User Guide

really liked the way the brass pushed me
around. I’ve never been much for
mindlessly following orders. After a while,
that whole damned headset just got to be
too much for me. I mean, here were
officers that I could fly into the ground
giving me orders. Who the hell did they
think they were? The whole problem is
the power principle. Give any idiot power,
and it’ll corrupt absolutely every time.
Pretty soon they expect you to jump
through hoops just because they have
some braid on their shoulders.”
Given this attitude, one might wonder
why Capt. Forrester was given an
honorable discharge, especially since
scuttlebutt has it that the separation
was less than amicable. “Did I have
something on Uncle Sam?” A silvery
laugh bursts forth from Forrester, con-
trasting nicely with her tough as nails
demeanor. “Do I look like the kind of gal
who’d do something like that? You’d have
to be a pretty nasty customer to be able
to pull that one off.”
With fiery red hair, steely blue eyes
and the unpredictability of a dedicated
anarchist, Capt. Forrester seems capable
of pulling anything off.
JANET PAGE, “VIXEN”
— BEAUTIFUL AND DEADLY
Raised around the merchant airfields of
Quebec, Janet Page is the only Wildcat
pilot without a military service record.
She credits the fact that she became a
certified jet pilot before the age of
eighteen to her icy determination, as well
as to her ability to charm the local
flyboys into giving her lessons. Due to
the attrition among Quebeçois mercs
during the late nineties, mission
openings were easy to come by. Janet
used her persuasive powers to secure
some of the easier, lower paying
missions, gaining experience until, in the
space of three years, she had established
her reputation as a pilot who would fly
any mission, no matter how dangerous.
“I wasn’t afraid of getting my nose
dirty, that’s for sure. I figured that was
the only way a woman could get their
respect, and I was right. I ran guns into
China for awhile, punching through
the NATO blockade I don’t know how
many times. That was bouncy. But it
paid very well, which is the foremost
consideration, right?”
Asked about the name “Vixen,” she
rolls her eyes and frowns: “My beauty is
a tool, and I use it well. Men who want to
use me generally wind up getting used. I
didn’t pick ‘Vixen’ for myself, but that’s
what the flyboys in Canada used to call
me, and it stuck. I could drop it now, I
suppose, but I guess I keep it as a
warning. Anyone attracted by my looks
should know what they’re in for. One
tough customer.”
Tough is right. Janet is known
throughout Istanbul as an uncom-
promising pilot who will do anything to
accomplish a mission objective. “Some
call it killer instinct. I just think of it in
terms of marketability. Pilots who
regularly return from sorties without
realizing their primary objectives don’t
last long. You can’t ride on reputation
alone in this business. You’re really only
as good as your last flight. And I’ve
worked too hard, I’ve come too far, to let
anything get between me and my
ultimate goal.”
And just what is that?
“A girl’s got to keep some secrets,” she
replies seriously, the glint in her eyes
flashing a warning not to pursue this
question, or perhaps, in anger at this slip
in her normally impenetrable armor.
Clearly, Janet has her future mapped out
with the same precision she uses to gun
down opponents. But what that future
might be, only time will tell.
SUDDEN DEATH •
July 2011
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