A Legacy of Sorts

By Mongoose750 (mongoose750@yahoo.com)

Eva Harding has had a rough life. Being the only child of alcoholic parents, she was 5'9" with long blond hair, and a beautiful figure. When the whole world seemed to work against her, that was the only asset she could count on. She graduated high school, barely, not because she lacked brains, but because she hung with a crowd who said she either didn't need them, or didn't have them. She had plenty of dates, but Eva was considered the type of girl you fooled around with, not the one you had a regular relationship with.

After high school, Eva saw no other options but to use her looks to forge a career for herself. That was when she entered into the world of exotic dancing. She worked, or rather boogied her way up the ladder until she was one of the lead performers at a gentleman's club.

Then life appeared to be looking up for Eva Harding.

One evening, GP Coleman, a young wealthy businessman saw her perform and fell in love. Eva, flattered at the attention GP gave her, and in the back of her mind seeing a possible way out of her hard life, fell in love as well. Three months later, they got married.

However, Eva's silver lining turned out to be dark gray.

GP was a businessman with strong ties to organized crime. Though he was a good businessman, he was a lousy business partner. He made one too many enemies, and seeing the writing on the wall, he sold most of his US holdings, and fled the country. The young couple lived in various houses in Paris, Panama, London, and Sydney, among others. Though GP's enemies were left back in the states, GP kept his globetrotting lifestyle; it made him feel important. Eva got to see more of the world over the space of a few years than most people would see in a lifetime. But it came at a terrible cost.

Eva was GP's wife, but she was a trophy wife, a figurehead, someone to be brought along at prestigious parties to show off. Back home, she was ignored. To make matters worse, like some sailors, GP had a different woman in every port. This led to him having a number of late nights at the office, and not just for paperwork. Eva confronted him with this once. GP smirked and said she had everything a woman could ask for; money, fine clothes, a chance to see the world. Before this, she had nothing, so she should be happy. But Eva didn't have everything; she wasn't happy. Because she felt miserable, Eva drank, a lot, for the next fifteen years. Because he only needed her sober a few times out of the year, he let her drink.

GP's business savvy was still good, but his ruthless, unethical style and remaining underworld ties still gained him a few more enemies. This time he prepared by hiring a top notch security force that kept watch around the clock. At that point, Eva didn't care, she just wanted another drink.

One day they packed up and moved to a new house, a mansion located in Bombay, India. Despite the new locale, one home was starting to look like another to Eva. After she had the servants unpack her things, she'll just go watch TV and have a drink.

One late morning, Eva got up, dressed, and made her way to the dining room for breakfast. When she arrived, she found the maid and cook was nowhere to be found. She asked GP if he fired them, and if not, where are they? Her husband responded by saying he didn't fire anybody, but he will if they don't show up. He waited ten minutes, and then called the servant's quarters next door. The phone rang, but there was no response. He tried the maid's private line, but received the same result. He thought about the idea of sending one of the bodyguards over to check on them when suddenly the doorbell rang. The couple looked at each other.

"Er, honey, why don't you get that? Tell them I'm out of town on business meeting," GP said.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Eva replied, realizing that she hadn't opened the front door for a visitor in over fifteen years. She slowly opened the door and timidly poked her head out. "Hello?"

What stood before Eva was a curious sight. Standing in front of the door was an Indian woman who stood about 5'6" or 5'7". She appeared to be in her early forties, or was it thirties? Whichever it was, she had an excellent complexion with her dark skin. Her long black hair was placed in a bun. Regarding her figure, she appeared to be in excellent shape. Whatever exercise program she took she must have followed religiously, because if she carried any body fat, she must have burned it off a long time ago. Her outfit was interesting too. She wore a black long sleeve V-necked leotard and black footless tights. The clothes looked like they were made from silk. Her bare feet were adorned with an ankle bracelet on the left ankle and red toenail polish.

"Good morning," she said in lightly accented English. "Is GP Coleman here?"

I thought he saw younger women, Eva thought to herself. "He's out of town on a business meeting," she managed to say.

"Very well then; the next time you see him, tell him I'm Anja, and that I came for him."

Anja turned and walked away, headed back down the driveway. A confused Eva returned to GP, who was trying in vain to call one of the chauffeurs at the servant's quarters. It didn't occur to her until later that she was at their doorstep despite the mansion's rigid security.

