SCENE XXVII: TRIELA'S HOSPITAL ROOM.
Maria Machiavelli had since left with Mario. Claes is sitting on a chair by the door while Triela is sitting up and staring out the window. Cammy walks in with Marco.
"Hey there honey. I like those pigtails." says Cammy, addressing Triela.
"Um Marco, who is this?" Triela says confused, "You know it's not a good idea to bring up some strange woman you picked up at the bar with Mario."
As Cammy reaches in her pants pocket, Claes grabs her arm in an attempt to keep her from taking out a weapon. Cammy smiles, and flips Claes to the ground; and she's taken off-guard by the stranger's reflexes.
"Relax, sweetie." says Cammy, "I'm not here to fight you."
Cammy takes a business card from her pocket and hands it to Triela.
"It says you're 'Cammy White' of something called the "Delta Red" in the UK." says Triela, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to recruit you." says Cammy, "You, and your feisty little friend here."
"Marco hasn't told you that we're not in the killing business anymore?" Claes says, after catching her breath.
"He did bring that up; although it really means nothing to me."
"Do you mean to say we don't have a choice?" says Triela, "What if we really didn't want to join you?"
"It's non-negotiable." says Cammy.
"Spill your guts, Cammy." interrupts Marco, "You promised me you'd tell me your story in the presence of the girls. Well there they are. There must be some reason why you sought out these girls on your own. I don't think it has anything to do with your Delta Red or the British government as a whole getting involved."
"Under normal circumstances, I keep my background classified." says Cammy, "My documents are sealed in a vault that would make the guards at America's Fort Knox shit their pants. But you're a special case. All of you are. I wouldn't be talking at all with you if I hadn't confirmed that this hospital room has been completely debugged."
"Gee, that's reassuring." says Claes.
"You girls have experience with brainwashing." says Cammy, "I know this from accessing the files of the Social Welfare agency. I believe they called it, "conditioning", yes?"
"Yeah that's correct." says Marco, "What of it? I've already told the Chief, who you said has 'no jurisdiction' that I'd put a hole in his head if he mentioned that word in the same sentence as the girl's names."
"Not before I would." says Cammy, "I have personal experience with brainwashing, and wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy; let alone these two innocent girls."
"I don't get it." says Marco, "You're going to recruit these girls to go after some more political terrorists and not rely on brainwashing?"
Cammy smirks at the comment, "I'm going to do things the old fashioned way. I'm going to train them. Delta Red Style. But please let me finish with my story."
"Please continue" suggests Triela.
"I was only 19 when I entered a tournament for fighters around the world called 'Street Fighter'. I needed to find out about my past, which was cloudy at that point. It was there that I learned I had been a brainwashed assassin for the Shadaloo organization. Killing people with no remorse. That was the name of my game. I'm sure you girls know what I'm talking about."
Both Triela and Claes nod their heads.
Cammy continues, "It was at the tournament where I met an Interpol agent who also joined for personal reasons, Chun-Li. Chun-Li recognized me as the assassin who killed her father, the Chief of Interpol at the time. I was literally at her mercy; but she chose to forgive me in exchange for working with her to bring down Shadoloo. I will be in her debt forever."
"So you work with Interpol as well as Delta Red?" asks Marco, "Christ, this shit keeps getting better all the time."
"Delta Red is now a subordinate of Interpol." says Cammy, "We're among the agencies that do their dirty work while those calling the shots keep their hands clean."
"So what is it you get out of all this?" asks Marco.
"Redemption." Cammy says with a smile, "And the pay's not bad."
"It's not these girls that need the redeeming; it's the talking heads of the Agency who put them up to it." says Marco, "Them, and assholes like me who went along with it. St. Peter won't be waiting for me at the Pearly Gates when my time's up."
"You're not as bad as you think you are." says Cammy, "I admire that fellows like you took the girls under your wing. You called them, Fratellos, right?"
Triela puts her hands over her head as she thinks about Hilshire.
"Did I say something wrong?" asks Cammy, "I'm sorry if I stepped out of bounds."
"No, it's ok." says Triela, "Just thinking about my handler. He saved my life, you know."
"Victor Hartman, otherwise known as Hilshire." says Cammy, "He had quite a story. You might not believe it, but we at Delta Red had a small role to play in Hilshire's development."
"Do tell." says Marco.
