Realizations
"Wow," was all Triela could think as she watched the sun rise over Monte Titano as she crossed the border into San Marino. The sky was alight with golden hues as she rode down into the small land locked republic in the central portion of Italy. Feeling the sun warm her chilled body after a long night of riding filled her with hope for the future regardless of where it took her and her sisters
While Triela cruised down under the rising sun Claes had an easier time making the five hour journey in Hillshire's Mercedes Benz sports wagon. The high end car came fully loaded with several autodrive functions and a top of the line navigation system guiding her right into San Marino. With Angelica's help they managed to find the Grand Hotel Primavera arriving just before sun rise. The Grand Hotel Primavera lived up to its reputation as a five star premier establishment as they pulled up the hotel physically and emotionally drained from the long night. The concierge having just arrived recognized the girls as the young relatives of one some of their premiere customers ushered them inside to their regular suite no questions asked as the valet service and bellhop took care of the car and their bags. The concierge also had breakfast sent up hearing several growling stomachs coming from the girls as they lumbered into the penthouse.
"Beatrice, wake up were here," Triela said as she shut down the high performance machine having finally arrived.
"hhhhmmmmm," Beatrice replied still asleep as she clung to Triela.
"Ahh, Triela, we've been expecting you," the head doorman said coming out to meet the drawn out young woman.
"hu," Triela groaned as she carefully repositioned the still sleeping Beatrice into her arms.
"Here let me take care of that for you," the doorman said taking the battered motorcycle from her. As he rolled the high performance machine away took notice of a cracked rear swing arm and made a mental note to have the in house mechanic look over the machine. "Have the mechanic look it over and spare no expense," the doorman said handing the machine off to one of the valets.
"I need a room," mumbled having been awake for a hard 24 hours at this point.
"Yes, I'm sure, we have your regular suite ready for you come this way," The doorman said offering to take Beatrice but Triela held the still sleeping girl tight as they headed into the upscale hotel. The doorman handed her off to the concierge who led her to the private elevator to the penthouse suites. He briefly wondered what kind of a mess the girls got into but he wasn't paid to inquire into the guests personal lives, just to give them the service they paid for and these girls were the relatives of some high rollers. "You're friends have already arrived and breakfast will be sent up shortly, is there anything else you require at this time,"
"No, Thank you," Triela said as she stumbled into the suite. She was not surprised to find her fellow sisters sprawled around the main room where their fatigue caught up with them. After setting Beatrice to bed she quickly set to work putting the rest of her sisters to bed. She put Rico and Henrietta in with Beatrice the three small girls fitting easily on the king size bed.
"Ugh, no more cake for you, Claes," Triela groaned hoisting her longtime friend to the remaining bed with an already peacefully sleeping Angelica. With her sisters all quietly resting Triela's body finally gave out as she flopping down on the sofa asleep before her head hit the cushion.
"Yes, this is Giovanni," the concierge replied taking the phone as he returned to the front desk.
"Giovanni, this is Bernardo, I need to ask you for a favor," Bernardo said.
"I have already taken care of the girls, when can we expect your arrival?" Giovanni asked.
"Good, thank you, I will not be making it out this time, but please give the girls your utmost care," Bernardo replied relieved that the girls made it to San Marino safely. He would do his best to stall the agency but they were on their own for now, with the other handlers now in custody. He would do his best to help them but there was only so much he could do before he tipped his hand.
"I will, look after them personally," Giovanni said.
"Thanks, the payment for their stay is on the way, and please give the contents of the safe to the girls," Bernardo said.
"It will be taken care off," Giovanni replied.
"Thanks, I will try and get in touch with them later," Bernardo said ending the call.
Giovanni entered his small office calling the physician the hotel kept on retainer to treat its guests. Given the state that the girls arrived in he was sure a doctor would come in handy. He then opened up the TXTL-60 safe the hotel had for the private use of their high profile guests locating Bernardo's attaché case not all that surprised to find it sealed with an electric lock.
"What do you mean, you lost them," the Italian secretary of Defense roared into the phone.
"The handlers ambushed us as they were about to surrender, allowing the girls to escape, and someone took the remaining girl from the agency hospital last night. We think that Triela made it back to the agency and managed to rescue the remaining girl based on the readings we got off the cyborgs RFID chips as they left the agency. We are currently searching their dorm rooms for any leads toward their current location," the lieutenant in charge of the operation reported.
"Well find them, they couldn't have gotten far, they are only young girls," she yelled.
"The handler's cars are missing and Triela was chased across Rome before we lost her," the lieutenant replied trying to think of some way to appease his superior.
