Chapter 9: The Best Medicine
That name he mentioned, Caterina pondered, Lino…Why does it sound so familiar?
"It doesn't," Celestina responded calmly, reading nonchalantly from an encyclopedia about flowers that she had borrowed from Claes, "You're only a finding a meaning in his words because you want to find a meaning. The name means absolutely nothing to me, so it should be the same for you." She flipped through several pages uninterestedly before stopping at one. "Oh," she said delightedly, "Aren't these pretty?" she turned the book over and held up a page depicting a twisted bouquet of white, pink, and blood red anemones.
Caterina paid the book no mind. No, sorella, I'm positive the things he said should mean something to us. I just don't know why.
Celestina sighed in frustration. "I'm sitting right in front of you, Little Sister, could you exercise your vocal cords just a bit?"
At this, Caterina snapped to attention, always ready to argue over something petty with her twin. "I'm not the little sister!" she protested with childish fervor.
"How do you know?" Celestina asked impishly with a smile to match.
Before Caterina could retort (though she didn't have one at hand), there were two light knocks at the door and Triela entered the room slowly and cautiously, closing the door in much the same way. "…Hi," she said simply, almost shyly.
"Oh good," Celestina said with mock gladness, "Now that you're here, why don't you convince my paranoid sister that there's nothing for her to worry about?"
"Well…" Triela started doubtfully, "I don't want either of you to worry…but you should be cautious."
"Why?" both sisters asked in unison, though with completely different tones. Celestina sounded suspicious and guarded, whereas Caterina sounded troubled and unsettled.
Triela took a deep breath before she explained. There was no turning back now. "Well," she said again, slowly, "As you know, the Agency does everything it can to keep the cyborgs from learning of their past so they can avoid any complications or mental imbalances. And, as you know, the Agency will recondition any cyborgs that have any 'unnecessary information.'"
Both twins nodded, eyebrows raised expectantly. "And…?" they both said impatiently.
Triela breathed again and continued from the beginning of their story. "The two of you are the daughters of a human and drug trafficking crime boss in Terni named Pio Alvise. He-"
"Could we get to the point?" Celestina hurried her impatiently.
"Don't be so cold, Cel," Caterina pleaded to her sister, "She's just trying to break the news lightly."
"I'm not cold," Celestina snapped in response, "I just don't like suspense. And besides that, your sense of order is hard to follow. Your storytelling is choppy, to say the least."
"Alright," Triela said soothingly, "I'm sorry about that. I'm just a little nervous, so let's just calm down and go slowly, okay? This isn't the easiest thing for any of us."
"Fine," Celestina acquiesced, "Just, you know, hurry!"
Triela continued as requested, trying to stay on track better than she had so far in the talk. Her mind was jumbling up the information and none of it was coming out too clearly. "Pio Alvise's second in command was a man named Lino Baldassare. The night the Agency picked you up was the night that you and your parents were murdered by him."
The Twins stared at her blankly, unsure of how to receive the information. This was their father that they were talking about, the murder of the man that raised them, and yet, they felt absolutely nothing. Both of the names were meaningless to them and triggered no epiphanies or onrush of memories. Neither voices, nor faces came to match with the names.
Not knowing the proper reaction to something like this, Celestina scoffed. "Huh," she said, seeming to be on the verge of laughter, "That's…" she couldn't even complete her thought.
"Are you smiling?!" Triela exclaimed in disbelief. She turned to Caterina, hoping that she would share her dumbfounded feelings.
Caterina bit her lip. Her eyes narrowed and Triela could see tears forming as her shoulders trembled and she clenched at her dress. Suddenly, her eyes closed and her mouth opened wide, letting out a big cackle, as if someone had just embarrassed themselves in front of her. Her sister followed suit, doubling over and holding her sides in amusement.
Triela's jaw dropped. "What the Hell is wrong with you two?!" she yelled at them with a strange mixture of anger and relief, "These are your lives we're talking about!"
Celestina tried to calm herself, wiping a tear from her eye. She managed to gasp in response, "Lives that we've lost. Lives that mean nothing anymore."
Caterina elaborated, hardly able to get the words through, "We thought it would hurt; thought it would be the most painful thing in the world. Remembering, that is. When it finally happened…" she stopped to laugh even more at the thought.
Suddenly, Triela understood. This was the reaction a child gets when they fearfully go to see the doctor and manage to escape without so much as a needle prick; the same reaction as a first-time bungee jumper, whose mind is filled with the thought of falling and dying, only to fall and be hauled back up, hooting and guffawing. In many ways, this was the same reaction the Twins had immediately after their first mission, where they could have lost everything but didn't. Close calls were always funny, apparently.
Or, Triela wondered to herself, surprised to find that she too was laughing with Caterina and Celestina, Maybe they're just crazy. Maybe we're all crazy. Either way, this is better than crying about it.
In truth, she was surprised. Either the girls were stronger than they looked, or they were bottling up their anger and hatred for later. Triela knew which she would be doing in their situation…
Soon, the Alvise Twins began to quiet down, both breathing deeply to catch their breaths. Celestina cleared her throat and asked, "Do you have pictures?"
