Chapter 3: New Rules
Jean, Jose, Marco, Alessandro, and Hilshire were called upon and gathered in Chief Lorenzo's office to attend a mission briefing. The firefight on the countryside road had happened a week ago, and Hilshire had healed almost completely since his wounds had been superficial. He still had to be careful, though, lest his stitches break.
The five handlers lounged around and chatted for some time, mostly about how much trouble Section Two had fallen in recently. The were hurting badly for funds and as a result, they couldn't afford to produce new cyborgs, develop new cybernetic implants for the girls, or even to buy themselves supplies or little luxuries that they used to have. Priscilla was running low on her favorite sugary sweets and sodas, for example, and instead of the fine gourmet meals that they used to live on, the operatives of Section Two had to be content with living on military mess hall food. Long story short: budget cuts were eroding morale and reducing the importance of the Agency.
The worst part about this, however, was that the cause for this deterioration had so far eluded them. Section Two could find no way to explain the spike in Fratelli death rates, which were at the root of their problems. That is to say, they could find no explanations until now.
Chief Lorenzo of Section Two entered the room and immediately the handlers went silent. He wordlessly walked to his desk, unlocked one of its drawers with a key, and removed a large manila folder from it. He then took his seat behind his desk, folding his hands in front of him.
"As you know," the old Chief of Section Two began, "We have been struggling lately with financial issues, morality rates, and mission failure rates." He began to undo the seal on the folder next to him and continued, "You all know as well that these problems of ours have stemmed from some mysterious source, and up until now this source has escaped our detection. However, thanks to the intelligence we've been compiling over the past month, we have verified that this crisis is the fault of the Republican Faction."
Alessandro raised his hand, and at a nod from the Chief, interjected, "Sir, we've already extensively investigated Padania as the root of these matters, and the investigation ended up inconclusive."
Chief Lorenzo answered, "That has been our problem, Alessandro. Even though Padania is without a doubt behind these problems of ours, there would have been no evidence to be found against them in Italy." He paused to let this revelation sink in, "Hilshire, the man we captured from the hit-squad that attacked you last week spoke a language that none of us could understand. Thankfully, Marco here has had some experience in North Africa and was able to communicate with the assassin in the Kabyle language. Through our interrogation, we found out some… troubling things."
The Chief removed a stack of documents from the folder and handed them to Jean to be examined and passed around. As they did so, he continued, "The assassin revealed to us that he was part of a private military company originating in Algeria, and that his company was hired by Padania as muscle to use against us specifically."
Jose cut in, "Why would the RF hire Algerian mercs? What makes them any more effective against the Agency than Italian assassins?"
"The prisoner told us that his company had upwards of 50,000 soldiers," Lorenzo replied, "We believe that this figure is what attracts the Republican Faction. However, this Algerian PMC group, it turns out, is not our only problem. Only several days after Hilshire and Triela were attacked, Alessandro and Petrushka disarmed and dismantled a bomb that they found in their safehouse on their last mission. According to the tags on the bomb, it had been made in Novgorod, in Russia. Rico and Jean the next day were attacked in their sleep by assassins that had communicated to each other in Japanese. Unfortunately, these assassins would not allow themselves to be captured alive so we could not question them. Our Algerian mercenary, however, confirmed our worst fears."
The documents in the manila folder had been passed around the room completely, so the next few statements made by the Chief did not surprise them. This didn't keep them, though, from being greatly sobered and ominously silent. Padania had been conducting trades not only with the Algerian PMC known by a name that translates to "The Jackals", but they had also paid a group of Russian professionals to steadily supply them with high-powered firearms as well as bombs, and a Japanese syndicate of assassins based in the city of Yokohama that specialized in stealth, intelligence gathering, and close-range assassinations. With these combined resources, the Republican Faction was easily able to intercept any Fratelli that was deployed, and dispatch them with heavily armed mercenaries, secretive assassins, or bombs. This was clearly a winning combination for Padania. These resources made them unstoppable and there was no denying it.