"Who was that?" GP asked, apparently also forgetting about the security proceedings.

"Some Indian woman by the name of Anja, and she said she came for you. She was dressed in some workout outfit. Do you know her?"

Eva's confusion grew even further when GP's eyes grew big, and he started calling for all of his security crew to meet them in the living room immediately.

"GP, what's wrong?" Eva said.

"That woman you spoke to a second ago, she's a Silkworm!" He replied.

Eva's knowledge of silkworms was limited to what she saw on a special on the Discovery Channel# on the making of fine clothing.

"What's a Silkworm?" She asked.

"They're a group of women assassins over forty," GP said. "A ' business colleague told me about them when we were in France."

"Women assassins? Over forty? So you're telling me you're being hunted down by a bunch of old women?" Eva laughed at the thought.

"They've been around a long time, and they're supposed to be very good. I thought they were a myth, at first, but they must be real."

"What makes you think that older woman in a fancy leotard is out to get you?"

"Think about it, Eva. This house is surrounded by an electrified fence, a pack of guard dogs, and armed guards who patrol the place day and night. The fact that she got through all that and knocked on our front door should tell you something. And she probably took care of our cook, maid, and all our hired help while we were sleeping."

Eva felt the full weight of what GP said sank in, even though she felt there was something that GP wasn't telling her. For a businessman, he seemed to know quite a bit about assassins. As the bodyguards came in, she started feeling anxious and afraid. She felt like she needed a chance to pull herself together; she needed to evaluate the implications of all this.

She needed a drink.

*

From her vantage point on a long hanging branch of a nearby tree, Anja peered at the couple and their group of bodyguards through one of the giant windows of the living room by a pair of compact high-power binoculars. She mused to herself an old adage her teacher and mentor told her a few years ago: the more things a person depends on, the more vulnerable they are. After looking over the security of the place, it wasn't hard breaking in at all. It was a simple matter to feed the dogs drugged steaks. They should be out until that evening. Anja thought dogs were delightful creatures. No need to harm them; they did not choose their owners.

It was almost as simple to short out the fence and cut through it. Then she took out the guards one by one. She knew the servants would be getting up early in the morning to eat their own breakfast and prepare for the day, so a little pill mixed in with their coffee beans put them back to sleep. By the time they wake up, which would be late afternoon, it should be all over.

The only question remaining would be how many bodyguards she would have to take out before she reached her target. The matter of the wife shouldn't be a problem; chances are she'll be too hysterical to do anything, plus judging from her eyes, she was a heavy drinker, so her senses and reaction time were dulled.

The Silkworm giggled to herself. She couldn't resist walking up to the front door and asking if her target was there. Of course, if her target answered the door, she would've sanctioned him on the spot and went home. Still, her presence should bring fear to the target, and fearful people can do foolish things. That will make her job easier.

Anja again laughed to herself. High-tech security, what a joke. He would have been better off installing a thirty-foot wide moat that circled around the complex; it would've done the job just as well.

*

GP gathered the six bodyguards around Eva and himself, and addressed them on the crisis at hand.

"What do you want us to do, boss?" One of the bodyguards said.

"John, I want you to rush down to the garage, grab one of the cars, and pull it up front. You ready?"

John cocked his gun. "Ready boss," he said, and trotted down the hall, gun at the ready.

And that was the last anyone had seen of John. After twenty minutes went by, GP assumed the worst. He took a deep breath and motioned to two more of his bodyguards. Both came forward.

"Mike, Rick, I need the both of you to go to the garage and get the car. We'll have to assume the worst with John for the moment. If you see anyone other than him or the staff, shoot."

"Yes boss," they both said and departed.

"So why are they doing this? Who is doing this? I don't understand," Eva said.

"What? Oh, some businessmen are very competitive, and they would stop at nothing to get what they want. I guess one of them thinks I'm in the way."

Eva thought that explanation was strange, but then again, she was not a businessman, so it may not be as strange as she thought.

GP said to the remaining three bodyguards, "Check the windows, see if you can find anything unusual," he said. "Silkworms act either alone, or in pairs without guns, so it shouldn't be long before we get her."