Triela sniffed, wiping a few tears from her eyes. "Of who?" she asked, "Your father?"
"And Lino," Caterina added.
"Sure, they're in your dossier. I'll go get them." Triela rose from the table at which they were all sitting. She made for the door, but as she reached for the knob, it turned seemingly on its own and the door opened partway. Standing outside was Jean, who looked around the room in his usually stern way. His eyes fell to rest on Triela, who blinked several times in surprise and anticipation. Had he found out what happened?
"Come with me," he ordered quietly. Triela obeyed, but before she left the room she turned to look back at the Twins who were still smiling.
"May God have mercy on your soul," Celestina said jokingly. Triela didn't find it very funny.
Jean led Triela to Chief Lorenzo's office, wherein were gathered possibly every handler currently employed by the Social Welfare Agency. She stood at the doorway momentarily, looking for a place to sit in the small, overcrowded room. She spotted Hilshire standing in the corner by himself, motioning for her to join him.
"What happened?" he whispered to Triela expectantly.
She responded, "I told them the truth."
"Have you been crying?" Hilshire saw small tear streaks on his cyborg's cheeks and noticed that her eyes were a little red.
"N-no," she explained as she wiped her face with her sleeve, "We were laughing."
Before Hilshire could ask her to explain herself, however, the Chief entered the room and sat behind his desk. Immediately, all conversations stopped, and all eyes were on him. An impressive show of influence, no doubt, but Lorenzo wasn't one for showing off. Things like this just happened by themselves.
"I've called you all here today," he began, lacing his fingers before him, "To discuss a mission related to information we've gathered from one of our recently procured and recently deceased detainees. According to him, the money stolen several days ago from an armored car was taken to the Casinò Regio for laundering, and it is highly likely the money is still there. However, it would seem that this entire casino is run by the Republican Faction, right down to its security force. What I want is to conduct a raid and kidnapping, the goals of which are to acquire the stolen money and the proprietor of the casino."
Chief Lorenzo paused to allow the handlers to discuss the information amongst themselves. It seemed to be a straightforward concept, despite the fact that raids were generally the work of law enforcement. However, all understood that taking the money and the casino owner were simply bonuses that could help build a court case against the Republican Faction, and that the main objective was actually the obtaining of certain valuables at the request of an anonymous politician. In this case, "valuables" was a codeword denoting incriminating material that if made public could ruin the politician's career and life. Apparently, the politician had relied on a personal friend of his to take these materials and lock them deep within his bank's vault. Obviously, the materials never made it that far.
Jose raised a hand and the Chief motioned for the noise to stop (and it did, quite promptly at that). "Is it necessary to bring so many Fratelli for this mission?" Jose asked.
The Chief explained, "The fact that all of the security personnel in the casino work for Padania make sending in the usual two to three Fratelli a dangerous gamble. We need to have as many of our people there as possible in case our cover is blown."
"It seems to me," Jean added, "That this operation carries a high risk of civilian casualties, not to mention a guarantee of leaving surviving witnesses."
"With any luck," the Chief answered, "If it comes to a firefight, the panic and confusion of exploding slot machines will help to drive away any lingering bystanders." At this, the group laughed in unison. They knew, of course, that the Chief would never send any Fratelli on a mission where being spotted was ensured, and that he had a plan to complete the operation smoothly and without alerting the security of the casino. Something had to go horribly wrong in order to incite the worst case scenario.
"Now," Lorenzo concluded, "If there are no further questions, you are all dismissed. The mission is to take place tomorrow at 0800 sharp." As the room cleared, he called out into the crowd, "And Triela, wait here for a moment. I need to speak with you."
Triela did as she was told and took a seat before the Chief's desk. As soon as his office door closed, he removed a folder from his desk and began looking through it.
Triela tensed up as she tried to imagine what the Chief could want with her. Could he have found the connection between the dead informant and Lino Baldassare? Or perhaps he already knows Baldassare works for Padania as was likely working security in the targeted casino?
"I understand," the Chief said without looking up from his documents, "That Caterina and Celestina operate quite well under pressure."
Triela nodded nervously and stammered, "Y-yes, sir. They work faster and more efficiently in training when given a time limit…for example."
"Not to mention the incident at the Piazza the other day," Lorenzo added. At this, Triela became even tenser, but the Chief reassured her, "Don't worry; I'm not here to scold you again. I understand things like that happen and given the circumstances, the girls operated exceptionally."
"Then…what is it you want from them?"
Chief Lorenzo shut the folder and looked Triela in the eye, more as a formality than anything else. "It seems to me," he said, "That the Alvise Twins would make an excellent extraction team. On the mission tomorrow, I want them to wander the casino grounds and if anything goes wrong their mission will be to push through the security forces and recover whichever Fratelli are on the inside. That is, if you believe they're ready for it?"
Triela relaxed a bit, relieved that the matter was so trivial, though surprised that the Chief was asking her permission to put the girls on the field. "If there's anything the Twins understand," Triela replied, thinking back to the moment they had in the dorm room, "It's chaos."