Pamela

Pamela (パメラ Pamera) is a former gambler and a member of the robber trio Vanishing Bunny, along with Lana and Sonja Bake.

In December 1931, she and her partners plan to rob the Flying Pussyfoot during its journey from Chicago to New York City, but instead decide to hold Carzelio Runorata for ransom after they find him in their truck. In the end, they receive a ransom payment of fifty cents from Gabriel and Juliano.

Following the kidnapping incident, she and her friends rescue Spike from the railroad tracks. In the ensuing months, she and Lana become maids for Manfred Beriam.

In February 1935, Pamela attends the Runorata Family's casino party at Ra's Lance as a gambler, worried about what plans Manfred and Spike have for Sonja there.

Appearance
Pamela looks to be around twenty years old. She has honey-brown eyes and dark brown hair, which she keeps pulled back into a ponytail.

Personality
Pamela is a practical and cautious woman, unlike her companion Lana, who is more impractical and loose-tongued - something that often leads to bouts of verbal sparring between the two (usually involving Pamela chastising Lana over one of her hare-brained ideas). She is an extremely talented cheater when it comes to gambling, a skill that she would prefer not to fall back on now that she's gainfully employed.

Though her group Vanishing Bunny aspires (or once aspired) to be like the outlaw Myra Starr, she has no illusions about being some sort of grand outlaw hero - no, she firmly considers herself to be a no-good lowlife, and feels guilt over having involved Sonja in a life of crime. She cares for Sonja (and Lana) deeply, and is highly concerned over protecting Sonja from her situation in 1935.

Pre-1931
As a talented gambler, Pamela frequently visits underground casinos to earn money via cheating - though she also steals money from the very same casinos she plays at, actions that lead the Russo Family to place a bounty upon her head. She first meets the petty thief Lana when she rescues the woman from a group of rough men about to kill her. The two form a partnership, and rob several casinos and illegal horse race gambling ticket windows.

One day they come across a girl called Sonja Bake, shooting guns out in the prairie with a wagon stockpiled with firearms. Sonja joins their group, and they become a nameless trio (until Lana eventually comes up with their name). Wanting to emulate the famous outlaw Myra Starr, the women travel the country committing organized robberies. First, they start small - stealing from gardens and committing other petty thefts - but move on to more major robberies, which usually culminated in shootouts with either the police or Mafia.

Their most dangerous crisis involved a museum robbery: they'd stolen some of the museums on-exhibit jewelry, only to discover that the museum's door had disappeared and that a large crowd of police and gawkers had formed outside the museum (they later learned that a couple dressed as mummies were the perpetrators). At the time, the police blamed them for the incident and chased them around for two weeks straight. Even a mafia boss had hunted them (he'd carved his and his first loves' initials on the door).

1931-1932
In December 1931, Lana suggests that they rob the famous transcontinental express Flying Pussyfoot (though she doesn't actually know its name). With Pamela driving, the group take their beat up canopy truck and make headway for the railroad route the train is supposed to take on '''December 30. '''Pamela argues with Lana over her plan (which is to stop the train with explosives as it passes over a bridge), as they're driving along the outskirts of Newark, and eventually she pulls over so she can find a hotel on her map.

After a half-hour of Lana lecturing her on why her plan is great (Sonja sleeps through it all), Pamela agrees to go scope out the bridge for now and continue their argument there. She resumes driving, and as they drive past a large villa and towards the highway several shady cars pass them at unusually fast speeds.

Evening falls by the time they make good headway into New York. With their truck out of gas, Pamela parks their car on the side of the road and unfolds their map to look for a bungalow nearby. She asks Lana to fill up the tank in the meantime, and just as she's marking a cluster of bungalows on the map she hears Lana scream from the back of the truck.

Pamela exits the truck and finds Lana gaping at a small boy, snoring away in the back of the truck. They wake him up and learn that his name is Carzelio Runorata, and that he ran away from home and hid in their truck while it was parked on the road. Pamela nicknames him Cazze, and she orders Sonja to look after him for the time being. Meanwhile, she and Lana walk a little ways away to discuss what to do. Judging from his expensive clothes, Lana bets that he ran away from the big villa they passed earlier on, and proposes that they kidnap him for ransom money.

Pamela admits that she'd momentarily had the same thought, and agrees to the plan since it's a better idea than the train robbery was - though they shouldn't actually let on to the boy that they're kidnapping him. She uneasily mutters that she's heard the name 'Runorata' somewhere before, but pushes that worry to the back of her mind. The two women return to the truck and ask Cazze for his house's phone number, so they can let his family know he's safe. Lana proceeds to place a call to the house and inform the Runorata Family that they have kidnapped Cazze. She requests that the Runoratas bring cash to a specific bungalow, and not to contact the police.

