the way you need them. Really cool! And everyone is so nice!”
I’ll bet, Macho thought.
“What did you do today?” Shane asked.
“Two-v-two with the XO against some Colombian Kfirs. We bumped heads about a hun’erd miles south of here.”
“How were they?”
Macho wasn’t expecting this question, but answered as if she were a pilot.
“They came at us in an echelon, not much in the way of pre-merge maneuvering. XO led us out of the sun, and we each glommed on to our own guy and pushed him around a bit. I think I had the new guy in their formation, and we were pretty far out to sea; they were probably worried about losing sight of land!”
“What kind of radar indications did you get?”
Impressed by the technical question, Macho remembered that the “Sweet Polly Purebred” who stood in front of her did have an understanding of threat radars.
“I was clean. Maybe that was their plan — so you spies couldn’t glean any intel. But they didn’t seem to lock us, and that makes sense because we were already rolling in on them when they began to turn.”
Shane nodded her understanding. “Yeah, they may have gone in silent.” After a moment, she changed the subject. “Are you writing your boyfriend?”
“No. Don’t have one. How about you?”
“I had one, but it didn’t work out.” Shane’s answer left a question hanging.
“What happened?” Macho asked her.
Shane formulated her answer and took a breath. “We met in college. He was a year older, good-looking, brother of my roommate. We dated, while in school, for three years. After he graduated, he asked me to marry him, and I said yes. He took a job in Alaska, and before he left, he wanted pictures of me “to keep him warm” at night and all that. You know… those kinds of pictures. Now, we had never done it, we were saving ourselves, but he begged and pleaded and we were engaged, so I took my top off. That’s it! And I covered myself with my hands and my hair. He took pictures with his smartphone, and… I was such an idiot. Months later, he called one night crying. He had shown the photos to some guys. No, he had sent the photos to some guys! I couldn’t believe how he had betrayed me! And, sure enough, it got out there, and people started whispering at school. Praise the Lord! I kept my commission, but I called off the engagement. It just killed his parents and his baby sister. We had gotten close. I was upset that I let them down.”
“Wow,” Macho said.
“You can’t tell anyone!” Shane flared. “I had to go away on a ship to leave Idaho behind, and here there are lots of cute guys, and they aren’t going to want a