/A Studio, in London/

"This is BBC World News Today with me, Zeinab Badawi.

With a new round of income tax reforms come more protests this week in Rome, where the government has come under close scrutiny for its public welfare policy. Right-wing factions from the North of Italy argue that the majority coalition, led by Rinato Pisano, is taking an excessive role in the welfare and livelihood of the people of Italy."

/A Street in Rome/

"Look, it's not that I don't care about the people in the south, okay? It's just that I have my own family to worry about, and I won't stand for the government taking my money to use it for shit like unemployment benefits and medical expenses when I can barely feed my kids as it is."

/A Studio, in London/

"Pisano's reforms come at a time of great economic turmoil in the EU. The Pisano Reforms, as they are known, more heavily tax the wealthy and relieve taxes on lower income brackets, while also providing unemployment and medical benefits to a wide range of qualifying individuals. The Lega Nord, of Northern Italy, has publicly denounced this move, calling it 'the basest form of income redistribution, trampling on the rights of the citizens of Italy to an income unmolested by a greater force.' We now go to-

/*click*/

James turned off his television and reached for his suit jacket. Money was the source of so many problems in the world.

"Off to get more of it," he said with a sardonic grin.

James hummed thoughtfully as he shut off his car's engine and exited the vehicle, computer bag and laptop in tow. Caterina had made almost alarming progress. The former CIA-operative hadn't expected any more talent than the average newbie field agent, and had indeed resigned himself to several months on the bench waiting for Caterina to get up to speed. But the girl had an almost fanatical devotion to her studies and her training, beyond anything he'd seen in his years as an operative. She was behind, she knew it, and she refused to let that condition stand. When he had first put her on a balance beam, Caterina had barely been able to walk to the other end. Now, only a few weeks after her first evaluation, she was able to backflip down it with easy. It'd only been five weeks, but Caterina had become a well oiled machine of war.

James took a moment to take a sip from the drinking fountain. It wasn't entirely fair, he thought, to call her a machine of war though. Caterina was capable of much more than driving in a straight line and killing all who opposed her. Indeed, she was very explicitly NOT to do so. Caterina was smart, that much was obvious, and over the last month he had taught her how to reason and how to plan, how to think and how to feel. She knew how to coordinate five different audio signals from her team mates and how to move her teammates toward positions that needed reinforcing. She could recognize holes in enemy formations and she could hack into just about any system that the Agency could simulate, which was a lot.

All in all, she was precisely the weapon he needed.

But something wasn't quite right. It was perhaps because James was used to working with five other people to accomplish what he and Caterina could accomplish alone. Or maybe because, despite her usefulness, Caterina was still a girl of thirteen, and he simply wasn't used to help of this level of competency coming from children.

"So what to do, what to do, what to do with Caterina," he said to himself as he continued walking down the hallway toward his office. Maybe they should go camping sometime? That was supposed to be a bonding thing, right?

Oh well. Best leave it as another thought for another day. He had work to do. Arriving at his door, James knocked twice, waited five seconds, knocked once more, and then opened the door. Inside, Caterina nodded to him as she worked, sliding her pistol back into its holster in her messenger bag. Today was a Research Day; the fratello typically spent a most of the day gathering information about current events in legal and less than legal ways.

"Good morning, James," she said, tongue held between her teeth and hair tied up and back as she read down a news article. "I'm just cross referencing this latest development in Paris. Coffee is in the machine over there."

"Excellent, thanks," said James, setting his bag on the floor before taking off his suit jacket and hanging it up on the coat hanger behind the door. "What news from Paris?"

"Oh, just the usual angry Parisians who can't get their delicious pastries, you know how it is," said Caterina nonchalantly as James retrieved his coffee. "Only three injured this time."

"The Paris Police are finally stepping up their game," said James approvingly. "Did you hear about the protests today in Rome?"

"Yeah, I've got an eye on the CCTV in the area," said Caterina, flicking her fingers across the touchpad and switching to a video feed, before turning the screen so James could see. "So far nothing major, but the crowd that's gathering at the Parco Delle Colle Oppio is a lot larger than it usually is. Should we be concerned?"

"Not yet, but stream it onto the big screen, will you?"

"Right, let me get my cable."

"Sure, I'll just start setting my things up for the day."

