Aces (2/2) (M/F)
========================================

"Hope we didn't keep you up."  Piper said as he set a cup of hot,
steaming coffee in front of Bandit.

"No.  I was exhausted.  No trouble at all."  Bandit said.  "But I was
thinking, I really should pick up my car, and it wouldn't hurt for me
to get that hotel room after all.  I mean, I doubt Ilene will be
enthusiastic about me bringing the latest object of my affection
here."

Piper frowned.  "Hmm.  I didn't consider that.  You going to be
spending much time with Jane?"

"Probably.  She wants to show me a few clubs tonight."

"Well, you already know her place is free.  There's no problem at all
then, is there?"

Bandit frowned into his coffee.  "No, I guess not."

Ilene entered the kitchen like a fresh breeze.  "Morning all!  My,
what a lucky woman I am to wake up to two strong handsome men, and
damn if they didn't make coffee too!"

Piper laughed and kissed her warmly.  "Looks like Bandit has a date
tonight."

"Does it involve handcuffs?"  Ilene asked Bandit with a laugh. 

Bandit blushed, for some reason feeling awkward talking about Jane
with Ilene.  "I'm not exactly sure yet.  We're going to visit a few
clubs."

"Sounds like fun."  Ilene said.  "In the meantime Jim and I get to
show you L.A."

"Where do you think we should start?"  Piper asked.

"I think we should start at the beach this morning.  Nothing like
seeing and being seen among the beautiful people.  A quick stop back
here to shower and then a late lunch at the garden, followed by Magic
Island."

Piper considered this.  "That sounds like a plan!  Sound good to you
bud?"

"You're the experts."  Bandit deferred.  "I'll leave it all in your
capable hands."

---

As Bandit unfolded the beach towel, he realized that agreeing to the
beach was a mistake.  Seeing Ilene in the short-skirted dresses she
liked to wear was bad enough, seeing her in a bikini was devastating.
Beautiful people surrounded him, women he would have found himself
chasing after like a dog in heat walked by, but everyone paled to
insignificance next to this stunningly attractive woman in a two-piece
green striped bikini. 

After chastising himself, he was finally able to settle back and enjoy
the warm rays on his skin.  He was resting comfortably, almost between
sleep and alertness, when he suddenly felt a pair of delicate, warm,
moist hands on his back.  

"You're going to get a horrible sunburn."  Ilene said as she rubbed
the lotion into his back.  

Bandit said nothing as suddenly every fiber of his being became
attuned to the delicate caresses on his back.  

Ilene rubbed his shoulder and blades, working the warm lotion into his
skin.  "Do all pilots have such powerful shoulders?"

"I guess so."  Bandit said, then winced at the incredibly lame reply,
wincing yet again at why he had wanted the answer to be more suave.

Ilene's touches drifted down to the small of his back before lifting.
He could almost feel the heat of her hands as they passed over his
butt and rested on the back of his legs.  Maybe it was his
imagination, but she seemed to take her time doing his upper legs
before lightly oiling his lower legs.

"Thanks," he said as she finished.

"Don't mention it," Ilene replied.  "Can't have a guest burned to a
crisp on his second day, could we?"

Bandit's thoughts were an incoherent jumble as he returned to his
tanning.  He wasn't even pretending that Ilene didn't attract him now.
Now he was just trying to ignore it.  He had never before met a woman
he couldn't have if he just put his mind to it, but here wrapped up in
a package that couldn't fail to appeal to him he found a beautiful,
sexy woman who just happened to be his best friend's wife.   For some
reason, the fact that he couldn't have her made him want her all the
more.

Lunch and the magic show were almost as bad as the beach.  Now with
almost a perfect mental image of Ilene's form, even the modestly
conservative dress she wore failed to hide her exquisite form to
Bandit's mind's eye.  Lunch was wonderful, the conversation was
wonderful, and the magic show was wonderful.  But the conversation
merely drove home to Bandit just how interesting Ilene really was.  

