Matt read the email for the third time and scratched his head. He had had some strange requests in his time. In fact his whole business was based around them. But this one sure was up there. 

"You look puzzled ?" 

"Well this girl, she wants to do a trick on her colleagues at an airbase. She has certainly thought about it and its a cool idea. But its pretty out there for a first go at this stuff. I think she's angling for a job.."

"Well if she's up for it, why not. The customer is always right, after all. Can you give my nose an itch ? "

"I guess, yeah, oh what? "

Matt looked over at Lisa . She was sat on the chair across the desk, wrinkling her nose. She couldn't give it a rub herself as he had not long ago vanished her arms and legs, leaving just a head and naked torso, the corners rounded smoothly as if her limbs had never existed. He reached across and gave her nose a tweak.

"Thanks. Maybe we could use a little more help. I only got back from being a hood ornament at that classic car dealers this morning....." Lisa nodded downwards to emphasise she was altered again already.

"I know. Quinn will help out but maybe we could use a new team member. But you are very much in demand. Victim of your own success so to speak"

With that Matt walked around the desk and held up a large ring gag to his gorgeous assistant. Lisa opened without hesitation and smiled around the uncomfortable addition as Matt added a blindfold.

"No real need to lock these on" he smiled, then lifted the truncated girl into a box full of packing beads by the desk. A few moments later the box was sealed and had a DHL label attached and Matt was back at his mac.

                                                        ...........                                .........

Jordana took a deep breath, hand on hips. Months of planning and weeks of preparation and it came to this. No one had believed her when she said she was quitting the air force to pursue her dream. They all gave her a look of sympathy if she talked about her love of magic, of stunts and daring do and damsels in distress. Wasn't working in the forces dangerous enough for most sane thrill seekers? 

Well she had done it. Today was her last day and after constant pleading she had got the CO to agree to her putting on her first ever show as her leaving present to the unit.

"You absolutely sure you know what you're doing ? "

"Yes Sir. this will be my calling card to my new career. I hope. "

"Well if you make it to be a big star in Las Vegas send us free tickets huh ? 

"I . Well" 

"And if this goes wrong I will be filling in health and safety paperwork till the end of my career......"

"Yes Sir"

                                               
Jordana took one last look at herself in the mirror. Her brunette hair was pulled back into a pony tail and she worse some light make up. Her slender figure was rather hidden by the GI Jump Suit she was wearing. She took a deep breath and walked out into the bright sunlight to see a crowd of a couple of hundred people gathered. She gulped. No going back. 

"Thanks for coming folks. Today is my last day on the base and as my leaving present to you all I am gonna do an escape trick. No one here on the base knows what I am up to exactly except the boss and a couple of the cargo handlers. Enjoy."

"Now I will need some help getting ready, so I have asked for Billy to help out.. And she will be asking a couple of you to come up and check there's no cheating. Billy has no clue what I am up to either but she's promised to follow my directions to get things set up."

At Jordana's signal a forklift arrived carrying one of the pallets used to load the cargo planes high on its . On it was a rectangular sheet of wood maybe five feet by three feet. Peering underneath a rough outline of a person was visible .. the neck finishing at the top, ankles at the bottom. As the forklift lowered its load it was clear that the top of the sheet of wood, itself barely a half inch thick, was covered in wicked looking spikes or nails, each a couple of inches long. Its appearance certainly got the attention of the restless onlookers who had been more interested in chatting amongst themselves.

A second truck dropped off another sheet of wood about the same size, although this one was propped up just off vertical and free of sharp teeth.

"OK folks, the show can start" Jordana smiled with a confidence she certainly didn't feel. The planning and excitement were evaporating leaving her feeling rather exposed in the centre of the gathering.

"Those nice spikes there are my motivation for escaping..  and this is what I will be escaping from.. Billy ? "

A tall blonde got up and walked over, she was much curvier than Jordana and was getting all sorts of attention in the shorts and vest she was wearing. For a moment Jordana regretted her outfit choice, but that was done now.

"Hi mate, just to be clear you have agreed to help out but have no idea whats about to happen ? OK , a couple of you guys can check those spikes on there are real and not rigged somehow..."

Jordana took a deep breath and walked over to the upright board, standing with her back against it, feet apart and hands a little way away from her head .

"Billy can you get a couple of the guys to use those webbing straps and nail gun to start locking me to this board..."

Jordana shuddered a little and watched as her friend pulled two guys from the audience. After a couple  moments hesitation they started working together under Billy's supervision. One held a short length of heavy duty cargo strap over Jordana's left ankle while the other used the gun to nail it tightly in place, using three of four nails each side the closest almost touching her.