James glanced around his office briefly as Caterina left for her room to retrieve an HDMI cable, pulling out his own laptop and checking to see what Caterina had already set up. In the corner, on the bed left for handlers who were staying over night doing work, was a large bank of radio and cellular transceivers that the fratello used to monitor the airwaves in the area. It was automatically flipping through the channels and running a search algorithm James had "borrowed" from the CIA, and would alert them if it encountered anything interesting. Caterina had been sitting in the space beside his desk, where the pillow usually was, and her laptop had begun running the screensaver. James nodded to himself; always lock your computer when you leave it. Over the desk and under two halogen bulb lamps hung a 60 inch plasma screen HD television, split between the local news and the BBC. Inside his wardrobe, James saw that Caterina had already powered up the Electronic Warfare Suite if they needed it. The shelf below it held their coffee machine, from which James took a moment to get coffee from, and his spare suits were in the larger space on the left. The room was also lit by a standing lamp in the corner opposite the bed.

With a sigh, James sat down at his desk, laptop in hand, and began scrolling through his news feed.

Several hours had passed. Caterina's return with the HDMI cable had heralded the streaming of her CCTV connection onto the plasma screen, now split into quadrants and showing two different cameras, scrolling through them at five second intervals.

"Anything interesting?" asked James as he finished with the last report he had for the morning. His news feed was finally empty, it was nearing on lunch time, and they were out of coffee. Definitely a good stopping place.

"Not really," said Caterina, closing her laptop and then rubbing at her eyes tiredly. "Jeez, talk about boring. You'd think there'd be something interesting with all the unrest these days. Can't we get a- a fatality or something?"

"Don't say those things out loud," scolded James half-heartedly. "It's bad karma." Truth be told, he almost wished that someone would die messily just so he could read up on the gory details. But that always jinxed the day, and he would greatly prefer not to have to scramble to Milan for something or another.

Caterina sighed. "I don't think I'll ever understand your superstitions. Feel like lunch?"

"Absolutely," said James, standing and making for the door. "You have the scanners set to notify our phones?"

"Yeah," said Caterina with a nod, scooting off the bed and stretching, knocking out several kinks in her back. "Oof. Let's head out."

"So how're the other cyborgs doing?" asked James as they walked. "I haven't had a chance to catch up with the other handlers lately."

"They're doing alright. Henrietta's been practicing her scared-little-girl routine."

"How's it coming?"

Caterina gave him a skeptical eyebrow. "What do you expect? Half the staff nearly dropped their coffee in shock, the other half were utterly unimpressed. She's not going to be able to really practice without an audience that doesn't know who she is."

"Well, some practice is better than no practice," said James, turning the corner towards the dining hall.

"I suppose. In other news, Rico's managed to be the first cyborg to ace the sharpshooting range. Jean gave her a pat on the head."

James rolled his eyes. "Of course he did. Doesn't the man know that weapons need to be maintained properly? He's going to wear out Rico well before her expiration date if he keeps it up."

"Ah, well what can we do?" asked Caterina with a shrug. "It's not as if we're going to live that long anyway."

"Three years is a lot less than five years, Caterina," said James. "And I dunno about you, but I'd rather not replace my weaponry that frequently."

"I guess that's true, especially if you have to retune the weapon every time," agreed Caterina, tapping at her chin thoughtfully. "I mean, I've got a head for this computer stuff. Imagine if you got a cyborg who couldn't make heads or tails of it!"

James came to halt and shuddered in horror. "Oh God, don't make me think about things like that."

Caterina giggled and thumped her handler gently on the arm to get him moving again. "Hush you, I'll still be here awhile yet. Though it might not be unwise to start grooming a girl for you later..."

"That sounds like it would make me a lot of paperwork," said Ferro, joining the two from the Administrative Offices with a cautious expression. "Do I want to know?"

"Oh, we were just talking about my replacement when I die and what we should do about her," said Caterina with a laugh. "I was just saying that it might be useful to abduct someone and train in her in the necessary skills before converting her."

Ferro blinked, face rapidly shifting from confusion to abject horror.

"Don't worry Ferro, we're not going to kidnap anyone," said James with a reassuring pat on her shoulder. "I know that you've got enough on your plate as it is."

"Why not? It'd really work pretty well, if you think about it," said Caterina, holding open the door to the dining hall for the two adults. "I mean seriously, why not just grab some girls and convert them, then train them in class groups?"