The group drive to the bungalow that Lana specified, only to find two trunks parked in front of it and its outside light on indicating that the bungalow is already in use. Pamela blames herself for not stopping Lana before they actually checked out the exchange place and apologizes, to which Lana weakly pipes that the trucks were probably abandoned and that no-one is inside the bungalow...probably.

Everyone exits the truck, and the others gather around Pamela while she figures out what to do. Several faces stare out from one of the bungalows' windows, confirming that it's already occupied, and she instructs her companions to check out the other bungalows for now. They find bungalow #3 empty, and Pamela asks Cazze if this one will suit him. He thanks her, and his honesty forces her to look away, filled with regret.

Feeling awful, she excuses herself and Lana on the pretense of greeting their neighbors, and then drags Lana away to ask if maybe they should give up on their plan after all. Lana doubtfully reminds her that they've committed plenty of crimes in the past, so why should Pamela act like a saint now? Pamela replies that there are lines even when it comes to crime, and accuses Lana of being unsure about the plan too. She says that she can't stand acting like scum who'd lie to a child and then take advantage of his parents' emotions to scam them. Lana accuses her of being a pretentious hypocrite, and Pamela covers her mouth and reminds her that she and Lana are low life bad guys. Of course the bad guys are hypocrites.

Lana drops the matter, though she adds that if the boy's family is living in such a big mansion in a depression, they're probably doing something bad for profit. Eventually they start arguing about praise, only to be interrupted by a delinquent boy who shouts that he loves Lana's glasses and will praise her all she wants. Marching forward, he grasps Lana's hands and says that now that he complimented her, she should become his little sister. Pamela too.

Pamela realizes that the group of boys and girls who'd been staring at them from Bungalow #1 are watching them from the truck's shadow, and Lana screeches and ducks behind her. Pamela nervously asks them if they're campers, and a sleepy-eyed girl replies in the negative before identifying her and Lana as kidnappers. She asks that the two women explain what they were just discussing, and Lana's protests of denial are completely transparent.

Pamela owns up to their kidnapping plot and asks what the group of youths will do now that they have confirmation. As it turns out, the delinquents have no plan, and the sleepy-eyed girl responds that she just wants to kill time by doing something worthwhile until their train robbery takes place, so she's all for Pamela taking care of her plan until then.

Pamela's group moves into the first bungalow with the delinquents, and over the next few hours Pamela learns that the delinquents are planning on stealing some cargo from the Flying Pussyfoot, and that some of their friends have snuck on the train to dump the cargo. Even two of the train's staff (a bartender and cook) are in on it, which is a tidbit of information Pamela thinks they're crazy for confessing. Observing the delinquents as they laugh and joke amongst themselves, Pamela concludes that they're just like Vanishing Bunny.

Sonja wakes up and Lana asks if she's going to work on maintaining her guns, much to Pamela's horror. Sonja chirps that she plans on working on ten of them. With their secret out in the open, Pamela resignedly goes and opens the canopy of the truck's luggage compartment, warning the delinquents not to fool around with the guns since they're mementos of Sonja's parents. Worried that Cazze might be scared at the sight of guns, Pamela turns to him - only to find him completely unaffected. She cautiously asks him if he isn't scared, and is floored when he replies that he already knows guns are dangerous -- 'they' said he's not allowed to touch them until he turns thirteen.

Pamela freezes, her gambler's intuition warning her it's already too late, so brace yourself. Cazze adds that all the people who work at his house have a gun.

Several minutes later or so, Pamela leans against the truck canopy while Sonja practices shooting to the awe of the delinquents. When she hears Lana scream in the distance, she sprints towards the sound to find Lana passed out on the ground, two men in military garb pinned under her. Part of the ground is oddly depressed. Pamela wakes her up; Lana claims that she was attacked by a giant 'something', which is largely unhelpful information.

Pamela moves the two unconscious men into the bed of her truck. Meanwhile, the delinquents make preparations to leave, since the train is due to come by in half an hour. Pamela writes out a note to Cazze's family which states that he can be found next to the bridge with some passerby young people, and demands that the ransom money be placed in a box and sent down the river. She places the note in a box and leaves it in bungalow #3's entrance.

When a nervous Lana worries over the beast that attacked her, Pamela informs her that she's now remembered who the Runoratas are - they're a powerful mafia family from the East. Which means that if Vanishing Bunny is caught by them, they'll probably be subjected to serious torture before death.