As they switched to the other ankle Jordana continued.
 
"You all know these straps, they can take tons of weight, no way I can break them. That's it keep going use what you like where you like... No while they are doing that ... FUCK, ouch that was close guys! ... Billy can you get someone to connect those chains to each corner of the other board, careful those suckers are sharp "

Jordana paused as she watched the end of a twenty foot length of heavy chain pad locked to each corner of the nail laden board. By now her other helpers had fitted straps below each of her knees, mid way up each thigh and were just doing one around her waist, making her breath in. 

"Keep going.. " 

The next strap was pulled tight under her chest by the boys. She blushed a little as they rubbed against her, always self conscious of athletic shape compared to the much better endowed Billy. Soon straps on each arm and and wrist and one around her neck completed her captivity. 

"Well those sure are tight, please a few of you come up and check that they are secure and not fake in any way"

Jordana kind of enjoyed having the straps checked out, being inspected, touched. It made her, well it was unexpectedly exciting. Trying to calm herself, she had Billy arrange for the other end of the chains to be padlocked to a metal shackle bolted to the board holding her, a couple of feet in from the edge. She could tell the audience were getting restless and was wondering if she shouldn't have planned this so that it would go together a little quicker as someone secured a cargo chute pack to the back of "her "board.

"Getting to the fun stuff now folks!" 

She was about to give out her next set of instructions when she spotted Billy conferring with a couple of guys from the motor pool.

"Say babe, that jump suit isn't part of the trick is it? "

"Er. No. There's nothing hidden in the pockets or anything , why? "

"Go to it then guys"

Before Jordana could think what to do next the two guys were in front of her. They pulled the zip down the front of her suit to the navel, revealing nothing beneath. This got a cheer but not as big as the cheer when they began to attack the olive drab suit with scissors, cutting and pulling away as they went. Jordana screamed no but was far too tightly secured to do anything else. The suit was soon in tatters and as her assailants pulled away the remaining shreds Billy undid and pulled off the sneakers she had been wearing. The three stood back to huge whoops cheers and wolf whistles, leaving Jordana secured to the board in nothing but her black thong, every inch of her on display to her soon to be former colleagues!

"Well you got their attention now girl..proper las vegas style...  carry on!"

Jordana looked down at her bare boyish figure then back out to the crowd, who were now hanging on every development, trying to regain her composure. Backing out now would be humiliating. 

"I. I. Well. OK."

"C'mon"

"So . I suspect some of you are wondering what on earth is going on. And maybe some have started to guess. My escape from service. In a few moments I am gonna have Billy get the guys to load this lot onto the back of the C130 over there. ..."

Jordana paused to nod to her friend who was attaching a pair of go pro cameras to the edge of the board with the nails, and then to the load ramp of the huge aircraft behind her

"... you will be able to see my live on the screens over there all the time. When we get to ten thousand feet the aircrew will tip that board over the edge of the ramp, which will of course pull me over the edge. The chute will open keeping me facing down, so I hope you have got those straps on good. But then not too good. Once the chute is opened I will have about three to four minutes to break out of the straps sufficently to reach over and pick these locks so the spikes fall to safety. I can then hang on and jump free just as the chute comes to land. So if I don't break free, or break free and fall while i trying to free the board with the spikes.... Splat. Thats right four minutes to break lose of these straps, use them to swing over and pick the locks keeping the spikes with me and then get clear. Easy huh ?"

The reaction was about what she had expected, a mixture of shock, miscomprehension and mumblings of bullshit

"OK now the camera feed will be continuous so you can see no cheating. And you can pick a couple of guys to come up for the ride to verify everything. I have to say this trip is going to be much colder than I imagined, see you all at the bottom, I hope".

A few minutes later and Jordana felt a lot less confident than the showman like smile and wink she had finished with on the ground would have suggested. The bed of nails was balanced on the edge of the C130's wide open cargo ramp. She was strapped to her board with the chute on the back, propped upright just six feet from the edge. It was freezing, she looked down at her barely there chest, figuring her nipples were so hard they could probably cut the chains all by themselves. She closed her eyes and tensed against the straps. Maybe it wasn't just down to the cold. Over the deafening roar of wind and engines a concerned looking Billy yelled to see if Jordana was OK one last time. She gave an AOK sign with her tethered right hand and took a deep breath, looking out the ramp to the desert and airfield downwind and far below.

There was a click and a scrape and the first wooden board tipped slowly out the ramp. Two cargo handlers on safety lines pushed her upright board forwards moving her to the edge and tipping her. They let go as the first board dropped clear and the chains pulled taut, propelling Jordana forwards. 

