17-02-2020, 02:12 AM
"And quite frankly, won't be missed." Helen answered, needing to fill the silence. Being her, she came after hours sometimes as well, and they had the generators and more than just emergency lighting running for the next morning's business. Having someone with her made it less unsettling. "We get enough of that kind of tourism every time SNFZ plays a home game."
"True." Mander replied as they got to the area where safety notices and yellow caution tape became the décor theme. "Your Countessness calms those down quick too. San Finzione's becoming the home of Mass Hysteria and The Bystander Effect."
Helen silently acknowledged that she was the reason for that. Sometimes she needed to use The Thing in public for emergencies like persuading a brewing calcio riot that they should all relax and go home before something stupid happens or trying and failing to stop a charging suicidal assassin, but stopping the witnesses from helping her. "The Bystander Effect" and "Mass Hysteria" were the government and media's official explanation for her persuasive skills and other phenomena related to the legends about La Contessa, which both sources emphatically denied were true. Psychologists came to San Finzione to study the phenomenon. Their conclusions ranged from wildly incorrect to scarily accurate but still easily explained away privately by La Contessa.
Another recording, telling that these caverns were where the Resistance kept then young Lord Vincenzo I hidden from the Gestapo and SS searching the countryside for him, failed to play. It also failed to let tourists know that a small cinema room up ahead had been made where, for three euros more, they can watch a short documentary about the battle in the caverns that was being re-enacted up ahead. It had been made in the early 1960s and had interview and archival footage of a Vincenzo of that time. Helen had watched it often for that reason. She had her own copy in her study.
About the time they got too far underground for La Contessa's tracker to transmit through meters of solid rock above them was when they heard the quick paces of multiple feet approaching down the corridor from behind them.
* * *
Capitan Gregorio Ortega briskly walked to his Command Center at La Squadra de Ultimados Headquarters at Fort Ernesto. He'd been away from his post for secure meetings two days in a row, and it was too long for him to be away. He couldn't run or the sight of it would have made everyone think there was an emergency.
In addition to the current crisis, commanding La Familia Royale's elite personal guard, and providing discrete protective surveillance for the occupants of a house in Washington State; Capitan Ortega had ongoing Ultimados ops around the world to coordinate and oversee. Like Howard Caldwell-Pierce at the Ministry of Intelligence, he simply had too many other vital duties to take an active role in the hunt for Dietz. La Contessa had plenty of help; there were Ultimados out in the field who needed his attention more.
"Anything new?" Ortega asked the room as he walked in. It was the first thing he said every time he entered the Command Center. An aide stood from the console she'd been monitoring.
"Sir," she reported. "Contessa Helena's tracker went offline at the Cavern Visitors' Center three minutes ago. She was last heading underground to the film set; this is to be expected. Nothing unusual on Contessa-In-Reggenza Maria's. The Royal Twins are safe with their doctor. He reports them in excellent health. Generalissimo Ramirez also left a message to tell you that..." She hesitated before saying the name. "Santori's... man in the Quartermaster's office has been found. The Generalissimo says that he was 'A near-pensioner. He surrendered with much less of a struggle than the last one.'"
Ortega nodded and she returned to her monitor. All were the sort of things he'd want to know right away.
He sat at his desk and blinked a few times. One of the additional benefits of Ultimados training, ever since Helen had made them her guards, was that she used her ability to control minds to supplement the regular training regimen; setting them apart from other countries' Special Forces. Part of it was that Ultimados gained more rest from less sleep than other soldiers, allowing them to push their limits farther. For health reasons, it was still recommended that an Ultimado get a full night's sleep when possible. Other benefits of that training were that their loyalty and devotion to San Finzione and La Familia Royale were immutable facts and that torturing a captured Ultimado was an exercise in futility.
La Contessa casually strolled away from a crime scene on Sunday. Contessa-In-Reggenza Maria was attacked yesterday. Today, Contessa Helena insisted that a proper security detail; even a covert one, would hinder the activities in which she and Mander needed to engage and he'd been forced to modify her normal security measures. Word of Marco Santori had reached the Command Center and he could see Ultimados silently nodding approval. Ortega was going to need to book that full night's sleep soon.
He was seldom away from work. He had a home on base but slept more often on the cot behind his desk. He was thinking of the cot now after almost three days of consciousness.
"Give me a moment." He told the room as he reached into his desk for the metal lid of a paint can which he kept here so that he could employ a trick that Julie Equals had taught him. She'd said that it was something Picasso would do when he was nodding off at the canvas but wanted to stay awake and keep painting. The others had seen him do this before and went about their work. A few now kept metal lids at their own desks for this purpose after seeing it work for him.
