Ch. 4
Consapevolezza
Henrietta slouched a bit in the passenger's seat of Jose's car, the two of them haven't said a word so far. Jose kept his eyes on the road as his thoughts wandered to what he saw on the CQB course; Henrietta unloaded an entire clip in to the last target, even when it emptied she still kept trying to shoot. It wasn't until he called out to her that she stopped, she seemed confused then, like she forgot where she was. The need for answers becoming unbearable, the handler broke the silence.
"Henrietta." He addressed her quietly, making her flinch a little. "Do you want to talk about what happened back there?" The cyborg sank in her seat, and Jose could have sworn he heard her whimper.
"I…um." Henrietta stuttered. "I passed the course." Obviously she was trying to avoid the subject.
"Yes you did." Jose replied. "But something happened at the end there, you weren't yourself." No response from her. "What were you thinking when you sprayed that last target?" Henrietta started fidgeting with her hands, not wanting to revisit that. She then stared at the floor in defeat.
"I saw them." She murmured quickly.
"Who?"
"Those tall men." Henrietta looked out the window. "The ones from my nightmare, I don't even remember shooting the last target." A lump formed in Jose's throat; this was a really bad sign. He felt worse when he noticed Henrietta trembling, about ready to cry.
"I was all alone!" She whimpered. "It was like I was in that dream again but…."
"Hey!" Jose called to her. "Look at me." The cyborg did so, making her handler relieved when he saw no tears yet. She still looked dejected though, expected but troubling to him. Despite this he managed a smile.
"Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" Jose asked, trying to get her not to think about what happened. Henrietta looked ahead and pondered for a few seconds.
"Well, what I'd really like is….uh…." She hesitated, face going slightly red.
"Go ahead."
"I'd like you to hold my hand." Henrietta shyly requested. "But you're driving, so it's probably not a good idea."
"No, it's okay." Jose reassured her, glad that there was something he could do. "I can drive with one hand." Henrietta smiled as she hesitantly laid her hand on the hump between their seats, Jose's hand followed soon after, gently resting on top of hers and easily enveloping the much smaller hand in his fingers. Henrietta leaned back and closed her eyes as she felt more relaxed.
It was an unspoken rule to not do things like this at the agency, but they weren't at the agency right now. Besides; Henrietta needed the comfort.
Jose only recently started allowing this, ever since Henrietta's chaotic encounter with the Padania assassin Pinocchio. Shortly before then, Jose started feeling a strange sense of alienation towards Henrietta; her seemingly growing need for affection began to worry him. But a talk with Dr. Bianchi proved rather enlightening, "Be clever like a snake, but simple like a pigeon," he said to him. Jose was thinking about it too hard, so he resolved to just let it flow with Henrietta no matter what they discussed.
Ever since then, Jose couldn't really describe about how he felt about her, but things felt more natural somehow. Well, as natural as a relationship with a brainwashed child assassin could be, but still. It was like his urge to help her had been renewed, the bizarre bond he forged with her had strengthened.
Now here she was, letting the warmth from her handler's grasp sooth her and make all the scary things in her head go away. No way was this going to fix everything, but for now it was enough. However, this brought something rather important to Jose's mind, making his smile fade.
"Uh, Henrietta?" He addressed her hesitantly.
"Yes, Jose?" The cyborg answered, enjoying having her hand held.
"I want you to go to bed early tonight." Henrietta's eyes opened and her smile vanished as she quickly turned to face him.
"Why?" She asked.
"We have an important job tomorrow." Jose replied, not wanting to upset her. "And your sleep schedule is probably a little screwy after last night, you need your rest." Henrietta lowered her gaze with a frown.
"What if I have that nightmare again?" She inquired, a little more quiet. "I'm scared it'll happen again after what I saw on the course." Jose cursed in his mind, he didn't want to remind her of it but she needed to hear what he just said. Now that she was thinking about it, the odds of her having it again increased, unless…..
"How about I come to your room and talk with you until you get sleepy?" The handler suggested. "If you keep your mind off it, you won't dream about it." Henrietta blushed in response to his offer, eventually her smile returned.
"I'd like that a lot actually." She said.
"I'd like you all to simmer down, please." Director Lorenzo said to all the staff present around the table, handlers and support staff alike all hushed. "Now on to business; as you all know, the government has given us a very important assignment." He gestured to Jean, who walked up to a board carrying a bunch of photos.
"A ship called the Isabella was recently hijacked by Padania terrorists." He explained while sticking a photo of a large docked ship. "She's a cargo ship made to transport hazardous materials."
