Not so alone
«And so are you the famous Lonely Wolf?»
«I prefer to be lesser famous, Panther.»
«Only in the military wing of FLIP, of course.»
«It’s already too much.»
Giovanni Saluzzi, code-named Lonely Wolf, was returning to Vigevano few months after the killing of Podestà. In train compartment, almost empty, sat down in front of him Lisa Rossi, code-named Pink Panther.
Days before his cell-leader, one of the few people who knew his name and person, had contacted him.
«I have two missions for you, Beretta.» – he began when they met in a park.
«Two even! Not that I’m an idler, but I don’t want to overthrow the regime alone. Someone will proclaim me Savior of the Fatherland, and I have to govern Italy. You know how I think of this.»The chief laughed before replying. Simulation of a cheerful chat, after all, was part of the coverage.
«Yes, I know your theory about Saviors of homeland, to be excited for two days and then fired to save the
country from its savior.»
«Therefore I don’t want anyone who knows my real name. When it ended, I’ll disappear from circulation and who has seen, has seen. The country will walk without me.»
«Eh, live horse! Beretta, they are two missions you do simultaneously. Meanwhile you eliminate the target, you deflower a new pagist.»
«Uhm … You know that …»
«… you like to work alone. But she is cool, with excellent training results. Never seen the like. She needs
only you keep her hand the first time.»
«She? I feel good or have a bit of earwax to be removed?»
«You feel good. Indeed, to deflower is not the happiest word.»
«We neither talk, boss. A blow where I worked recently is already difficult, because they will be alarmed; with
a greehorn to keep calm and to bear his forehead while vomits is almost impossible; if moreover is a woman,
it’s doomed to failure. And I want no remorse for not having done more and better to save her, always surviving me too.»
«Do not make me the difficult. No one will reproach you if she falls on mission. I have said that she is a
great element, we need it, in a few as we are. You want she had his first mission with a partner less good than yourself? You do not want to give one more chance to survive?»
Saluzzi remained silent watching water under the bridge.
«Alright, bootlicker. You success always to take the weak side of the people. It will be why you are the cell-
leader. How is she?»
The chief took a photo from jacket and gave to him.
«Cock! Worse complication. You want to bring me back. What have I done wrong?»
Saluzzi still felt in his ears the laughter with many meanings of the chief.
«Wolf, I know that I’m not nice to you, but …»
«Girl, maybe I gave you that impression? But nothing at all! Only that you are a major complication.»
«I assure you being careful. If I’ll any doubts, I’ll ask you, without taking dumb initiatives.»
«I don’t doubt your good will, Lisa. But look in the mirror. Dressed of Low People rags you are already
noticeable. Well dressed and rigged, you would pick in a flock of VIP Class best little sluts. How do I go
unnoticed alongside with you?»Lisa giggled.
«Thanks for the compliment, Wolf. This is the first that you do.»
«And this is the second complication. I intended not to do so, and this is the result. In our work, to be
distracted by two beautiful eyes, it can mean a mistake and cost skin. Back us in the ranks, Lisa.»
Pink Panther was truly remarkable. Tall, dark hair, muscular, without fat outside the points where needed, face
as Shakira, twenty to twenty-two years, Saluzzi didn’t go thouroughly.
«I agree, Wolf. A strategic clarification: it wasn’t better to hit elsewhere?»
«We do not decide, Lisa, we perform. It would certainly be better for us. At Vigevano we’ll find a guard
closed, very closed, so near the other stroke. But the psychological effect will be considerable, both among
local people, which cannot be kept from the news like the rest of the country, both among the nomenclature of the regime.»
«If we’ll have success.»
«It’s up to us to succeed. They had a couple of months to replace the previous dead. If, in the first public
ceremony, we kill the successor, anyone they ask to take on the task, he would touch his … err … nothing.»
Lisa laughed again. He had a nice silvery laugh.
«I understood what, Wolf. Please don’t treat me with Chinese chopsticks. Treat me as a raw soldier.»
«As raw soldier, you curves are well above average, Lisa.» – commented Saluzzi laughing – «Why do you call me Wolf?»
«I like more than Saluzzi or Giovanni, who is not even your name, as it paints better your character. And you,
then?»
«I prefer Lisa, which is a name for a woman, and also nice. Although Panther describes well how you move, when not tripping in the strings.»
They laghed together, Lisa without any offense, because it happened twice in a hurry to rise or descend by
metro and train.
The train was entering the station. Saluzzi had to admit that the delay had not bored him, even if the pleasure
of the company was disturbing a little. They got down and went by Cairoli Street. The previous time, Wolf
noticed a worsening: the pub was closed.
«The berlüscaland is increasingly going to pieces.»
«I hope that it works in our favor.»
«I fear not. Poverty often sparked the worst instincts of survival at the expense of all personal dignity. The
majority of people is adapting to the system provided eating. It’s not easy to give them wrong.»
At the end of the road they came to the Gate, as it was said for antonomasia in Vigevano, the portal under the Blanket Street between Castle and the Old Fortress. They got Ducal Square, where everything was ready for the ceremony of official settlement of Podestà, coinciding with a party of Blue Age.