"True." Mander replied as they got to the area where safety notices and yellow caution tape became the décor theme. "Your Countessness calms those down quick too. San Finzione's becoming the home of Mass Hysteria and The Bystander Effect."
Helen silently acknowledged that she was the reason for that. Sometimes she needed to use The Thing in public for emergencies like persuading a brewing calcio riot that they should all relax and go home before something stupid happens or trying and failing to stop a charging suicidal assassin, but stopping the witnesses from helping her. "The Bystander Effect" and "Mass Hysteria" were the government and media's official explanation for her persuasive skills and other phenomena related to the legends about La Contessa, which both sources emphatically denied were true. Psychologists came to San Finzione to study the phenomenon. Their conclusions ranged from wildly incorrect to scarily accurate but still easily explained away privately by La Contessa.
Another recording, telling that these caverns were where the Resistance kept then young Lord Vincenzo I hidden from the Gestapo and SS searching the countryside for him, failed to play. It also failed to let tourists know that a small cinema room up ahead had been made where, for three euros more, they can watch a short documentary about the battle in the caverns that was being re-enacted up ahead. It had been made in the early 1960s and had interview and archival footage of a Vincenzo of that time. Helen had watched it often for that reason. She had her own copy in her study.
About the time they got too far underground for La Contessa's tracker to transmit through meters of solid rock above them was when they heard the quick paces of multiple feet approaching down the corridor from behind them.
* * *
Capitan Gregorio Ortega briskly walked to his Command Center at La Squadra de Ultimados Headquarters at Fort Ernesto. He'd been away from his post for secure meetings two days in a row, and it was too long for him to be away. He couldn't run or the sight of it would have made everyone think there was an emergency.
In addition to the current crisis, commanding La Familia Royale's elite personal guard, and providing discrete protective surveillance for the occupants of a house in Washington State; Capitan Ortega had ongoing Ultimados ops around the world to coordinate and oversee. Like Howard Caldwell-Pierce at the Ministry of Intelligence, he simply had too many other vital duties to take an active role in the hunt for Dietz. La Contessa had plenty of help; there were Ultimados out in the field who needed his attention more.
"Anything new?" Ortega asked the room as he walked in. It was the first thing he said every time he entered the Command Center. An aide stood from the console she'd been monitoring.
"Sir," she reported. "Contessa Helena's tracker went offline at the Cavern Visitors' Center three minutes ago. She was last heading underground to the film set; this is to be expected. Nothing unusual on Contessa-In-Reggenza Maria's. The Royal Twins are safe with their doctor. He reports them in excellent health. Generalissimo Ramirez also left a message to tell you that..." She hesitated before saying the name. "Santori's... man in the Quartermaster's office has been found. The Generalissimo says that he was 'A near-pensioner. He surrendered with much less of a struggle than the last one.'"
Ortega nodded and she returned to her monitor. All were the sort of things he'd want to know right away.
He sat at his desk and blinked a few times. One of the additional benefits of Ultimados training, ever since Helen had made them her guards, was that she used her ability to control minds to supplement the regular training regimen; setting them apart from other countries' Special Forces. Part of it was that Ultimados gained more rest from less sleep than other soldiers, allowing them to push their limits farther. For health reasons, it was still recommended that an Ultimado get a full night's sleep when possible. Other benefits of that training were that their loyalty and devotion to San Finzione and La Familia Royale were immutable facts and that torturing a captured Ultimado was an exercise in futility.
La Contessa casually strolled away from a crime scene on Sunday. Contessa-In-Reggenza Maria was attacked yesterday. Today, Contessa Helena insisted that a proper security detail; even a covert one, would hinder the activities in which she and Mander needed to engage and he'd been forced to modify her normal security measures. Word of Marco Santori had reached the Command Center and he could see Ultimados silently nodding approval. Ortega was going to need to book that full night's sleep soon.
He was seldom away from work. He had a home on base but slept more often on the cot behind his desk. He was thinking of the cot now after almost three days of consciousness.
"Give me a moment." He told the room as he reached into his desk for the metal lid of a paint can which he kept here so that he could employ a trick that Julie Equals had taught him. She'd said that it was something Picasso would do when he was nodding off at the canvas but wanted to stay awake and keep painting. The others had seen him do this before and went about their work. A few now kept metal lids at their own desks for this purpose after seeing it work for him.
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