Daisy Wong, Space Marshal: The Case of the Runaway Concubine by Freddi MacNaughton (parable of the sower read online .txt) 📗

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 MeizhenFitzgerald.  She was an android assassin."

Daisy felt the ground give way beneath her.

"Oh, no," she said.

"Oh, yes," Snakeskin said.  "The real Meizhenis still out there."

Daisy had gotten it wrong at every turn.  Yes, she'd identifiedeach of the linkages correctly, but she had so thoroughly misread the motivesbehind the moves that she'd been floundering around in the dark the whole time—justas 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 crippleherself with second-guessing and self-recrimination.  No, it was better toblame it on the Martian grit.  The grit had shifted into her mental gears and hadbrought them to a halt.

The truth, of course, was that Snakeskin had been the targetthe whole time.  He'd been Meizhen's target from before her first pregnancy.  Whichexplained 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 findthe people who hired her."  His breath staggered, but he fought throughhis pain and emerged intact.  In a strong, clear voice the boss of the CelestialFraternal Benevolent and Protective Association said, "Find them and bringthem to me."

THE END

ABOUT THEAUTHOR

Freddi MacNaughton lives on the Oregon coast, withinsight of the Pacific Ocean.  This means she enjoys spectacular views of theocean and gets rained on every time a storm blows in.  She wouldn't liveanywhere else and certainly not on Mars.  Too gritty by half!

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