Time stood still for a second. Despite herself she screamed and closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was facing the rows of spikes hanging below her. The rocking and spinning had calmed now the shoot was open and the strange contraption was now floating earthwards towards the landing strip she had just set off from. 

On the ground her audience watched with baited breath. Up until the wooden boards had fallen from the rear of the plane most people had assumed this was all an elaborate hoax, figuring that seeing Jordana near naked had been the most exciting thing about the whole charade. Now they were glued to the feed on the monitors, watching her pull and twist ineffectually against the strapping. 

"Its impossible . Shes nuts" 

"Even if she gets out of those straps how will she undo the locks so the nails get dumped"

"She will have to leave some straps on so she doesn't fall"

"Shes got cute little tits, Man."

"She's fucking crazy"

All Jordana could do was imagine the effect she was having on the small crowd down below. Part of her wished she had dreamed up a trick that had let her see the reactions, but it was way too late for that . Maybe next time . She figured she was about Hal way through her descent now . Her struggling was becoming more frantic, but there was no give at all in the straps . They were just too tight. She closed her eyes and wriggled and writhed with all her might, to no avail. 

Watching on the screens her former colleagues were becoming anxious . The trapped girl was much closer to the ground now and showed no signs of getting free . Two office girls were discussing calling an ambulance. It was starting to look like this was gonna end badly .

The pilot had had judged the drop point well. Jordana was almost directly above the camp again . She figured at this height she should be feeling warmer, but wasn't . With maybe five hundred feet to go she had not broken free of a single binding. She stopped struggling, slumped . There was no more time . Her heart felt like it might break right out of her chest. Appearances had been correct, there was no way to get fee . 

Down on on the ground people were turning away on the monitor . Unable to bear to watch what inevitably looked like a grizzly end. Had the crazy girl really got it that wrong? There seeemd no way out of a tragedy. Then there was a crack, and everyone looked up. There was an collective gasp when it became clear what had happened a split second later. Somehow the chute had broken away and the two boards were plummeting down to earth with Jordana still trapped on the underside of the upper one facing row upon row of cruel spikes.

Scant seconds later there was a thud and a small plume of dust as the first sheet of wood crashed into the desert a hundred yards off. An instant later there was a muffled scream as the second landed on the first.

For a good minute no one said a word. No one moved. Then there was screaming and some people began to run towards the small plume of dust marking the point of impact. Across the airfield a siren began a mournful wail.  Others couldn't bear to look and walked away in ashen faced silence.

First on the scene was Billy, just off the plane that had landed a couple of minutes ago, expecting to witness her friends triumph. 

"Oh god oh god I've killed her .... Jordana ... talk to me ."

She fell to her knees, trying to comprehend what had just happened . The boards must have bounced, as the brunette was facing upwards. Well her head was, sticking out the top of the two boards. The wooden panels themselves had obviously been forced together by the impact leaving no  visible gap between them . It seemed Jordana had been flattened on impact. 

"No no no .... Jordana ..."

Then she screamed again as the brunette opened one eye then the other. Staggering back, Billy couldn't believe it . The girl appeared to be flat as a pancake between and must be impaled on hundreds of spikes.

"She's alive, get help NOW "

As more help arrived it was clear no one could believe what they were seeing . It was impossible that anyone could survive that fall even without the spikes. And now the two heavy lumps of wood were stuck together with no sign of space even for Jordana's slender frame .  

Jordana smiled a wry smile . Encased in wood and nails from the neck down she couldn't do much else. It felt so bizarre. She was picked up gingerly and propped like a table top across the back of two jeeps as more help arrived on scene.

"Jordana say something " 

"I , I will be ok "

From the ashen look on her face as Billy peered underneath for some explanation it was clear she didn't agree .

The next vehicle on scene was a black SUV with blacked out windows. Jordana grinned as the drivers door opened. A tall women stepped out. Her chestnut brown hair framed a gorgeous face. The black cat suit she wore shone in the desert sun, skin tight it looked like it had been poured over the mystery woman's outrageously voluptuous figure. She opened the rear door and motioned with the confidence of a general .

" Load her on here , I have this "

As Billy helped shove the wooden lump trapping her friend into the back of the truck, she heard a breathless whisper. She leaned in closer to hear .

"See you in Vegas sucker!"

Billys head was still spinning when the truck door slammed and the mystery woman accelerated into the dust.

                           ..........                     ........

Lisa grinned as she looked back over her shoulder into the rear of the SUV ..

"Hell of an audition kid "