He met Jane at her doorstep promptly at six as promised, but she never
had a chance to make it out the door.  He met her light polite kiss
with a kiss of unrestrained passion and need, overwhelming her with
its intensity.   Bandit took a step forward, pushing her back into the
room and then another.  His hand drifted to the back of her elegant
white gown and began tugging at the zipper.

Overcome by his desire and confused at his intensity, Jane offered
little resistance as her dress fell to the floor.  Bandit pulled back,
his eyes never leaving hers, and tore off his shirt, popping several
buttons in the process.  Jane took a deep breath as she accepted the
inevitable.  

Bandit was not gentle as he took her.  He had never needed sex as much
as he needed it at this moment.  Jane was his salvation, the key to
forgetting Ilene.  Her hips raised to meet his as he thrust into her,
her face contorting into an agonizing expression of ecstasy.  With
mounting horror Bandit realized he wasn't fucking Jane, he was fucking
Ilene.  It was Jane's moans he was hearing, but it was Ilene's moans
he remembered as he thrust harder, trying with raw physical strength
to shatter the illusion.   It wasn't Jane's hands on his back, it was
Ilene's as she caressed the suntan oil into his skin.  It wasn't
Jane's face and breasts which filled his vision, it was Ilene's.

"Oh God!"  Jane cried.

"Oh God!" Bandit gasped weakly as they moved in orgasmic rapture.

========================================
Chapter 4
08:00 - Los Angeles
========================================

"You got home early last night."  Piper said over coffee.

"Jane and I decided to skip the clubs."  Bandit explained.  

Piper frowned.  This wasn't the Bandit he remembered.  Sitting across
from him was an almost somber man, someone who looked like he was
carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders.   For a moment,
Piper considered asking what was wrong, but only for a moment.
Whatever it was, Bandit would deal with it, and he certainly wouldn't
appreciate an offer of help.  If he needed help he'd ask for it,
otherwise there was nothing Piper could do.

Ilene however, didn't know the rules of engagement, and she noticed
Bandit's glum mood right off the bat.  "What's up, Bandit?  You look
like you just lost your best friend."

Bandit looked up at her sharply.  "My best friend just happens to be
your husband.  I wouldn't want to lose him any more than you would!"
he snapped and stormed out of the room.

"What?"  Ilene asked Piper.

Piper waved her off and followed Bandit into the living room.  "You
OK?"  Piper asked.

"Yea.  Sorry.  Delayed combat fatigue and all that rot.  Look Pipe,
I'm gonna hit the town on my own for a couple of days, really cut
loose."

"Sure.  Anything you want.  It's your furlough too, you know."

"I know."  Bandit walked over and picked his keys up off the table.
"See you in a couple of days."

Ilene walked up behind Piper as Bandit left the house.  "What a
strange man."

"Something's gotten into him, that's for sure."  Piper mused
worriedly.  "Knowing Bandit, I'd say this is exactly how he'd react to
falling head over heels in love."

"Love?"  Ilene asked arching an eyebrow.   "It doesn't look like love.
He looks positively miserable."

"Bandit's convinced love would be worse than a prison.  He enjoys his
freedom."

"You don't think love is a prison, do you?"  Ilene asked.

Piper turned and gazed lovingly into his wife's eyes.  "Only the best
kind. The kind I never want to escape from."

Ilene smiled warmly, but her thoughtful, considerate eyes followed
Bandit as he made his way to the car.


========================================
Chapter 5
10:23 - Los Angeles
========================================

It had been seven days since Bandit had fled.  It was the seventh day
of his drunk.  Time had passed in an alcoholic blur of hangovers,
buzzes, and uncounted numbers of women, beautiful or not.  Sitting
across a table from the woman he had woken up with this morning,
Bandit was becoming dangerously close to sober, though it was hard to
tell exactly considering the bizarre decorations in the woman's
apartment.  

