Marisa 1: Marisa's New Home

by Prof. Voodoo

The arrival & first few days at SWA headquarters of Marisa, an OC character from the Cyborg-Central Gunslinger Girl Forum.

This is a fan-fiction. The author does not own the property of the original concept, or any characters from Yu Aida's original.

"Piombino..." growled Graziano, "...of all the backwater shit-holes this jerkoff wants to meet in, it's got to be Piombino." The 3 hour drive from Rome was irritating, but it was not that which really irked the arms merchant. Graziano Valivanti's ex-wife still lived in Piombino and he really did not want to run into that bitch, even on a short visit. He swore she had some kind of radar, she knew when he was in town, and exactly where he was hiding.

"A half hour to get into town...10 minutes to find parking...15 minutes talking to this government stooge...5 minutes to dump the body...I'm out of here in one hour and back in Rome by dinner-time" he thought, adding up the minutes by tapping his heavy gold ring on the steering wheel of his Lancia rent-a-car. A prancing unicorn adorned the face of it, with a single emerald for an eye. He didn't even remember what corpse he had pried it off of, but he'd had it a long time.

The thought of dinner in Rome, a few grappas and a toss in the sack with his girlfriend calmed Graziano. He could focus on work again. That government cock didn't have a clue he was walking into a trap.

_Piombino_

"Playing both sides has been good to you," remarked the government's man, who Graziano knew only as Elio, "but you're smart enough to know it can't last forever. It's only a matter of time before the Padania figures out you're doing business with the government too. They're not stupid, they're going to see that you've been forcing us into a bidding war and driving up prices. When they catch on they're gonna feed you to the pigs. You need friends Graziano...you need to cut a deal with us and you know it."

"I'm just a simple salesman, Elio, you over-estimate my importance to the Padania" replied Valivanti, stalling for time. He sized the government man up...old, at least 55...but struggling to look younger. He had cheap black dye in his hair, to cover his grey. The two men were alone, walking along the sea-wall of the harbor. Elba was just visible in the hazy distance.

"The deal won't stay on the table forever" Elio warned him, stopping to face him, "a one-time offer...choose a side...our side...and I've been authorized to guarantee immunity."

Graziano put his back to the sea and leaned against the wall. "What does the government want with me anyway? Why am I so important? You can buy arms anywhere, at any price. My tax dollars at work, eh?"

"You can cut the stupid act" spat the government man, stabbing Graziano in the chest with his finger, "every gun, every box of ammunition, every kilo of C-4 you sell us is one less for the Padania. So far Rome has played your game...paid your prices...because the accounting office was on the take. That is over! I'm charged with cutting expenditures and if that means making a deal with scum like you I'm putting that deal on the table! You sell to us exclusively and we can not only protect you from prosecution but we can protect you from the Padania!"

"Just a minute," Valivanti interrupted, "you're an accountant? They sent a pencil-dick accountant to deal with me!"

"Do you have a problem with that? I'm the new supervisor of the General Accounting Office, Rome branch. The old supervisor is facing 15-25 years for corruption." Elio adjusted his glasses and added, "It was accountants that put Al Capone away, remember."

"Al Capone was an American, and you're not in America" Valivanti growled at the smug desk jockey. He was supremely insulted that the government had sent a lousy accountant to deal with him. He'd made the right choice to secure an exclusive deal with the Padania...now all he had to do was prove his commitment to his new bosses by butchering this government lamb.

"Make your decision" Elio hissed, leaning in and pushing Graziano closer against the waist-high wall. "Who the hell does this guy think he is?"thought Valivanti, "I'm gonna take a lot longer than I thought to kill this son-of-a-whore, and I'm gonna enjoy it!" His fingers probed his pocket and felt the coil of piano wire he was carrying for just this purpose. Nobody was around...it was almost time.

"My decision?" Graziano replied, shoving Elio back and spitting on the sidewalk, "I decide to tell you to fuck yourself."

Elio smiled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a one euro coin. "Let's see who fucks who..." and with that he tossed the coin over the wall, into the water. Graziano lunged forward, but was surprised to be thrown back by a powerful shove from the meek-looking government accountant. At the same instant, a wave crashed against the sea-wall...but the waters were flat calm! Instantly, Graziano's head was snapped back and he was aware of a biting pain in his neck. Someone had gotten him from behind.

Another shove from Elio toppled him over the sea wall and into the waiting harbor. Now alone, Elio checked to the left & right, and confident that he hadn't been seen, strolled to the pre-arranged rendezvous point.

Valivanti was dragged down into the deep waters by a powerful force, as he struggled the wire cut deeper and deeper into the flesh of his neck! His ears popped, and finally he was slammed against the sharp rocks on the bottom. Blood clouded the water...Graziano fought for his life against the attacker, who was now on top of him, but he could not escape. With one desperate effort he worked one hand loose and went for his assailant's face, hoping to rip a SCUBA regulator out and steal one life-giving breath for himself! But there was no regulator. How can this man hold his breath for so long and still be so strong! It was impossible...Graziano used up the last of his strength in a panicked struggle against a force he did not understand.

As the light faded from his eyes, and the strength left his hands, a last thought crossed his mind. This was not the face of a man he was pushing against. It was only a child. Only a child.

When Graziano stopped struggling, and had lain still for 30 seconds, that child went to work with her knife.

---

The "accountant" walked out of a shop and crossed the street back to the harbor side, carrying only the towel he had just purchased in the shop.

Elio glanced at his watch with concern. "30 seconds overdue" he sighed, "probably adding her own made-up elements to the plan." He didn't have to wait any longer than that...the one he was waiting for appeared in the harbor, swam to shore, and walked up the beach on wobbly legs.

"All done?" he asked.

"Mission successful" she replied cheerfully.

"I'll decide that...why did you bring back the breathing rig?"

The young girl shrugged and gave it a glance, "The regulator sucks, but it's a perfectly good tank."

"We have plenty of tanks, you should have left it behind" Elio told her, but there was no harshness in his tone of voice. His girl had done a good job, and at the right time, although she didn't know it yet. The wet girl was shivering, so Elio took the nitrox tank from her, and wrapped the towel around her shoulders. "Did you get the item we discussed?"

"It's tucked in my swimsuit...I'll give it to you in the car, not out here where people can see."

"Good girl" he said with a smile. He'd trained her well.

The two walked to the parking lot and got into a white BMW M3. The girl was careful to lay her towel down on the passenger seat, a move that earned her a nod and a smile from her boss. As soon as Elio fired up the engine he turned on the heater and angled the vents to warm his young student.

"Here's that thing..." she said, fishing an item out of her wet swimsuit.

"Ohhh, that's gross" Elio chuckled, "put it in this plastic bag and hold onto it."

"And...your coin" she added, offering him back his 1 euro, which he had tossed in the water as her signal to attack.

He waved it off and replied, "Keep it, you earned a reward."

"One euro!" the girl protested, "Is that all?"

"Okay, I'll buy you a candy bar when we stop for fuel."

The girl crossed her arms and stuck out her bottom lip in a mock pout. "I don't need you to buy me a candy bar (she held up the euro)...I've got my own money."

The two laughed and reviewed the mission in informal tones as they pulled out of town and the powerful sport-sedan made quick work of the twisty Italian back-roads. Elio was pleased & proud. Marisa had done good work today.

"There's a bag for you in the back...some dry clothes" Elio told her, once they had gotten further down the road. She climbed into the back seat and stripped out of her swimsuit, secure in the knowledge that her boss drove way too fast for any gawkers to catch a glimpse of her naked butt through the window.

"Elio, these are my nice clothes" she said, puzzled.

"Yes they are" replied the man, "this evening is special. We're not going back to the Dive Training Center. Tonight we move into Section 2 headquarters."

"So...I'm gonna m-meet the S-section chief?" she stammered.

"Yes, Lorenzo, but you will call him Chief, or just Sir."

The girl scrambled forward, back into the front seat "Elio! I'm all salty & nasty from diving in that harbor! My hair is a mess! Can't I at least take a shower first?" Marisa forgot her own strength and pounded her boss with tiny fists! He took his right hand off the wheel in a effort to protect himself from the (still naked) girl attacking him.

"Marisa, stop it! You're a cyborg, remember!" Elio shouted as he tried to maintain control of the swerving BMW. By that time her conditioning kicked in and she felt dizzy & nauseous. She ceased her tantrum and slumped back in the passenger seat. "Breathe deep...relax." Elio calmed her down, reaching over to stroke her hair. "Marisa you know you can't loose your self-control like that, you can really hurt a regular human like me."

"I'm sorry...I'm so sorry" she panted, still struggling for breath. It was not the first outburst she'd had.

"That's it, breathe deep, get your focus back...good girl" Elio reassured her, "I would give you more conditioning to help you with your self-control but you know we can't do that if you're going to be a diver."

"I would never hurt you on purpose!" Marisa cried.

"I know, my girl, I know." Elio replied in calm tones. He was pretty sure she'd cracked one of his ribs this time. "Now climb in the back-seat and get dressed, you can't meet your new Boss stark-naked, can you?"

Marisa protested, "Elio, you are my only boss!"

"And Lorenzo is my boss, and Minister of Defense Petris is his boss, and the Prime Minister is her boss, and so on and so on."

"I still wish I could take a shower first."

"Stop worrying. Cyborgs & their handlers come back from missions in a lot worse shape than you are now."

"Like...with gunshot wounds?" Marisa ventured as she got dressed.

Elio took a deep breath. "Yes dear, sometimes cyborgs...and their handlers, get gunshot wounds, but you don't worry about that. You won't feel pain like us regular humans, and you can have parts replaced so you'll feel just like new quickly. You also don't get infections."

"Like you did when you got shot..." the girl muttered softly. She knew her handler had been shot once, during his time in the British SAS, or maybe it was in MI-6. She knew it had gotten infected, and he was a long way from medical help. She knew he had almost died, and it still haunted him. "Elio...if I had been with you then, you wouldn't have gotten shot. I would have protected you."

"I know my sweet, I know" he replied, "but don't worry about that either. Your time will come and I know you'll do great. Tonight you only need to make a good first impression on our new boss, with no 'Marisa moments' okay? You need to stay in control, and only speak when you are asked a question."

"Yes Sir" she replied, knowing exactly what he meant by 'Marisa moments'. "I wonder," she added, with a sniff, "if any cyborgs come back from a mission smelling as bad as me?"

"Nobody smells as bad as you" Elio teased, without a second's hesitation.

"Shut up!" she laughed out loud! "You smell like an old man!"

"You smell like an old fish!" Elio retorted. The two were in a good mood for the rest of the drive to Rome.