"We're the ones that provide the seized snuff films to Europol. Not for the faint of heart." says Cammy.
"Lovely." says Marco.
"And yes, we knew about Mario Bossi being an informant." Cammy says to Marco, "If we didn't have our hands full with and Shadaloo, Bossi and his entire family would've been relocated to Denmark under the strictest of interrogations."
"Why didn't you say anything to him at the bar?" asks Marco.
"What was I going to say to him?" suggests Cammy, "That I'm sorry we didn't get to him first? I think he turned out all right in the end. And if he never got involved with Hilshire and the Italian police, this bright young darling wouldn't be with us today." She gestures to Triela.
"So you mentioned before about taking the girls under your wing." says Marco, "How would that be any different than their Fratello relationships?"
"Because unlike the Social Welfare Agency, we respect our elders." says Cammy, "We won't be putting the girls in the front lines. If I'm out on the job, the girls would be my backup, not the other way around."
"Are you suggesting none of the handlers were good enough to be in the front lines?" says Marco.
"I'm suggesting none of you would be in the front lines. You conditioned the girls to be the equivalent of an AI assassin. A 'cyborg', if you will. They do the dirty work for you, and you fellows come in and clean up afterwards."
"Hilshire wasn't like that; at least not in the way you say." says Triela, "He was always by my side, not behind me."
"I meant no disrespect." says Cammy, "For what it's worth, I would've liked to meet him and shake his hand. You're a remarkable young woman, and I know the man you knew as Hilshire was responsible for a huge chunk of that."
"He had a good head on his shoulders." says Marco, "But we all had our demons. Some were worse than others. The Croce brothers' demons did them in. My only regret is that I couldn't do more to stop them."
"What were your demons?"asks Cammy.
"That I was a handler to begin with." says Marco, "It's going to haunt me for the rest of my life."
"You were in a Fratello with the girl named Angelica, right?" asks Cammy.
Marco walks to the window and stares outside, in silence.
"Shit I'm sorry." says Cammy, "She must've meant a lot to you."
Marco hasn't stopped staring outside, "All of us handlers were responsible for naming our cyb….I mean girls. Without thinking, many handlers gave their girls a boy's name." he turns to Claes, "No offense."
"None taken." says Claes.
"I was assigned to a girl who was the subject of a hit-and-run incident; and the perps were her own flesh and blood." says Marco, "Her parents were the epitome of the scum of the earth. The mother didn't work, and the father had just closed in on a failed business venture. With no means of income, a mortgage, and a child; the two of them decided to cash in on a life insurance policy they had taken out for their daughter, Angelina."
Triela turns to Claes
"Oh my G-d. I had no idea." says Triela.
"There's no way you would have known." says Marco, "Your backgrounds were kept from you so it wouldn't conflict with the conditioning process."
"It's a fucked up world" says Cammy.
"Little Angelina was out walking home with her dog, when a car came out of nowhere speeding down the road, jumping the curb and slamming into her at full force." says Marco, "She was left their paralyzed, until police arrived at the scene."
Claes begins to cry. Triela comes over to hug and console her.
"At such a fragile age." says Cammy, "It was a miracle she survived."
"The miracle was yet to come." says Marco, "The parents were constantly trying to get in to visit her at the hospital, so the government intervened and had her transferred to the Social Welfare Agency. There, the miracle workers gave her new arms and legs, and I gave her a new name."
"From Angelina, to Angelica." says Cammy.
"That's correct." says Marco, nodding his head, "If there was one thing the parents did right, it was that this little girl was indeed an Angel. When I took Angelica in, I had to beat the rest of the staff off with a stick to keep them from hounding her, especially the women in Section 1."
"Priscilla took an immediate fondness with her. We'd always see the two riding on a moped." says Claes.
Marco: Angelica was the first girl to be put through the conditioning process by the Agency. As time went on, it took its toll. Not only had her memory been wiped clean of her former life, but she began to forget events that went on with her at the Agency. The doctors told me that this was a sign her days were now numbered. We took to meds, but the treatment was only going to delay the inevitable. Despite our pleas to the contrary, Angelica still wanted to go out on the jobs with the other Fratelli. It may have shortened her life even more, but in her mind it gave her a purpose. We created a damn monster." Marco shakes his head.
Cammy: You can't blame yourself. Without your involvement, Angelina would've been alone and quite possibly crippled for the rest of her life.