*

Anja adjusted, and then tightened her rear naked chokehold on Rick while he futilely tried to pry her arms loose with his good right arm (his left arm was rendered numb by a prior blow to the arm's nerve cluster). Her bare ankles wrapped around his right leg, making it hard for him to maneuver.

Her target was making this too easy for her, the Silkworm thought. If he kept sending out his bodyguards one or two at a time, she'll be finished in no time. As her prey's struggles finally ceased, Anja reflected on the lessons her teacher taught her. She once said to her if you wanted to look at a true master of assassination, you need to look no farther than the animal world, particularly the insect world.

She then elaborated on an insect called the ant lion. In adulthood, it became an innocent thing, a delicate insect that looked like a dragonfly. In its larva form however, it was a most fearsome predator. The creature would dig itself a small pit near an anthill, and lay at the bottom, completely buried except for its jaws. Whenever an unsuspecting ant or a similar victim would come by, it would stumble and fall into the small pit and into the powerful jaws of the ant lion. Meanwhile, the anthill is unsuspecting of the trap capturing its inhabitants. Anja had followed that example many times; it had always proven successful.

Anja dropped Rick's body to the ground, and walked over to where Mike was getting on his hands and knees and started to make his way toward his gun. Raising her right leg high, Anja delivered an axe kick, landing her bare heel on the back of Mike's neck. The bodyguard flopped back to the ground, never to rise again.

Anja figured GP would probably play it smarter this time, and keep his guards close to him, either to stay holed up in the mansion or to make another attempt to reach the cars in the garage. Reaching the cars was a nice idea that could work, except for the fact that she already disabled all but for one or two of them. In any case, she'll need to change her mode of attack, and stalk them inside the house.

"Can't you call the police or whatever they use for police here?" Eva pleaded.

"And tell them what?" GP replied, "That we're being hunted down by a woman assassin? In this country, they'd laugh my head off! Besides, they couldn't get here in time, so it's up to us to get out of here."

Joe, one of the three remaining bodyguards said, "I don't know about anyone else, but it's going to take more than some old broad to take me down." He cocked his gun.

From her vantage point, Anja smiled. She'll save him for last before the main course.

"All right, this is what we'll do," GP said. "Instead of sending men out one by one, we'll all go to the garage. I don't care how skilled a killer she is, she can't get all of us, especially if we're armed."

GP walked over to a bureau drawer, unlocked it, and pulled out two revolvers, loaded them, and handed one to Eva.

"What do you want me to do with this?" Eva said.

"When you see the old bat, point and shoot. Simple."

"I don't know-"

"Babe, it's this simple, it's her or you. If you ask me, I rather it was her. Now come on."

The gun felt heavy in Eva's hand. If she just had time for a quick drink, that would calm her down. Just a sip.

A novice with a gun, Anja thought, watching Eva's shaky hands. She might finish the job for me.

They formed a tight circle, the bodyguards on the outside with Eva and GP in the middle. They entered the hallway to make their way to the garage when they heard a noise behind them, sounding like a marble hitting the hardwood floor. All of them except for Eva ran back into the room, guns drawn. When they saw nothing, they left the living room one by one. The last man took a final glance, then turned to leave. As he did so, a dark hand covered his mouth while the other was placed on the back of his head. His head was turned suddenly to the left, and he fell to the ground.

"Hey Billy, get back here!" GP roared.

"Want me to get him?" Joe asked.

"No, we'll all go."

They reentered the living room, and almost stumbled over Billy's body. Jack, the other bodyguard checked the body for signs of life.

"But we just checked this room," he said. "How did she do that?"

It took almost every iota of willpower for Eva to keep from going into hysterics. That body was walking and breathing only a minute ago. And that assassin, that woman she met earlier that morning is now in the house picking them off.

"Can't we reason with her?" She asked.

"This is a paid hitman, Eva, or hitwoman, hitperson, whatever," GP said, like she was an ignorant child. "The only language she'll understand is money."

"So why don't we make her a better offer? We can afford it."

GP paused for a moment, stopping to consider the idea. While he did so, the remaining bodyguards checked the three hallways that extended from the living room. Jack checked the beginning of one hallway, which was suddenly dark. As he peered into the darkness, the first and last sight he saw was the edge of a bare foot smashing his nose. The force of the kick sent the bone fragments into his brain, killing him instantly. Joe turned just in time to see Jack fall on his back and lay still.