_A Trophy Presentation_

"So we're accepting another 'problem child' into the section" sighed Jean. It was a thinly veiled complaint and it didn't sit well with Lorenzo. Jean Croce was a spectacular agent, among the best he'd ever worked with, and the kind of 2nd-in-command that a leader could depend on without question, but he was a self-righteous, opinionated whiner. Jean failed to recognize that a leader takes as much heat from subordinates below him as from superiors above him. But he was still young...he still had a lot to learn. Lorenzo was confident that the new handler he had taken on board would become a teacher for all his young subordinates. Ex-special forces, ex-intelligence...and an ex-bartender to boot. Even though Elio would be working under Jean he felt the younger man would learn a lot.

Lorenzo looked out his window in time to see headlights. A white BMW pulled into the agency parking lot. "Looks like Old Alboreto is here already. Good...I didn't want to stay here all night waiting to see him. My dog gets upset when I'm late coming home."

Jean took a seat to wait, but Lorenzo raised an eyebrow. "I'm sure you have important things to do...I don't want to keep you" the Chief said.

"Not at the moment, Sir." Croce answered, still not realizing that he was being kicked out of the boss' office.

"Then go make sure Rico brushes her teeth before she goes to bed!" Lorenzo growled. Jean got the message this time and hopped to his feet.

"Of course, Sir, but..." he paused before he stepped out the door, "you will remember to give Mr. Alboreto my paper on recommended conditioning guidelines, won't you?"

"Yes Jean I will" Lorenzo assured him, but then added, "Jean...remember, it wasn't so long ago that you took issue with the conditioning methods your brother used on his own cyborg, Henrietta. Yet more recently you requested the Giuseppe-Henrietta fratello as preferred backup on 6 of your last 8 missions. Think about that as you go home tonight."

"I will Chief" Croce replied, slightly chastened, "Will there be anything else tonight?"

"Good night Jean." answered Lorenzo with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Minutes later there was a knock a familiar face walked through Lorenzo's door, followed closely by a rusty haired young cyborg struggling to be on her best behavior, and smelling strongly of the sea.

"Elio! It's good to see you again, how was the Dive Training Center?"

"We got a lot of work done, Lorenzo...the staff there is great, you should drive out and see the place some time." Elio told him, "You know, they cleaned out a basement & set up a shooting range so Marisa here could get a head start on her pistol training."

"Excellent!" said the Chief, "It seems people have some high hopes for you young lady."

Elio nudged his cyborg and she rapidly replied, "Yes, Sir." He nodded at her...good answer.

"Are you dying your hair now?" Lorenzo asked. Elio had forgotten all about it. "It's just for the mission...my grey will be back after I grab a shower." Marisa smiled when she heard that. She was uncomfortable with changes to her handler's appearance.

They all sat down, Lorenzo & Elio first, then Marisa after the Chief offered her a seat. "Well, why don't you brief me on your mission?"

Elio gave his cyborg a reassuring touch on the shoulder "You do it Marisa...just like we practiced."

She shifted forward in her chair, which was too tall for her feet to touch the ground, and began; "Sir, the arms dealer Graziano Valivanti has been terminated. My handler lured him to the harbor at Piombino on the pretenses of a meeting with a government accountant, a character he impersonated. I waited underwater in a pre-established spot, breathing 80% oxygen to super-saturate my tissues with O2. When I received my signal, a one euro coin tossed into the water by my handler, I ditched the breathing rig, propelled myself upward, and dragged Mr. Valivanti underwater using piano wire around his neck. I dragged him into 10 meters of water, using my enhanced breath-holding capability, and waited for him to die. In order to prevent his body rising to the surface I made large cuts into the body cavity to allow gasses to escape, and weighted the corpse with chains that Elio & I had pre-positioned the day before. I then wrapped the body in piano wire and returned to the rendezvous point on shore."

"Impressive" Lorenzo commented "did you record the scene, or bring any photographs as proof?"

"No Sir, I was not provided with an underwater camera."

Elio nodded at her and whispered, "Now's the time for the thing I asked for, show it to him."

Marisa hopped down from the chair and fished the plastic bag out of her pocket. She opened it, laid a tissue down, and dropped on the Section Chief's desk a severed human finger, still wearing a heavy gold ring. A rampant unicorn with an emerald for it's eye.

Lorenzo's eyes grew wide. Elio smiled, it had the desired effect, his old friend's cool was broken. The Chief quickly recovered. "A-hem...we are not usually in the habit of collecting trophies here at the Social Welfare Agency."

At that moment, Marisa made her first mistake of the meeting, "Really?" she asked excitedly, "Does that mean I can keep the ring?" Elio gave her a quick yank on the collar and motioned for her to sit down. She flushed red...she'd momentarily lost her concentration and said the wrong thing. She felt like crying but fought it. "Breathe, Mari" she reminded herself.

"The item will be kept in the evidence archives" Lorenzo finally answered. He saw the disappointed look in his newest cyborg's face and added in a kindly voice, "Top notch work, Marisa, and a very good briefing as well. None of the other handlers let their trainee to give the post-mission report, so in one way you're ahead of the other cyborgs." He pushed a button on his desk and called "Priscilla, we're ready for you."

In a flash, Priscilla was in the office (she had been waiting in the room next door, giddy with anticipation of meeting the "new girl" She had been on vacation as Marisa was being built at the hospital, and the cyborg had been shipped off to dive training the day after her activation, so Priscilla had never even seen her). Unfortunately, her eyes went straight to Lorenzo's desk, and the bloody finger. "Oh God...is that what I think it is?" Lorenzo said nothing, he just covered the grizzly token up with another tissue.

"Marisa, you must be tired & hungry...Miss Priscilla has been kind enough to stay late. She will show you to the dining hall and the dormitory where you will live."

Marisa snapped to her feet again, and gave a very military, "Yes Sir. Thank you Sir." before executing an about-face and walking from the room with Priscilla. She paused as they passed out the door "Elio, are you coming?"

"Chief Lorenzo & I have some catching up to do, and that will probably lead to reminiscing about old times. Would you rather go eat dinner or sit around watching a couple of old farts smoking cigars?"

Marisa smiled and left with Priscilla.

---

"So..." asked Lorenzo, now that they were alone. "...how did she really do?"

"On the mission? Great." Elio answered, "I wouldn't bullshit you on that, you'd know I was lying anyway, we've known each other too long. But on the drive over there was another outburst...I think she broke one of my ribs."

"Have medical look at it." Lorenzo ordered "No macho shit…you're not that young anymore. What set her off?"

"Meeting you." Elio continued, "She's got a lot of social anxiety. She freaked out when I told her we were coming straight here after the mission."

Lorenzo exhaled heavily, "That can't happen every time you need to come in to give me a briefing."

"I don't think it will" replied Elio, "She did okay tonight, she knows you now, next time will be a little easier. I'm sorry about the finger thing...it was another test for her, to see if she could present it to you without any dramatics."

Lorenzo looked around his desk and eyed Jean's report. "I promised my right-hand man I would give this to you...his recommendations on conditioning." Elio took it and dumped it straight in the trash without even opening the cover. "Yeah...I figured that would be your reaction."

"Old friend, you know damn well why we can't use a drop more conditioning on her than we already do. We already killed one poor kid finding that out" responded Elio.

"I know, it must have been horrible." the Chief lamented.

"Hell yes it was horrible." Elio snapped "I watched Marina start twisting & convulsing 30 meters underwater and I could do nothing. These cyborgs are supposed to be fearless but I looked in her eyes and she was terrified, absolutely terrified, she had no idea what was happening to her but she knew it hurt. By the time I got her back to the boat she was unconscious and vomiting blood. Damn it, can a guy get a drink around here?" Elio was sweating and getting very agitated.

Lorenzo hurriedly got out of his seat and produced 2 glasses. By this time Elio was calmer...using the same breathing exercises he used to pacify his cyborg. Lorenzo showed him a bottle of The Balmoral and he smiled. "Ahhh, the poison of our youth."

"I remember drinking a lot cheaper scotch in our youth." the Chief said as he filled the 2 glasses, "you still take it on the rocks?"

"Maybe the next one." Elio replied, snatching his glass up and gulping it down quickly...needing his own conditioning to chase the memory of Marina's eyes out of his mind. It helped. "Yeah...I think this stuff is a lot better than the hooch we used to get back in the bad old days."

Lorenzo sat on the corner of his desk and put his hand on Elio's shoulder. "I'm sorry old friend. You will never know how truly and dreadfully sorry I am to pull you back into all this. You were out...you had quit the game, and I pulled you back into something worse than all that shit we used to deal with back when we were young. When I made that call you should have told me to go to hell."

"As I recall I did" laughed Elio.

"But you came anyway and I can never thank you enough."

"Lorenzo, my old friend...if you had called anyone else I would have never forgiven you."

---

"It really was a cool ring!" Marisa explained, "I wish you could have seen it."

"Oh, I think I saw enough." replied Priscilla, her stomach still churning at the memory of the bloody finger on her Section Chief's desk. It didn't effect Marisa in the slightest way, the girl gobbled down her dinner like a hungry wolf pup.

It was already 9pm, and the dining hall was closed for the night, but Priscilla had asked the cooks to set aside a plate for the new girl who might be coming in late tonight. It was a pretty normal request...cyborgs and their handlers were always returning from missions at odd hours.

What wasn't normal was Marisa's ravenous appetite. Priscilla watched with horrified amazement. She was accustomed to dainty eaters like Triela, Henrietta, Claes, and her beloved, departed Angelica. (Sure, Petrushka could pack it away, but if she had a late night craving she usually called up Alessandro and begged him to bring her some take-out.) Watching Marisa she began to fear that one plate would not be enough! She was right.

Marisa scraped the last of her pasta primavera off the plate and eyed the kitchen, "I wonder if there's any more?" she inquired out loud.

"Oh...sorry, I don't think so" Priscilla said, feeling guilty, but then she saved the day, "but I do know where they hide the ice cream! What do you say we raid that?" Priscilla had never met a cyborg that could refuse an offer like that and Marisa was no exception.

"Yeah!" agreed the freckled red-head, and she joined Priscilla on a mission to seek-and-destroy a tub of Neapolitan.

"How did you like the sea training facility?" Priscilla asked, as the 2 sat together digging into the bucket.

"It's kinda the only home I know," replied Marisa, "I know I was born...built...whatever...here at SWA headquarters, but I barely remember the hospital." She giggled, and told Priscilla, "I remember waking up one day, and there was Elio. He gave me my name, and then gave me a gun, but it didn't have any bullets in it so I told him it was useless to me! Then I rolled over and went back to sleep."

"Smart girl!" laughed Priscilla.

"No way, it's so embarrassing, you should never talk to your handler like that!" the giggling girl objected, "But that was before I knew how great he is." Marisa sucked on her spoon for a few seconds and continued;

"The dive training center was really lonely at night. They made up a nice room for me in an old office, and Elio brought me breakfast every morning, but at night there was only me and a night watchman...and he never talked to me. Oh yeah, and the dolphins too...but they're both jerks…they never paid attention to me either. They could tell I'm not human."

