Survival and Sacrifice

missiles, repeat, fire all missiles."

  "Copy, flight leader, wilco. Thirty seconds to contact, fox three."

  "Third salvo away."

  "Come on, come on!" Eile muttered.

  "Popper field 90% intact," Sunny squealed, anxious.

  "Dammit! Break off, Eagle flight, break off!"

  "Negative, flight leader, we still have our cannons. We'll get you through. Five seconds to contact. Eagle flight out."

  "They're going in!" Sunny yelped.

  "Aw, cripes!"

  "Eagle three, gone. Eagle five, gone. Popper field, 88%. Eagle six, Eagle two, gone. Popper field 85%. Eagle four gone, Eagle seven gone, Popper field 83%."

  "Eagle one, break off! That's an order, break--"

  "It's too late!"

  Eile saw a small fireball bloom in the distance.

  At first too shocked to speak, Eile soon felt rage boil up inside her. "Dammit, dammit, dammit!" She knew the odds of Eagle survival were low to begin with, but it seemed so senseless for them to throw away their lives like that. They were good men and women, most with families. For a moment, she found herself hoping she wouldn't survive, so that she wouldn't have to inform their loved ones.

  "Status," she ordered. When Sunny didn't reply, she turned to look. Sunny was staring out the window as if stupefied.

  "Major!" Sunny jumped and looked at her.

  "Status!"

  Sunny looked at her instruments. "Popper field 80% intact."

  Not enough; nowhere near enough, Eile thought. "Jesus, we're not gonna make it." And she didn't know what hurt most, that they would fail their mission, or that Denver would be wiped out.

  From "The Surrogate"

  Shasta watched as her hostess poured coffee into two cups before setting the pot on a ceramic hot plate. She then added a touch of brandy and a drop of honey to her own.

  "And what would you like?" She gestured to the dozen silver or ceramic containers spread across the top of a glass-shelved cart standing at her left elbow.

  Shasta gave them all a quick glance. "Just...a little milk, please." She felt too nervous to ask for anything else.

  She saw the corners of Ms. MacCandels 's mouth twitch in a quickly suppressed smile. That made her feel even worse. It seemed to her the woman toyed with her, and not for the first time she asked herself why she sat in the breakfast nook of her mansion having high tea. A $25-a-trick street whore meant nothing to a woman of her social and financial standing. With interests in real estate, biotechnology, mining and banking--to name only a few--she wielded a lot of power in Colorado. And she used her enormous wealth to support universities and hospitals around the country, provide endowments to the arts and sciences, establish scholarships and fellowships, and donate huge sums to many charities, both public and private.

  Still, she was there, and that meant there had to be a reason. One thing she knew for certain, if Ms. MacCandels did want something from her, she would undoubtedly get it. She had a reputation for being ruthless in her business dealings, even cutthroat, and rumors of foul play followed her like her own shadow. She would simply take her time, and play her games, and try to break her before making her demands. Knowing all that did not ease Shasta's nervousness, but it could help her give the old bitch a good fight.

  Ms. MacCandels passed the cup across the frosted glass table top and then turned to the cart on her right. It carried platters of fruit, muffins, cookies, slices of cake and pie, and candies. Shasta's mouth watered just looking at it all. She rarely got the chance to see that much food, much less eat it. Her pimp took the lion's share of her nightly take, so she considered herself lucky if she had twenty dollars to her name. Fortunately she could live on that, being as she made her home in the basement of an abandoned, rat-infested tenement. But to keep herself reasonably well-dressed and groomed, certain sacrifices had to be made, such as food. However, she didn't want to give her another chance to humiliate her, so over the protests of her stomach she politely refused more than a plate of fruit.

  Ms. MacCandels, however, had no such compulsions. She took a sample of everything, big samples at that. Shasta envied how the woman could eat so much and still remain trim, but that wasn't her only desirable characteristic. She had to be at least sixty, but looked less than half that. In point of fact, she had the kind of face many in Shasta's profession, including herself, would kill for. Each feature looked delicate and finely sculptured, except for her full, wide lips and her large, soft brown eyes. Her face had a round shape with no plumpness as well as being well framed by her shoulder-length hair. Its blue-black color contrasted with her milky complexion so that her face stood out. Any prostitute could have an alluring figure, with the proper combination of costume and props, but a face like hers was impossible without measures most street tarts could not afford.