"Because we're not in a nation where this would be received quietly," replied James. "Now in the PRC, that's entirely possible, and it's fortunate for us that they're way behind Italy in technology. But here..."

"I'd think that you'd have a rebellion on your hands," concluded Ferro dryly. "It's a good plan, if you ignore the value of human life."

"Well let's be reasonable, Ferro," said Caterina with her hands spread in a placating gesture. "No one here is saying that humans aren't worth anything. It's just that a random civilian is worth less than a combat cyborg, right?"

"..." Ferro and James exchanged looks.

"What?"

"We're going to have to go over Nietzsche and Kant, aren't we?" asked James with a groan, rubbing at his eyes in anticipation of the oncoming exhaustion. "Ferro, please tell me that Hilshire has a thing for that already."

"He does, actually," said Ferro, with an odd expression. "How'd you guess?"

"It's Hilshire," said James with a shrug as he picked up a plate of pasta. "He's an idealist and it can't have been easy for him to join up with this business. It naturally follows that he'd start looking into philosophy or religion to give himself closure. Caterina?"

"Since he isn't wearing any religious paraphernalia and there's nothing in his car or office to suggest that he's very private about his faith, then it is more likely that he studies philosophy," said Caterina, easily continuing the train of logic while picking up a plate of pasta as well. "Ooo, Carné al Ragu! However, Triela doesn't really do religious references except for in passing or in satire. While many of the principles that Hilshire has taught Triela are, indeed, part of most religious systems, since he lacks the afore mentioned paraphernalia, it seems more likely he's studying philosophy."

"That's... remarkably insightful," said Ferro as the three continued with their plates towards a table. "I see we made the right decision, bringing you two on board."

Caterina grinned. "You can count on us, Ma'am!" she said confidently. "You give us the feeds, we'll give you the most accurate and most rapid real time data analysis you've ever seen!"

"My cyborg's advertising efforts aside, thank you for the compliment, Ferro," said James with a laugh, spearing a bit of pork. "How's work in the administrative offices?"

Ferro paused. "To be honest, we're a little worried," she said pensively, putting down her fork to keep from tapping it against her plate. "The latest protest in Rome..."

"It's larger than it should be?" asked James. "Caterina thought so too. I was expecting it to have dispersed a little by now."

Ferro nodded. "Usually, you get a lot of overly enthusiastic first timers who end up leaving early for a crowd that size. The fact that it's not really dispersed is troubling. You're already monitoring the situation?"

"Yes, though I suspect that Section One is as well."

"Of course they are," said Ferro with a grimace. Section One occasionally had issues with this sort of assignment. It wasn't that they were incompetent, it was that they tended to flag too many possible hits and make a chaotic mess. "Nothing we can do about it, I suppose. Let's just hope that nothing comes about."

After lunch was more boredom. James and Caterina went to the shooting range briefly to try and avoid going back to the office and it's never ending tedium, but it was a brief diversion at best. Both knew that to ignore the screens was just inviting bad things to happen.

"Urgh," groaned Caterina, slipping off her shoes and flopping onto James' bed. "Back to the long, slow grind then."

"There is a reason I got a giant television," said James, leaning back in his chair and resting his feet on his desk. "And that is because we can plug our video feeds into the TV and have something entertaining going in the background."

"Yeah, well, doesn't mean that it's not boring beyond all possible belief. Besides, there's nothing on this time of day except crappy soap operas."

"Hey now, the protest is supposed to kick off in a few minutes, remember?" asked James, nodding at the still rotating CCTV views. The crowd had grown even larger as the day had progressed, and it was now growing restless. "It looks like it'll be interesting."

Caterina gave the TV an appraising look. "That's not comforting."

"What do you mean? It'll cut the edge off your boredom."

"No, I meant what they're showing," said Caterina, sitting up and pointing. "Look, see how the crowd's moving around? Peaceful protests don't do that."

"Caterina, people hardly can be expected to stand still during a protest."

"Yeah, but they usually drift in and out of clusters of people," countered Caterina. "Remember the protest in Berlin? Everyone was chatting pretty quietly before they went off and did a circuit 'round the city. Not like this."

James turned and studied the CCTV more closely.

