Infuriated, he started towards me. "No daughter of mine is going to talk to me like that. I'm going to give you the spanking you've had coming for seventeen years." I drew my whip and slashed him down the side of his face and chest, cutting his shirt half open. He sat down with an unbelieving expression and fingered the red welt. He looked at me through glazed eyes, almost in a state of shock, as I rewound my whip. My mother broke the long silence. "Here, Vera. Here are your seventy-five solars. We never want to see you or hear from you again." * * * * * News of our gang wars rarely appears in the adult press. I guess they're afraid the publicity might encourage more teenagers to join up. But the colonial struggle with Sirius had ended, and there wasn't much else happening in the Solar System just at that time, so our raid on Io made the headlines. GIRLS BLAST BOY HIDEOUT Callisto fleet bombs, strafes Io base in bloody juvenile gang war Humiliated Ios vow retaliation for fifty-ship sneak attack * * * * * We were received as heroes by our gang. Even the inaccuracies in the news story contributed to our glory--the Ios being ashamed to admit all the havoc was the result of only one solitary girl ship. Our hussies and aides greeted us in the First Hall with a wild cheer, crowding around us to beg for details. "Later," said Naomi, flushed with triumph, "we'll call a formation later. We'll tell our story to the entire gang." "Back to your posts, now!" I shouted. "You hussies get your girls ready for battle. We can expect the boys to counterattack at any time." The First Hall cleared rapidly of all except a few of our top officers. "Confidentially," I said, "I won't go for any more of this shared leadership stuff. This gang can only be run by one boss at a time. It's going to be either me or Naomi, but not both of us." "Those are my sentiments exactly," said Naomi. "Let's get this fight over with once and for all." Jeanette, always the reasonable one, stepped forth quietly. "Look, this is a very bad time to hold a duel, just when we're waiting for the Ios to appear." "Yeah, you two, you're spoiling our victory celebration." "Put it off until tomorrow." "Until after the next meeting." "Besides," added Jeanette, "Naomi and Vera worked well enough together during their raid on Io." "Yes! That's right! We'll need you!" The sentiment for postponement of our duel was irresistible. We both bowed to it as gracefully as we could. "I'll work with you, Naomi, but I'll hate you every minute of it." "Likewise!" she snarled, "and twice as much." Fat, fog-throated Ginger edged next to me. "Well, now that that's settled for the time being, maybe you two can agree on what to do with this spy we caught. "Shoot him!" said Naomi. "He's a man." "Let's first determine whether or not he's a spy," I said.