avoid a group of twelve uniformed catering service employees offloading crates of pre-packaged meals, categorized by the corporate colors of the respective airlines they were bound for. "Can you smell any thing yet?"
Without so much as a nod Amelia reported "Yes sir...positive for both PETN and RDX."
"Good work," Elio praised her, "Now stay put until I call for you."
With six armed cyborgs at his disposal Alboreto could have over-run the area in seconds but this situation did not call for a full-on attack. For all he knew the majority of these catering workers unloading airline meals were innocent civilians...civilians who had no idea the Italian government trained young girls to carry automatic weapons. But at least some of them were certainly terrorists.
Elio chose one of the catering workers at random and walked up behind him silently. "Hey, amico, you got a light?"
"Yeah, sure" replied the unlucky man. He pulled a disposable cigarette lighter from the pocket on his coverall sleeve and turned just in time to catch an uppercut to his jaw. As the worker tumbled silently to the ground Elio caught the lighter from his hand.
"Grazie mille" the handler said. From the pocket of the worker he snatched an oily rag, which Alboreto lit on fire and tossed into a pile of refuse. "Incendio! Incendio! Everybody get clear! Call airport security!"
As smoke filled their area the other workers shouted and ran for safety just as Elio had intended. He turned back to Amelia and summoned her with a quick hand signal but when he turned back he saw that not all the catering workers had evacuated. Four scowling men remained, these were obviously the terrorists who had hoped to smuggle the Semtex onto commercial aircraft. All four were armed with pipes or knives. "Who the hell are you, some kind of government bastard?" The man did not live long enough to receive an answer, as Amelia flew out of her hiding spot and crushed him with a lethal kick to the face. Elio grabbed his knife as he fell and used it to good effect, driving the blade into the chest of a second man.
With the tables turned against them the remaining two terrorists turned and ran in different directions, but neither got very far. From a stack of shipping crates Kara dropped down to pounce on one, tackling him to the ground where Agapita quickly bound his hands and blindfolded him. The other man sprinted for a nearby Toyota Yaris but didn't make it...Petrushka & Marisa grabbed him and tossed him to the pavement. A hard knock to the skull rendered him unconscious and quite possibly brain damaged for life.
Inside the car were two more men. Screeching its skinny tires the Toyota took off. "Stop that car!" shouted Elio, but Henrietta was already on top of things. As the Yaris rounded a tight corner the Series One cyborg bolted from her hiding spot, shoulder tackling the passenger side door hard enough to shatter the window glass & knock the tiny car off course...head-on into a support column. Its airbags deployed, knocking both un-seatbelted men out cold.
"You alright?" asked Kara, helping her dazed sister to her feet.
"Ruined my tights," sighed Henrietta, poking her finger through a bloody hole in the knee.
"It's not so bad. I've got some plasters in my purse, back in the van" Agapita consoled her.
Just a few meters away the situation was still critical. Amelia pinpointed the source of the Semtex odor; it had been packed into bowls and hidden beneath fruit cocktail as part of the in-flight meals. "Are we in danger of it detonating?" asked Elio.
"These are wireless detonator triggers" Amelia reported, "the control must be within 200 meters to be effective."
Alboreto could already hear sirens coming closer. They had less than two minutes to work with. "What are we looking for?"
"Suicide bombings are not standard Padania tactics" Amelia replied. "It is likely that a more powerful radio is intended to receive a signal remotely then re-transmit a detonation command to these bombs."
"So where is this radio? We need to locate it before those fire trucks get here!" Elio turned to the other girls, who had gathered up their surviving captives and tied them up with a convenient electrical cord. "You lot get back to the van! Take this bloke I knocked out with you. Get away before security and those firefighters arrive!"
Kara jumped into the drivers seat and got her cyborg sisters clear, leaving only Elio & Amelia with several dozen balls of Semtex and no idea where the trigger radio was to be found. "There is only one course of action. Sir, you need to get clear of this area. Halt the fire vehicles if you can."
"What do you intend to do lass?"
"It is my intention to pull every mini-detonator out manually. The possibility exists that this will detonate the explosives, so you need to evacuate and keep all others at a safe distance" explained Amelia. Her voice never changed, she was calm and emotionless as always but her hands moved so fast Elio could barely see them; yanking bowls out of the meal trays and dumping out their fruit contents.
Elio argued; "Amelia, lass, we can find another way...you have to evacuate too."
"I am sorry. These are my standing orders, sir, and as such I am permitted to ignore your command. The hostiles may realize their plan has failed and remotely detonate the explosives at any moment. Please move yourself and all others to a safe distance."
"And what is a safe distance?" demanded Alboreto, unhappy with the prospect of sacrificing a cyborg.
Amelia replied calmly "I am uncertain of the amount of Semtex being used...three kilometers should be sufficient provided you find safe cover."