"I'm sorry, but how is a cargo ship worth our time?" Marco asked from across the room. "What does the RF want with it?"
"Well, sense it's a cargo ship it's obvious they intend to transport something." Hilshire spoke up, the detective in him being put to work. "Perhaps they plan to steal something else as well."
"Precisely Hilshire." Jean continued, a little annoyed at being interrupted. "We were able to capture one of the terrorists involved in the hijacking, after a little interrogation we learned this is only step one for something big."
"Did he say what?" Jose asked.
"No, those involved were just told to dump whatever cargo it had, take it somewhere, and hand it over to another crew." Jean explained. "They were never told what it would be used for. By the time he told us where the crew swap was going to take place, it had already happened."
"So where do we come in?" Jose inquired with a quick look at his watch; it was almost time for Henrietta to go to bed.
"The captive also told us where he was given his orders." Jean said as he posted a picture of an apartment building. "The address he gave us leads to this apartment complex, its owner apparently is in the RF's pocket; they use it as one big safe house. He said if we want to find out more, we should go here."
"What are we looking for?" Hilshire asked as he crossed his arms.
"Preferably, you take one of them alive for questioning." Lorenzo spoke up. "But if that's not possible, look for any sort of documentation; computers and such. With a plan this elaborate, they're bound to have recorded something somewhere." The handlers looked over the apartment blueprints in their possession, quickly memorizing them.
"This operation goes down at 3:00 in the afternoon tomorrow, I expect all required fratellos to be prepared." Lorenzo explained. "Those involved include Jean and Rico, Hilshire and Triela, and Jose and Henrietta." Jose flinched at the mention of his fratello, catching Jean's attention.
"Sir, if I may." He interrupted. "I don't believe the Jose/Henrietta fratello is in top form for this job, if you recall there was an incident involving Angelica."
"Which is why we can't afford another absent team." Lorenzo said to Jean with a subtle glare. "This job was originally going to involve the Marco/Angelica fratello, and we can't spare any more for the time being, these three teams will have to do."
Jose's gaze lowered; he hoped his cyborg would be up to it.
"Hey Rico?" Triela addressed with a look of concern on her face.
"Yeah?" Rico responded quizzically from across the small table.
"You saw Henrietta at the training grounds, right?" The senior cyborg asked. "Did she look okay?"
"She looked fine when she showed up." The blonde cyborg answered, donning a frown. "But she and Jose left early without saying anything, I think something bad happened." Triela frowned in response; Henrietta seemed like she got better during lunch.
"Aren't you usually playing with her at this hour?" Claes asked from her top bunk. Rico turned her attention to her as her frown vanished.
"She said Jose wanted her to go to sleep early tonight." Rico replied. "So I'm letting her have the room to herself until she falls asleep!" She suddenly gasped as she remembered something. "Oh! Jean wanted me to come by his office after the meeting, I better go."
Rico made for the door with alarming haste, leaving the other two cyborgs alone to worry. Claes returned to the book she was reading while Triela stared at her favorite teddy bear; Augustus, which was perched on the table.
Triela sulked, thinking she had enough on her mind with feeling indifferent to putting Pinocchio six feet under, now there was something wrong with Henrietta. If there was anything good about this, she at least felt worried for Henrietta, sure it was a negative feeling but at least she felt something. Unlike the Pinocchio dilemma.
"You know it too, don't you?" Claes asked, pulling Triela from her thoughts. "Henrietta's not okay at all."
"Yeah." Triela replied sadly, now hugging Augustus. "Cyborgs aren't supposed to remember their dreams, at least not as clearly as she does with that one."
Due to conditioning, cyborgs had great difficulty remembering their own dreams, they shed tears in their sleep and wake up not remembering why. Occasionally, one might be able to recall what they've seen, but even then it's usually incredibly vague. The clarity of Henrietta's nightmare was cause enough for alarm, but her reaction to it made it even worse.
"Is…is it starting for her?" Triela hesitantly asked, afraid to even utter such horrible words. "Is she deteriorating?" Finally saying it made bile rise in her throat.
"I highly doubt it." Claes said as she closed her book, judging that her distressed roommate was more worthy of her attention right now. "It hasn't been that long for her, and probably won't be for even longer if Jose stays the course with her lax conditioning. Besides, its forgetfulness that's a sign of deterioration, not retention."
"Then what the hell is going on Claes?" The senior cyborg desperately asked.
"As hard as it is to believe, I don't know everything, Triela." Claes answered with a softer voice than earlier. "And you can't fix everything, all we can do is leave this up to Jose."