Once preparations are complete, Pamela forces Lana into the passenger seat of the truck, and gets into the driver seat herself. She's decided that they'll take the strange unconscious men with them for now, admitting to Lana that she tied up their arms and legs since they're awfully suspicious. In front of them, the delinquents' two trucks' engines rev, and Pamela slowly follows them down the road.

The three trucks park by the river, with twenty minutes to go before the Flying Pussyfoot passes over the bridge. Pamela and Lana remain in their truck while Sonja and Cazze join some of the delinquents in playing by the riverbank, and discuss what to do next. Pamela pauses mid-conversation and opens the window, having heard screams in the distance. She and Lana exit the truck and head for the woods a little ways up the hill toward the railroad trestle. They find a soot-stained military tent, along with several parked cars. Underneath the tent cloth sits a radio, several chairs, and a table, upon which seems to be some sort of cipher. Blood stains a corner of the tent, but Lana's fear is briefly forgotten when she spots a grenade in the back of the tent and swipes it.

Pamela and Lana leave the campsite and head a little ways down the hill, stopping at the sight of a dangerous situation playing out on the riverbank. Several men dressed in military garb have surrounded the delinquents, with their leader having taken Cazze hostage. The two plan to instigate a distraction, only for a voice to warn them against doing something 'rash.' They turn around, and find a tailcoat-clad young man (Gabriel) standing behind them. He mutters that the uniformed men look experienced with guns, and tells the women that it is not their job to safely rescue "the young master," but his own job.

Pamela stops Lana before she can set off her stolen grenade, and Gabriel resumes muttering to himself over how to deal with the men - only to start in surprise. Down below, a large bear has lumbered onto the riverbank. Lana shrieks that that's what attacked her, violently shaking Pamela's shoulders and bringing her out of her daze. Pamela turns to interrogate Gabriel, but finds that he has disappeared.

Down below, the bear takes out one of the men; Gabriel descends the hill and takes out two more. Moments later, his twin Juliano revs out of the forest upon his motorcycle, and Gabriel retrieves Cazze from the Lemure leader Serges' grasp.

Two men wielding submachine guns arrive on the scene, and Pamela recognizes them as the two men she'd tied up earlier. Lana hefts the grenade in her hand, and Pamela is too late to stop her from hurling the grenade into the fray. It ignites, filling the area with white smoke.

Once the smoke clears, Pamela and Lana return to the group to find that the twins have taken down all the Lemures, and are in the midst of discussing the kidnappers. They turn to face Pamela and Lana as they approach, and Juliano thanks them for the flare. Gabriel has Juliano go fetch Cazze - once alone, he asks Pamela and Lana who they are. Pamela prepares to take all the responsibility herself, only for Lana to tearfully apologize that she was the one who wanted to kidnap Cazze, lying that Pamela and Sonja had nothing to do with it. She requests that Gabriel only turn her over to the police.

Gabriel chuckles that the message said not for them to contact the police, and that his master said he and Juliano could do with the kidnappers as they liked. He offers the only money in his wallet - a half-dollar coin - as a ransom payment, which Lana frantically accepts. Gabriel requests that they keep the whole ransom payment a secret, since a ransom of only fifty cents is shameful. He warns the two not to get carried away, and Pamela thanks him, adding that she owes him and his brother.

Gabriel replies that they owe her, since it has been a long while since they saw Cazze enjoy himself so much. He walks away, back towards his brother and Cazze. In his place, Sonja runs up and asks if Pamela and Lana were fighting. They deny this, and when Sonja spots the bear from earlier, Lana faints again.

Eventually, Pamela, Lana, and Sonja say goodbye to Cazze and the delinquents, pile into their truck, and flee from the scene as fast as possible, taking a road parallel to the train tracks. Pamela and Lana fall back into verbal sparring, this time over the smoke grenade. Sonja scolds them for fighting, noting that Nader Schasschule would have saved them if they were really in trouble. Pamela admits that she was touched when Lana tried to protect her and Sonja from fault earlier, much to Lana's embarrassment.

A few minutes later, they find a heavily injured man hugging a sniper rifle collapsed on the road. Thinking that they can get a nice sum of reward money for saving his life, they take him to a nearby doctor. The doctor informs them that the man's eyes are so damaged that he's gone blind; realizing that the situation is more serious than they thought, the trio decide to stay with him until he regains consciousness.

Once the man wakes up and the shock of his newfound blindness settles, he introduces himself as Spike and asks Lana if the group could take him to a certain town, with the promise of earning themselves a nice amount of money. Lana agrees, and Pamela does too, albeit reluctantly. On the way to Spike's destination, he learns that Sonja is a gunwoman and begins teaching her in the ways of sharpshooting.

