The Ghosts of Rome

A Gunslinger Girl fan fiction by:

Sintendo

Chapter 7

Despite the action that occurred the day before, The Agents separated into several teams under the guise of tourists and began to scour the town according to schedule. It wasn't often that one was paid to roam about one's hometown, but today was Giulio's lucky day. Fortunately still, he was the odd man out when the time came to separate into teams of two and was left to wander the streets alone, though not helpless of course.

The bakery where he once stood among a crowd of hungry workers to buy the freshest bread for his wife was now closed. Though not particularly dilapidated, the building was uncared for as evidenced by the thick coating of dust upon the abandoned shelves from within. When inspected a bit closer, a wave of memories flooded into the old man's mind, and instantly the smell of bread being taken out of wood-fed stoves and the added bonus of the scent of brewed coffee wafted through his nostrils. There were also certain other townsfolk whom would act the same way when passing the old bakery, but these were only few in numbers. They were the ones who lived in the same era as Giulio or who still cared to remember the historic landmark.

But to dwell upon the past was the mistake of a foolish man; Giulio knew this. He constantly reminded himself that, with the near bugging of the two cyborgs the other day, there were now two main objectives that he and the others had to accomplish.

The first and primary task was to find the whereabouts of Padania's answer to Section Two's cyborgs. With Bolzano literally filled with Padania sympathizers, gather information about this secret project of their will be as simple as asking around, knowing the right choice of words to use of course. The only problem was to accurately locate said members of Padania. This, however, was simplified by one crucial fact: low-level Padania henchmen almost exclusively wore blue clothing.

Several potential targets were identified almost immediately and Giulio set out to contact the closest one. While the sight of an elderly man sitting on a park bench and feeding birds with bits of bread may seem inconspicuous, in Giulio's eyes the brightest spotlight in the world was pointed at the man.

He introduced himself with: "Excuse me, my name is Giulio and I'm new into town."

"So?"

"I was just wondering," Giulio said as he sat next to the man, "If you knew a good place to have a few drinks…"

"Hmph!" The man grunted as he tossed the rest of his bread crumbs onto the ground, "What lies beyond the furthest reaches of memory?"

Giulio smiled, and answered, "The place where all were born and to where all will return."

Immediately the man stood and began to walk away. At first, Giulio thought he had given the wrong answer since it had been a while since he last hard this poem, and even though the man signaled for him to follow, there was still doubt cast within the back of his mind. For all Giulio knew, he may have answered wrongly and is currently walking into a trap.

It didn't help ease him much either to see that the bar the man was leading him too was of the risqué types; a strip club. Without any hassle from several bouncers and guards, the two of them weaved between the empty seats of the club. With it being the morning hours, only the worst of the worst kinds of men and perverts were inside, and Giulio didn't like being a part of their daily routine. Yet another disturbance was the handful of "workers" that would occasionally confront him and ask if he would like a private dance.

With the temptations passed, they finally reached the back of the building. Standing before a split door, the man took care to allow Giulio to knock on the door, testing him to see if he knew the correct procedures and to make sure he was actually who he claimed to be. Giulio would have to gather as much knowledge about Padania and their ways if he wanted to pass the door and not leave one of the filthiest places he's ever seen.

"Well," Giulio thought to himself, "They wear blue… and the door is blue… should I talk to the door?"

All jokes aside, it literally took all his brain power to form some sort of a first step in order to open the door. He was, after all, a soldier, not a detective.

He thought to himself once more, "The wood panels on this door seem oddly placed…" and, after another second or two, he cautiously knocked five times on the fifth wooden panel from the top. Giulio's breath never left his lungs even though the door slowly opened, because after it did he was asked another question by the man behind the knob.

"Who sent you?"

Giulio smiled and responded with, "Christiano", the first name he came up with of the few Padania leaders he knew of.

The door-keep grunted and reached from an object at his side, "Don't fuck with me…"

"Hold it," Another voice came from behind the door, "I just got off the phone with Christiano and he said he sent someone over. Let him in."

"Lucky…" The door-keep mumbled.

The meeting he stumbled upon turned out to be chock full of information that could be used to pinpoint the location of Padania's so-called "Cyborg project". The meeting also gave a hint to the whereabouts of the second objective during his stay in Bolzano: To locate the man who attempted to bug Elsa and Rico. Apparently, as the story goes, that particular man was the best agent in the north and was the second choice of every mafia boss and Padania leader when something needed to be done quickly and efficiently (The #1 choice being a young man called "Pinocchio").

"So what's the story with you?" The man who allowed Giulio to enter asked after the meeting was adjourned.

"Eh?" Giulio pointed to himself in an innocent fashion.

"Yeah you. Why did Christiano send you here?"

"Oh, well, he just wanted to keep up with what was going on here, that's all."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Well, I have to report to him now, so I'll show myself out."

"Hold on," The door-keep said, "Listen, we sorta got off on the wrong foot, ya know? The guys and I are going to grab a few drinks. There's a phone here, so why don't you call Christiano and report to him right now? Come on, my treat."

Giulio gulped, "Really guys, I appreciate the offer but…"

"But what?"

He gulped, "You know what? I'll take you up on that offer. It's been a long morning anyways."

Reluctantly, Giulio picked up the secured land-line phone and entered a few numbers (The others didn't know he dialed Jean's cell phone number instead).

"Yo! Christiano!" Giulio said with a hearty laugh.

"What? Who is this?" A confused Jean replied.

"Hey, I just got finished with the meeting. I'll have a full report by the time I get back, but everything seems fine so far."

"Who the hell…?"

"Yeah!" Giulio continued, "It seems that the first cyborg is about to roll of the line within a few days."

"…Go on." Jean finally caught on.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it for now. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, I'll see you then."

With that, his ordeal was over. Everything that Giulio and his men needed was practically sung to him by several bards, and without even realizing it, the information was passed on within the next few minutes. A lucky day for Giulio indeed.

…Considering his lack of detective skills, that is.