The woman across from him was pretty enough, but she was dressed in
weird colored robes and wearing a gaudy crystal necklace.  The crystal
was similar to others which dotted the room around him.  Bandit rubbed
his eyes trying to remember who she was, how he had met her and what
they had done the previous night.

The woman drew a card from a large, oversized, strangely marked deck
and laid it before him.  "You're in love."  The woman said with all
the certainty she might say "You're a man."  She smiled at the obvious
conclusion that he was in love with her, but her smile faded quickly
as she laid another card on the table.  "A forbidden love."    She
frowned as she laid three more cards out on the table.  "It consumes
you."  She drew another card from the deck and stared at it a moment
before letting it fall on the others.  The card fluttered in the air a
moment before coming to rest face up.

Bandit had no idea what she was doing or why she was doing it, the
cards she had drawn were just pretty pictures, though her words echoed
in his mind like an accusation.  But the final card, the card that had
fallen above the others, turning to face him as it had fallen, was
understandable by anyone.  A cloaked skeleton wielding a scythe and
riding a pale horse  appeared below a flowing banner with a single
word: "Death".

"Lady, you're a nut case."  Bandit said as the world closed in around
him.  He rose, found himself naked, and furiously cast his eye around
the small apartment looking for his clothes.  He found them article by
article, leading from the front door to the bedroom.

"The cards never lie," the woman said simply as he began dressing,
wincing at the smell of old alcohol and stale smoke that assaulted his
senses.  "You love another, a forbidden love, and death comes for us
all.  It does not mean that you will die, only that you will
experience death either yourself or that of someone you care about.
Let me do a full reading."

"Fine.  Do your reading."  Bandit growled as he scooped up his shirt,
socks and shoes and fled from the apartment.

The bright California sunshine assaulted his senses like a curse as he
fled the building.  Bandit drove to a nearby cheap motel and checked
himself in.  He groaned at the man who stared back at him in the
mirror.  He didn't recognize this person, the unkempt hair, and the
dark circles under the eyes.  The two-day-old beard said, for the
entire world to see, that here was a person who didn't even care about
himself.  As he stared into the mirror, he realized it was the truth.
He didn't care about himself.  The only person he cared about was
Ilene.  

Even in his drunk she had haunted him.  His obsession with her was
unlike anything he had ever known before.  "Bandit, you're one sick
motherfucker." he said into the mirror.  The man in the mirror mouthed
it right back at him.  Bandit fell back onto the bed and buried his
eyes in his clenched fists.

========================================
Chapter 6
10:30 - Los Angeles
========================================

"Bandit!"  Piper greeted Bandit warmly.  "Been painting the town red?"

"More like black and blue."  Piper grinned.  "There were a bunch of
Marines at the bar last night."

"You don't look any worse for the wear!"  Piper said with a twinkle in
his eye.

"No, but they do!"  Bandit laughed and Piper joined him.

Ilene drifted up behind Piper at the door, studying Bandit with a keen
and interested eye.  "Hell, I'm forgetting my manners.  Come on in!"

"Really, I just dropped by to wish you luck and congratulations.  You
leave tonight don't you?"

"Actually in a couple of hours."  Piper said.  "More than enough time
to share a beer.  I can't believe I'm saying this after living with
you night and day for more than a year, but hell, I missed you!"

"Same here."  Bandit grinned sheepishly.  

"Come in Bandit, I'll get you guys a couple of beers."  Ilene said.

Bandit's eyes flitted to Ilene then to the ground.  "Really, I
shouldn't stay."

"Really, you should."  Piper said.  "Somehow I got the idea you were
going to tell me what to expect at this big award presentation but
then you up and disappeared."

"You've been decorated?"  Ilene asked as she handed Bandit a beer.

"It was a long time ago."  Bandit said.

"Not that long.  It was before we served together, but the way I hear
it, Bandit got lucky and shot down three Mao's all by his lonesome.
Saved the troops below from an air strike.  He got the same sort of
treatment I imagined I'll be getting tomorrow."