"You have a point," he finally concluded, turning up the volume on the BBC's Live Coverage as he did so, keeping the volume low enough so that they wouldn't need to shout to have a conversation. "The people in these feeds are more jittery than we saw in Berlin. Good work."

Caterina smiled briefly before returning to her horizontal position on the bed. "So as I said. It's not comforting. Not in the slightest."

"Cheer up, it probably won't be that bad," said James as the crowd began to move, making its way down to the Via Labicana and west past the Coliseum towards the Capitoline Hill. "The Polizia are usually pretty good at crowd control."

"Italy IS pretty bad at making a stable government," said Caterina with a chuckle. "I imagine a simple history search would give you a lot of examples of civil unrest to work off of."

"Now now, let's not be racist," said James, hiding his grin. "Technically, you're supposed to be Italian yourself, you know."

"Bleh, I know for a fact that my body came from somebody American," said Caterina, rotating in place with her feet to face the opposite direction, hair hanging off the edge of the bed as she talked and watched the television. "I'm under no obligation to consider Italy my homeland."

James blinked. "Wait, doesn't the conditioning-?"

"Not really, I only swear my allegiance to the protection of Italy, not to making it my homeland etc. It's like how you'd never betray the SWA, but it's not like Italy's your home, right?"

James nodded, frowning at a view of several protestors gesticulating violently about something as they walked northward. "Professional discretion on my part, but yes, I understand. Do you know if that's universal across the Corps?"

"I dunno, I'll have to ask. I think Henrietta and Rico might be more attached to Italy than, say, Triela, but I dunno. And since when did you call us The Corps?"

"Since just now," answered James with a grin. "Has a nice ring, don't you think? The Cyborg Corps?"

"Only if you want to risk exploding OpSec every time we use our radios," replied Caterina deadpan, but unable to suppress a small grin. "It sounds nice, but I'd rather not risk the issues that could come with."

"Fine, fine, be a killjoy," said James, faking bad humor, turning to face his cyborg. "Maybe I'll just get a new cyborg who likes all my ideas. What do you say about that?"

"Eh, she'd fail at everything else then," said Caterina confidently. "I'm the only girl who's can learn as fast as you want us to."

"Awfully sure of yourself."

"Of course I am," said Caterina, rolling back on to her stomach and tapping her toes against the wall, a small grin sliding onto her face. "After all, I take classes with the other girls. None of them are quite as far as long as I am."

"You know as well as I do that this is only because I spent a month drilling all the knowledge I could into your head," said James, giving Caterina a cautioning glance. "You're talented, but you're not the greatest cyborg who's ever lived."

Caterina appeared suitably abashed, flushing red in embarrassment. "Er, well, yes, but..."

"Just do your job, Caterina." said James, leaning back in his chair and pivoting to face the plasma screen. "That's all I or anyone else can ask of you."

"Yes sir," said Caterina with muted enthusiasm, turning back to her laptop and quietly working through the audio feeds again before turning her attention to any new reports from the press. Twenty minutes passed in silence as Caterina continued reading through the various news reports, keeping an eye and an ear on the CCTV and the radio feeds. Halfway through an article about the economic situation in the United States, Caterina's well trained sense of wrongness pwinged.

"James, is it normal for protests to walk right past the Presidential Palace?" she asked, tracing the route taken by the leaders of the pack with her finger.

"Well they can, but the Polizia should be blocking it off," said James with a troubled frown. He scooted his chair over and peered down at Caterina's screen. "Why? What do you see?"

"It seems like the protest is going to carry right on by the Presidential Palace and the Polizia aren't doing anything to stop it," said Caterina, tapping at the police cordon. "Look, they've formed a line in front of the Piazza Colonna, but wouldn't it have been safer to divert at Via del Due Macelli and onto Via della Mercede?"

"It would have been yes, but it's not that unheard of," said James. "It may be a gesture of good will to the protestors, and besides, it's not like a riot is going to be able to storm the Palazzo. It's too well protected for that."

"If you say so, but I'm getting a bad feeling," said Caterina unhappily, watching as the front runners began to near the police cordon. "Something's not right here, James."

"Yeah, but-" James paused. With a blink, he turned to look at his cyborg. "I-" There it was again, that odd feeling that they weren't quite working as well as they could. "I think-" Was this it then? Could it be that-?