Being no fool, Joe left any ideas of a possible confrontation behind and practically shoved GP and Eva into the doorway they initially planned to take.

"Joe, what the h-" GP began.

"As long as we stay in the house, we're sitting ducks. Our best chance is to get out in the open," Joe said.

"Then why don't we go out the front door closest to the living room?"

"Jack was close to that way."

"Jack-" GP stopped, then realized what happened. "Oh."

For Eva, it felt like she was trapped in a nightmare. A killer was in her house, and picking them off one by one, like those teen horror flicks. Idly, she wished she didn't have most of the hallways painted in dark colors, because it was hard to see when dark. Bright colors made her head hurt when she had one of her regular hangovers, so when the mansion was built, she rectified that error. She was now starting to regret her decision.

GP asked Joe if the bulletproof limo was the first car available in the garage. Joe replied in such a case like this, any car that's running would be the best choice. Eva prepared to ask GP why they had a bulletproof limo in the first place when her whole world went crazy in the next twenty seconds. She first heard a sound like marbles rolling across the hardwood floors. Everyone stopped in their tracks to find the source of the sound. Joe barked at both of them to get to the door. As Eva ran toward the door, which was only ten feet away, the view of the door gradually became blurred and darkened, until she couldn't see the door at all, and stumbled into a small table. GP and Joe each found themselves bumping into the walls.

Joe rubbed his eyes to clear his vision. The Silkworm must have used some type of a combination smoke screen/tear gas to obscure their vision. Even in the daytime, the smoke was as dark as night. He had to hand it to that woman, she was a real professional.

A little less than a minute, the smoke began to clear, and Joe was beginning to see again. He turned around to regain his bearings, and the first sight he saw was ' Anja. Joe swung his gun hand in front of him, but the lady assassin quickly caught his arm as she took a step closer to him. Joe discovered Anja was much stronger than she looked as he tried without success to pull his arm free. With her free right hand, Anja reached out and gripped Joe's larynx. She paused long enough to say, "Old broad, indeed," and jerked his voice box toward her. Joe fell to the floor struggling for air, while Anja disappeared in the remainder of the smoke.

Aside from the sound of her own crash, Eva thought she heard the sound of someone falling to the floor. She slowly got up, calling her husband's name.

"GP? GP? Where are you?"

Her vision was clearing, and she saw someone in front of her ' but it wasn't GP. The body of Joe, a look of horror framed on his face, showing the agony of his final moments, was too much for Eva. She started screaming at the top of her lungs, wanting this nightmare to end. GP came behind her and shook her, trying to get her back to her senses.

"Eva, pull yourself together!" GP yelled at her. He took a glance at Joe's body. "We can't do anything for him now, we need to go."

"What did you do?" Eva said in a low voice.

"What?"

"What did you do?" Eva's voice rose in intensity.

"What are you talking about?"

"What did you do?" Eva yelled at her husband. "Innocent people don't get attacked like this."

"Eva, I don't have time to explain my work for you, or to break it down to you to understand what I do. We need to leave before we get killed."

You mean before you get killed; I didn't do anything, Eva thought. Instead, she said, "I may not be a businessman, but I'm not stupid. Your assassin is already here."

"Quite right," a voice said from nowhere.

The couple looked all around them to find the source of the voice, but no one was there. Suddenly Anja dropped from the ceiling, landing in front of them like a cat. GP drew his pistol and aimed it at her, but the Silkworm jumped in front of him and effortlessly swatted the gun out of his grasp with the back of her left hand. Suddenly disarmed, GP threw a desperate right punch at his assassin. Anja parried the punch, and then grabbed GP and hip tossed him to the floor while still hanging on to his right arm. She trapped GP's head between her tights-covered legs while her left hand held his wrist, hyper-extending it. Her right fist was aimed at his head. GP struggled to break free, but he couldn't overcome the surprising strength of the Silkworm. During the whole time, Anja seemed to ignore the fact that Eva was armed as well. A fact GP had not forgotten.

"Shoot, Eva!" GP shouted with a red face. "Shoot her now!"

Eva drew her gun in a shaking hand, aiming it at the Silkworm.

"Your hubby has been a busy man. Would you like to know what he's done?" Anja said.