The Chief voiced this last idea to the five handlers, then with grim conviction got down to the true business of the meeting. "We must," he said slowly and deliberately, "Cut Padania off from these new sources of power. And to do this, we must reach out beyond our jurisdiction, travel to these locations, find the base of operations for each of the organizations, and put an end to them one way or another."
At this, the handlers exchanged doubtful glances. They knew that going "beyond their jurisdiction" meant illegal operations that involved deniability. This meant that they would all be working alone without any aid in these missions, save for whatever local support they might be able to get. It also meant that smuggling weapons across the borders for later use would be the next closest thing to impossible. Essentially, they would be invading foreign countries with hostile intents and not carrying any weapons. Nevertheless, none of them stated these thoughts going through their heads, as they were loyal to Chief Lorenzo as well as to Section Two.
"Our plan," the Chief said, "Is to pair up your Fratelli and send them to one of these three locations. From there, I'm afraid you will be on your own to dismantle your enemy's establishments as you see fit. Unfortunately, we can't spare more than two cyborgs per location; since we are spread thin enough as it is. Jean, you and Alessandro are going to Yokohama. Jose and Hilshire, I want the two of you to take care of the Russian weapon manufacturers. Marco…"
As the Chief trailed off, Marco looked around and commented, "Sir, there are only five handlers here."
Lorenzo sighed deeply in preparation to deliver a revelation of enormous repercussions. Once amply prepared, the Chief gave Marco the news…
Triela, Henrietta, Rico, Angelica, and Petrushka were making their ways to the indoor shooting range, each carrying their assault weapons of choice: an M1897 Trench Shotgun, FN P90, SIG SG 551, Steyr AUG A1, and Spectre M4 respectively. With their handlers conferring with Chief Lorenzo for a meeting of some sort, the girls really had nothing to do, so they decided to get some training done without them, mostly in order to please them. As they walked, they chatted.
"Rico, I heard you and Jean were attacked on your last mission," Triela stated.
Rico nodded and replied, "Two assassins hid themselves in our hotel room and tried to kill us in our sleep."
"It must have been scary," Petrushka commented, "What happened?"
"One of them took a misstep and knocked over my MG3. Jean and I were able to take their knives away, but they escaped and threw themselves under a truck."
"Seriously?" Petra exclaimed incredulously, "Well, it sounds like you got really lucky there, Rico."
Rico nodded with a wordless smile, and then Henrietta asked, "Speaking of luck, Petra, didn't you and Alessandro find a bomb under your bed when you went to Ravenna?"
Petrushka answered laughingly, "Yes, it's true. I had lost my shoes and looked everywhere for them, and when I checked under my bed, I saw a blinking red light. Thankfully Sandro knew how to disarm it."
The girls neared the shooting range, and as they approached the door, they heard gunshots. "Huh," Angelica mused, "None of the others have returned from their missions yet. I wonder who's in there."
They entered the range and were greeted with a sight so alien and unfamiliar to them that none of the girls could be sure that what they were seeing was real. Their jaws dropped at the sight of their friend Claes, whose black hair was tied into a ponytail and hidden under a gray army cap. She wore cargo shorts and combat boots, and her dark, analytic eyes stared with deadly focus down the sight of her H&K VP70M. Her shoulder took the brunt of the recoil, thanks to the stock attachment, but she took it so well that she might as well have been pretending to shoot her gun. Claes' ever-present spectacles were nowhere to be seen, as they were hidden in one of the many pockets of her black combat vest.
With Claes were two stern-looking SWA operatives. Once Claes had finished her current magazine, she handed her weapon to one of these operatives, who reloaded it and handed it back to her, after which she would continue firing at the steel target.
Despite the passing of several years since Claes had last fired her weapon, she fired it now with such precision and skill that one might have thought the passage of time between then and now had simply been a single night prolonged to the given length. And, even though her proficiency had remained unchanged despite time, there was something new within young Claes. A sort of dull fire that burned within, but radiated without, and could be seen in the way she looked at her target, or the manner with which she pulled the trigger again and again…
