Codename: Night Witch by Cary Caffrey

Something to spice up the mood? He nodded his eagerness. She snapped the capsule and he inhaled deeply, first one nostril, then the next.
    The lustful gleam in his eye turned to one of confusion, then horror and pain. The toxin acted instantly. He didn't choke or struggle. He simply died.
    With her toe on his backside, she rolled his body aside.
    The door was closed. The lights switched off. In the dark, she waited.
    She wouldn't have to wait long. She never did. For this dream—her only dream—was the same every night.
    He came to her, just as he always did. The door burst open. The chairman entered first with four of his cronies in tow. He closed the door and switched on the light.
    Startled gasps.
    Turning, he saw her. She was seated behind his desk. What was she doing here? How did she get in? What was the meaning of this?
    When he saw the body of the dead security man, the cigar dropped from his trembling fingers.
    He stepped back, stumbled, only to be held up by his cronies.
    The shuriken left her fingertips and skirted the distance between them, embedding itself deep within his skull. His knees buckled and he fell forward. The new chairman of the Council for Trade and Finance was dead.
    The war for independence had begun.
    Her eyes fixed on those of his cronies next. The gaggle of fat men were already jostling each other in their haste to get away. The chairman's body blocked the door. They couldn't move him. They were trapped. Trembling, they stood before her, and they knew their miserable lives were over. Their lives were hers for the taking. For she was death. She was the Night Witch, come to claim them.
    No witnesses: those were the orders of her mistress, and her mistress would not be refused. From the hem of her dress, she withdrew four more of the razor-sharp blades and stepped toward them.
     
    ~ - ~
     
    Sigrid awoke with a start, coughing and choking.
    The nightmare was already fading. In her mind, she saw the faces of men, she heard…music, but then those images were gone as well, brushed aside by the stench of burning metal, fuel and flesh.
    Minutes passed and all Sigrid could do was lie there, staring up at the overcast sky. The full moon was just barely visible through the clouds, and any stars she saw were solely in her head.
    The moon. Earth's moon. Wherever she was, this was Earth. Blast.
    Dazed, and with her ears still ringing, Sigrid struggled to sit up. Twice she gave up, deciding that lying there in the snow was perfectly acceptable, thank you very much. But her PCM kept prodding her: two more of the gunships were speeding her way.
    Two more! Bloody hell…
    Finally, she managed to sit all the way up. It was even more of a struggle to rise to her feet. Her head throbbed—twirled was more like it. Her whole world was spinning about. When she touched her forehead, her hand came back thick and sticky with blood—blood that flowed freely from a deep gash. Her diagnostics confirmed that she'd suffered a grade-three concussion; she was cut, burned and bruised. But she was alive.
    If she was conscious at all, it was only because of her PCM. The nanoswarms worked to reduce the swelling in her brain. Painkillers took away the hurt while strong stimulants brushed the fog aside. She'd pay for this later, but for the moment it was the only thing keeping her alert.
    Rising again, Sigrid stumbled back toward the causeway. The Thunderhawk was gone, disintegrated. The ground was blackened and charred. Unspent fuel lay burning in wide puddles amongst the piles of burning wreckage.And the soldiers? Sigrid scanned around her. They were dead. All of them. Yet she alone had survived. She was alive, but she wouldn't be for long, not if she stayed here much longer. The other two gunshipswould be here in moments.
    Kneeling by one of the dead, she took a brief inventory. His rifle was smashed and his grenades spent. She rolled him over, pulling off his long coat, about the only thing of use left. Wrapping it around her