The group get into a series of undisclosed incidents in the town once they arrive - a town in which Senator Manfred Beriam lives. Spike ends up on Senator Beriam's payroll, and Pamela and Lana enter into his employ as housekeepers while Sonja trains under Spike.

Senator Beriam and Spike eventually start taking Sonja out on jobs. At first Pamela panics, thinking they're making her do something indecent. When she realizes they're making her shoot things, she presses Beriam for answers. He claims he doesn't plan to have her kill anyone, and she reluctantly backs down - though she continues to worry that they are planning to mold Sonja into an assassin.

1935
One day in early 1935, Pamela and Lana clap their hands over their ears and watch Sonja shoot a target's bullseye on the Beriam Estate's private shooting range. Sonja pulls out her earplugs, and Lana's question over whether or not Sonja ever gets tired of shooting guns daily sparks a little verbal sparring between her and Pamela. Sonja supposes that she never gets tired of shooting guns because her parents told her that shooting guns is a prayer in and of itself and that guns are gods.

Lana thinks that Sonja has a point, but if guns are gods then maybe guns should be doing a little more for the three of them. They may all be legally employed now, but they're still "birds in a cage with no freedom." She asks for Pamela's opinion on their situation, and Pamela thinks that she was an idiot for letting Lana have her way three years ago. Despite how they've been working at his estate for three years, they haven't saved a single cent.

At this, Lana triumphantly reveals that she's been cozying up to Natalie Beriam and Mary Beriam and gleaned all sorts of information from them, as well as some of Senator Beriam's people. From one of Manfred's hires, she's learned that a new hotel called Ra's Lance is being built in New York. There's supposed to be a big restaurant in the hotel's basement, but it's just a cover for a casino run by a big mafia family - and that all sorts of rich people and mafiosi are going to attend the casino's grand opening. Lana crows that Pamela could make a killing cheating the casino while she (Lana) steals the proceeds.

Pamela points out that if one of Beriam's subordinates was talking about it, then Beriam must be planning to sic the police on the party. Meaning she and Lana will be caught. After all, Senator Beriam hates the mafia. Privately, Pamela also has no plans to return to her casino hustling days - not that she now has a stable job.

Sonja recognizes the name "Ra's Lance" and chimes in that Spike said she might have a job there soon. Anxiety courses through Pamela, and she asks Sonja what sort of work she's going to do. Sonja doesn't know - apparently Spike will tell her what and when to shoot only during the party. She turns back toward the firing range, and Pamela desperately asks if Sonja can't just say no to the job, worst-case scenarios flitting through her mind. Internally, she considers taking Lana and Sonja and running far, far away from the estate to somewhere safe.

Sonja resumes target practice, reassuring her friends that Nader will come to save them if something bad happens.

In February, Spike, Sonja, Lana, and Pamela take a car and head up to New York, with Pamela driving. Spike comments on the unusual amount of birds he can hear outside the window during the journey, and he advises Sonja to imagine shooting the birds for 'experience' purposes. Pamela narrows her eyes and interjects that she hopes this isn't a prelude to having Sonja kill a person, to which Spike smirks and deflects blame.

Lana muses that if they trained birds to pick up shiny jewelry and coins, they could make a monetary killing. Pamela thinks this is a stupid idea, and Lana's idea of them stealing casino chips even more stupid. Spike wonders if Pamela wants in on the casino party, and Pamela demurs that she doesn't really -- she just won big once at a casino, and thought she'd try her luck again for old time's sake. (She neglects to say that she wants to earn enough money to escape from Senator Beriam).

Spike sneeringly warns her that there will be a lot of mafiosi who hate Beriam at the party, so as Beriam's maids, she and the others won't have a good time of it if their jobs are exposed. Sonja pipes up that Nader will come save her if that happens, and Spike bursts out into laughter, remembering the Nader that he'd once been comrades with.

On the first day of the three day long casino party, Pamela slips into the party as a patron and begins gambling. She wins game after game, all through cheating, in order to earn enough money to fund Vanishing Bunny's escape. Once the party ends around midnight, Pamela exits the building and takes a route near the harbor, alternating between abandoned roads and crowded roads to see if someone is following her. There is someone following her: a man, who calls out to her on a deserted street and asks to talk with her. She greets him cautiously, and he introduces himself as a gambler, not with the mafia or police.

The man asks if she wants to team up with him, and praises her cheating skills - which only he noticed in the crowd of gamblers at the party. Pamela asks what his goal is, and he replies that he's after whomever is backing her - that is, whomever gave an expert like her an invitation to the party. If whatever gang she's working for was sharp enough to hire someone smart like her, maybe they'd give him a shot? He finally introduces himself as Nader Schasschule.

