“Opal, Sapphire, Ivory and Peridot … please report to the Colonel at 09:30 in No.2 Uniforms.” was announced over the newly installed loudspeaker system.

Opal looked at the others. “We have job to do it seems.”

When the four were ushered into the Colonel’s office they saluted, were told to be at ease, and then were asked to sit.

“We have been approached to carry out what would appear to be a simple task, but may be anything but simple.”

“You may, or may not know that there are a very small number of secure independent schools in Britain. They are usually in quiet rural locations and are surrounded by high chain link fences. Even their sports fields are protected. Each of these has accommodation for both the students and the personal guards employed by the parents.”

“These schools are used by diplomats, film stars, sports stars and the like for their children to grow up in relative anonymity.”

“The youngest daughter of one of the richest men in Thailand is resident in one of these schools. This girl of nine needs to travel back to Thailand for the funeral of her maternal grandmother. It is regarded as societally essential for her to put in an appearance.”

“What we have been asked to do is provide a guard for this girl as she travels home, then bring her back again two days later.”

“The reason we have been asked is that it is culturally impossible for men to guard the girl 24 hours a day and she has been subject to several death threats recently, as well as threats of kidnapping for ransom by well known bad actors in the Triad network. As Britain has taken over the responsibility for her for her education, the Government accept that she needs to be as secure as possible.”

“You will travel to rural Northamptonshire in an anonymous camper van, and meet the head teacher at the school at 15:30 today. You will then drive as anonymously as possible to Heathrow and catch an overnight flight to Bangkok. The camper van will have a range of drinks and sandwiches in its fridge and the chemical toilet will be usable during the journey. You should not stop voluntarily at any point. When you get to Heathrow you will be met by a driver who will take the camper van away. The camper van will be tracked for its entire journey, so the driver will know when you are arriving.There are 32 berths in the Silk Class of Thai Airways planes and you will have no one occupying an adjacent seat to you.”

When you arrive at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok a detachment of Royal Thai forces will take over guarding the girl. She will be returned to you in a private VIP suite for the night flight back to London two days later, and you will see her safe back to school.

“You will need General Service dress for travelling, and Half Lovats for use in Thailand in the hot weather. You will travel with Glock 17’s loaded with standard hollow nose ammunition, but when you are close to the girl or on the plane, you should load with frangible ammunition, so draw supplementary magazines from stores.”

“You will go through the VIP clearance at Heathrow and a private suite has been hired for your stay at the airport.”

“Unfortunately you cannot enjoy the night life of the Thai capital while you are there as there is a high likelihood of one or more of you being compromised or neutralised. You will not go anywhere singly.”

Peridot asked …“I imagine that this is a hotel with a Deluxe rating. Can we eat in the restaurants, or is it Room Service only, and can we use any gym or swimming pool in the hotel complex?”

“I am assured that the hotel is reasonably secure and is used by foreign diplomats regularly. I think you should assess the security when you get there and check the suite for electronic devices. I suggest that you eat in the restaurant in twos but each pair sitting far apart, and that only two of you swim at once and the other two stay alert somewhere nearby.”

“You need to wear uniform for the whole visit as it will allow you to carry small arms. The Thai authorities arrest foreigners on sight, if carrying. The weapon will be confiscated whether you are part of a recognised armed force or not. The documentation pack has authority for you to carry weapons from the airport to the hotel and in both buildings, but nowhere else.”

“ You are not expected to attend the funeral, but should expect to be with this child 24/7 whilst she is in your custody.”

“There is every risk that an attempt will be made on this girl’s life. This is a high risk deployment and you will need to be at the highest level of readiness until you have returned her to school.”

“What are our arrangements for contact here, or to alert friendly forces of anything that needs intervention?”

“You will have the newest version of satellite phones. They should connect you to the nearest resources when you twist and then press a red button. You will also have contact numbers for Special Branch here in London, and the equivalent in Thailand.”

Opal continued. “We have talked about the circumstances of this deployment, but we haven’t said anything about the girl. You have said that she is nine years old, but no name … and will she be willing to go with us? We don’t know anything about her family or the circumstances of the grandmother’s death.”