Eva couldn't get herself to pull the trigger before, now this possibility of hearing the truth behind her husband's mysterious business dealings made her pause even more.

"Shoot her! Shoot ' uh!" GP yelled before a clinching of Anja's thighs silenced him.

"I have been tracking your beloved husband since your stay at that nice little place in Paris. He seems to have a limitless number of safehouses, and an endless display of disposable bodyguards. I've must have gone through enough squads to make an army while chasing him across the globe," Anja said. "He has a girlfriend in every town, did you know that?"

"Shoot her, for God's sake!" GP mumbled through the pain of his right arm being stretched, and the pressure of Anja's standing head scissors.

"I'm positive God wants you to pay for your deeds too," Anja replied, and turned to Eva. "Of course you knew, why else would you drink so much? But you want to know more about his business dealings, don't you?"

Eva found herself slowly nodding her head despite herself. Her gun, wavering, now slowly lowered.

"This so-called "businessman' is nothing more than a leech, a parasite to those who worked with him. He would partner with someone, start a company, then as soon as that company would reach the zenith of its success, he would disappear, leaving his partner alone and bankrupt. He always gave a particular amount to certain partners in organized crime, partly to invest in the mobs enterprises, but mainly to keep him safe.

"However, there came a point where even the mob couldn't keep him safe. So he left America, and continued his wretched practices overseas. His mob connections kept him safe from reprisal.

"His fatal mistake was when he tried double-crossing a businessman in Brussels, or rather, businesswoman. When she demanded for him to pay back what he stole, he laughed and threatened to send his mobsters after her if she retaliated. Instead of backing off, she used some connections of her own and hired me. His mob connections have kept him safe thus far, but the mob is just the mob, while I am a Silkworm."

Eva asked her struggling husband, "Is that true, GP?"

"Just ask yourself these questions," Anja continued. "Why haven't you been allowed to leave the house? Or get more acquainted with the other wives of the businessmen he associated with? Why have you moved from house to house all over the world? Have you ever asked yourself why you suddenly moved from these places, sometimes in the middle of the night? I think if you see the facts for what they are, you know I'm right."

"How do you know all this?" Eva asked.

"It's always a good habit to observe my targets. It's good to know your prey's habits before you hunt them down."

"Shoot her," GP grunted out from his trapped position.

Anja clenched her thighs a little harder, and said to him, "Your wife is not a shooter, Mr. Coleman, otherwise she would have done it. I, on the other hand, don't need a gun to deal with you."

"Anja, is it? Look, whatever that woman paid you to kill us, we'll double it, even triple it if you want. Please don't hurt us," Eva pleaded.

"I believe you would be able to do that. However, unlike your husband, as a Silkworm, I honor my contracts. And my contract only demands his sanction, no one else's. Well, bodyguards don't count, and I've went through enough of those with all this globetrotting to cost him a small fortune."

GP's complexion was starting to change colors, from a pale white to a reddish hue to a faint shade of blue from the result of Anja's thighs delivering pressure on his head. Becoming lightheaded, he hung on to the edge of consciousness only by a desperate force of will.

"Your husband's life will soon be over, Eva, that is certain," Anja said. "However, I am not without some mercy. Mr. Coleman, I will give you a final minute to make peace with your god, as if you have one, and a chance to say goodbye to Eva one last time. Eva, if you have one last thing to tell him, now is the time."

Eva remembered that this would be the time where she would tell her husband she loved him before he died, at least, according to the movies. But when she looked at GP trapped in the Silkworm's grasp, she felt ' nothing. Any fire that was there in their relationship had cooled down over the years to a cold ember. How much of this relationship was a lie, she wondered, from the number of mistresses he had in every country to keeping her sequestered in their mansions like a royal prisoner, to not even breathing any details of his business dealings. Through her life, she had never been in a healthy relationship, but she knew this wasn't it. That's why the Silkworm wasn't worried about her using the gun; people who loved their spouse would sacrifice their very life to save their loved ones. The assassin seemed to be a better judge of character of him and their relationship than she was. But Eva didn't know whether it was a sense of morbid curiosity or some sort of compassion, but she had only one question left to ask GP, so she asked.

"How many were there?" Eva said.

GP had a momentary reprieve from having his head caved in between Anja's thighs, but answering any questions irrelevant to the situation was far from his mind.