"It must have been lonely" said Priscilla.

"It was" Marisa replied, "but the days were awesome. I had a lot of technical stuff to learn in the morning, but after lunch we set up our gear and went diving every single day! Elio taught me all about SCUBA, first regular open circuit, then rebreathers! And we worked on my breath holding capability on Fridays."

"I hear you're awesome at that!" Priscilla commented.

"I can safely hold my breath for 20 minutes...although Elio only allows me to stay down for 15. My body is specially designed so it stores extra oxygen to live on while I'm underwater. The only bad part is I have to drink this nasty-horrible-gross stuff called Lithium-Hydroxide solution before I do a long breath dive. It scrubs the carbon-dioxide out of my blood...but I hate it...I can still taste that yucky stuff from earlier today." She made a face and stuck out her tongue.

"Looks like you need more ice cream to get that taste out of your mouth" Priscilla suggested.

"You're a smart lady!" laughed Marisa, downing a big spoonful of strawberry.

"I hope so...along with my agency duties I'm also your Math teacher."

Marisa surprised the woman with a broad smile, "I'm going to be your #1 student!"

"That would be a nice change of pace...most of the girls hate me when I shift into combat math-teacher mode."

"You have to be super-good at math to be a good diver, so Elio showed me all kinds of algebra, and also how to navigate using geometry."

Priscilla was intrigued "Will you show me some of your algebra, please?"

Marisa was more than happy to show off. She demonstrated how to use a "T-formula" to determine how much oxygen a diver could use at various depths, then reversed it to show how deep a diver could go on any given breathing mix.

"That is really cool!" Priscilla praised the cyborg, "The other girls are gonna be so jealous when I leave you in charge of the class so I can go take a cappuccino break! You seem like you really love diving."

"Love doesn't describe it well enough...I'd just shrivel up and die if I couldn't dive anymore...it's like the sea is a part of me...a real part, not artificial like my arms, legs, and heart." Marisa had a look in her eyes that Priscilla had seen a thousand times before, as cyborgs spoke about their beloved handlers. Instantly she realized; this girl was conditioned to love the sea just like she was conditioned to love her handler. Priscilla felt a pang of remorse in her heart, a guilty pain that bothered her any time she considered how the girls at the SWA were manipulated to love with chemicals & brainwashing. She couldn't let a cyborg see that pain in her, so Priscilla forced herself to snap out of it.

Priscilla laid down her spoon and said "Okay kiddo, have you had enough?"

"Trick question, ma'am" Marisa joked, "but if I eat any more I'm gonna get sick and Elio will be upset with me."

"Don't worry about him...just blame me if he scolds you."

"You don't know my Elio" replied the girl, "He doesn't fall for tricks like that. He's nice, but he can be pretty strict too. Mostly he's nice though. You're totally gonna like him, he's super-smart like you, and good at math too!"

"Well I'm looking forward to meeting him, and showing him your first A+ test" Priscilla told her, as they packed up the ice cream and put it away in the cooler, "For now it's really late and you haven't even seen your dorm room. But first, you need a bath young-lady!"
"That's what I told Elio after the mission! But he said (she imitated his voice), 'Don't worry about that, it's fine for a girl to smell like a dead fish all day'!"

"That's because boys don't understand what's really important!" Priscilla confided.

---

After showing Marisa where she could get towels, and where her room was, Priscilla left to go home. It had been a long night...she would use it as an excuse to sleep in nice and late tomorrow morning.

Marisa took a long shower. Although it wasn't quite the sea, physical contact with the water calmed her and after toweling off and brushing her teeth she felt very sleepy. She craved a dark room & a welcoming bed. The girl went to her new room, turned on the light switch and looked around. It was furnished, but empty aside from her own duffel bag (which an SWA van had brought from the Dive Training Center along with all she & Elio's gear). Then she was startled to see a head pop up out of the top bunk!

"Oh, my goodness, I'm sorry, I didn't know anyone was in here!" she apologized.

The other girl looked at her and asked, "Is it time to wake up?" Then, to Marisa's amazement she executed a flip out of the top bunk and landed perfectly on her feet! "It is still dark outside."

"No...it isn't time to get up!" Marisa explained, "I'm your new room-mate...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to turn on the light while you were sleeping."

"A mistake has been made?" the girl said in flat, expressionless voice. At least she didn't seem angry.

"Yes, I made a mistake" apologized Marisa, "I..."

"This is an unimportant mistake" the girl told her, in the same monotone. She had no expression on her face at all, and stood perfectly straight. "I am happy that this was a mistake. I am still tired and would like to sleep more."

"You sure don't look happy" commented Marisa.

"You have made another unimportant mistake," the expressionless girl replied, as she climbed up into her top bunk "I am happy that I can sleep more."

"Um...my name is Marisa..." she tried to introduce herself, but the strange girl was already asleep. Later on, Marisa would realize this was her first encounter with a heavily conditioned cyborg. Already embarrassed by having rudely awakened her new room-mate Marisa switched off the light and changed into her night-gown in the dark...depending on her excellent cyborg eyes to find her way around. All of a sudden there was a noise, and Marisa saw the girl flip out of her bunk again, demonstrating the same perfect landing. Instinct and training alerted her senses to the possibility of attack, and she crouched into her fighting posture! There was a dive-knife in her duffel bag if she could get to it fast enough!

But there was no attack. The girl stood there, perfectly straight as before, looking very creepy in the dark. She spoke in the same flat voice; "I have made a mistake. I failed to wish you 'Good Night'." There was a pause and the girl added, "Good Night."

"Good night to you too" replied Marisa, who had never moved out of her fighting stance. The girl was back in her top bunk and sleeping silently before Marisa even understood what had happened.

---

Despite her late night Marisa woke up at her usual time the next morning. She saw her room-mate exit the top bunk with the same perfect forward-flip as she had seen twice the night before. Without a word the silent girl got dressed and left the room. Marisa took her time getting up...Elio had told her he'd come fetch her when it was time...don't expect it to be too awfully early.

There was a big window, through which the warm morning sun flooded the room. Marisa opened it and surveyed her view, a little disappointed that she could not see the Mediterranean. Of course, she was on the outskirts of Rome now...over 30 kilometers from the sea. That would take some getting used to.

"The last two girls to use this room died."

Marisa turned in a flash to see a girl in slacks and a sweater, about her height, with short blonde hair and a cheerful expression, standing in her open doorway. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you...but the door was open."

"It's okay..." Marisa replied, "...were those girls your friends?"

"One was. Her name was Angelica...she was everybody's friend."

"Not the other one?"

"No...I don't think Elsa liked us very much. She just wanted to be alone."

"What about my room-mate?" asked Marisa.

"Oh, Amelia? She's not dead, silly!" giggled the blonde girl. She was totally non-threatening, but there was something just a little scary about her vacant, happy demeanor. Marisa knew cyborgs were created to kill, and she just sensed that this girl had killed plenty.

"Rico! There you are!" called a taller girl, also blonde but with 2 long pigtails. She was still dressed in her pyjamas. "Jean has been looking for you for 30 minutes! He's getting pretty angry! You'd better go, NOW!"

The short girl's expression changed, to one of excitement "Jean!" she exclaimed breathlessly, and (with a gentle push from the tall girl) dashed off to meet him. Marisa began to think everyone here was weird. If someone had told her Elio was looking for her, and he was angry, Marisa would have cringed, and taken her sweet time reporting to him.

"I see you've met Rico," laughed the tall girl in pyjamas, "she can be a little...creepy...but she's a sweetheart." The girl walked into the room confidently and held out her hand to introduce herself "I'm Triela, welcome to the 'Cyborg Warehouse Facility' as Rico's handler calls it."

"Pleased to meet you...I've heard about you" Marisa replied, accepting the welcoming handshake.

"Uh-ho...pressure!" Triela commented, "I hope you heard about my good missions, and not my screw-ups!"

Marisa did her best to judge how Elio would play the situation and responded, "I've heard you've had very few screw-ups." That caught Triela off guard, and forced her into self-deprecating humility.

"Oh...well...maybe Hillshire is editing our mission logs to make me look better!" the tall girl nervously joked.

Marisa felt good getting just a tiny upper hand on the famous Triela. She did not let on that she had read all the material she could get her hands on about the Hillshire-Triela fratello, and there was a slight element of hero-worship going on. "My name is Marisa, I was put together a month ago, but I've been at a training center on the coast."

"Yeah, by the look of you I didn't think you were in the bomb-squad!" Triela laughed.

Now it was Marisa who was at a disadvantage; "The bomb-squad?" she asked.

Triela explained, "The girls like your room-mate, Amelia...there are 4 of them, all very heavily conditioned. I swear, they're like talking to a block of wood sometimes. I mean, Rico gets more than you & I, but those 4 girls are like robots. But hey, at least you know you have a quiet room-mate!"

"How do you know how much conditioning my handler uses?" Marisa asked, a little defensive about Triela's assumption.

"Nothing personal...I can just tell by the way you talk...the way you move. You're on light conditioning, like me."

"If she only knew how light" thought Marisa.

"So listen, you probably haven't had your breakfast yet? You wanna hit the dining hall and maybe meet some of the girls?" Triela offered.

"I'm starved!" Marisa announced without shame, "Lemme get changed...it will only take a minute!"

"Just come on!" Triela teased her, tugging her along by the sleeve. "We'll go just like we are, nothing better than a lazy breakfast in your pyjamas!" Marisa smiled at that...things were going really well so far.

_The Truth About Marisa_

Elio didn't have an apartment in Rome yet so he stayed in a spare bedroom at his old friend Lorenzo's house. They rode into work together the next morning in Lorenzo's chauffeured Maserati Quattroporte. It was Elio's intention to leave Marisa on her own at least until after lunch, allowing him time to meet the handlers they would be working with.

"That's a good idea...let Marisa get to know the other girls while I introduce you to the staff." offered Lorenzo.

"If it's all the same to you I think I'd rather introduce myself to the guys on my own." said Elio, "I threw away Jean Croce's conditioning report last night without even reading it...I think there's going to be a little show-down over that. If you are there it might force you to pick sides, and that would be inappropriate, since Jean is superior to me. I need to do it without you, but in front of the other handlers...at least some of them."

"Jheze, you would have made one hell of a politician" Lorenzo muttered.

"I always thought I was wasted as a spy" joked Elio.

In the handler's mission planning room Elio found the people he was looking for. They all greeted him politely and treated him with deferential respect. Elio was a little annoyed by that...someone had obviously tipped them off that he was the boss' old buddy. Maybe it was all in his imagination, and they were just showing respect to an older man. Alboreto was, after all, almost 20 years senior to the next oldest man in the room, a German named Hillshire (not his real name, Lorenzo had informed him the night before). Victor Hillshire was very highly educated, and just a little pompous. Elio liked the fact that there was a German on the staff. As a man who had spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom he delighted in good natured teasing of Teutonic persons.