“There are several photographs of her in the pack and the teachers at school have briefed her about who you are and what you will be doing with her. She is a bright child I understand, and healthy. She has been primed to expect you and a small overnight bag has been packed for her. The rather ornate clothes she will wear for the funeral are provided locally. We don’t expect any medical emergencies for her, but you all have had First Aid training and your packs contain basic medications like pain killers. In the very unlikely even of her falling ill, you will need to use your phones for further advice. You are authorised to give her a children’s painkiller, and to use a plaster on a small wound, but nothing else without authority.”

“Try not to discuss the funeral with her, but if she were to become distressed, or wants to talk about her grandmother, then I expect you to use empathy to offer as much emotional support as you can, but get advice as soon as it is possible.”

“You leave in an hour. You will have five and a half hours to reach the school, and then four hours to get to Heathrow. That should be enough. All four of you are insured to drive.”

“I can see that the Camper Van has just arrived, and one of you should go and get the keys from the driver. He will travel back to his base on public transport.”

“If there are no further questions, you are dismissed.”

The four women left after saluting, and walked very quickly to collect the keys, then to pack. The armourer was forewarned and had the Glocks ready with the extra magazines. The Glocks were held in a holster held under their armpits in full view. The Cosmetics zip up bags that contained much more than a lipstick and a couple of what looked like Tampons, was secreted in a the regulation black leather shoulder bag alongside the state of the art phones, and a wallet.

In less than an hour they were en route, each with a 15 litre back pack of clean clothes and other necessaries.

The journey through Britain’s motorway network was uneventful and after stopping in a lay-by for a light meal from the Camper Van fridge, they arrived at the school as expected. The journey gave them a chance to talk more than usual. This time the discussion centred around the decision whether to have the final stage of their treatment. Ivory and Peridot had decided to leave the final stage of their treatment until later. This would involve further implants and intense light treatment to start ovulation. Menstruation was the obvious consequence. Opal and Sapphire had decided to complete their treatment sooner and were now able to have children.

“Why did you make that decision”, Ivory enquired.

“I am older than you. “ knew that transformed ovaries have fewer cells that can develop into eggs and I want be a parent at some point before I am too old. With a very desirable body, I felt that motherhood was the better option. I would look very odd, being someone’s daddy.”

“I am not sure I want children at all” , Peridot commented.

“I think you may change your mind, but can always take the pill if you do change your mind later. I thought about my situation and I have always found the fact that women were desirable was important, and one aspect of desirability was vulnerability. Women have children, and whilst one can regret that some women cannot have children, I thought that lack of vulnerability seemed to make me seem less of a woman and therefore less able to do my job.”

“I quite understand that many women would disagree with me, but that is the primary need in me. I have a job to do for the Marines, but eventually I want my body to do what it was meant to do. That is become pregnant and be a mother.”

“It is an interesting viewpoint” commented Ivory “There will be life after the five years of our extended service, and I am attracted to men, and they have made it perfectly clear that they are attracted to me!”

“I must think some more about it. Rape is an ugly thing and I have the means to get my own back if a man decided to push his luck, but after my five years of enlistment is up I would like to be loved. I must really give some thought to it. I know the decision is not urgent, but does need to be taken before many more months are up.

All four women were content with their new bodies and exercised well and ate well to have bodies fit to be photographic models. Conversation lapsed as they approached the School on a private drive that twisted and turned through the tress. They noted security cameras at regular intervals and an electrically controlled gate slid open as they approached. The school was well secured but they were admitted quickly and asked to park in a quadrangle. The Headteacher came out and guided them to her office, but she had nothing to add about the girl, who was not a princess, but her first name was Princess.

The girl was brought in, and the Headteacher again repeated what was to happen, and Opal and her team were introduced.

It was Princess herself that made the decision to leave. A small overnight case with a sparkly Pokémon motif was on a table outside the office, and Sapphire carried it out to the Camper Van.