Bandit smiled, staring at the beer warily for a moment before setting
it on the table.  For the next hour, Bandit told Piper what he could
expect, most of which was complete and total boredom.  

"Oh yea, whatever you do, don't pinch the General's wife.  She may
like it, but the General doesn't." Bandit said with a perfectly
straight face.  Piper guffawed and Ilene joined him.

"So, what have you been doing with yourself, Bandit?"  Ilene asked.

"Oh, exploring the town, meeting people.  That sort of thing."

"And now?" she prompted.

Bandit leaned back in the chair and ran a hand through his hair.  "And
now I just miss being in a cockpit.  The furlough's run a bit too long
for my liking."

"After today you've still got four more days."  Piper reminded him. 

"Well, if you want to hang around tonight, I'm sure I could whip up
another meal.  Four more if you want, since the invitation is still
open."  Ilene said.

"You don't know how tempting that sounds."  Bandit said.  "Really.
But with Piper leaving in an hour or so, I think I'd better pass."

Piper gave Bandit a puzzled glance.  "What are you talking about,
Bandit?"

"It just wouldn't be proper and all."  Bandit said. 

"Hell, I trust you every day with my life.  I've trusted Ilene every
day for more than a year.  Why in the world should I be concerned
about the two people I love and trust the most in this life being
together while I'm off getting a few grams of brass pinned to my
shirt?"

Bandit flushed.  "No reason, I guess.  Dinner would be great.  But I
can't promise anything after that.  I've met a few people, you see."

Piper laughed uproariously,  "That's my wingman!"  

Bandit cast an uneasy glance at Ilene, and found her staring back at
him with a puzzled expression.  

========================================
Chapter 7
19:05 - Los Angeles
========================================

"This was every bit as good as the first meal, Ilene."  Bandit said as
he pushed the empty plate away from him, and patted his swollen belly.
"I can't believe I ate as much as I did."

"Jim always did say that he had to work three times harder as the
others at the gym to work off my cooking."  Ilene said as she began to
collect the plates.  "But thanks for the compliment."

"Let me help you."  Bandit said as he helped her clear the table.

"If you insist.  I love cooking, but hate the cleaning."  

Ilene ran some hot water and began washing the dishes while Bandit
helped her with the drying.  

"You're quiet tonight." Bandit noted after a few minutes of silence.

"Oh I'm just missing Jim."  She looked over at Bandit with a weak
smile.  "I'm glad you decided to stay at least for dinner.  It's
always hard for me when Jim has to leave again.  With you around it's
not as bad."

"I really shouldn't stay."  Bandit said.  "I plan to sneak out right
after everything's all tidied up."

Ilene pushed the pot back into the water and turned sharply.  "All
right, Bandit, what did I do?"

"What?"  Bandit asked, surprised at her sudden intensity.

"For a year we've talked on and off on the Vid-phone, and I rather
thought we'd be friends.  I got all excited about meeting my husband's
wingman and showing him the town.  I barely get to know you and you
start avoiding me like the plague!"

Bandit stared at her a moment, noting how she trembled as she stared
back at him, how her breasts rose and fell in deep breaths, how her
stern, demanding expression somehow made her even more desirable.  

Bandit's shoulders slumped, and he let out a deep, measured breath.
"It's not you, Ilene.  It's me.  You know what kind of man I am.  I've
never met a woman I wanted that I couldn't bed.  Well, I finally met a
woman I want but can't have."

Ilene's face was a mixture of shock and surprise as she took an
involuntary step away from him. 

"There.  I've said it.  You didn't leave me very much choice in the
matter, either."  Bandit said angrily, accusingly.  "I don't know what
would be worse, chasing you and winning, or chasing you and losing."

"I - I don't know what to say."  Ilene stammered and finding her knees
suddenly weak, she placed a hand on the counter for support.

"You don't have to say anything."  Bandit said.  "It's not your
problem.  It's mine."

"You mean you left because, because…" she was unable to continue.