Pamela gasps, and Nader stiffens upon realizing that she recognizes his name. He requests she forget she ever saw him, turns around, and prepares to make a break for it. Pamela asks if he's "Sonja's friend," and he whirls around in shock, approaching her with the intention interrogating her. Then, out of nowhere, a female voice says, "found you, traitor."

Pamela looks wildly about the place, but fails to find the speaker. Nader weakly identifies the voice as Hilton, who delightedly replies that he can call her "Liza." Pamela's eyes widen at the sight of countless birds surrounding them - on the tops of buildings, on power lines, flying in the sky...and all of them staring at Nader.

Liza says that she won't kill Nader when there's someone else just dying to do it, and Pamela and Nader turn at the sound of metal on stone to see Chané Laforet charging towards them. Nader manages to deflect her knife with his metal hand at the last moment and books it, though Chané closes the distance between them easily. Rail and Czeslaw Meyer come to Nader's rescue (thanks to Shaft) and the three of them along with Pamela escape together.

The four of them reach the safety of the Genoard Family manor on Millionaire Row, whose delinquent inhabitants are still asleep. There, Pamela demands the full details of Nader's life, from the moment he left his and Sonja's hometown to the present day. It's early morning by the time he finishes telling his life's story, and once he is done, Pamela tells him to leave the city. Nader guesses that she doesn't want him to meet Sonja because she knows her, and because he's "the worst of the worst." Pamela supposes he isn't the worst. Just a lowlife.

When Nader doesn't object, she points out that she's no saint herself, and not exactly a good influence on Sonja either. She probably deserves a punch or two. However, she doesn't want Nader specifically to see Sonja when he's still acting like scum. Why? Because Sonja believes in him - she believes that Nader is a hero and that he'll save her no matter what.

Nader confesses that he had once told Sonja that he'd be a hero and protect her, and at the regret on his face Pamela asks if he can live up to Sonja's ideals, recalling all the times Sonja believed in him and called him by name even when he never did come. Can he live up to such a pure idealization? To her faith in him? Can he give her real happiness? Nader figures that if he said he would, he'd be fooling himself.

Pamela supposes that she really doesn't want him to see Sonja after all, and that she'd rather continue to have Sonja believe that Nader is off being a hero somewhere. Not that she wants to lie to Sonja, but she doesn't think it'd help either of them to meet each other now. Nader agrees completely. Pamela assures him that Sonja is doing well, and Nader replies that he's glad Sonja has someone like Pamela around. At that Pamela reminds him that she's as much of a lowlife as Nader is, given how much trouble she's caused for Sonja with their petty robberies.

She admits that Sonja is wrapped up in something potentially frightening now, but that she and her friend will take care of the situation. She asks Nader to trust her despite her selfishness, adding that Sonja is important to her as well.

Rail, who'd been listening the entire time, comments that even if Nader calls himself a lowlife, it was impressive for him to have betrayed the Lemures. After all, they had people like Goose Perkins, Chané, and a sniper called Spike among their members.

Pamela starts at that, and asks Nader when exactly his story about a coup and train hijacking took place. He realizes that she knows the same Spike that he knows, and leaps to his feet at the thought of Spike getting close to Sonja. He spits that Spike is the sort of man who's loyal only to whomever pays him, and frantically inquires if Spike is threatening Sonja and if he's still with the Lemures. Pamela admits that Spike is teaching Sonja how to sharpshoot and that they get along fine...but she's worried that her employer is going to have Sonja shoot something or someone at the party.

At Nader's questioning, she clarifies that her and Spike's employer is Senator Manfred Beriam - a very dangerous man to cross.

Acting as an innocent child, Czeslaw asks what they plan to do next. Nader in turn asks whose house Czes and Rail led him and Pamela to, and Czes replies that it's one of the Genoards' residences that Rail has been freeloading at. Nader frowns, since he's currently working for Eve Genoard at the party.

There's a knock at the door, and Czes invites Shaft in -- the same Shaft who'd helped Pamela and Nader escape the night before. He informs Nader that Graham Specter and Ladd Russo are calling for him.

Trivia

 * Pamela happens to have the same first name as Pamela D. Rosskleim, a character from another light novel series by Ryohgo Narita called Vamp!. It is also set in the Naritaverse.
 * According to 1935-C: The Grateful Bet, Pamela is the main source of income for Vanishing Bunny's everyday needs, thanks to her skill at cheating casinos.
 * At one point, her and her partners' truck flipped over in an accident.