The girl was clearly of Asian origin and had black straight hair that was arranged in a pony tail with a scrunchie. Her sallow skin was clear, but the team saw little of a smile all the time they knew her. She sat primly with her red gingham dress arranged under her and her red glittery trainers swung from the seat she shared between Opal and Peridot. She sat with her iPhone in her lap and a game playing on her Switch 2 all the time they drove to Heathrow. She had a drink from the fridge, but was quiet for most of the time. She would answer questions if asked directly, but otherwise kept herself to herself.

She only answered calls on her phone from people she knew. Several calls were in Thai, so the team could not vet any of the content.

The arrangements at the airport worked faultlessly. A soldier, out of uniform, took over the Camper Van and drove it away, and two armed police guided them through the airport to the VIP Private Suite that had been booked for them. None of them had to pass through Passport Control or Customs and they were driven out to the plane from a private exit.

Princess was treated with great deference by the Thai cabin crew and chose her own meal in Thai from the extensive menu available to Silk Class Passengers.

One of the cabin crew showed a Thai Police warrant card to Opal and assured her that the food had been checked for contaminants. The Marines also chose a meal having been reassured.

It was now after 22:00 hours British time and Princess settled down after a visit to the rest room, and Peridot and Sapphire did the same. After four hours they would wake the Opal and Ivory.

The last four hours of the twelve hour direct flight would have all four marines fully alert and on duty.

Some two hours before landing the passengers noticed two fighter aircraft come near and each one took up position on either side of their plane. The tail fin, wing, and fuselage roundels showed them as being North Korean.

The stewardess who has showed that she was a member of the Thai police, noted that their plane was changing direction. A number of passengers did as well and many call buttons were pressed. She tried the key pad to let her into the cockpit to enquire, but the phone was not answered and the door was sealed.

“I think we are being hijacked.” she said to Opal quietly.

“Blow that door, Ivory.” Opal ordered. I will get help while I sit with Princess. She twisted the red button on her phone and pressed. Instantly a voice answered. Two North Korean bandits on our wing tips.”

Princess overheard the conversation, and let out an involuntary whimper and reached out to Opal. Opal took the girl in her arms and hugged her during the episode.

“We know. We have your transponder on screen. You are now heading to Pyongyang International Airport.”

“Four friendlies from the Thai airforce are heading your way. Hold on, they will be with you in eight minutes.”

Whist Opal was talking, Ivory quickly took out what appeared to be a tampon. Opened the cellophane, and broke it in half.It was self adhesive and stuck to the key pad. Ten seconds later there was a loud bang, a small amount of smoke and the key pad fell off the door. She placed her foot firmly against the door and Ivory and Peridot entered with their guns very obvious.

The pilot and co-pilot looked terrified . The other two crew seems dead.

“We are going to North Korea,” the pilot said with more bravado than he should have used.

Peridot stepped forward and checked that the autopilot was switched on, then she dragged the co-pilot from his seat and whipped him with her pistol and used cable ties to immobilise him He was dragged back to the passenger cabin unceremoniously and dumped on the floor.

The pilot became frantic. I will crash the plane he said. I will do it for the glory of our nation and for our beloved leader.

As he stretched over to turn off the auto-pilot Peridot’s pistol fired a frangible round into his chest, and in one movement he was dragged from the pilot’s chair and joined his two dead colleagues at the back of the pilot’s cabin.

Peridot slipped into the bloody seat and calmly put on pilot’s earphones. She changed channels to a military band and talked to the pilots of the four fighters rapidly approaching the airliner. The elderly North Korean MiG-29s were chased off without a shot being fired.

With advice from the Thai traffic controllers she redirected the autopilot to the correct destination, checked the fuel was enough and relaxed just a bit.

Opal came through to the pilot’s cabin shortly afterwards.

“Can you fly this thing and land us safely?”

“Yes, to both. The autopilot will get us to the vicinity of the airport and then I can switch on the system for landing with low visibility, in fog, for instance. The will be no fog here in the tropics, but it will get us down safely even if it is a bit bumpy.”

“Thank God for automation.”