"Because I was afraid that if I stuck around, I'd try to seduce you."
Bandit finished for her.  "Surprised?  I sure the hell am.  I always
thought that I was in the cockpit; that I decided who I liked and who
I didn't.  But you, you hit me like a ton of bricks, and you're the
one woman in this world I can't have, but right now you're the only
woman in this world I want."

Bandit turned, took a step to leave, and stopped.  He swung back
around, trembling.  He started to say something but stopped, his face
a reflection of profound loss as he turned and left.

Slowly Ilene lowered herself into the chair and stared off into the
distance.

========================================
Chapter 7
19:05 - Los Angeles
========================================

"I didn't expect to see you again."  Ilene said as she stared at
Bandit through the screen door.

"I didn't expect to be here again."  Bandit said with a weak, quirky
grin.  "I need to get my bags.  They're still in the bedroom and I fly
out tomorrow."  Ilene stepped back and invited him in.  "I won't be
long.  I promise."  Bandit said.

"I love my husband, Bandit."  Ilene said as he was halfway across the
living room.

Bandit ground to a halt and turned slowly.  "So do I.  He's the
brother I never had.  He's the reason I'm here today getting my bags,
rather than rotting away in grave."

They stared at each other in awkward silence for a minute before
Bandit turned and headed back toward the bedroom again.  "If it wasn't
for Jim…"  Ilene said quickly then stopped biting her lip as Bandit
turned back around.  "If it wasn't for Jim, you're exactly the sort of
man I could fall hard for." she finished softly.

"Don't say that."  Bandit said.  "It doesn't help," he said as a plea.

"I - I just wanted you to know," she said and shook her head as if
shaking herself out of a daze, "I admire you for what you're doing.  I
mean, I can't very well fault someone for liking me!"

"Oh yea.  This is real admirable."  Bandit said bitterly.  "Falling
hard for my best friend's girl then running away from it all like a
whipped pup.  Real admirable, they ought to give me a medal or
something."  He turned sharply and disappeared into the bedroom,
emerging after a few minutes with his bags.

"We're going to meet again, you know."  Ilene said.  "Either your next
furlough, or after the war.  You and Jim are too close for us not to
meet again.  If you keep running away from me, you'll never learn how
to deal with this, this whatever it is.  Come back for dinner
tonight."

Bandit's eyes were pained and his teeth clenched as he answered.  "Do
you know how hard it is for me to be here with you right now, like
this?  You're in my mind, Ilene!  You're in my fucking mind and I
can't get you out!  I've slept with countless, countless women, but
the only woman I can think about is you!  I want you so badly it
hurts!  It's like an itch I can't scratch, and it's driving me insane
trying to deal with it."  

Ilene's head fell back as if she had been physically slapped, and
Bandit's eyes narrowed as he stared at her.  "Knowing that, Ilene?
Knowing that, do you still think I can learn how to deal with this?
Is dinner really such a good idea?"

Ilene straightened herself and tried to meet the passionate intensity
of Bandit's gaze.  "There's got to be a way…" she began.

"There isn't.  This ends now by me going out that door and staying as
far away from you as I can."

Bandit took two steps to the door.  "Wait."   Bandit paused for a
moment and then took another step.  "Please."  Ilene said again.

"What are you doing, Ilene?"  Bandit pleaded.

"I - I - I don't know."  Ilene's agonized voice answered him.

Bandit turned and stared at her, studying every pore of her face.
Realizing that maybe his desire for her was returned.  "Ilene."
Bandit implored but was unable to say another word as he stood there.

"For a year, whenever I wondered too long if maybe Jim wouldn't be
coming home, whenever it got too bad, he always called.  Almost always
you were in the background making some quip or another.  I liked you
Bandit.  You're everything my mother ever warned me about, but you're
exciting, funny, and more than anything, you're dangerous.  So I like
you.  In the flesh, you're all that and more.  Handsome, a smile to
die for, and even a tight butt.  I can deal with finding you
attractive and even desirable.  Why can't you do the same for me?"