  "So, my dear, tell me: what's it like to be a 'working girl'?"

  Shasta grimaced in distaste. Everyone asked her that, even her johns. She got so sick of hearing it, but she realized that Ms. MacCandels also used it as part of her little mind game. Well, she felt sick and tired of playing that, too. She knew the bitch had her outclassed. She decided it would be better to go straight to business and skip all the society-style sparing.

  She slowly and carefully set her fork down, trying to calm the fluttering in her stomach. Determined she might be, but it didn't relieve her anxiety. "Ms. MacCandels--"

  "Oh, please dear, call me Clarrisa. We are, after all, going to be friends."

  She hesitated as she did a mental double-take. The interruption startled her, but her statement unnerved her.

  What did she mean by friends?

  Momentarily gaining control of herself she began again. "Clarrisa, I..." She paused, her voice cracking when a stray thought occurred to her. Not all of her "clients" were men. That actually didn't bother her, but who knew what a woman like Clarrisa MacCandels considered good clean fun between the sheets?

  Clarrisa feigned a concerned look. "Yes, dear, is something wrong?"

  So, the bitch is enjoying this too. That made Shasta so angry that her hesitancy fled in the face of it.

  Alright, damn it! Let's get this over with. Say it. The worse thing that can happen is I'll be sent back to my pimp empty-handed. Just say it.

  "Clarrisa."

  That's good. Sound confident, keep your face neutral, don't give that bitch any more ammunition.

  "Justin, my manager, told me you gave him $1000 to send me out here. I doubt it was to have tea and make small talk. Just what is it you want from me? If it's sex, I have to tell you, I don't do anything weird or kinky."

  Clarrisa looked at Shasta as if she had finally noticed her for the first time. A taut smile appeared on her face, perhaps a product of a grudging respect.

  She set her fork down and pushed her plates away from her. Folding her arms across the table top she leaned forward. "Very well, dear. You want all the cards on the table, so to speak. I don't mind; in fact, I've been waiting to see if you had the backbone to stand up to me. You are the eighth girl I've interviewed, and you are the first to show both intelligence and spirit. You see, I have need of both."

  That made her cautious. "For what?" Anxiety replaced her anger as it evaporated.

  "You guessed correctly, I want sex, but not for myself. And you won't have to do anything you are uncomfortable with. All I want you to do is seduce my son."

  Shasta relaxed as soon as she heard that. That didn't sound too bad; in fact, she had heard of that kind of thing being done, though she had assumed it was just an urban folk tale. And yet something didn't feel right. She couldn't be sure if her suspicion was real or simply part of her anxiety, but she had to make certain before she went through with her request.

  "I'm sorry, but I don't know about this. It all sounds rather strange to me."

  For a brief moment it looked as if a worried expression flickered across Clarrisa's face, after which it resumed its usual casual contemptuousness. "Oh? In what way, my dear?"

&nbs
p; "Well, for instance, why are you setting this up? Why wouldn't he simply hire me himself?"

  Clarrisa chuckled, as if she humored a small child, but Shasta didn't buy it, not after what she saw a moment before. "I'm afraid my son would never have thought of this himself, and besides I want to surprise him."

  "Why, is it his birthday or something?"

  "No, I just like to do nice things for him on occasion."

  Shasta shook her head in confusion. "This doesn't make any sense. Why wouldn't he think of this himself? Why someone like me, and not some high-priced fancy escort? And why are you doing this for him? Why would you care?"

  Clarrisa's smile turned into a thin, hard line. "Why would you care what my reasons are, as long as you are getting paid?"

  "But you already paid Justin for my time."

  Clarrisa managed to look hurt, as if her honor had been insulted. "Of course you will be adequately compensated. I had planned that all along. I will give you another $1000, which you will give to Justin as your fee. How much of that would you receive?"

  "I don't know; maybe a hundred, maybe less. That's more than I would make in one night, but I would hardly call it adequate."

  "I have also deposited $250,000 in a bank account under a false name. I will give you the account number and the name of the bank after you complete your task. With that money you could leave Justin, set yourself up as an independent in, say, Vail, or wherever else you like. Is that