*BOOM*

Both members of the fratello jumped as the explosion rocked out of their plasma screen. Their attentions whipped back to the CCTV feeds, where smoke and dust obscured all vision.

"Well that's not a good sign," said Caterina, flexing her fingers. "Should I tap into the Palazzo's CCTV?"

"Do it," said James with a tight nod. "I'll try to home in on the radio frequencies in the area to record the reaction."

"Understood. Pulling CCTV... now."

With a flick of her fingers, Caterina exchanged the street-view CCTV with the CCTV in the Palazzo Chigi. Keeping an eye and an ear on his work, James looked up.

"Oh hell."

The Palazzo Chigi's windows were all smashed, their bars charred from the explosion, with glass peppering the inside of the building. Workers inside the ground and second floors could be seen in varying states of disarray, ranging from shocked and frightened to dead or dying, either from the shock wave or from the flying shrapnel. Blood spattered the walls and desks, and, as the reality began to set in, gunfire tore through the aftermath of the suicide bomb.

"Shots fired," noted Caterina, making a note of the time as men with submachine guns advanced into the Palazzo Chigi, security personnel running out of the top floors with concurrent weaponry to begin defending the Prime Minister.

"Time: 15:29."

"The situation is, frankly, poor," began Lorenzo, less than twenty minutes later. Following the attack, Section Two had immediately been placed on high alert and everyone had grouped into the Large Conference Room. Caterina, clothed in a lightly armored, skin-tight stealth suit with weapons strapped onto her limbs and waist, tapped her fingers against the table as James, wearing standard GIS assault gear, sat next to her in an eerily languid calm. Around the table, the handlers of Section Two also sat with their charges, all in varying states of relaxation. All sharpened to attention as Lorenzo began speaking.

"The City of Rome has been placed under lockdown after a suicide bomb attack on the Palazzo Chigi, followed by an armed assault on the Palazzo by twenty-three men and twelve women. All civilians are being evacuated from the area and have been moved to the grounds of the Villa Borghese, but the protestors dispersed upon the explosion. While most simply melted back into the crowd, a large number took to rioting and looting through the streets, but have been contained to the Piazza del Popolo by the Polizia. While this has prevented the escalation of violence across the city, we are no longer running a nation, as Parliament has been evacuated and the Prime Minister is being held hostage, pending the approval of the secession of Northern Italy from the Republic by federal mandate.

Fortunately, the Prime Minister's bodyguards aren't completely incompetent. While Carabinieri units stationed at the doors were killed in the initial blast, those within the building were able to respond and barricaded the passage to the Prime Minister's living quarters, and have now fortified their location. According to CCTV feeds from the James-Caterina Fratello, the terrorists represent the Armee per l'Indipendenza della Padania and have taken up positions to storm the Prime Minister's quarters, while leaving reserves to guard the front and rear entrances. It is estimated that the Carabinieri will last no more than ten minutes, should the attack commence, and so we must act quickly.

The plan is as follows.

SWA Section Two will advance with GIS Section Three's Alfa, Bravo, and Charlie Teams. Bravo Team will establish a base of fire while Generation One Fratelli and Alfa Team advance as the primary assault force, backed by Charlie Team. After initial contact has been made, Charlie Team will disperse in pairs to locate and destroy any outstanding enemy presence on the premises while Bravo provides security screen. Alfa and Gen-One teams will proceed up the main staircase and attack the terrorists, moving as quickly as possible. The James-Caterina Fratello will coordinate communications between GIS and SWA units as well as provide technological support. Any questions?"

"Do we know how the terrorists are armed?" asked Giuse.

"CCTV shows primarily submachine guns, with a smattering of automatic pistols," answered James.

"What about booby traps?" asked Bernardo. "I'd rather not get my arm blown off."

"We didn't see any, but that may have changed since we last checked," said James. "'Keep your guard up' is all I can say."

"Anything else?" asked Lorenzo. "No? Then head to the GIS Garage. We move out in ten minutes."

The assembled fratelli filed out of the conference room, jogging down the halls to get to the garage early and pack their gear.

"First time seeing some serious action, Caterina?" asked Triela, body armor and tactical vest fastened over her typical suit vest and pants. "I saw you tapping your fingers in the conference room."

"I guess," said Caterina with a shrug. "I've only been on standby with some of your missions, so it's the first time I'll know for sure I'll be participating. The conditioning helps a lot with the jitters though."