Giuseppe Croce also stood out. He was the younger brother of 2nd-in-command Jean, so Elio was eager to size him up. Giuse was a generally quiet man, who went about his work in a studious manner and accepted the benign teasing of his colleagues with defiant but graceful tact. Most of the teasing was about the gentle manner with which he managed his cyborg. It was hard to imagine Chairwoman D'Angelo considered him one of the scariest people she had ever met, but she was a famously accurate judge of character.

There were a few more handlers milling around, sticking push-pins in a wall-sized map of Italy, reading their e-mail. Among these was Alessandro Rissi, a very young man who Lorenzo had a lot of enthusiasm about. "If this kid lives to see 30 he'll be one of the greats" the Section Chief had told Elio last night over their last tumbler of scotch whisky, "as long as he keeps remembers to keep his dick in his pants & out of his cyborg." Elio spotted him, lounging in an office chair and talking about yesterday's World Cup qualifier match with 2 handlers as young as himself. Alboreto would not have even noticed him if Lorenzo had not urged him to take notice.

The man Elio really wanted to talk to was at first absent, but after a while Jean showed up. "Sorry I'm late, Gentlemen, I had a little trouble locating my cyborg this morning."

"It's 10 o'clock...do you know where your child is?" teased a burly ex-CIA man, but nobody else got the joke because it was based on an American TV ad.

Jean caught sight of Elio. "You're the new man...welcome aboard" Jean extended courtesies before drawing out the knives, "I hope you and your cyborg are settling into your new homes comfortably."

"Well, I haven't seen my Marisa since last evening, but Chief Lorenzo's house is certainly more comfortable accommodation than I'm accustomed to" he said, shaking Jean's hand.

"You...haven't checked on your cyborg this morning?" Jean asked, disapproval obvious in his voice.

Elio shook his head, "No. She's settling into the dorm and she doesn't need me interfering with all that. Plus I'm a little old to be wandering around in a girls' dormitory." That drew a laugh, which even Jean joined in with, mostly so he wouldn't look like a humorless asshole.

"Since you have just arrived I don't guess you've had a chance to look over my recommended guidelines for conditioning?" Jean got straight to the point, "I left a copy for you with Chief Lorenzo."

All the handlers had read Jean's report, recommending heavy conditioning and an approach to operations that treated the cyborg as a tool rather than a girl. Some rejected it flatly, Hillshire, Alessandro & Giuse among them. Some agreed with Jean, and a few followed his recommendations because of intimidation. All silently waited for Alboreto's answer.

"I'm afraid I have no opinion on it. Marisa's conditioning situation is highly abnormal because of the kinds of missions we hope to use her on. Please note that I say hope. Marisa is such an aberrant case that we are not sure what will happen."

"Please explain." Jean challenged.

"Alessandro, close the door and lock it" ordered Elio. Rissi stumbled to his feet. The older man had no official rank over him...in fact Alessandro was senior at the SWA...but it just seemed natural to take Mr. Alboreto's instructions as direct orders. Once the door was secure Elio turned to the eager onlookers and began;

"I trust it's safe to speak in this room, this is information all of you handlers need to know. I'd ask you to pass it on to any handler that is not present right now, but share the information with no one else.

At the dive training center we have discovered a weakness with our cybernetic technology. As cyborg technology advances we have gained the ability to tailor the girl's capabilities to specific applications & missions. The first example was the late Beatrice, who was designed to have extraordinary sense of smell, and could detect explosives that even a dog couldn't locate. It was decided that Section 2 needed a cyborg capable of conducting undersea operations, and that's where I came in. Chief Lorenzo asked me to train the first dive-tailored cyborg, and become fratello.

Our first attempt was named Marina. She excelled at the technical knowledge portions of my training, and proved a very capable swimmer, but disaster struck when we actually conducted dives with her. During our first series of shallow dives we had no issues, so we assumed cyborg physiology was similar to human. We pressed on, and went deeper."

The audience was totally silent. Elio took a deep breath and went on. "On our first dive to 30 meters, Marina was killed. Cause of death was a massive chemical arterial gas embolism. That means bubbles in her blood...similar to when a human diver comes up too quickly. But Marina was not ascending...in fact she was actually going deeper at the time of her death. Our researchers were completely stalled, and the project went on hold until an answer could be found. I won't bore you with the details, but it's the conditioning that caused the embolism. When it reaches a certain pressure it becomes unstable & breaks down into its constituent chemicals, some of which form gasses, basically erupting like a soda bottle when the cap is released.

Marina was breathing regular air, 21% oxygen, 79% nitrogen when she died, but we tried every breathing blend we could imagine, on test rigs in the lab of course, no more cyborgs were used. Nitrox, Tri-Mix, HeliOx mixes, Argon-Oxygen mixes, even Hydrogen-Oxygen. Nothing solved the problem until we tested an unconditioned cybernetic muscle. It responded just like human flesh. It's the conditioning that causes the deadly reaction."

Hillshire spoke up first, "How can you operate a cyborg without conditioning? It's necessary to allow the body to accept commands from the brain, and for the brain to accept sensory inputs without overloading."

"I'm getting to that next," Elio explained, "Victor is right...we need conditioning to have a functioning cyborg, so our next step was to establish what is the absolute minimum we can use."

"We already know that..." Hillshire interjected "...my Triela & Giuse's Henrietta are already on minimum doses."

Elio dropped the bombshell; "Marisa is on 1/4 of what your girls get."

That sent the room into an uproar. "Impossible!" "Your data is wrong!" "Is she a Generation 3 cyborg?" Friends argued with friends, but Elio just crossed his arms and waited for the noise to settle down. Hillshire spoke for the group, "How is this possible? If I cut Triela down even 1% further she starts going into withdrawals, and she suffers outbursts & wild mood swings."

"Marisa exhibits those symptoms on a regular basis, it's a constant struggle with her" answered Elio.

Giuseppe challenged him next, "How can you force her to live like that? What you're saying it that she is suffering withdrawals all the time."

"Your logic is just slightly flawed..." Elio replied, "Marisa has never experienced a dose of conditioning even as large as you give Henrietta. Therefore, she does not experience the worst symptoms of withdrawal."

He paused and re-phrased his explanation. "One of the doctors explained it to me like this; cyborgs have enhanced vision, superb hearing, an extra-ordinary sense of smell and unbelievable power in the bodies. The kind of sensations these girls experience would overload an adult human brain...it would just die instantly. That's why we use children, whose brains are still growing & adapting. Even so, the sensations are overwhelming...like being at a heavy-metal concert, inside a tornado, while high on ecstasy. The conditioning takes the edge off that...makes the inputs manageable.

Marisa can't have a full dose of conditioning, so I have to constantly work with her on self-management. Meditation, breathing exercises, and discipline that some of you might consider strict, are the things I have to use to help Marisa hold it together on a daily basis."

"Is it worth it?" Giuse asked, "Couldn't you just give her a full dose, and let her be a normal cyborg? Can't we handle the undersea mission using normal human soldiers?"

"It's too late for that." sighed Elio, "Perhaps it was unwise, but we conditioned Marisa to love the sea just as much as she loves her handler. If we took her diving away it would be like trying to take me away. She wouldn't stop fighting until she was dead."

Jean advanced the final question "What if she can't be controlled using your methods? What if the outbursts get worse and not better? What if you...we...fail?" he asked.

Elio sighed and told them his plan; "Nobody tells her anything is wrong. I cook her favorite dinner for her, kiss her goodnight, and she never wakes up. Gentlemen, we all accept that we may lose our cyborg in the line of duty...it has happened to our colleagues. But I believe I am the only handler in this room...I hope I am the only one...who faces the distinct possibility of being forced to terminate my girl myself."

Nobody spoke for a long time after that. Some of the men tried to return to their work, but they were distracted, unable to focus. They all wondered if they could do it...kill their own cyborg.

But Elio was not done. "None of you has asked why this matter is surrounded by such secrecy. Even if the Padania found out about one cyborg's condition it would not give them a tactical advantage, so who cares, right?

The danger is to your cyborgs. If the Padania captures a cyborg she is conditioned never to co-operate, not to give them a scrap of information, and they are built tough enough to ignore torture. If our enemies found out about the pressure flaw they could use your girl's conditioning against them. They could subject them to agony the likes of which none of the girls was ever built for just by locking them in a sealed chamber and increasing the air pressure...it doesn't have to be water pressure to torture and kill your cyborgs. Could one of them be broken, and forced to talk under such torment? Maybe; they are just little girls at heart and none of them has been tested that way."

"I want 2 things to come from this meeting" Elio concluded, "First, total secrecy. The Chief knows about this weakness, the Minister of Defense knows, and our Medical-Technology department knows. As far as Section 2 goes, handlers only will be aware of this weakness...you don't tell our co-workers, you don't tell your cyborgs.

Second, I want everyone to agree that we will never utilize a cyborg to test the hyperbaric pressure weakness. You have a Generation 1 girl you use for tests I understand..."

"Claes." Jean told him, "Her name is Claes."

"I want a agreement, no...an oath, that Claes, or any other cyborg, will never be subjected to pressure experiments, or any other experiment to determine their tolerance for torture. I watched the first diver cyborg, Marina, die from this condition and I have never before seen any soul in so much pain & fear. I swear to you that if I find out anyone in the Social Welfare Agency has conducted an experiment of this nature I will go to war against the SWA. I want everyone here to agree to that."

Several of the handlers, especially the ones who knew Claes, agreed immediately, without a moment's hesitation. Surprisingly, Jean was next. "Elio Alboreto, if I find out anyone has violated the oath we take here today, I will join you in that war."

Equally surprising was that Giuse was one of the last to agree. Perhaps he just couldn't think straight, imagining his precious Henrietta being locked inside a Padania pressure chamber. Or maybe he was seriously considering using another, anonymous cyborg for experimentation if it would keep Henrietta safe. Eventually, he, and all the others agreed.

"Alright." Elio announced, once everyone had given their promise, "Make sure to brief the handlers that are not present here...in secret of course. Tell them they can report to Chief Lorenzo, Jean, or myself to issue their oath."

"We're done here, and you all have work to do" Jean instructed, taking back his command of the group, "Rissi, you & Petruska are the alert fratello today, as always make sure you're together and ready to deploy in 5 minutes if a call comes. Make sure that ridiculous little car of yours has a full tank of gas too." He unlocked & opened the door, outside of which a small crowd of gossipers had gathered, wondering what could be so secret that only the handlers could be in on it.

As the handlers all exited the office Elio approached Jean. "I'm not going to take over your briefing room like that again. You're the Field Commander here and I'm not out for your job. Coping with Marisa is enough trouble for a man my age."

"Well, you certainly have their respect" Jean acknowledged "That's good."

