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

"Thanks," Daisy said.  "Jimmy, do me favor.  Dohim a favor.  Stall him.  Lock him in his office if you have to, but don'tlet him go to her.  And don't you dare let her worm her way in to seehim."

#

Despite clearances, bribes, and threats, their charter fromNew Ganges to Mars could not overtake Meizhen's flight.  Indeed, Meizhen landeda full six hours ahead of them.

Yes, they had closed the gap to six hours, but those weresix hours that Meizhen had to position herself and her baby close to Snakeskin.

And yet, Meizhen had gone nowhere near Snakeskin.  She andher baby had taken a taxi into town and had registered at a hotel.  She'd sentout a batch of cleaning and had ordered room service.

According to Jimmy Fingers, one of the Association's"contacts" had spotted her, and he'd sent some "people" tokeep an eye on her.

"Don't approach her," Daisy said.  "We don'tdare spook her.  If she runs and we lose her, we'll have hell to pay."

Jimmy Finger chuckled.  "Remember who taught you."

"My father taught me," Daisy said.

"Who do you think taught him?"

When their charter finally braked into planetary approach,Daisy commed the Los Angeles space-marshal station and ordered up a cruiser.

It was waiting for them when they came out of the terminal.

The "outside" air was hot and muggy and madeDaisy's skin itch.  She could already feel the grit grinding into the back ofher neck.

"Where to?" the driver asked.

Meizhen's hotel would be the logical choice.  It would allowDaisy to catch the murdering bitch before she did any more damage, especiallyto Snakeskin's baby.  But Daisy was tired of being one step behind.  It wastime for her to steal a march on her uncle's runaway concubine.

"Take us to the Celestial Cybernetics and Roboticsbuilding."

"Yes, ma'am," the driver said, and pulled awayfrom the curb.

They were halfway across town when Jimmy Fingers commed.  "She'shere," he said.

#

The elevator ride up to the offices of the CelestialFraternal Benevolent and Protective Association was a swift, stomach-lurching glide. The air in the elevator shaft made a low whisper as the car sped through it.

Daisy watched the numbers light up in succession.  Shesilently counted off the floors.

They'd left the driver with the car.  If Meizhen bolted andmade it out of the building, he'd at least be able to track her.

But now Daisy was having second thoughts.  It might havebeen better to have brought him along.  In a firefight three police blastersmight prove to be handier than two.  Still, Jimmy Fingers was bound to havepeople on hand.

As comforting as it was, that thought didn't help much.

The elevator car stopped.  The doors slid open.

Jimmy Fingers was standing in the elevator lobby.

"Where is she?" Daisy asked.

"In the anteroom.  A couple of the boys are keeping aneye on her."

"Rudy and Trudy?"

"Nah.  Bitsy and Ralph."

"Is Snakeskin in his office?"

"Safe and sound.  He's cooperating."  Jimmy heldout his hands, palms up.  "You know the drill."

"Not this time," Daisy said.

Jimmy Fingers gave her a long, hard look.  "I see whatyou mean," he said, and led them back into the heart of the suite.

"How is she?" Daisy asked.  "Motherhood agreeingwith her?"

"She's happier than I've ever seen her."

"How about Snakeskin?"

"Excited.  Pissed off with us.  He wants to see hisbaby.  It's a boy, by the way.  He's already making up excuses for why she tooka powder like she did."

"He has to know better."

"Deep down where it counts, maybe; but not up top wherehe's making his decisions."

"We're doing our jobs," Daisy said.  "That'swhy the man's paying us, isn't it?"

"Hell, Daiz, you'd do it for free."

"I am assuredly believing that you are correct, Mr.Fingers," Muffy said.

"Nah, I'm not Mr. Fingers.  You don't get it.  Myfamily name isn't Fingers."  He held up his hand, displaying the stubswhere two of his fingers were missing.  "Jimmy Fingers is a nickname,see?"

Muffy blushed and nodded that she most certainly did now understand.

In the anteroom they found the two gunsels clustered aroundMeizhen and the baby.  The gunsels were cooing and making nonsense noises atthe baby, which was wrapped in a powder-blue blanket.

Meizhen grinned like a hog in a full corncrib.

The air in the room smelled like her perfume, like her baby,like the men's aftershave, and like their freshly pressed suits.  It smelledlike death.

Daisy's first thought was to gun the bitch down, but she hadno way to prove her suspicions, only a chain of suspicious circumstances.  Daisycouldn't even prove that Meizhen had murdered Ray Gilmore.

The best Daisy could hope for now was to keep her unclealive and to gull Meizhen into revealing her guilt.

Daisy screwed her face up into a happy smile and steppedforward to have a look at her newest bouncing baby cousin.

The introductions were made, and Bitsy and Ralph, two of thelargest men Daisy had ever seen, stood off to one side.

Daisy renewed her shit-eating grin and looked down at thebaby.

Meizhen folded back the blanket.  "Here," she saidbreathlessly.  "Isn't he beautiful?"

Daisy had a hard time keeping her grin in place.

Tiny scales covered the baby's body.  They were brown andyellow, and rather than the random field one might have expected, they formed sharp-edgedrings, swirls, and stripes.

"The doctors at the Willamette Genetics Foundry told mehis colors will intensify over the next few months," Meizhen said proudly. "By the time he's walking, he'll look just like Snakeskin.  He'll have hisown patterns but the same vibrant colors.  Father and son.  Isn't it wonderful?"

Snake scales on a human baby.  What else would develop? Fangs, poison sacks, a tail with a built-in rattle?

Muffy said, "Oh, but he is so cute."

The baby gurgled and opened his eyes wide.

Daisy and Muffy both gasped.  The baby's eyes had verticalpupils, like a snake's.

Daisy shuddered.

The baby opened his mouth in a big reptilian smile.  Therewere no teeth, not yet, but the structures where his fangs would come in wereplain enough.

"I don't mean to be rude," Daisy said to Meizhen,"but why did you run away?"

Meizhen blushed.  "Poor Dr. Lopez was clearly in overhis head.  I looked around and figured the people at Willamette could interveneand save our darling baby."

"Why didn't you tell Snakeskin you were pregnant?"

"I wanted to protect him from the disappointment