Triela nodded. "Get some experience under your belt and things will start to get a little boring even."

"Heh, well I guess I can only hope for more of the same then?" asked Caterina. "Best not tempt fate, right?"

"Eh, I guess, but truth be told, I could use-mmph?"

"Really though, don't tempt fate," said Caterina with a serious expression. "Last time James did that, he got fired from the CIA. Last time I did that, this happened"

"Really? You're superstitious?" asked Triela, incredulous. "Caterina, this is pretty serious, but it has all the hallmarks of a classic assault mission. What could possibly go wrong?"

Caterina facepalmed. "Dammit Triela, you had to say that out loud." She turned away and moved towards Henrietta.

"What? Oh come on!"

"Nope, not talking to you and prompting more jinxing of this mission," said Caterina over her shoulder. "Just watch, I'll bet that one of us gets shot."

"You're too superstitious!" Triela called back, before continuing on beside an amused Hilshire, grumbling. "Stupid Gen-twos..."

"There's only one Gen-two, Triela," said Hilshire, tactfully hiding his grin.

"Same difference."

"So Henrietta, what's up?" asked Caterina, approaching Henrietta and Angelica. "You guys have done this sort of thing before, right?"

"Yes, it's pretty routine by now," said Henrietta with a smile, smoothing back her hair with a gloved hand, having exchanged her typical ensemble for a long sleeved, black shirt and khaki battle trousers that matched her body armor and harness. "Although, Angelica, when was your last deployment?"

"I think a few months ago, before I had to go in for recalibration," said Angelica, dressed similarly to Henrietta, ticking off the months on her fingers. "Yes, I think it was five months?"

"How're you calibrations, by the way?" asked Caterina as the group rounded the corner. Henrietta reslung her P90 as it slipped briefly loose.

"Ah, my results are back in their previous percentiles, thanks to Marco's training," said Angelica with a happy smile. "He's been making sure to help me lots on the firing range."

"That's good," said Caterina. "I'm happy for you. I guess I'm back to last place on the scoreboard, huh?"

"I.. sup-pose," said Henrietta slowly, selecting her words carefully. "But keep in mind that we're all grouped close together, so..."

"Ah, don't worry Henrietta," said Caterina, nudging the smaller girl playfully. "I'm not so insecure in my shooting. I can do more work with my laptop anyway."

"Oh, er, sorry then," said Henrietta with a small blush. "I didn't mean-"

"What did I just say about worrying?" asked Caterina, poking Henrietta with a finger. "Besides, we should be talking about the mission, getting our heads in the game and all that, right? Any thoughts?"

Henrietta scratched her head awkwardly. "Giuse is better at that sort of thing than I am, but the plan sounds like it will work."

"Yes, although Marco always says that 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy'," said Angelica. "Maybe we should have more plans?"

"More plans is always good," agreed Caterina, popping upwards to look for the other Gen-ones. "Where's Rico? Triela was just over there, and Silvia I think is over there..."

As Caterina prepared to pop upwards again, Henrietta snagged her belt and gave her a displeased look. "Don't jump around so much. I'm sure we can think up a decent plan on our own."

"But if the others don't know-"

"Caterina, you're not going to be able to have every team member be up to date on every plan you make," said James, patting his cyborg on the head. All three girls stiffened in shock and nearly missed a step. "It's good that you're taking the initiative and coming up with your own contingencies, but maybe you should wait for a closer look at the blueprints?"

"Nngh, stop doing that!" groaned Caterina, leaning into her handler as she recovered from the shock. "I don't have the conditioning to handle it!"

"To be fair, Angelica and Henrietta were startled too," said James, giving her a noogie. "Weren't you girls?"

Both very surreptitiously placed their weapons back into their holsters. "Yes, exactly," said Henrietta with a smile. "But Caterina is right, our threat response is a little different."

"Well, alright then, I'll try to give you a few seconds warning next time," said James, rubbing Caterina's head and nudging her back upright. "Anyway, like I said, you should probably wait for the blueprints before really making any detailed plans."

"Oh, er, right," said Caterina, turning red. "I guess that would make more sense, wouldn't it?"

"Eh, you're doing well so far," said James. "I need to talk to Jean some more. See you at the garage."

"Bye!" called Caterina, before turning back and rubbing at her face embarrassedly. "Eurgh. I'm all out of sorts."