"I'll be a teacher to them, but not a commander anymore. You get tired of that bullshit after a while...I'm happy to leave it to you. You do a good job and Lorenzo knows it."

"I don't know sometimes." Jean replied, opening up a little, "Sometimes I think the Chief would like a different man in my position."

"He has faith in you, and he knows nobody in the section could do the job better" Elio assured him, "If, however, there were a power-switch, and Lorenzo found himself out your biggest threat will come from Hillshire."

"Victor! I recruited him! Damn it, I saved him from a bullet in his skull and an unmarked grave!"

Elio stayed calm and continued his counsels "If a new administration were to come in they would want to wipe everything related to Lorenzo off the board. If you don't have enough support from below that could mean you too. Hillshire may not have the ambition to take your job, but he's exactly the kind of guy a new administration would pick to be their Field Commander. If that happens, look to your brother for support...he will back you, and others will follow him."

"Giuse?" asked Jean, "Do you really think so?"

"Count on it." Elio replied, then asked, "Speaking of support, you threw me a curve when you backed me up on the no-testing oath."

"I wasn't doing it for you, I was doing it for Claes. We've broken her joints, hyper-extended her muscles, infected her with biological, chemical & nano-technology pathogens, and through it all she has given honorable service, accepting her lot without complaint. I will not tolerate anyone who would reward her for all that with a death like the one you describe." He thought for a minute, as if unsure he wanted to admit the rest, but Jean continued; "Her handler was Captain Raballo, a man who I recruited into the Agency, and furthermore a man I loved & respected. He's dead now, and I can't say any more than that, but he left such a piece of himself in Claes...I can't look at her without seeing his mannerisms, his love of reading, his attitude, his way. When she's gone, Raballo is gone."

Jean looked away, avoiding eye contact with Elio, and muttered "I have never told anyone that. Why the hell did I choose to tell a man who I just met less than an hour ago."

"I have that talent...Chief warned you I was a bartender, didn't he?"

_The Cyborg Warehouse Facility_

Things were going great for Marisa. After a heavy breakfast with Triela she went walking around the compound and ran into Priscilla, who took her for a tour of the grounds on her Vespa.

It was getting close to lunch time, so Marisa decided to look for Elio, and tell him about her day. Sure enough, she did not have to look long, he was in the first place she looked, eating a salad and talking to Nihad & Ferro. "Will you excuse me for a few minutes?" he asked as he saw his cyborg coming. The 2 agents smiled in agreement. They were quite accustomed to cyborgs, who were as demanding as real children when it came to their guardian's time & attention.

"Hey kid, looks like things are going well for you today" he greeted her.

"It's been so cool...I met Triela and we had waffles with fruit for breakfast, in our pyjamas! Then Priscilla took me for a ride on her Vespa, don't worry, it's not as cool as your Ducati."

Elio was pleased to see her so happy. Things usually went well when she was happy, although the emotional crash into another "Marisa moment" could be brutal. "I'm glad you're having a good time. You're being careful not to overdo it, right?"

"Yes, sir" she groaned, just like any other pre-adolescent being warned about the dangers of having too much fun. "What are we doing today? I wanna get to work as soon as I can!"

That was good. Elio was afraid that there would be a meltdown when he told her she had marksmanship training this afternoon, but she seemed to be genuinely eager to get to it. She'd had a full morning of freedom, she'd let off some steam, now it was time to tighten the leash just a little. "We'll be doing pistol practice on the outdoor range today. I've got your Beretta 92, even though I still think you should try some other models, but after today you'll keep your weapons with you in your room. Just like at the DTC, no ammo allowed in your dorm-room. How is your room anyway?"

"It's nice...I have a big window, and a room-mate who's a total weirdo."

"I want you to get along with your room-mate...no calling her a weirdo."

"I didn't say anything mean about her, she's just a little weird. She does a forward flip through the air every time she gets out of bed." explained Marisa.

"Okay, but if you have a real problem with any of the girls you come to me and talk about it before it ends up in a knife-fight."

"I promise...but it wasn't like that at all, Amelia is a nice kind of weirdo."

"Fine, I can accept that, now get some lunch so we can head to the range."

---

7pm.

One of the best days of Marisa's life was drawing to a close and tomorrow just looked like it was going to be better. She'd experienced 3 frustrating gun jams at the range, but she never lost her temper, and Elio only had to run down from the observation tower to help once! Even better, she got to meet Rico's room-mate Henrietta, who told her she should come to Triela & Claes' room for herbal tea after dinner.

Marisa took her shower (gunpowder smelled worse than old seaweed, but for the time being it was exciting) and picked out her best clothes for the evening. A nice pleated skirt, white socks like she saw the other girls wearing, a blouse and her favorite Irish wool sweater, which Elio had bought her to celebrate her first 30 meter SCUBA dive. She never understood why this depth had been so important to everyone, Elio had hugged her and the boat crew had openly cried when they saw her surface safely. It was almost like they hadn't expected her to survived a simple dive!

Amelia was quiet as usual, busy working on a jigsaw puzzle. As Marisa got dressed she offered, "Hey Amelia, I'm going to Triela's room to visit tonight, I'm sure you'd be welcome too if you wanna come."

As usual her room-mate's speech was slow & monotone. "That is very nice Marisa, but no thank you. My friends from EOD (explosives ordnance disposal) are coming to work on this puzzle tonight."

"But, Amelia...it's almost done already."

"I'm taking it apart, and placing the pieces in the most random arrangement I can, to increase the difficulty, and the challenge for my friends." Amelia explained in her flat voice. "When they succeed in putting the puzzle back together Bella will take the complete puzzle to her room and deconstruct it in the most challenging manner she can think of, so the rest of us can have the enjoyment of rebuilding it tomorrow night."

"This is fun for you?" asked Marisa.

"Of course." Amelia replied, "It is the most fun game."

Marisa didn't care what Elio said, her room-mate was a weirdo. "Hey Amelia, I have an idea."

"Yes Marisa, what is your idea?"

"Hide one piece of the puzzle. Tape it under the table. That will be fun!"

Marisa wasn't sure if her idea was genuinely meant to be fun for the bomb-squad girls, or she just suggested it out of mischief, to drive them insane, but Amelia seemed to love it! Her eyes lit up and Marisa almost thought she saw her room-mate crack a smile. "Yes. Yes I will tape one piece under the table. Your idea will be fun, Marisa, thank you."

As Marisa left, Amelia had one more request. "Marisa, if you come back as late as you did last night, will you please turn the light on?"

"Won't that wake you up?"

"Yes. Wake me up so that I can enjoy going back to sleep. It is very nice to wake up and know I have many more hours of rest to look forward to."

"Ummm, sure, if you're already asleep I'll wake you up." Marisa promised her weirdo room-mate.

Never in her life had Marisa spent an evening with girls her own age. It was just as much fun as she had hoped. Triela's room-mate Claes made excellent tea, well, she would have considered any tea excellent as she had never had any before. Rico & Henrietta contributed a round tin of Danish butter cookies to the party. Marisa felt a little ashamed that she had nothing to bring, but Triela assured her that exciting stories of her dive training in the Mediterranean were more than enough to earn her a place at the table. Deep, dark, dangerous dives, full of sharks & hostile enemy frogmen appealed to Marisa, but it was the stories of spectacular sunlit coral gardens in the shallows that captivated Henrietta & Rico. Marisa described "Fish in every color you could imagine," huge moray eels that would eat out of your hand like puppies, and fan worms that would only spread their feathery tendrils if a diver was very still & patient. They listened as if it was all a fairy tale.

Eventually, Henrietta couldn't take it anymore and she exclaimed "I have to get Giuse to take me diving!" She seemed to forget her previous opinion that the sea made her "lonely and kind of uneasy."

"It does sound like fun!" Triela agreed.

Marisa was horrified at her screw up...she knew that was impossible, but she was not allowed to talk about why to the other cyborgs! "Well, it takes a lot of training...we could just go snorkeling instead!" (she knew that was okay for cyborgs to do).

"But Marisa, you could train us!" Rico suggested, "we could learn it in the swimming pool!"

Marisa's palms were getting sweaty, she was getting anxious, and she knew what that led to! She was getting closer and closer to a full-blown panic attack! The 3 girls went on and on about asking their handlers to let them get SCUBA certified...something Marisa knew would kill them!

Claes to the rescue: "Leave her alone you loonies...it's her first full day in the dorms and you're already involving her in your schemes. Marisa has enough to do without teaching you to dive."

"Alright," sighed Triela. She wished sometimes that Claes would just join in and let her imagination wander like the others. They all knew it wasn't ever going to happen, Rico couldn't even swim! But what was wrong with just imaging how cool it would be? What was the use of reading all those books if you never dreamed up any plans of your own?

"Don't let them sweep you up in their craziness Marisa...last week they were convinced they could make their own hot-air balloon and fly to Athens" Claes informed her.

"Yeah, I suppose none of us should ever dream of anything bigger than an herb garden" muttered Triela, sarcastically. Marisa was so glad the subject had changed.

For hours the conversation around the table meandered between missions, teddy bears, violins, ammunition, hotel rooms, and their theories about the mysterious lives of "normal girls." Then, the topic of their handlers' cars came up. It changed everything.

"Henrietta, your Giuse owns that silver Porsche Boxster, right?"

"Yes, that's Giuse's car, did you see it in the parking lot?" she short brunette chirped.

Marisa answered, "Priscilla took me for a ride on her Vespa and showed me which car belongs to each member of Section 2. That Porsche is cool!"

Henrietta proudly boasted, "Giuse has the fastest car on the whole compound!"

"Um, not anymore, my handler Elio has a BMW M3." Marisa replied.

"So?" 'Etta challenged, "Giuse's car is a Porsche, that's way faster than some old 4-door sedan-car!"

Marisa forgot her instructions to "think" before arguing. "Some battles are just not worth fighting" Elio had told her many times. But this was different...an truth-less attack on Elio's BMW was the same as an attack on Elio himself. Unfortunately, Henrietta felt the same way about Giuseppe's Porsche.

"Look, if Giuse had a 911 Turbo, or a GT2 or GT3 I would agree...but the Boxster is not really Porsche's fastest car...the M3 would outrun it for sure!"

Henrietta lost her temper. "You. Take. That. Back." she growled, using an entire lung-full of air for each word. She slammed her hands down on the table, ratting the tea cups and the cookie tin. Marisa had heard warnings about 'Etta's unpredictable temper...she was sweet one second and on full attack the next, especially where Giuseppe was concerned. Marisa also knew she couldn't handle an experienced Generation 1 cyborg if it came down to a fight, so she looked around the room for help.

They were all glaring at her. Claes, Triela, Rico...they were all on Henrietta's side. Marisa fought hard to contain her heart-break...things had been going so well, how did they turn so wrong that fast! This time it wasn't her fault!

