Daisy Wong, Space Marshal: The Case of the Runaway Concubine by Freddi MacNaughton Read Free Book Online

drugs or no drugs, the last three or
four pieces of the puzzle fell into place.  When Meizhen had gotten pregnant
the third time, something inside her snapped, if it hadn't snapped with the
second miscarriage.  She'd decided she'd had her fill of Snakeskin's dreams of
familial glory, and had vowed to take her revenge.
    Fine, but revenge for what?
    For two hideous miscarriages, for two repellent perversions
of the natural order, for Snakeskin's expecting her to give birth to a
human-reptilian chimera, for his expecting her to be its loving and doting
mother, for using her.
    But she'd needed a weapon, and not just a weapon, but the
perfect weapon, a weapon whose significance would not escape him as he died.
    And then—perhaps gradually or perhaps in a flash of
insight—it had dawned on her that she was growing exactly such a weapon right
there inside her.  Her fetus.  She couldn't have asked for a better instrument. 
She could shape Snakeskin's own baby into the perfect weapon with which to
exact her revenge.
    Muffy began chattering about the hospital, and Daisy
realized that even here in the hospital she could feel the Martian grit.  It
floated in the air like motes of dust.  Mars was slowly and delicately sandblasting
her.
    Rather than think about how much longer she'd have to remain
on-planet, Daisy ran back through her train of events and suppositions.
    From start to finish, the links held, all except one.
    Interrupting Muffy's tales of the hospital's cafeteria,
Daisy laid out what she believed to be the sequence of events.
    Muffy said, "You can't be far off the mark."
    "I'm not," Daisy said.  "But what I don't
understand is why Meizhen didn't leave after the first miscarriage.  She had
every reason to."
    There was a scraping noise in the corridor and Snakeskin
Wong pulled himself around the corner into Daisy's room.  He was on his feet,
but barely.  His head was wrapped in bandages and one of his arms was in a
sling.  He and Muffy matched.  He was dragging an IV stand.  The unit swayed
giddily.
    Muffy ran over to him and helped him into a chair.
    She said, "You should most—"
    He waved her to silence.  "She wasn't. . . . 
I had my own people examine the bits and pieces."  He took a deep breath,
exhaled raggedly.  "They've just sent me over their report."
    "What did it say," Daisy asked.
    "It said that whoever that woman was, she wasn't Meizhen
Fitzgerald.  She was an android assassin."
    Daisy felt the ground give way beneath her.
    "Oh, no," she said.
    "Oh, yes," Snakeskin said.  "The real Meizhen
is still out there."
    Daisy had gotten it wrong at every turn.  Yes, she'd identified
each of the linkages correctly, but she had so thoroughly misread the motives
behind the moves that she'd been floundering around in the dark the whole time—just
as Meizhen had intended.
    How could Daisy have been so far off the mark, so blind?
    She refused to go down that road.  If she did, she'd cripple
herself with second-guessing and self-recrimination.  No, it was better to
blame it on the Martian grit.  The grit had shifted into her mental gears and had
brought them to a halt.
    The truth, of course, was that Snakeskin had been the target
the whole time.  He'd been Meizhen's target from before her first pregnancy.  Which
explained why she hadn't left after her first miscarriage—or after the second. 
She had had no choice but to see her plan through to the end.
    Snakeskin's gaze bored into Daisy's soul.
    "Find Meizhen," Snakeskin said.  "And find
the people who hired her."  His breath staggered, but he fought through
his pain and emerged intact.  In a strong, clear voice the boss of the Celestial
Fraternal Benevolent and Protective Association said, "Find them and bring
them to me."
    THE END

ABOUT THE
AUTHOR
     
    Freddi MacNaughton lives on the Oregon coast, within
sight of the Pacific Ocean.  This means she enjoys spectacular views of the
ocean and gets rained on every time a storm blows in.  She