"Oh, please they can't drive, they were only taught to kill, just find them," she yelled for a final time before slamming the phone down.
"How did she ever get to be minister of defense," the lieutenant thought as he headed over agency dormitories.
"Sir, we found this in one of the rooms," a private said handing over a Eurorail schedule.
"Good work," he replied examining the schedule finding multiple trains highlighted over the next few days. "Contact the Carabineiri. I want the Termini and Trenitalia placed on high alert, for the next two days and send over the frequency of the RFID chips. We should be able to capture them before they leave Rome, but alert Milan and have them be on the lookout just in case." The Lieutenant ordered.
"Yes, sir," The private said heading off down the hall.
The Lieutenant sighed, he would be happy when his current assignment was over, while he knew the girls were cyborgs and worked with them on several occasions recently, they were still just little girls to him. Yes, they had enhanced abilities but they were as dedicated to defending Italy as he and his own men were, he couldn't see why the minister of defense was so incensed at their capture what, was she afraid of.
"Ugh," Triela groaned as she tried to turn away from the sunlight shining down on her face. Unable to find any refuge from the sunlight she begrudgingly forced her sore body from the sofa her back cracking in protest as she stood up. Pleasantly surprised to find both breakfast and their bags delivered to the room, she lumbered over to the coffee happy to find it still warm. Taking the black elixir strait up, she let it slowly waken her exhausted body as she perused the continental breakfast the hotel had arranged for them. Deciding to go with a ladies best friend she grabbed a pons chocolate before heading to the bathroom to wash off the grim that clung to her body from yesterdays chase.
"I look like shit," Triela muttered munching her breakfast as she caught sight of herself in the bathrooms large mirror. Her long blond hair was matted and streaked with dirt, bags under eyes, looking like she just went another round with Pinocchio. "Damn and I was just starting to like this sweater," She said spotting the blood stain on her arm from last night's near miss. "Well at least Beatrice is safe," she said with a smile shucking the formerly white sweater into the trash. Taking care to clean up and bandage her arm she began to think about the girl's next move, for one thing they had to be more careful in future. While her wound only grazed her and failed to penetrate her carbon fiber enhanced skin, if she or any of her sisters received any serious injuries they could be in serious trouble without access to the advanced medical facilities of the agency. Then there was the whole mess with the needless conditioning process, she wondered if their memories prior to joining the agency would ever return, and if they did would she or any of her sisters want them.
Claes was the next of the girls to awaken surprised to find herself in bed next to a slumbering Angelica. The last thing she remembered was stumbling into the penthouse before the stress of the night caught up with as she crashed on the sofa. Being careful not to wake Angelica she made her way to check on the others, finding them still asleep before heading to the breakfast tray. Not finding any tea she settled for some coffee and danish as she started to put together a mental list of their current supplies. They relied on their handlers and the agency while out in the field being supplied with the best weapons and materials as their missions required them. Operating on their own was a situation the agency never trained them for, in fact the agency made sure they were dependent on their handlers and the support staff.
"Morning," Claes said as Triela walked out of the bathroom
"I'm glad to see you made it here ok," Triela replied drying her hair.
"The same to you," Claes replied.
"Do you think Hillshire and the others are ok," Triela asked as she dressed in her usual attire
"I don't know they did sacrifice themselves so we could escape. I do not think the agency is going to look kindly on that. More importantly however what is our next move, we can't stay here forever." Claes replied.
"Damnit, I shouldn't have let him back there," Triela cursed as the realization of the previous night sunk in.
"Triela, Hillshire and the other handlers didn't do what they did, we never would have made it out of there," Claes said.
"I know, but still I'm supposed to protect him, we were a team," Triela said sadly.
"Here," Claes said finding a plain white envelope addressed to Triela on the floor.
"What's this," Triela asked.
"I don't know but it fell out of your bag," Claes replied.
"It looks like Hillshire's hand writing," Triela said as she opened and began to read the letter.
Triela,
If you're reading this it means that my plan to break you out of the Agency has failed. This wasn't the way I wanted to tell you about your past, but it's time that you learned how you ended up at the Agency. I owe you at least that much. Please understand that I had only the best of intentions, but then, the road to hell is paved with such intentions.
My real name is Victor Hartman, not Hillshire. In the past, I was a rookie investigator working for Interpol. I was naïve and thought I could change the world. But I had no idea what sort of horrible things human beings are capable of. My superiors attempted to shield me from them because they didn't believe I could handle them, but I insisted on confronting the worst that humanity had to offer -on my own if need be. It wasn't long before I met someone of a similar mindset: a French pathologist named Rachelle Bellut. We both knew that there was a group of people somewhere in Amsterdam who were making snuff films involving children, and we desperately wanted to stop them. Eventually, Rachelle met a Mafia man who had started to develop qualms about the things his organisation was getting involved in, and he told her the location of the warehouse where the next film was going to be made. She contacted me, and we decided that we would intervene.