It was time to go...time to get out of there before she burst into tears, or got the tar beat out of her! "I'm sorry, it's getting late, maybe I should go" Marisa told them, "Thank you for the tea & the cookies." And she made her escape.

---

"Stupid. Stupid! STUPID!" Marisa cursed herself as she clenched her fists & stomped down the hall. "Why do I always have to screw everything up!" Hot tears were pooling up in her eyes, and her nose was starting to run but she fought it! She just needed to be alone for a few minutes to breathe, to meditate, to do the things that Elio had showed her, to calm down when things got bad.

"Isn't there one empty room in this whole dorm?" she questioned. The bomb-squad girls were in her own room...the girls shower room was occupied by a gaggle of older looking Generation 2 girls.

The Men's shower was unoccupied. Marisa stormed in and punched an empty locker, putting a huge dent in the door! She rushed to a sink and turned the water on. Contact with the water calmed her nerves...she could concentrate on her breathing...she fought back the chaos in her brain, and her attack was over as quickly as it started.

She felt back in control of herself, but her problems had not gone away. In just a few unfortunate minutes Marisa had managed to lose all the new friends she had been so happy to make, and she was alone again. Now the tears came for real. She sat down in a shower stall, pulled the curtain closed, and cried, her small body racked with great, big choking sobs. It wasn't fair! She hadn't been looking for a fight! Everybody just took Henrietta's side because they knew her...they were her real friends. Marisa had nobody, not even Elio who was at his own friend's house tonight.

Marisa's sobs echoed off the walls, and were her only company that night. The cold puddle of water she was sitting in, soaking up though her underwear only added to her misery & indignity.

---

Morning was the same as yesterday, same weather, same food at breakfast, same flurry of activity as the cyborg girls & their handlers rushed about to get ready for what duties or training they had today. What was exciting yesterday was gray and bleak this morning because Marisa was alone. She sat on the steps outside the dormitory just because nobody else was there and she could watch for Elio's car to arrive.

When the white BMW finally did pull into the compound Marisa sprinted a half-kilometer across the lawns to be with him. Before her handler had even gotten out she was at the passenger door, pulling on the handle. Elio knew (from experience) he had better unlock the door quickly, or she would rip the handle off! She opened the door, sat down and slammed the door behind her, much harder than necessary.

"Good morning kid, how was your night?"

"Elio, can we go back to the dive training center? Please!"

Alboreto looked at her and tried to figure out what was wrong. Nobody had called him during the night, and she wasn't in the hospital, so there could not have been a major incident. First he answered her question; "No. We might visit the DTC for work or training, but we live here now, at SWA Headquarters."

"Then can I come live with you?" she pleaded.

"I don't even have a home of my own here in Rome. I'm living with Chief Lorenzo...and no, a cyborg can not move in with the Section 2 Chief."

She slumped in the seat and looked on the verge of tears all over again. "So it was a bad night in the dorm?" he asked.

"Everything was going so well and I screwed it up." Marisa said with a sniffle, "I said the wrong thing, I forgot to choose my battles like your told me. I ruined everything and now everyone hates me!"

"I'm sure it's not that bad...tell me about it."

Marisa told the story of last night. She left nothing out. When she was done Elio sighed and told her, "See, it's not as bad as you thought."

"What do you mean? Just telling you what happened doesn't make my problems go away!" the girl muttered.

The handler tried to give his young student a smile, but seeing her so sad rubbed off on him. He was an old spy though, and he could still put on a good act. "Mari, my dear, making new friends is going to cause a lot of stress, and it's not going to be easy. But think about it, you almost had 2 'Marisa moments' last night and but you managed them, you handled the pressure and you didn't lose your self-control! You had a challenging night and you came out alright." He stroked her red hair and told her, "you had a good night!

"I lost all my friends...I smashed a dent in the door of a locker, and I wound up spending half the night in the men's shower" said Marisa "that's what a good night is? Is that as good as my life can be? I wish we'd never come here!"

"How can I tell you that things are gonna get better when you wouldn't believe me anyway?" Elio asked.

"I always believe you Elio. Everything you tell me is the truth."

"Then things are gonna get better, I promise." Alboreto assured her, "But first let's just get through today. You did good last night...I half expected to get a call in the middle of the night telling me you were in the hospital with a bad attack. I never got that call because you managed things all by yourself! What do you think would be an appropriate reward?"

She really liked that word...reward. "Maybe I shouldn't have to do pistol training this morning? Maybe I can go train with the bomb-squad girls instead?"

"Those other girls are going to be at the range?" Elio asked & Marisa nodded. "Okay, wish granted, but you still have Miss Priscilla's math class in the afternoon. You'll have to face them sooner or later."

"I'm okay with that" Marisa told him, wiping her eyes, and feeling a lot better "you taught me math...I'll never have a 'Marisa moment' in math class."

"Good girl." Elio said with a genuine smile, "Here, I'm writing you a note...asking the EOD squad to include you in their training program for the day. Now don't waste time or you'll be late for your first bomb lesson." Marisa took the folded note and held it to her breast like a love letter. She held it here as she ran the whole way to the EOD squad bunker.

_A Visit to Mama Galati_

Chief Lorenzo had summoned Elio to his office.

"Has something come up?" asked Alboreto, "Are you evicting me from your house?"

"Hell no..." Lorenzo assured him "...as long as you keep making the best Martinis in all Italy I'll never even charge you one lira in rent."

"We use euros now old-timer...and I'm mixing those drinks with your gin & vermouth!"

Lorenzo got serious. "You were right the first time, something did come up. Remember that ring you had your cyborg cut off Graziano Valivanti?"

"I remember that there was a ring, and my Marisa made an inappropriate comment about keeping it." answered Elio.

"Well, it turned out to be significant" Lorenzo explained, "It belonged to Doriano Galati, a former Section 1 operative. He was murdered with piano wire while on assignment in Bizerte, Tunisia. The ring was taken. Turns out it was an heirloom of his family."

"We should track them down and give it back" Elio suggested.

"Didn't need to...here's where the story really gets you. His family is gone, all dead, the only one left is his 80 year old mother. I've stayed in touch with her, writing letters, checking in on her, since her son's murder. She made me swear that if we ever got the killer she could thank the agent who eliminated him."

"Marisa got him...we can't send her. How do we explain to an 80 year old woman that an 11 year old who can hold her breath for 20 minutes killed her son's murderer? Just send Jean or somebody with the ring and let him claim credit."

Lorenzo shook his head, "No...I'm not going to lie to old Mama Galati like that. Her son was a Section 1 man, her Husband was in the GIS, killed in action, she knows about Section 2. We're going to satisfy an old lady's wish."

"Why the hell does an 80 year old civilian know about Section 2?" Elio protested.

"I told her, years ago." Lorenzo admitted without a bit of remorse in his voice, "I trust this woman and let's be honest, even if I'm wrong, a lady her age starts blabbing to people about cybernetic little girl assassins they're going to dismiss her as senile."

Elio fired off his next question; "Are you sure Valivanti killed Mrs. Galati's son? He could have gotten the ring in a pawn shop."

"Public Safety has records on Graziano Valivanti going back years, remember we were buying from him too in order to keep materiel out of Padania hands. He was in Bizerte on the date of Doriano Galati's murder. That, combined with the ring is enough to satisfy me. We aren't looking for a courtroom conviction here, that scumbag is already being picked apart by the crabs at the bottom of Piombino harbor, courtesy of little Marisa."

"So what do you want to do?" asked Elio.

"The 3 of us, you, me, and Marisa go to her house for an early dinner. We bring her the ring and some flowers, we look at some pictures of Doriano when he was a baby, and we go. Mrs. Galati doesn't expect any more than that, she just wants to thank the person who killed her son."

"If you're going I insist on extra security." Elio replied, "One more fratello."

The Chief agreed, "Okay, Alessandro & Petrushka are available."

"You really like that kid, eh?" laughed Elio, "Sure, Rissi will do fine. Could you have Marisa paged, she's at the EOD bunker."

"How is she doing?" asked Lorenzo.

"Last night was hard on her" admitted Elio, "maybe I should have slept in my office last night."

Lorenzo continued inquiring; "Did she have another outburst?"

"No...she had 2 close calls but she managed them all by herself. She did put a pretty big dent in a locker in the men's shower room though."

"What the hell was she doing in the men's shower?" groaned Lorenzo, rubbing his forehead with his right hand.

"The other girls were...mean to her...that's the only way to put it. It's just typical schoolyard shit, you have to expect it when you put a bunch of kids together in a dorm with minimal supervision" Elio explained, "she ran into the men's bathroom because it was the only place she could be alone...to cry."

Lorenzo sighed. "Poor girl. It's us that did this to her, made her a cyborg and then denied her the conditioning drug, the only thing that makes life livable for a cyborg. So who was bullying her?"

"Don't make me name names boss."

"Come on, I'm just curious! I swear I'm not interfering!" Lorenzo was close to begging for this gossip. The old spy could never be content unless he knew exactly what was going on. "Some of the older Generation 2 girls?"

Elio sighed and muttered, "It was not bullying, it was just an argument, and then everyone took sides against Marisa. It seems Henrietta set it off."

"You're shitting me...'Etta?" Lorenzo was flabbergasted.

"I've said too much already, now would you please have Marisa sent back to the dorm so she can get cleaned up to visit Mrs. Galati?"

---

The 5 took Elio's BMW, making it a bit crowded. Elio drove, with Lorenzo in the passenger seat, Petrushka, Alessandro & Marisa in the back. This caused some visible agitation in Petrushka. With Marisa in the middle it meant another cyborg sat closer to her Sandro. She glared at Marisa for the whole uncomfortable ride, luckily it took less than an hour (Elio drove like the F1 World Championship depended on it, even with his boss in the car).

Mrs. Galati lived in an ancient neighborhood with narrow, cobble-stoned streets. Every window was adorned with a flower box and the BMW was the only car in sight. Most of the houses had gardens. This quiet street could have been on a tourist post-card.

Lorenzo went in first to see if the old lady was ready for visitors. It gave the others a chance to check surroundings and get a few things straight. "This is good." Alessandro muttered, "If we are attacked we can fend off a larger force in such narrow confines, at least until help arrives. Petra and I will patrol while you visit."

"My ass you will." snapped Elio, "If you two go patrolling up and down the street you're going to attract attention, which we don't want with the Section Chief exposed like this. You 2 are coming inside with us and having dinner with Mrs. Galati."

"All we're here to do is have dinner with a little old lady?" asked Petrushka.

Elio leaned in and whispered in a harsh tone, "Petra, you're here to protect us from Marisa in case she has an episode. This is gonna be very different for her...she's never met an old Italian mother and Marisa sometimes freaks out in unfamiliar situations. None of us humans are strong enough to restrain her if that happens."