"Because I don't think with my brain, Ilene.  In the air, I fly by the
seat of my pants, on the ground I go where my heart leads me.  I've
never had to deal with a woman I lusted after as a friend.  I don't
know how to deal with it.  I can't deal with it.  This is insane!  I
should have been out that door five minutes ago.  Where this is going
is not good."

"So leave."  Ilene said finally.

Bandit started to turn and then stopped.  "I can't."

"You've discovered how to deal with me as a friend?"  Ilene asked.

"No.  I've discovered that you find me attractive and desirable."

"And yet I still love my husband."  Ilene said.

"As do I."  Bandit said as he took a step towards her.

"Only tonight."  Ilene said in a quivering voice.  "Tonight and never
again."

"God, let it be enough."  Bandit said as the bags fell to the floor
and he stepped into her embrace.

========================================
Chapter 9
23:19 - Los Angeles
========================================

Exhausted from the ceremony and flight, Piper, seeing the darkened
house crept quietly into the bedroom.  The general had been very
sympathetic, even apologetic about the time he was taking away from
Piper, and had his secretary book him a layover stop in LA.  It
couldn't make up for four lost days, but at least he'd have one more
night and morning with his wife before he returned to the action.

In the pale moonlight, something struck him as odd as he noticed the
bed, drawing closer fear and dread began to fill him as he realized
Ilene was not alone.   With surprisingly little feeling he stepped
back to the doorway and felt around for the light switch.  Ilene and
Bandit woke with a start, squinting under the harshness of the
unexpected light.

"Get your stuff and get out of my house, Bandit."  Piper said in a
steady tone.  

"Piper!"  Bandit exclaimed then stopped as the full realization of
what was happening hit home.

"Now."  Piper ordered.

Bandit searched Piper's face in vain, grasping at anything that could
save their friendship.  Finally, under Piper's unwavering glare,
Bandit collected his things and quietly left, defeated.

Piper's stone cold eyes followed Bandit, and then turned on his wife,
who was sitting up, sobbing quietly on the bed.

========================================
Chapter 10
15:17 - Malaysia - 56,000 feet over no-man's land. 
========================================

Bandit was limping back to base alone.  He and Viper had stumbled on a
group of three Mao's on patrol.  Viper had splashed one and wounded
another before a Chinese missile sent both Viper and the plane he was
flying down into the tropical jungle miles below in a million tiny
pieces.  The fight which had followed had taken every shred of skill
and luck Bandit possessed.  

What saved him may have been his deathwish.  That's what the other
pilots called it.  Since coming back from furlough, no one on the base
had managed to miss the fact that the two inseparable pilots now
avoided each other.  The rumors flew as rumors will, a few even coming
close to the truth.  But what all agreed on was that since returning,
Bandit had been taking almost stupid risks, risks that at least for
the moment had significantly improved his kill ratio, but risks that
none-the-less would not let him survive long.

No sane pilot, when hearing a missile tone, would kill his thrust.
The thrust that was the only thing between the pilot and a warhead,
and that was never enough.  But after Viper bit the big one and the
Mao broke through his defenses, Bandit powered down his engines and
applied the air brakes at supersonic speed.  The enemy fighter was
firing its missile as it overshot past him, and the missile had not
only lost its lock, but Bandit's plane was now in attack position.
The computers effortlessly splashed the bogie.  The other enemy
fighter was too wounded to be much of a threat.  Bandit didn't even
have to engage as the pilot bailed out, seeing he was alone.

"Red five."  The radio squawked.  "Blue six is under enemy fire.
Transferring telemetry data now.  If you can, Piper needs you."  The
last was certainly not military,  apparently combat control felt
mentioning Piper's name would spur him to action.  Combat control was
right.  Bandit fired the afterburners without a second's hesitation.

The situation was grim. Piper's patrol had been attacked by three
Mao's.  They had splashed one Mao, but Piper's wingman was lost in the
process.  Now Piper was in a losing battle against two fully armed and
uncrippled Mao's.  