Angelica gave Caterina a brief commiserating hug. "You'll be alright, it's just nerves."

Henrietta nodded. "I was a lot worse my first real mission..."

"Really? What happened?"

"I'd... rather not say," said Henrietta unhappily, suddenly turning sad.

Caterina frowned. "Oh. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"Don't be, I brought it up first," said Henrietta, slowly brightening. "A-anyway. Will you be in the van again?"

"Well, since we're deploying with GIS Section Three, I'll probably be in a 4x4 Puma," said Caterina, thinking through the Carabinieri's tactical vehicle roster. "But same principle, I guess."

"What's it like being on standby all the time?" asked Angelica. "I was just off duty when I was being recalibrated."

"I... I guess it's like being the string of a bow?" said Caterina, searching for an appropriate analogy. "It's... it's really tense? But, I dunno, like it's also a bit of a relief, because I know you guys will more than likely be able to handle it, so I'm not worried."

Angelica and Henrietta exchanged a confused look.

"I guess I'm bad at explaining it," said Caterina sheepishly, the trio making its way into the garage. "In the end, I guess the most descriptive adjective is 'dull'."

"It must be, sitting and waiting so often," said Angelica with a nod. "I hope it will be more interesting for you today."

Caterina grimaced. Not again. "Right, thanks. I, uh, gotta go and meet James at the command vehicle, so I'll see you guys later?"

"See you later!" Henrietta and Angelica said, before Caterina jogged off find her handler.

Caterina hurried through the bustle of men loading ammunition and equipment into the Puma armored fighting vehicles, searching for James. She spotted him talking to Jean and the GIS Commander, Jean wearing an outfit remarkably similar to Henrietta's, though it was probably the other way around, while the GIS Commander equipped identically to James. Pausing briefly to tie her hair back and up, Caterina jogged towards them.

"...so I'll have to transmit that data manually then," said James, brow furrowed, "Jean, do you want me to have that go to all teams?"

"Of course, everyone needs to know where the enemy is," said Jean calmly. "Make sure that you give us updates every few minutes. I don't want us caught off guard."

"Right, movement only then?"

"Yes, and any changes in disposition. If you can, time it for lulls in the battle."

"Alright. Major Salles, you'll want the same?"

"Yes, absolutely," said the Major, nodding as he did so. He glanced behind James. "Is this your cyborg then?"

"My name's Caterina, Sir," said Caterina, nodding briefly to the Major, then to Jean. "Commander Jean."

"Your equipment is over there," said Jean, pointing at a bundle lying off to the side. "You should move it while I discuss things with your handler."

"Yes sir," said Caterina, taken briefly aback but immediately moving as instructed. "Any particular place I should put it?"

"We still need to load some equipment from Charlie Team," said Major Salles. "Try not to take up too much space."

"Yes sir."

"Anyway, is the electronics warfare package ready, as we discussed?" Jean asked of James.

"Yeah, and we'll be able to live-feed the CCTV as well," said James with a nod. "Do you know how much..."

The conversation continued along similar lines, Caterina tuning out completely as she let James handle the proceedings. The bags were nothing heavy and contained the E-Warfare hardware they'd need, as well as their laptops, James' in his computer bag and Caterina's in her messenger bag. She finished quickly, and spent the remaining time double-checking her equipment. Her burglary kit, which consisted of a variety of lockpicks, RFID chips, and flash drives, was sorted, her souped-up iPhone was charged and loaded with the appropriate software, her gun was loaded and safed, her knife was sharpened and in its sheath in the small of her back, and everything was secured upon her person within easy reach.

"Ready to go?" asked James, joining her in front of the Puma.

"Yup, just waiting for the order."

"Well, get in then."

The fratello climbed into their Puma, taking the last two seats beside two troopers from Charlie Team and Major Salles, nodding as they did so to the balaclavaed and armored soldiers, who nodded back in recognition of the fratello's abilities. Major Salles picked up the radio.

"This is Section Lead," he began.

All around, the rumble of diesel engines filled the garage as powerful headlamps switched on, bathing the walls in bright white light. All gear was loaded and all teams were in their vehicles. The road to the Palazzo Chigi wasn't very long, but terrorist tempers were much shorter.

"All units..."

It was time to make someone's day a lot messier.

"...move out."