"Ohhhh" replied Petra & Sandro in synchronized unison. Marisa stood near the trunk of the BMW, holding the flowers, and carrying the ring on a piece of cord around her neck. She was wearing a very dark, traditional looking blue dress with a white lace collar, borrowed from a large Section 2 collection of seldom worn "mission outfits."

Elio continued his lecture, summoning Marisa over for this part; "Girls, both of you, look, you've never met an old lady like this. She's going to hug you without asking, she's going to kiss you, she's going to really invade your personal space, and that of your handler. Don't get alarmed, I promise you she is not going to hurt Alessandro or I. Sandro, anything to add?"

"You left out the cheek pinching." he replied.

"Oh yes..." agreed Elio ominously, "...there will be cheek pinching." Petra looked genuinely nervous. About that time Lorenzo called for the others to come inside. Elio went straight inside, but the 3 young people hesitated a few steps behind to spruce up their appearance.

Marisa froze, and her hand went for her pistol. Petra noticed it instantly and hissed, "Alessandro, look!" She already had her own PT92 drawn.

"Mari what's wrong?" Sandro asked. Marisa had not drawn her Beretta, she juststared down the street, her eyes locked on a group of Catholic nuns in full habits.

"Those women..." Marisa muttered softly, in an unfamiliar voice. Alessandro did not hesitate. "Petra, flank them!" he ordered as he drew his own pistol.

"Yeah, boss!" the tall red-head girl responded, but before she could move Elio came back out and called, "Stand down!"

"Elio, Marisa see's something!" Rissi reported, "Those nuns gathering over there! Something is up! Padania in disguise maybe?"

As he placed a calming left hand on Marisa's shoulder Alboreto waved his right to dismiss his theory "It's nothing. Marisa, come inside, there's nothing wrong, those women won't come near you." Petra tossed up her hands in confusion and looked to Alessandro for orders. Elio leaned over to the younger man and whispered, "Marisa just dislikes nuns...I'll explain more later."

"Okay..." he accepted Elio's answer, but was no less confused "...Petra, stand down."

Elio, Marisa, Alessandro & Petrushka entered Mrs. Galati's immaculately clean house (Petra gave Sandro a sharp nudge in the ribs with her elbow, suggesting that perhaps he could keep his apartment a little nicer). They were introduced, Petruska greeting the their hostess with a graceful dancer's curtsey, Marisa attempted a slightly clumsier one, and gave the little elderly woman a bouquet of store-bought flowers. Mrs. Galati clapped her hands together and cheerfully asked, "So which one is the robot? I can not tell!"

Alessandro attempted to step in with an explanation, "Ma'am, Petrushka & Marisa are both cyborgs. There are significant differences between robotic & cybernetic techno..." but he was cut off by Lorenzo.

"Rissi, just let it go" the Chief ordered, "there is no way you are going to make her understand all that."

"Both of them!" exclaimed Mrs. Galati, "I can not believe the times we live in! So exciting, and such beautiful girls! Where do they put the batteries in?" Following that, there was a significant amount of cheek pinching.

---

Before they presented the ring there was dinner. It was only 2pm, so the handlers feared their girls would not be willing to eat so far outside of their scheduled routine. They were wrong about that.

Mrs. Galati had prepared a huge Italian feast, starting with antipasto, followed by huge plates of linguini alfredo, a tray of steamed mussels, fresh asparagus, and a main course of veal scaloppini with gnocchi. Like any traditional Italian, Mrs. Galati finished the meal with the salad. There was bread too, baked in her own oven. If this was a mission to eat as much as possible Section 2 could not have sent two better cyborgs to accomplish that mission. Marisa & Petrushka ate with gusto, which delighted Mrs. Galati. "So nice, so nice to see girls today with healthy appetite! Mangiare, there's plenty more!"

"Mrs. Galati, this is so much better than the food at the dorm!" complimented Petrushka, as the old lady wiped a bit of alfredo sauce from Marisa's chin.

"Graci, sweetheart, have more, more, you are so skinny! Lorenzo! You tell your wife to cook better for these girls!" She clapped her hands together merrily (a habit when she was happy) as she watched the 2 girls devour her cuisine.

"Petra is right...thank you so much Mrs. Galati!" added Marisa between bites. Her tense moment with the nuns had been totally forgotten, and Elio smiled approvingly at her. It was a very good day.

"No more of this you calling me 'Missus Galati' you call me Mama, Mama Galati, nobody calls me Mama since...since...my Doriano...goes away" said the old hostess. It was the first clue she gave of the sadness she was hiding. Lorenzo, seated at her right, took her hand but it was Marisa who brought the smile back to her face by saying, "Of course, Mama Galati."

Alessandro then committed an unforgivable sin in the eyes of their hostess...he put his fork down. Mama Galati was all over him, "You too, young man! You need to eat if you fighting these terrible men, these Padania!" She practically spat the word.

"Ohh, God...I'm just taking a breather" he assured her, rolling his eyes and taking a sip of his wine. Petra smiled at him and popped another mussel in her mouth. Sandro was ready to burst.

"Young man you need a big appetite if you want to become a big man like Commendatore Lorenzo! A big shot man does not need to be fat, but he needs a big appetite, now eat!"

"If I keep eating like this I'm going to become a much bigger man than Lorenzo..." he groaned. He looked with annoyance at Elio & the Chief...Mrs. Galati wasn't trying to make them explode.

Just when they thought the meal was over Mama Galati pulled a huge Spumoni out of her old ice-box, for dessert. Despite their enormous dinner the girls did not disappoint her...Alessandro felt like he was going to die.

After dinner Marisa solemnly returned the ring to Mama Galati. As happy as old lady had been at dinner, her sadness seemed to match. She sat, with Marisa & Petrushka on either side of her, and pulled out her photo albums, showing them not only Doriano, but the other men of her family that wore the ring in their time. "My husband...a Captain in the Gruppo Intervento Special. He fought against the terrorists too, and he died for Italia." She crossed herself in the Catholic fashion (a maneuver that made Marisa tense up, but by now she loved 'Mama Galati' so much that she did not freeze like when she had seen the nuns) and continued, "my poor Doriano...he could not have a military funeral like his Papa, because your work is so secret. He loved to play with his toy soldiers when he was little, and he was so brave & dignified at his Papa's graveside."

They saw photographs of Doriano's Grandfather, and his Uncles. A depressing number of them had been killed in service, fighting mafiosi and terrorists. "Nobody is left to wear my Doriano's ring. I have no more children...there is no one left."

"That's so sad" Marisa replied. Elio was keeping a close eye on her...this was very emotional for everyone and she could be overwhelmed by the slightest thing in this state.

Mama Galati put her arms around both girls and replied, "Very, very sad, yes. But if a little girl can kill the bastardo who took my Doriano the terroristi will have no chance when you grow up. You will kill them all and make Italia free and safe like my Doriano wished it to be."

The cyborgs had been briefed not to explain to their hostess that they would never grow up, so they responded, "Yes, Mama Galati."

The visit ended around 5pm. "You don't forget me, promettre? Robot girls in a dormitory don't have Mama's to take care of them, only grim men who are too hard on them and don't give them good food, so you make sure to come visit me when you get lonely. Make Signore Lorenzo drive you here any time you want a decent meal."

"We promise" Petra assured her as Marisa gave her a big hug. The younger girl had never met a woman like Mama Galati, and to her she seemed like the most wonderful person in the world...second only to Elio of course.

The older men stayed inside for a few more minutes to talk as Alessandro took the cyborgs out to the car. He really needed a cigarette too. He offered one to Petrushka but she motioned back to the house, and shook her head. She didn't want the old woman to see her smoking.

Marisa walked to the BMW, dragging her toes, and thinking about the visit. She had been very moved by Mama Galati's tears, and her terrible losses. She saw a few drops fall on the hood of the M3, and realized that now she was crying. "They took everyone from her." Marisa thought, "She has nothing left but memories and an old ring that nobody will inherit." As tears began streaming down her cheeks she cursed the terrorists, and the mafia, and the radicals with all her being. She clenched her little fists, and wanted to feel her trusty piano wire between her fingers, but there was none.

So she smashed the hood of the BMW.

"Sandro!" shouted Petrushka. Rissi spun around from lighting his cigarette in time to see Marisa in a rage, screaming something & pounding huge dents in the hood of the car. Forgetting his sense for a moment he rushed at her and tried to pull her away. "Marisa, stop! Stand down!" he yelled, grabbing her to pull her away, but the cyborg shoved him, sending him flying. He fell onto his back and smacked his head into the cobblestones.

Petrushka rushed in to defend her handler, pulling her Taurus along the way. "Petra, no! Just restrain her!" Rissi ordered. Petra heard him, and dropped her pistol. She grabbed Marisa from behind and tackled her, crossing her arms across the smaller girl's chest. Marisa stopped shouting, and both Sandro & Petra could hear what she was saying, "They took everything from her...I want to kill them...I want to kill them all." She was hyperventilating and sobbing...tears were still streaming from her eyes.

By this time the 2 older men had heard the commotion and the guessed what was going on. Elio dashed outside while Lorenzo stayed with Mrs. Galati, making sure she did not witness what was happening. "The girls are just rough-housing a little" he assured her, "too much sugar...you know."

In a minute or so the episode was over. Marisa sat on the ground, red faced and sobbing her apologies while Elio sat with her & worked through a breathing exercise to calm her. Petrushka had gone inside to get an ice-pack for her handler's head...luckily he did not seem to have a concussion. Lorenzo came out as Elio was finishing up and helping his cyborg to her feet.

"What happened?" the Chief asked Rissi.

"Petra saw it first," explained Alessandro, "when I turned around she was just screaming something and beating the shit out of Alboreto's car. I tried to stop her...dumb move, I know...and she threw me 4 meters. Petra pulled her piece but I ordered her to just hold onto Marisa, stop her before the broke the windshield or something."

"You wanna go to the hospital?" Lorenzo asked.

"Nahh, I've had worse. Listen, she was repeating stuff about Mrs. Galati losing everything, and how she wanted to kill all the terrorists & mafiosi" Alessandro told him, "she just got overwhelmed by it all. Thank God she didn't snap inside the house."

Lorenzo considered that for a moment. "I think Mrs. G may have had something to do with that too, and it gives me an idea."

Lorenzo saw that Elio had pretty much finished pacifying his cyborg so he walked over and talked to them. "Everything alright?"

"It's never alright" wept Marisa, "Everything was wonderful today and I ruined it, again! And I hurt Alessandro!"

"He says it's just a bump on the head" Lorenzo assured her, "but you must never again strike a member of the SWA." He took her by the hand and asked, "Elio can I speak to her privately?"

"Yes, Sir" he answered, but he had his doubts about what his old friend could possibly say to her.