"Eva, for the love of God, will you shoot her! You'll never get another chance!" GP pleaded. "She'll kill you next!"

"How many women were there for the love of GP, huh? Was there one at every port, like for sailors, huh?" Eva demanded.

At this point, Anja chuckled and said, "'One at every port would be an understatement."

"All right, all right! There were many women, but they weren't affairs, they were business negotiations. Businessmen conduct things differently out in the world than they do in the states," GP explained hastily.

Eva became livid. Now she was being played for a fool.

"I would prefer it if you just told me the truth; that you don't love me; instead, you spread your love to all these women, and left none for me," she said.

"That's not true! I gave you everything! The finest clothes, the best jewelry, mansions and luxury cars-"

"I didn't care about all of that, I just wanted someone to love me!"

"I'll give you that, I'll give you whatever you like, just shoot her ' umph!"

GP's final pleas were muffled as Anja's thighs clamped down on his head again. The Silkworm sighed.

"I've seen people confess every sin they had done, I've seen them plead for mercy from their god as well as myself. I've even had a few ask me to deliver a final message to their loved ones, which I delivered. But those who remain prideful and arrogant to the very end, like this one, pretending they're innocent, they always sicken me," Anja said. "I expected something more substantial like "I love you,' or "I'm sorry,' or maybe something equally endearing, not "shoot her.' I told you your wife is not a shooter; though from what I just heard, who can blame her for not pulling the trigger?"

She paused for a moment to glance at Eva. Eva held the gun limply in her hand like it would fall out at any moment. Finally, she turned her head as the revolver landed on the carpet.

Anja turned back to her victim. "I was going to settle for either strangling you or crushing your head like an egg between my thighs. Instead, I'm going to settle for something quicker," she said as she pulled her fist back.

GP had managed to free his head just enough to say, "You old witch! I hope you burn in-"

"Yeah, yeah," Anja said as her fist hit GP's temple. She then relaxed her legs, allowing his lifeless body to fall to the floor. "Now it's done."

"Just make it quick," Eva said.

"I told you I didn't come for you, just your worthless slug of a husband," Anja said. "On the other hand, you're now a very free and very wealthy woman. What do you think about that?"

Aside from the previous crisis, there was only one thing on Eva's mind since she arose that morning.

"I need a drink," she said as she staggered down the hallway to the liquor cabinet in the kitchen, the closest place she could think of.

Eva wasn't horrified by seeing the death of her husband; perhaps because their marriage had been dead for years. On special occasions, he would have her all dressed up to impress and dazzle potential clients and fellow businessmen, then go off and sleep with some trollop on his many "business trips." There was only one thing she could do to heal the pain, and that was to take a few shots of good ole' Jack Daniels. She savored the amber fluid as it poured into the glass. Her hand shook with anticipation as she lifted the glass to her lips.

Then a dark hand suddenly knocked the glass and bottle out of her hands in the blink of an eye. Eva stared in horror as both items shattered on the tile floor.

"If I knew you were going to do this, I would've went ahead and killed you," Anja said. "At least it would be quicker."

"What do you know?" Eva spat out. "You're just an assassin."

Anja looked at Eva for a moment, then said, "Yes, you're right; I am an assassin, a "gun for hire' as they say in the states. But let me tell you a little secret about the little business I'm in; ninety percent of my targets deserve it."

She sat on the edge of the counter while Eva looked on, confused.

"Think about it, who generally gets assassinated?" The Silkworm continued. "Not your regular people. Innocent people aren't in any danger, not even those who are rich, or have enemies. It's those who are rich, or have enemies. It's those who don't want anyone else to have what they have or they want what that person has. And there's the case of your husband who has it all, but will not stop until he has the other person's gains. And those who hire me have hearts as black as the person I'm hired to eliminate. I may be hired for a sanction by one party, then another party may hire me to sanction the first party, it's crazy.

"But I guess I care because you've been given a second chance. Now you have the means and resources to live your life however you choose. However, none of that is going to happen if you're going to spend the rest of your existence in a stupor."

"But, but I don't know what to do," Eva stammered. "Besides, along with GP and his bodyguards, you killed my staff too."