The passengers remained calm when the four friendly fighters remained close by, and the flight time that remained seemed to go quite quickly. The diversion and a twelve hour flight meant that there was not fuel to spare, and they were guided into the runway without delay. The Thai planes landed near the airliner and their armed crews stood guard for the couple of minutes until a convoy of heavily armed troops surrounded the plane.

Princess had appeared more surprised than frightened, but Opal or one of the other marines had remained with her throughout.

The undercover Thai policewoman, opened the forward door and a set of stairs rolled out. Immediately the cabin seems filled with heavily armed Thai soldiers.

Once the officer saw the state of the flight crew, he put his pistol away and smiled.

“There doesn’t seem to be much to do here.”

Princess was guided down the stairway with guards around her.

The curtain between Silk Class and economy was drawn across while the prisoners and bodies were removed, then the passengers were allowed to depart with a delayed ’Welcome to Bangkok’ recorded message, and a jolly invitation to visit various tourist destinations in the city. A discount on Car Hire was also offered. There was an apology from the airline that they had been fourteen minutes late landing, but no further explanation.

Princess was nowhere to be seen, so the four marines had no one to guard any longer.

A man in a suit and dark glasses guided them to a limousine with darkened windows.

“This car would have been used for you and Princess, but her father has decided that the journey from England to home is too dangerous, and she will not be returning to England.”

“Please enjoy the weekend in Bangkok. Your suite has been paid for, as have your return flights as guests of Princess’s father. He is very grateful for your very quick response. Without your help things could have been very different.”

“I would have hoped that you could spend the weekend visiting the sights in out beautiful city, but there are North Korean agents here, and they have received a bloody nose from you. It would be much better if you stayed in the hotel for your weekend. The restrictions on your sidearms still apply.”

The four women had responded to the adrenalin rush of active combat and the journey in the limousine across the city did not add anything. After drifting round the very elegant suite, and enjoying a very good lunch brought to them by a very solicitous room service, all the women could do was to sit in the rooms watching television with much of the content in a language none of them understood … that is, until the house phone rang.

“I am the man who met you at the airport. You are minor celebrities it would seem. The story of you preventing the hijack is on the News. There are reporters who would like to interview you.”

“As serving personnel in the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom, we cannot accept an offer of being interviewed. You must contact our Publicity Office in London. We have not been debriefed yet and it would be quite wrong to release any part of the journey into the public domain before that.”

“I quite understand, but I was pressurised to ask.”

“That is not quite all I wanted to ask.”

After a second or two, he continued, and Opal put her phone onto speaker mode.

“You have something of a fan club in the Army stationed here. I think it would be safe for you to go out to see the sights if you are accompanied.”

“We only have our Half lovats tropical uniforms here. No dresses and no makeup.”

“The hotel has a small boutique. If you would care to visit it, then I will make sure that anything you need will be paid for.”

“Could your fan club pick you up at say 7pm?”

Opal raised her eyebrows to the others to ask for their opinions.

All three nodded.

“I think it would be very satisfactory to have an escorted visit to see the sights, and thank you for the offer of some dresses and accessories. Should we eat first? … or is dinner included.”

“Oh, dinner is included. Of course.”

“How many ‘fans’ should we expect?”

“I think they have drawn lots and the top ten are coming.”

“Ten! There are only four of us.”

“I did say that this visit will be escorted. They will all be carrying concealed weapons.”

“Then we will be very glad to accept all the parts of this very kind offer.”

“My employer, Princess’s father is very grateful for what you have done and this is a very small way he can thank you.”

“Please pass on our thanks to him. We will enjoy visiting the Boutique. Being Royal Marine Commandos is what we do, but it doesn’t stop us being women and enjoying the finer things of life.”

“If I may say, so. Even in uniform, you are all very beautiful. I regret that I will not be able to be part of your ‘fan club’.

“Thank you for the compliment. We shall enjoy the evening.”

The impending evening and a visit to an upmarket Boutique with a blank cheque made the four marines almost more agitated than the attempted hijack, and they were in the boutique within half an hour of the end of the phone call.

“There were two very solicitous women staff in the Boutique. They had already selected an array of perfumes and makeup as well as dresses and underthings. Peridot did a quick calculation of the prices from Baht to Sterling as being roughly five Baht to the pound, and was so shocked that she gave up, and just bought what she needed without reference to the price.”