Lorenzo & Marisa sat under the shade of an olive tree that grew in Mrs. Galati's garden. They sat, facing each other, in 2 rickety wooden chairs. "I'm sorry Section Chief, Sir" Marisa told him, in pleading tones, "I try, I try so hard not to lose control but my mind gets crazy and I can't control it!"

"I know you try, Marisa, but if you can't stay in control I can never use you on missions. Do you know what that means?" She wiped a tear away and nodded. Lorenzo continued, "Mr. Rissi told me that you were upset by Mama Galati's losses, and the horrible people who killed the people she loved."

"She's so nice, but now she's all alone because of those terrorists...why do they have to hurt nice people to get what they want all the time?" Marisa replied.

"Nice people get hurt every day, it's sad but it's the way this world works," the Chief told her "but we are the people who stop nice people from being hurt. It's hard, and sometimes we get hurt, or killed, but if it wasn't for people like Alessandro & Petrshka, Elio, and all the other fratelli, more nice old ladies like Mama Galati would have nothing but a photo album to remember the people they loved. The bad people would take everything away." Lorenzo took a deep breath and continued, "Marisa, I have a serious question...are you one of us, or one of them?"

Marisa became frantic again...she was on the verge of relapsing into another attack! Elio jumped, and tried to intervene but Lorenzo held up his hand...an order to stay back. "I'm one of you! I swear...I want to work...I want to kill terrorists and protect people and make Elio and you happy!" she exclaimed. She wrapped her hands around her head and began swaying back and forth in her seat.

"I don't know...all I've seen from you is a broken rib for Elio, a bruised head for Alessandro, and a smashed hood on Elio's car. You're doing more bad to us than the Padania." Lorenzo accused her, raising his voice.

Marisa was in bad shape...she was slipping into chaos. She tried to breathe, she tried to clear her mind and meditate on the sea. She needed some water...water would calm her.

"Listen to my voice Marisa" ordered Lorenzo, "think about Mama Galati. You promised her you would help by killing terrorists, but I can't ever use you if you don't get yourself in control, RIGHT NOW! So think of Mama Galati...fill your mind with her...say her name over and over again!"

"Mama Galati,

Mama Galati,

Mama Galati,

Mama Galati..." she repeated on the Chief's orders.

"Good...that is your mantra, you say her name when things get bad. You fill the space in your head with her instead of the chaos."

"Mama Galati,

Mama Galati,

Mama Galati,

Mama Galati..." repeated the cyborg, franticly, as she continued to sway back and forth.

Lorenzo clapped his hands, loud, right in front of Marisa's face. Like that...the attack was over. She was calm again, and they could hear the sparrows chirping as if nothing had happened. As he motioned to the others that it was okay to approach he told Marisa "What I said was true. I can not ever send you on missions if you can't control your attacks, but now you have a new reason, and a new way to stay in control." He raised his voice a little louder so everyone could hear, "That's why we came here today. Mrs. Galati's case is very sad, but if we work together we can prevent sorrow like she suffers. So Marisa...can I ask you again...are you one of us?"

"Yes sir" she answered, like a calm & confident cyborg.

Good." Lorenzo told her, "because I'm putting you in the rotation for missions. As soon as your name comes up, your fratello will deploy in the field. I can't tolerate any failures because for every failure, a nice person like Mama Galati will suffer." He concluded, "Sink or swim Marisa, and I hear you're a very good swimmer." That made her smile.

"Back to HQ?" Alessandro asked.

"How's your head?" Elio asked.

"Killer headache, but no concussion." the younger man answered.

"I'm sorry Alessandro" Marisa apologized meekly.

"Sounds like you could use a drink first" Lorenzo suggested, "Let's go to my house before we head back to headquarters. My dog has been cooped up inside the house all day...maybe one of these girls would be nice enough to give him some exercise." Both Petra & Marisa smiled at each other with excitement as they walked back to the car. Cyborgs rarely got to meet animals, and it was always a fun novelty.

Poor Elio surveyed the damage. "Ohhh, Marisa...why the Bimmer?" he groaned, "It's one thing when you hurt me, or a punk like Alessandro, but the poor M3 never harmed anyone!"

Even though his tone was humorous, Marisa cringed "Awww, I'm really gonna get it, aren't I?" she muttered.

Lorenzo put his arm around Elio's shoulder and told him, "We can rebuild her...we have the technology. Have you ever heard of carbon-fiber re-enforced plastic?"

Elio's eyebrows rose. "Mari...you can smash up a few more body panels as long as the agency is paying for it." he joked, "Now let's go get that drink."

_Villa Lorenzo_

It was 6 o'clock when Lorenzo poured out 3 tumblers of rare scotch and Elio brought a fresh ice-pack for Alessandro. They were in the Chief's private study; they could look out over the expansive back yard where the girls were playing with Lorenzo's dog. Even through bullet proof glass the sounds of barking & laughter could be heard.

The pointer, accustomed to the slow movements and steady, dignified love of his master, was in utter ecstasy having not one but two exuberant youngsters to throw his favorite ball, roll in the grass with him, and scratch that one special spot that made his leg thump on the ground like crazy. His nose told him something was different about these two, they were not like old Lorenzo or the other humans he had met, but as long as they laughed and rubbed his belly when he rolled over the hound considered them a gift from the master.

"Can I smoke in here?" Alessandro asked, pulling out his cigarettes.

"Put those away kid." ordered Lorenzo, producing a small humidor from his desk drawer "Hell yes we smoke in here. Try the Macanudo...got them on my last trip to the Dominican Republic, you'll like it." Sandro selected a cigar from the box, and attempted to light it with his butane lighter. "What the hell are you doing Rissi? You use a wooden match for a cigar like that, and you're not going to light shit until you trim the end."

Elio picked a cigar and patiently demonstrated the procedure to Alessandro, who was an extremely quick learner, and never needed to be shown something twice.

Puffing on a excellent cigar, and sipping the smoothest scotch he'd ever tasted, Alessandro looked around the room. Dark wood, rich leather upholstery, hand-made Turkish carpets with walls decorated with tasteful art (no prints or reproductions, only original paintings, even one by Claes) and certificates of award & thanks from some of the most powerful people in Europe. "This place is really spectacular, Chief" he commented, in awe, "if it's not too personal...has it been in your family for many years?"

"No, I bought this house when my first wife left me; she got the place in Rome as part of the divorce. My family comes from the south." Lorenzo explained.

Alessandro thought of his own apartment, which also served as his office and storage locker. "How do you afford all this on a government salary?"

Lorenzo was a little irritated at what he considered an uncouth question about money, but Rissi was young, with nothing of a classical European education, so he tried not to let it bother him. "Alessandro," he said, "I've been doing this for over 30 years. You realize, I hope, that I get paid a lot more money than you do."

"Eh, yes sir...of course" replied Rissi, a little embarrassed by his blunder.

Lorenzo reassured him, "Have some faith kid...if you stick with this game, and you don't do anything stupid like get yourself killed...or start fucking your cyborg...you'll get here."

Alessandro's face flushed red. His relationship with Petra did sometimes get dangerously close to inappropriate, and now he was aware that the Boss had his eye on him. Watching her roll in the grass with Marisa & the dog, laughing and playing like the kid she was made him feel like dirt. He was eager to steer from the topic. "How about you Mr. Alboreto? You haven't said much."

"Aww hell," Elio replied, casually puffing his cigar and swirling his scotch in its glass, "what do I need money for? I live with this guy. Old fool doesn't even charge me rent! But to answer your question, I do pretty well for myself." Then he remembered something he had said earlier in the day. "I promised you I'd explain about the nuns."

"Oh yeah...with everything else that happened I'd almost forgotten." Alessandro replied.

"Yeah, everything else" muttered Elio, rolling his eyes, "well, now you have suffered a full blown 'Marisa moment' and escaped with no broken bones. What do you think?"

"I think it's cruel to call it that" Sandro answered candidly, "a name is the first gift you ever gave your cyborg, and you're associating it with loss of control & failure."

Elio was the chastened one now. "Yeah, I agree" he muttered, "Mari was the first one to use the term...it was supposed to be just between her & I, but her other dive trainers heard and it just caught on. Hopefully, as she gains more confidence, her 'moments' will taper off and we'll never have to use that term again." He turned to Lorenzo, seated in an armchair to his right. "By the way, thanks, what you did for her was great. I think it's going to help."

"It was risky..." the Chief admitted, "pushing her into an episode, but I had to know what it took to pull her out of one. Hopefully thinking about Mrs. Galati will help her in the future. Enough about work...no more shop talk for the rest of the night, agreed?"

"But Elio never explained about the nuns" Alessandro objected.

"Oh yeah..." laughed Alboreto "it's too easy to get side-tracked. Well, you know how the Generation 2 cyborgs hang onto faint impressions of their former lives, even after conditioning wipes out their memories?"

"Like Petrushka's dancing" said Alessandro.

"Exactly...she's lucky. Your cyborg carries a happy shadow of her former life." Elio explained. "Marisa...not so lucky. As if that poor kid didn't have enough problems, she doesn't have a single happy memory of her former life. Mari was born Gwendolyn Doyle, in Dublin. Her mother was a heroin junkie who was arrested trying to pimp Gwen out for a fix. She was only 9 years old. Lucky for her the John was an undercover cop. While her scumbag Mom was in prison Gwen was too, in a manner of speaking. She got sent to a brutal Catholic orphanage. I mean...after the fire there was an investigation and 4 of the nuns actually went to prison for beating the children with leather straps. So you can see why she has a negative reaction to nuns."

"The fire?" asked Sandro.

"Yeah, the orphanage caught fire...but it was real fishy. The alarm sounded very early, so all the children were evacuated safely, except one, who the firefighters found still in her bed. After the fire nobody claimed to have set off the alarm, but it was a manual alarm so somebody had to have done it."

"Those kids had a guardian angel" Lorenzo sighed, "all of them but one."

Alboreto concluded, "Gwen came to Dublin Charity Hospital with 2nd & 3rd degree burns over 100% of her body. Her lungs were scorched, she was never going to recover." The Chief Surgeon at the Dublin burn ward knew something about the SWA, not everything of course, but he knew we're always on the lookout for a case like this. Since we had just solved the mystery of Marina's death we were ready to try again with a new diving cyborg. Dr. Belisario & I flew to Dublin, her surgeon wrote a death certificate and Gwendolyn Doyle ceased to exist."

Alessandro asked his last question; "What about her Mother?"

"Stabbed to death in the prison shower 2 days before the fire" sighed Elio, "Gwen lived just long enough to find out her Mom had been murdered. Oh...did I leave out that she was told about it on her 11th birthday? The day of the fire."

Alessandro shook his head in disbelief. "How can it be possible for God to hate one child that much?"

The 3 men sat in gutted silence, which was broken only by the laughter & cheerful voices of the girls outside. "Okay..." Lorenzo said, and then he took a long sip from his glass "now you see why I wanted no more shop talk for the rest of the evening."

END