Grudgingly accepting that Amelia was right, Elio sprinted out onto the open taxiway, flagging down the first firetruck. "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing?" demanded its driver, but Alboreto leapt up, reached inside his cab and grabbed the radio mic that hung from a clip above his head.
"All airport personnel are instructed to evacuate the area of the catering depot and stay three kilometers clear until further notice. I repeat, evacuate the area and stay clear by authority of the Ministry of Defense!"
"Porca puttana, Ministry of Defense?" exclaimed the driver, "What the hell is going on?"
"It's classified, just drive!" barked the old spy, climbing into the passenger side of the cab.
Elio's radio announcement had sparked a mass exodus from the working areas of da Vinci airport, and he could only assume that a similar panic was going on inside the passenger terminals. It can't be helped...this is a genuine crisis. Unexpectedly, Alboreto's phone range. Expecting Marisa and the rest of the girls he answered it. To his surprise it was Jean on the line; "Elio, I just got a call from the airport Carabinieri garrison saying the Minister of Defense wants the airport evacuated! What's going on? Is the Minister there, is she okay?"
"The Minister is not here," Elio told him, "I ordered a partial evacuation on the authority of the Ministry."
"Jesus, Alboreto! What the hell are you doing over there?"
"Amelia is doing her job...I can't say any more right now...civilians present, I'll call you back!" Alboreto ended the call as his confused driver pulled behind a blast shield, joining a line of other airport vehicles. They had a view of the catering area, now fully ablaze as a result of the distraction fire Elio had set. Seconds after pulling in Alboreto and his driver saw a flash from the area, and a large flare-up from the fire. At first the handler thought he'd lost Amelia, but that explosion was not nearly big enough to have been caused by the Semtex.
The civilians were evacuated to a safe distance but he could wait no longer. "Get out of the truck" Elio ordered the driver.
"What the hell?"
"Surely you've watched one of those action movies where the government agent commandeers a vehicle from a civilian?" said Alboreto before pulling his Beretta, "Well now you can tell all your friends it's actually happened to you."
The gray haired spy pushed his confiscated firetruck as fast as it would move, repeating his evacuation order over the radio as he returned to where he'd left Amelia. He jumped out and rushed into the area, where to his great relief he found the bomb-squad cyborg trying to put out the inferno with a single extinguisher bottle. It was not very effective. "Sir, the explosives have been neutralized...I recommend calling the fire department in."
"Are you alright?" Elio demanded, looking her over.
Amelia considered his question for a few moments before replying "I am a bit hungry. Now that the objective has been secured do we still plan to visit a pizzeria?"
_Briefing over Coffee_
Elio did indeed take the girls out to dinner at a pizzeria (Agapita was able to provide an excellent recommendation) before heading back to the SWA compound and dropping his tired cyborg team off at their dorm. All of them had had gotten far more than they bargained for from this sightseeing trip, but a terrorist attack thwarted gave them plenty to feel proud of. At the office building Jean eagerly awaited a full briefing. He'd gotten a summary "all clear" text message from Alboreto but since then had heard nothing from his team. Now, over coffee, Elio finally filled the Field Commander in; "...Amelia managed to yank all the mini-detonators out of the Semtex fruit-bowls, she collected 28 in total, destined for 5 separate airplanes."
"What did you do with the explosives?" Croce asked.
"Left them for the airport Carabinieri to deal with, along with the prisoners" answered Elio, "we left no sign of Agency involvement. A number of civilians saw us, but unless they all got together in one room it would be impossible to piece the whole story together."
Jean nodded. "Airport security grounded every flight for the rest of the evening...they found the master detonator for each targeted flight. They'd already been dropped aboard each aircraft...5 radios were found in the seat-back pockets of various planes."
"So Amelia made the right call," commented the older man "we wouldn't have found a single master detonator anywhere near the catering truck. You'll make sure she's commended for her bravery, right? She stayed behind to disarm those charges, in the middle of a fire."
Croce simply answered "Those are her standing orders in such a situation."
"Jean..." Elio began to growl but the younger man cut him off.
"Of course, she did well. It's already in my notes for the Monday meeting. I'll see she's suitably rewarded." Jean got up and offered Elio a refill, but the gray bearded man put his hand over his cup.
"Thanks, but I think I'll get going. I'll be glad to end day in my own bed and remain there a good portion of tomorrow."
After wishing the Field Commander good-night (Jean planned on staying over and sleeping in his office) Elio collected his helmet & jacket. He walked out to the parking lot and found his Ducati beaded with raindrops. Wiping a cold puddle from the seat he mounted up and fired the V-twin engine to life. Alboreto sighed. So much for taking a long ride this afternoon. The chilly rain had picked up, it was falling rather heavily now but there was nothing that could be done about that. Elio brought the kickstand up, dropped the bike into gear and pulled out of the Section Two parking lot for the cold, dark ride home.
END