"Blue six.  I'm coming in hot.  ETA thirty seconds, stall them as long
as you can."

There was a second of static filled silence before the radio burst to
life.  "I never thought I'd be happy to see you again in my life,
Bandit!"

"Yea well, save the mushy stuff till later.  We're all sorry here, but
no-one's as sorry as me, and for damn sure no one's going to be as
sorry as those Mao's."

One Mao had hung back while the other hunted Piper.  Thanks to Piper's
telemetry, Bandit's computer had an inside track to the enemy
fighter's defenses the moment it appeared on the scope.  The Mao's
were good but the American over-the-horizon sensors could still peer a
little farther than their Chinese counterparts.  The first Mao never
knew what hit him."

"Only one more ECM layer to go and he'll be through, buddy."  Piper
said.  "You're not close enough.  Shit, you don't even have any
missiles left."

"Just hang on!  I'm coming as fast as this garbage scow will take me!"

"It's over."  Piper said.  "I forgive you, Bandit.  Promise me you'll
take care of Ilene.  Tell her I died still loving her, that I never
stopped.   I said some things I wish I never had.  I hurt her Bandit.
I hurt her bad."

"Tell her yourself."  Bandit said as the computer told him he was now
in missile range, if he'd had any missiles.  The computer predicted
fifteen seconds for the Mao to lock on.  Bandit switched the display
and typed furiously on the keypad.  "Fourteen seconds to lock on.
Fifteen seconds to the Mao at maximum afterburners and then a one
sided dogfight.  The Mao still had six devastating missiles while
Bandit had only his guns, and in a dogfight the Mao could outmaneuver
his plane.

"She never stopped loving you for a second, Piper."  Bandit said.  "I
was wrong, she was wrong, my life was screwed up from the moment I saw
her at the airport, but neither of us stopped caring for you, Piper.
She never stopped loving you, you never stopped being my best friend."


Bandit's fingers hovered over the solid rocket booster switches.  A
million years ago Piper's fingers had hovered over these same
switches, a million years ago Piper had rolled the dice, knowing there
was a chance he'd survive and save his friend.  Bandit knew as soon as
he closed the switch he would die.   The computer was wrong.  He did
have a missile left.  A few tons of high tech composite materials with
a few thousand gallons of explosive fuel and a helluva lot of inertia.


"There's only one man and one woman I'd do this for Pipe.  We had some
good times together.  Try and remember that.  You're one lucky son of
a bitch."  

Bandit flicked the switches and the solids ignited in a kamikaze
uncontrolled burn.  The designers knew that those switches would more
than likely disintegrate the plane, knew it would more than likely
kill the pilot, but in a no win situation it offered a slim chance to
live.  When every card had been played it was an ace in the hole.

As Bandit's world went black, his plane slammed into the Mao.

========================================

Piper choked back the tears as he stepped up to the podium and stared
out over the men and women who had gathered here to pay their final
respects to Bandit.  

"I never had a friend like Bandit before.  He got me in more trouble
than anyone I'd ever been associated with, he saved my bacon more
times than I care to count, in the end he caused me more grief than
I'd ever felt before.  But when I hated him the most, or thought I
hated him, he never stopped being my friend.  Bandit was like that.
He wore his heart on his sleeve, never said anything he didn't mean,
and he might do things no one in their right mind would ever do, but
no matter what, if the chips were down he was always exactly the
person you'd want to help you pick them up."

Piper sniffed and whipped away a tear.  "I'm here today because Bandit
saw I was in trouble and he had a choice to make.   Bandit chose to
save my life at the price of his own.  That was Bandit.  In life, he
was just a man who struggled, like all men struggle, winning or losing
in those struggles as his nature dictated.  In death, there's no one
here today that would not call him a hero, least of all me."

Piper stepped away from the podium and into the waiting arms of his
wife.  They stared at each other for a moment, each seeing the pain of
their loss reflected in the other's features, before falling into a
long comforting embrace.