"No I didn't. Generally, we Silkworms steer away from needless slaughter. Your staff is not dead, only drugged and sleeping. Your dogs are too. They'll awaken later today. You'll either need to give them and the police a good cover story or you can tell them the truth, it doesn't matter to me; but you'd be better off telling them a group of your husband's enemies snuck in and killed him. That would be more believable, since most people have never heard of us."

Eva just nodded her head absentmindedly, and spoke, more to herself than Anja, "And then what?"

Anja sat and looked over Eva for a few moments, then straightened herself and jumped off the kitchen counter.

"Okay, here's what you do," she said. "You'll go and rouse your staff and call the police and give them your story. Then you'll come back to the house, go to your room and pack."

"Pack?"

"Yes, you're coming with me."

*

Eva Coleman gazed at herself in the mirror. Sometimes she found it hard to believe the changes that had been made. Her arms that were once spindly now had biceps that were sixteen inches when flexed. Her chest expanded to forty-four inches, but the result she was the most proud of were her legs, with the thighs being shapely and curvy, and her calves sculpted like marble at twenty-five and sixteen inches respectively. Eva was always considered by others as very attractive, but those attributes were largely cosmetic. Now as she entered her forties, she was in the best shape of her life.

She was standing in a bedroom of a condominium in Thailand, dressed in a white bikini and swimskirt with gold embroidery. This was covered with a sheer white silk cloak draped around her like a cocoon. At the end of her arms in her bare hands was the throat of a Thai businessman who swindled his business partners the same way her late husband did. From her training, she could've found a hundred ways to kill him, but in this case, she decided to do it the old fashioned way, placing her strong hands around his neck and squeeze until her victim could breathe no more.

Anja's solution to Eva's dilemma by turning her into a Silkworm seemed rather strange, but it was rather liberating at the same time. It appeared to be a legacy of sorts, with Anja passing down all she learned to her. From this, Eva became an independent businesswoman, even if the business she was in was a little macabre, and free to do whatever she wants, with even the possibility of liberating others.

Case in point was the now late businessman's wife, a petite woman who was normally attractive, but her usually pretty face was marred by a black eye and some bruises. Eva found out that her late husband had a tendency to beat her; whenever she was "bad," whenever he had a bad day at the office, when he had a fight with one of his many mistresses, even whenever he had a good day, he would knock her around a little to keep her docile. Eva saw her eyes as she throttled her husband. She was not sorry to see him go.

For all of GP's faults, Eva was thankful her being used as a punching bag was not one of them. The police in India believed her story to her surprise. When she told her staff what happened, they were sorry for her, but they did not seem very remorseful. In fact, they seemed a little relieved. Eva then remembered GP treated the hired help like slaves. The guard dogs received better treatment. The staff had no problems switching their allegiance. In fact, she still had them, serving her faithfully, and with higher wages. She still had her fortune and her big mansion in India, which she chose as her permanent home. She still had most of her other homes too; the others she gave to the Silkworms to be used as safehouses, permanent residences, or training centers.

Eva opened her hands, and the corpse of the Thai businessman fell to the floor. She turned to his wife, and said, "There, it is done. Now you're free."

The battered widow momentarily looked Eva over, from the top of her head with the long, flowing blond hair, to the sculptured, solid muscles to the white frosted toenails of her bare feet. Pulling her robe tightly to herself as if to fend off a nonexistent chill. Finally, she spoke.

"You, you're a Silkworm; I've heard of you," she said.

"Yes I am," Eva replied, seeing no reason to hide the truth. "Your husband had made many enemies with the wrong people, so they summoned me."

"He got what he deserved," the wife spat out. "He cheated everyone who he worked with."

"Well ' Ahn, is it? He is no more, and you don't have to fear or feel his fists anymore."

Ahn felt momentarily relieved, then had it replaced by uncertainty, a feeling of lostness.

"So what do I do now?" She said.

Eva looked at her for a moment. She remembered this same scenario, except the positions were reversed. She remembered the confusion and no idea with what to do next. She even remembered the need to deaden that feeling with a drink, though she had never touched any alcohol since that day. Then she remembered Anja (who had just completed a assignment in Indonesia), and her solution to the dilemma. Finally, she walked over to the side of the bed where Ahn was huddled, and extended her hand to the frightened woman.

"Come with me," she said.

For comments, suggestions, or story ideas, send email to Shrewsberry@juno.com.