We charged in without backup determined to save the girls who were hidden inside. As we fought our way in Rachelle was wounded but she was determined to press on as we moved deeper into the warehouse. It was there that I caught first site of you bleeding out on the floor while a video camera played on. With no heed to her own safety Rachel rushed to save you while I covered her. It was at this point that her own injuries proved too much for her. She died to save you believing that as long as there are people like us then there is hope for the future.
You were still gravely injured and I brought you to the agency in hopes of keeping you and that hope alive. I had no idea of their true intentions until it was too late and I did my best to keep you safe but in the end it was not enough. I can only beg for your forgiveness for placing you in this circle of violence. Even if you now hate me, I have one last request please keep Rachelle's hope alive.
Victor Hartman
(courtesy of Piero)
"That stupid jackass," Triela cursed as tears coursed down her cheeks. How could he think that I hate him. Hillshire no Victor, was her partner, her brother, she could never hate him.
"Triela whats wrong," Rico asked having found Triela crying her tears staining the paper in her hand, as she entered the room in a search for food.
"Nothing, don't worry about it," Triela said drying her eyes. "Don't worry Victor, I'll keep Rachelle's hope alive then I'm coming for you, so don't you die on me," Triela thought as Angelican and Henrietta stumbled in.
The sweetness of the hot chocolate did little to raise Henrietta's spirits as she picked at the array of fruit displayed in front of her. Jean was her big brother, and she knew that he did it to keep her safe, as that's what big brothers do. However they were a fratello and she was his cyborg. It was her job to eliminate the bad guys, and keep him safe, how could she do that when she wasn't near him.
"I failed didn't, I" Rico said as took a sip of orange juice. "I let Jean get captured and I didn't even put up a fight. I'm supposed to be his weapon, to be his instrument of justice, how can he avenge them now" Rico said quietly with a blank stare.
"Marco," Anglica muttered as she tore the top of a muffin venting her frustrations on the poor pastry.
Having lost her handler years ago Claes was at a loss for how to help her fellow sisters. Normally she was a voice of reason the girls looked to along with Triela but in this case she simply did not know how to help them having had her memories of Raballo locked away for so long. Also her mind was busy trying to think of their next move as the memories of her long lost training returned to her. Raballo taught her to think of the enemy's next move before planning your own, which was much easier, said than done as there were a multitude of unknown factors to consider. Did section 1 fall for her ruse, would the carebrini, or army be called in, how would the padania react, or would some other unknown group become involved, she needed more information.
"Listen up, I know what all of you must be thinking right now," Triela her soft voice cutting through the oppressive silence like a knife. "I failed, I let them get captured, I'm a cyborg I should have fought back, I could have done more, I let my fratello down. That's bullshit." Triela said as five sets of eyes were drawn to her. "We did not let our fratello down, we never have, we have faithfully served as the agency's sword and shield time and time again. How does the agency repay us, by pumping us full of drugs that would eventually lead to our deaths. Our handlers, no our brothers discovered this and tried to break us free of agency's control. They wanted us to have a life, to be able live freely and choose our own paths, not one dictated by the agency. Henrietta, Jose wants you to be able to pursue your dreams of music. Rico, Jean wants to show you the finer things in life. Angelica, Marco sees you as the daughter he never had. Beatrice, Bernado wants you to smile and live life to the fullest. Claes, I know Raballlo is not with us anymore, but I'm sure he wanted to foster your love of learning. I believe, no I know that our brothers, fathers, uncles, are still alive. They wanted to protect us from the true face of the agency to give us the life we never had, let not have their sacrifice be in vain, and I know we will see them again." Triela said as a crying Henrietta glomped on to her, with Rico, and Beatrice half a step behind. They were soon joined by Angelica and Claes as they gathered around in a group hug. "Thank you," Triela cried as the girls latched on to her.
"So what do we do now, big sister," Beatrice asked looking up at Triela with hopeful eyes.
"……" Triela thought, she never knew the young girl saw her like that, but it gave her a warm feeling in her chest none the less.
"Yes, Triela, you are our big sister," Angelica said.
"Well as your big sister, it's time for you to get cleaned up. Seriously Claes what did you drive through last night, you girls stink," Triela laughed. Things were finally starting to look up as she watched her sister's antics as they rushed to get the first shower.