«Tomorrow, Wolf. I have some fear, to put it mildly, now that we are to the point. To put it more plainly, I’m
doing underneath.»
«It takes courage to admit, Lisa.»
«No, not courage, it’s that if we don’t hurry …»
«We enter into a bar.» – Saluzzi suggested.
«It Would be water only.» – mentioned a joke the girl with a grimace.
«Be calm, Lisa. Breathe deeply. Keep up to the hard, is nearby.»
The man took her hand and pulled her arm under his, then gave her a pat.
«It is so good, Lisa. However it’s for tomorrow, a time infinitely distant if you live intensely the present
moment.»
Crossing the Square at the center, on a slab of gray rocks surrounded by paving stones, smoothed by centuries steps, they made way for the former Fallen for Liberation, renamed Blue Age Street. There were opened only luxury shops. They got St. Francis Square, with the church and the fountain with a statue of the saint.
Taking by Dante’s Street, they reached the St. Bernard intersection, by the church of the saint. They crossed
and continued along Anita Garibaldi Street, turning right by Trivulzio Street, where there was hotel.
«Take one room, Wolf, please. I don’t expect to stand alone, even knowing that you are in the room next door.»
«Agreed, Lisa. But relax, all is well. We are qualified by High People.»
«It will be, but I have too much fear, and I need that you hold my hand. Maybe I assumed too much, I’m becoming your ball with the foot.»
«We passed everybody.»
Indeed, the reception did not have any discomfort. The officer received them with great courtesy, gave a
distracted look their documents, where was the upper caste mark.
«I fear I have chosen the wrong day for affairs.» – dropped Saluzzi signing.
«For the ceremony tomorrow? Well, today is another day.»
«I hope so. In any case it is a beautiful city to visit.»
Newly arrived in the room with two twin beds, Lisa hurled in the bathroom. Saluzzi attended the few bags of
both, making noise and whistling for cover.
«I am ashamed to die … err … Saluzzi.» – said the girl when it came out.
«Why, Lisa? Natural functions.» – he said, nodding to approve the name used, and making a circular gesture to
the room to remind prudence.
They refreshed in turn of the trip in the bathroom. Saluzzi, as gentleman, not joked about stench that even the most beautiful and refined girls exhaled to need. Then they went out for an initial inspection to the theater
of operations.
In Ducal Square, pretending effortlessly an intense tourist interest, they located the window from which they
would fire.
«A little angled compared to the stage, but nothing prohibitive, Wolf. I made shots more difficult training, if
I don’t take the cagarella1.»
«At the right time you’ll be calmest, Lisa. There will be me too, although I prefer pistol at close range. The
emphasis is on running as quickly as possible afterwards. But I have an idea.»
«Sorry, I think instead that the important thing is to have guns.»
Saluzzi didn’t answer, because a group of people was approaching. He took the girl arm in arm and led to the
staircase rising to the castle through the Filarete’s Tower. Before accessing to the portal, on the landing, he
beated his hand on the arm of the girl to attract her attention and pointed with his eyes the door of an
apartment above the arcades of the square, and then an iron manhole to the ground. He said nothing until they crossed the tower and were well in the great outdoors inside of the Castle esplanade.
«The door to access the shooting location.»
«And the key and guns?»
«In a bag hung inside the manhole, with the lock already opened.»
«It will be heavy, how do we heave it?»
«Among the weeds and other craps against the wall of the tower, there was an iron to lever. It’s all work of
Vigevano political cell, which required courage and risks. Only it not had a good shooter, with the indispensable cold-blooded. Let us inspect the route of escape.»
Saluzzi led the woman until the first protruding body of Castle on their left and then took by the Blanket Road.
«It’s very beautiful here. What are used the iron rings on the wall?»
«What used, Lisa. To bind horses by reins. The road passes over the Gate, we passed coming from the station to Square.»
«Ah yes, now I’m orienting. Where goes?»
«The so-called Old Fortress, the military fortress. Once there was an outing with a bridge that gave way on Old Fortress Street, which will arrive quickly at the station.»
«There was? What do you mean, chief?»
«The gate collapsed with the bridge on moat terminating the fortress.»
«Damn, but that kind of escape is, then?»
«The best, Lisa: which isn’t. So nobody thinks except us.»
The girl looked at him as crazy.
«The rubble can be scaled and with a strong axis, hidden by local FLIP, we’ll pass on moat.»
«Ah, nice idea! Always them?»
«No, modestly was my suggestion, I knew this place since the other time that I have come.»
«God, I must do many din-dins to be at your height!» – exclaimed Lisa with spontaneous admiration.
«We shall wait to see if it works, before singing alleluia.»
«However it’s beautiful. About din-dins, I be hungry.»
Saluzzi, after having seen among the rubble a piece of wood axis sufficiently robust, he replied:
«Let’s go back. If you be satisfied with pizza, tonight I will offer a dinner at the Old Village restaurant.»
«You are crazy, Wolf? Pizza is already a luxury for Low People, even the Old Village! I documented and know
it’s so dear.»
«Credit card cloned, girl of little faith!»
1Diarrhoea for fear
