Alessandro "Sandro" Ricci '(アレッサンドロ Aressandoro) is an agent who works in Section 2 of the Social Welfare Agency and Petrushka's Handler.

Background

As a boy, Alessandro Ricci's hobby was to observe people from a distance and figure out who they were and what they did from their appearance and body language. This brought him to the attention of a woman called Rossana who recruited him to the Public Security Division. Sandro was trained in surveillance and intelligence-gathering. As part of his missions he would seduce and bed the female relatives and associates of the activists he was targeting and this earned him a reputation in the department as something of a gigolo. There is some indication that he and Rossana had an affair. Her influence led Sandro to adopting a similar lifestyle to hers: a sparsely-furnished apartment filled with books and other material with which to do research on people and their habits. An example of this was when he had an informal chat at a hospital with a Russian ballerina, took down notes and returned to his flat in order to research the profession and increase his own knowledge into life in general. Sandro was assigned to Section 2 to become a handler to the first of a new generation of cyborgs. He showed little interest in touring hospitals and checking on potential recruits and told his colleagues that they could pick whichever girl they liked and do anything to her before he took over as handler. This included a certain amount of plastic surgery and Sandro's only condition was that she should not be a redhead (a possible reference to Rossana who had recently disappeared and gone into hiding). Surgeon Louis Duvalier overlooked this condition, probably to get back at Sandro and his lack of interest or apparent commitment. The new cyborg was named Petrushka and Sandro trained in her in the application of make-up, disguise, surveillance and taking an enemy by surprise by feigning friendliness. He also encouraged her to smoke and swear — though when, at his request, she tried to insult him personally, a side-effect of the conditioning made her suffer a nervous breakdown. Sandro and Petra have become close over time, and there is even some indication of a budding romance between the young couple.