Merkiaari Wars: 02 - What Price Honour by Mark E. Cooper

was a cover she had used before. Although of course some details like her last name had changed many times, she always looked like a rich man’s rebellious daughter. The clothes and makeup made Kate seem years younger, and nothing like Kate Richmond—spy and assassin. Cherry was a real person to her. Kate could slip in and out of her Cherry persona easily whenever the need arose. She had others, many others in fact, but Cherry suited a surprising number of situations. People liked her, wanted to help her, or bed her, or simply dance with her. Some had even wanted to take her home to meet the parents! Kate snorted at the remembrance and shook her head. The illusion of naïve youth and money was very attractive to some.
    Kate sat in the pilot’s chair to watch as the jungle grudgingly gave way first to tamed forests, and finally to cultivated farmland. The shuttle made a small course correction, and a road flashed by beneath her. Roads meant civilisation. She was nearly there. She keyed the microphone and began to play her part.
    “Can anyone hear me? Please say you can hear me… mayday, mayday. How do I land this thing?”
    “This is Tigris port control. Identify yourself.”
    “Oh thank God. My name’s Cherry and I’m on a shuttle. There’s no pilot! ”
    “State your designation,” snapped the flight controller.
    “Touchy, touchy,” Kate murmured to herself before keying the microphone live again. “Cherry, I just told you.”
    “Not your name, your shuttle. What is your registry?”
    “I don’t knoooow! ”
    “Calm down and start at the beginning. What happened to your pilot?”
    Kate launched into her prepared story. “…said he knew this great place we could go, but when we landed, we were in the middle of the jungle! He grabbed me, but I stamped on his foot and got away. He chased me into the trees, so I hid until I could sneak back to the shuttle. I locked the hatch and pushed the button that said auto, but now I can’t laaaand. ”
    “Ahh, hmmm… everything will be fine now, ma’am. Shuttles are very safe, but I need you to do something for me. Can you do that?”
    “I’ll try,” Kate said in a small voice.
    “Good, that’s good. Now what I need you to do is…”
    Kate almost shouted in triumph as the controller’s attitude changed. He was treating her like a not very bright child now. That could only help her when she landed. She reached for the transponder control and waited.
    “…you to look above your head. Can you see all the knobs and switches?”
    “I see them.”
    “That’s good. Now, near the centre of the panel there’s a row of knobs. Don’t touch them, but at the end of the row is a switch that says transponder. Have you got it?”
    “Yeah. It says disable at the top, autonomous in the middle, and enable at the bottom.” Kate rolled her eyes and waited for the command she knew was coming.
    “Very good. It should be pointing to the word autonomous, but I want you to flick that switch all the way down to enable.”
    “Now?”
    “Yes, do it now for me.”
    Hallelujah!
    “I did it. There’s a blinking light on the panel—”
    “Don’t worry about that. It just means I’m flying the shuttle now. You stay strapped in, and I’ll have you on the ground in no time.”
    “Thank you,” Kate said in a meek voice and threw the microphone down. “The things I have to do for this job.”
    Kate kept a wary eye on her instruments, ready to intercede should that be necessary, but the controller seemed competent enough. Her disguise was important, but not more important than her life. She kept a close eye. The shuttle came in slower than she would have flown it, but that didn’t concern her, what did was her reception committee. There was bound to be one. As the shuttle landed, she took a sniff from the aerosol that she’d used on her hair. It was astringent and made her eyes water. Through the cockpit window, she could see that powerful floodlights lit the taxiway and