The staff warned the women that they should have their shoulders and knees covered to fit local custom, but whilst the perfume was expensive, the silk dresses in vibrant patterns were less pricey. In fact all their dresses were made of lined local silk, and would be able to be squeezed into their bags for the flight home. Remarkably, there were dresses meant for western women and the assistants said that they had been forewarned that all four women were six feet tall, or thereabouts and extra stock had been rushed in specially from a warehouse.

The boutique did not sell shoes, but a phone call by one of the assistants brought an salesman from a neighbouring shoe shop with a trolley with many shoes of the correct sizes and the four were able to get shoes to match the dresses.

Everyone was happy with their purchases within an hour they were back in their suite. Two hotel staff followed with large paper carrier bags of their purchases.

A tip was waved away with a bow.

“Everything is covered, Madam.”

A shower was needed in one of the two bathrooms the suite offered, and a nap. It was two o’clock local time and they were beginning to feel hungry. They had had a breakfast of sorts on the plane, but it wasn’t easy to eat breakfast with the intended hijackers littering the Silk Class cabin. Lunch had also been enjoyed, but with the time zone changes, they had five hours before any possible dinner and their stomachs started complaining.

Room service was excellent, and within twenty minutes two waiters were wheeling a beautifully prepared light meal into the suite. One of the waiters kindly refused Opal’s tip offered in Sterling.

“Please enjoy your meal.” he said.

Ivory was looking at the list of services provided by the hotel

“It says here that there is a salon here where you can get a makeover done. Do you think our benefactor would stretch to that?”

“I found out that our gentleman contact here is called James. I can ask, but time is short.”

“James answered promptly.”

“Yes”, he was sure his employer would allow them the use of the salon, but he would get back to them very shortly.

The phone call came back in five minutes.

“Yes an appointment had been made at 6pm for all four of you. Extra staff had been kept on after their normal leaving time. Please wear your clothes for the evening and the makeup will match. You will be ready for 7pm.”

James continued with a laugh. “I did not expect to be providing these services for a group of beautiful women. It is not normally part of my day job.”

“Do you really think we are beautiful?”

“You know you are, your deportment, mannerisms and self-assurance confirms it. My wife has been to the salon before, as a treat, and they are exceptionally skilled. Be prepared to be amazed.”

“I may be able to dine out on this story for weeks.” he said as he rang off but ten minutes later the phone rang again.

“I regret that our sources indicate that a contract has been issued by a Triad gang that operates here. They often do the dirty work for the North Korean Government. We cannot put our soldiers into danger for a social engagement. Please put your uniforms back on, pack quickly and you will be picked up from your suite by an armed team. An armoured Hummer will take you to the airport and seats have been found on the flight tonight to London. The Triads are intensely male orientated and you being women, and disposing of their well set out plan so easily has offended them deeply.

You have ten minutes to get ready.

The dresses were shoved unceremoniously into holdalls and uniforms donned in haste, rather than regulation. Their hair could be put into its regulation bun later.

They were ready in eight minutes, and saw six heavily armed soldiers through the door’s spy hole. Their bags were carried, and they were ushered down in a service lift to the garage in the basement where the armoured Hummer was waiting with its back passenger doors open and its engine running.

The four women piled in with two of the soldiers.

The remaining soldiers jumped into a second vehicle and they were away.

The journey was facilitated by blaring sirens, and in no time at all the six men were guiding the women into a VIP room at the airport. The men stayed with the marines until the flight was called and they had boarded the plane.

The airport was busy and the plane was held for a few minutes, but the roar of the engines soon indicated that the take off was imminent.

Suvarnabhumi Airport airport has three runways and a smaller private jet was landing on runway 02L/20R when the team were taking off.

The stinger missile with its heat seeking electronics blew one engine off the landing aircraft rather than the team’s long haul flight to London. It was almost empty of fuel and the fire was soon extinguished.

Opal and the team didn’t even know about the incident until they landed in London early the following morning. Luckily no one was hurt, but the landing aircraft was a write-off.