Triela hated this, Henrietta confided in her numerous times now and she or Claes usually had something to say or do in order to cheer her up. It wasn't always an easy task, given how emotionally high maintenance Henrietta was, but she despised seeing her so upset.
Now here Triela was, useless to her.
Henrietta sat patiently on her bunk, already under the sheets. After a little bit she looked at the clock and began to worry if Jose wasn't going to come, then a knock startled her.
"Come in." She said quietly. The door opened and revealed an exhausted Jose. Though ecstatic that he came, the small cyborg picked up on how tired he looked.
"Hey, Henrietta." Jose greeted with a smile and a hushed tone. "You sleepy yet?"
"Only a little." Henrietta replied sadly with a small smile of her own. "But you look more tired than I am!"
"Don't worry about it." Jose reassured her as he stepped closer to her bunk bed, upon closer inspection he noticed she was shivering slightly. "Are you cold?"
"Slightly." Henrietta told him while pulling up the covers a bit more. "Is it going to get colder later?"
"Yeah, it's that time of year." The handler confirmed as he looked out the window. "They even say it's going to snow later this month."
"Really!?" Henrietta inquired enthusiastically, making Jose look back at her.
"Easy there!" He told her with a chuckle. "There's still a chance it might not snow too." Seeing his cyborg set all excited over something as simple as snow like a normal child reminded him of something; though her body was almost completely synthetic and her brain conditioned to not feel bad about killing, at her core Henrietta was still a little girl. As such, she still got excited by things a normal child would, other cyborgs however are normally conditioned to not care about stuff like that.
"However, if it does snow…." Jose thought out loud as an idea came to mind.
"What is it?" Henrietta asked as she tilted her head curiously. Jose casually leaned against the wall.
"I haven't gone sledding in the longest time!" He told her. "What do you say?" The little cyborg's eyes widened in response to his proposition.
"Can we?" She asked as she began to shake with anticipation.
"If you do well enough on this next job and it ends up snowing, then sure." The handler explained. Completely consumed by excitement, Henrietta starting kicking her feet while giggling uncontrollably. The prospect of sledding seemed fun enough, but doing it with Jose turned the hype factor up to eleven for her.
"I promise I won't let you down, Jose!" The cyborg proclaimed. Jose felt a little uncomfortable hearing that, but at least she had incentive to stay focused tomorrow. Noticing that her handler looked less pleased than before, Henrietta ceased her celebration.
"What's wrong?" She asked, more calm than earlier. Jose looked up and quickly put his smile back on.
"Nothing." He lied. "Just getting tired is all." Not convinced, Henrietta frowned. She thought back to before the incident with Pinocchio on the survey bridge, Jose seemed "tired" then as well, and didn't speak with her as much.
"Jose, do I bother you?" Henrietta asked suddenly, making her handler's smile fade and his eyes widen slightly.
"What makes you ask that?" Jose asked back, growing worried. Henrietta's gaze lowered.
"I noticed it a while ago, around the time we had to assassinate that Lieutenant Colonel at the Tosca performance." She explained. "You seemed distant, like you were avoiding me." A lump formed in Jose's throat; he had no idea she became so attentive to such things.
"Henrietta…." He began to say, but his cyborg wasn't finished speaking.
"If I'm bothering you then I want you to let me know!" Henrietta demanded as she looked at him. "Then I can stop, okay?" Jose was speechless; this was quite mature for her, or any other cyborg for that matter, let alone normal children her age. He figured it was due to how little conditioning she received, it probably allowed her to be aware enough to evaluate her own behavior. This made Jose think of the conversation Henrietta had with Marco before the meteor shower, when she admitted that her lack of fear when faced with death was probably her conditioning talking. If she was aware enough to realize that her words may have been influenced, was what she said actually genuine?
Jose walked on up to her bunk and placed a firm grip on Henrietta's shoulder, staring intently at her face.
"Henrietta, don't ever think of yourself as bothersome." He told her. "You've earned every gift I've given you, you deserve to be happy after everything I put you through!" Henrietta stared at him with her mouth agape; he wasn't loud, but the sheer sincerity and intensity in his voice shook her to the very core. It was overwhelming, yet it did not frighten her, in fact she found it comforting. Eventually a small smile formed on the little cyborg's face.
"Okay." Henrietta whispered, now exhausted. "Thank you for all you've done for me, Jose."
Jose returned her smile and released his grip on her, afterwards she yawned and rested her head on her pillow. Her handler pulled the covers over her, then took a few steps back. Sleep began to take the cyborg.
"Good night, Henrietta." Jose whispered.
"Good night." She replied as he left.