The user of the Stinger had no other weapons and was captured easily. He died of a poison overdose whilst waiting trial. The Triads are good as tidying up loose ends, and the North Korean Government lost interest in the women for the time being.

The Camper Van did not appear for the return journey. Just Railway Warrants sent to their phones.

The debriefing took almost as long as the time they had spent in Bangkok, but eventually they were back at base and were able to hang up the dresses and all the accessories and look at them as spoils of war. The Government took a different view, and the four women had to make a full declaration of the value of the gifts to be sure that the women had not been coerced into something, or compromised in any further deployments. This was not easy, as they had been gifts and had no price tags remained on them. They wrote on the gifts form that the Boutique had no price tags on the principle that if you needed to ask the price, then you couldn’t afford to shop there.

After several weeks they were relieved to be informed through a terse letter printed on recycled paper that the women could keep the dresses, accessories and shoes.

To celebrate, they dressed as if they had been in Bangkok, but did their own makeup, and hair, then went to a Thai restaurant in their nearest town.

The restaurant staff were taken aback by four tall women dressed in nearly identical very expensive silk dresses arriving for a meal. They quickly moved the table around to give them more legroom.

A few Singha beers were drunk alongside the potent Thai Green Curry they all chose. No one had room for a desert, but tiny crisp Thai Coconut rice pancakes were delivered with the scaldingly hot espresso coffee that rounded off the meal.

Ivory started a conversation as they enjoyed the coffee. “When we are in uniform, one sees the uniform rather than the person in it, or at least, I do.”

“Here, we are dressed in the dresses we chose, and apart from the colours, we have chosen almost the same designs. We have also chosen to do our hair the same way, and our makeup is also similar. Maybe that is the need for something that fits with the uniform, but it is maybe more. I haven’t really noticed, but I think all the women in the 48th are looking progressively similar. I am sure I could sleepwalk into one of your rooms and get dressed in any of your clothes, and they would all fit. I think we are getting to look a bit like clones of each other.”

Peridot spoke up “I have thought that I ought to have asked, but never did, ‘What was actually done to us as men, when we had the treatment to make us women?”

Opal commented. “Biology was never my strong suit. Sarah did try to explain it to me, but it went in one ear and out of the other. It was something to do with duplicating our one X chromosome, and deleting the Y chromosome.”

“I don’t think that can be all of it.” Ivory continued. That would not be a good reason for our bodies becoming so similar. Yes we would have a vagina, but I don’t think we should be able to have babies if that is all that had been done. For instance, will all our sons and daughters be similar if they inherit genes that have been introduced to us all artificially?”

“You are making us out to be the first Universal Soldiers where soldiers can be created with military prowess, and can go on to produce clones that will also be Universal Soldiers.”

“There is also the point that we were chosen in part because we had no relationships, no living parents, no spouses and no children. No one would know what had happened or care about it. Our unit is more of a family to us than a blood based family has been.”

Ivory was clearly unsettled. “I like myself now, much more than I did before. The fact that I can be a mother, is really rather special. I look good in a dress like this or in a bikini. If I stand in front of a full length mirror naked, my body is beautiful. My muscles are toned. Dressed like this, I turn heads. I am not sure that I want to know what was done to us, but I would only want to have the reassurance that any children I have would not have any genetic anomaly.”

Opal ended that conversation “I for one, would like some of these questions answered, but all we can do is speculate tonight. I am going to enjoy this evening with you … my sisters. As far as the Corps is concerned I am more concerned with getting a bulletproof jacket that is comfortable and does up over a 36B bra. These other questions can wait. Tomorrow will be another day. Now lets talk about something else, like that dishy corporal in the 32’s with the baby blue eyes who can do pull-ups all day it seems.”

They all laughed.

“What about that Captain in the Lancers that is on temporary posting here and smells of expensive cologne. He could be in a Jilly Cooper spicy novel as a debonaire, but totally self-absorbed bastard.”

“So, do we have the same taste in men? I don’t want to be in competition with any of you.”

“Now there’s thought!”