Daisy Wong, Space Marshal: The Case of the Runaway Concubine (2 page)

Snakeskin nodded to Jimmy Fingers.

Jimmy went out and a few moments later returned with a man
in tow.  The man had fresh contusions on his face and walked as though a
delivery truck had run over him a few times.

"Allow me to introduce Dr. Eric Nguyen Lopez,"
Snakeskin said.  "Once upon a time, he practiced obstetrics and gynecology
here in town.  Once upon a time, he was also on my payroll.  Regrettably, those
happy days are behind us.  As soon as he's strong enough to travel, he'll be
returning to Chicago, Earth, where he will, I trust, devote himself to the reproductive
health of suburbanites."

A renewed sense of dread flooded through Daisy.  It was
common coin in the family that Snakeskin desperately wanted a large family but
that he was unable to father children.  He was healthy enough: active sperm, a high
count, and a good genetic profile.  But few of his wives or concubines ever
became pregnant, or if they did, their pregnancies ended in miscarriages.

The whole thing was quite baffling.  Theories abounded.  One
of them held that a traitor was introducing abortifacients into the women's
food.

Daisy didn't believe that such a traitor, even one working
from within Snakeskin's household, could accomplish such a feat.  Once or
twice, perhaps, but not with any consistency.  No, other factors were in play.

Had Meizhen become pregnant?  Had Dr. Lopez aborted her? 
Had she, for whatever reason, sought an abortion, and then, quite rightly, had
she feared for her life and run away?

To Lopez, Snakeskin said, "Tell them what you told
me."

Lopez's eyes went feral, the cast of a trapped animal.  He
smelled of bandages, disinfectant, and terror.

"Shortly before Meizhen left, she came to me with
various complaints.  I examined her and discovered she was about two months
pregnant."

"Did either you or Meizhen inform Snakeskin?"
Daisy asked.

"Meizhen swore me to secrecy.  In any case, I'm a firm
believer in doctor-client privilege."

"What happened next?"

"I took a sample of the fetus's blood and performed
various tests.  They showed that Mr. Wong was the father, but they also indicated
a variety of genetic abnormalities."

"What sort of abnormalities?" Daisy asked.

"The sort that leads to miscarriages," Snakeskin interjected.

"I don't know the specifics," Lopez said.  "Meizhen
forbade me from sending the samples out for testing.  Genetic manipulation is
not my specialty.  My office was equipped to screen.  Nothing more."

"Thank you, Doctor," Snakeskin said.

The man stared, not daring to speak.

Jimmy Fingers lead him out.

"Why the beating?" Daisy asked.

"His reluctance to answer my questions was most strong. 
He imagined he could satisfy us with evasions and lies.  Questioning him has been
like peeling an onion or eating an artichoke."  A pause, then,
"Despite our efforts to date, I'm sure we're nowhere near that man's core."

Muffy sat very rigidly in her chair.

"Do you think us monsters, Office Chatterjee?"

"What I am thinking is that you are a man of inordinate
power."

"
Determination
," Snakeskin said.  "I'm
a man of patience and determination."

He leaned forward, a sinuous movement that made the faintest
of rustling sounds.  "What else do you think?" he asked.

"I think that you inspire a combination of loyalty and
fear.  Back home, we are quite familiar with your type."

Daisy glared at Muffy, willing the exchange into silence. 
Nevertheless, Daisy did have to give her credit.  There weren't many who'd
stand up to Snakeskin.

"Enough of this," Daisy said.  "What do you
want us to do?"

"Return Meizhen and my child to me."

"I thought she was free to leave."

"Not with my child she wasn't."

Daisy picked up her tea.

Snakeskin's story had too many holes.  The biggest was why
he'd waited so long to call for the cavalry.  Was Meizhen still alive?  Assuming
she was dead, was Snakeskin using Daisy to deflect suspicion away from him?  On
the other hand, assuming Meizhen was alive, once Daisy found her, what would
Snakeskin do to her?  He certainly wouldn't welcome her with open arms.

Daisy settled back into her chair.  It smelled of leather
and furniture polish.  Its opulence cosseted her; it temped her.

She sipped her tea.  It had grown cold and bitter.  She set
down the cup.

"I can't help you," Daisy said, and got to her
feet.  "Come on, Muffy.  Let's head for home."

Just then, Jimmy Fingers came back into the room.  He stood
to one side of the door, his back to the wall.

Muffy stood.

Snakeskin said, "I want my child."

Then why, Daisy wondered, didn't he already have Meizhen?  Snakeskin
and his people could find teeth in a chicken's mouth.  They could extract iron
from iron ore without ever smelting it.  Daisy asked, "How do you expect
me to succeed where your people have failed?"

"You can't be bought."

"Neither can any of the people who work for you."

Snakeskin shrugged.  "It happens," he said. 
"Whoever has Meizhen—or whoever's hiding her from me—wouldn't need to buy
more than one or two.  As the saying goes, you don't have to put out a man eyes
if he is willing to look the other way."

It had been one of Daisy's father's favorite aphorisms, a
reminder that betrayal was often a matter of what the traitor did not do.  Her
father had walked into an ambush because
one
of his bodyguards had
agreed not to see the gunsels hiding in plain view.  How her father himself had
not seen them remained a mystery.

Daisy sat down.

"What was the fight about?" Daisy asked.

"A trifle," Snakeskin said.  "We were
planning to have a private dinner together that coming weekend, but she wanted
to beg off.  When I didn't agree immediately, she flew into a rage."

"Why did she want to cancel?"

"She worked at Celestial Cybernetics and Robotics,"
Snakeskin said proudly.  "She was coming up on a critical deadline and
needed to work."

"Sounds reasonable."

"Yes, but I found out later that she had had no such
deadline."

"Curiouser and curiouser."

"She picked that fight herself," Snakeskin said. 
"I've come to believe she wanted an excuse to leave my household.  If she
had simply left, without any sort of reason, I would have become suspicious.  I
would have investigated much sooner."  He added, "It
is
a time-honored
tactic."

"Especially among those with something to hide,"
Daisy said.

Snakeskin chuckled.  "I see the Gweilo have not completely
addled your wits.  I suspect she wanted to keep the baby for herself."

Or deny it to you
, Daisy thought.

#

The taxi ride to the Pioneers of Mars Hotel was an
irritation of traffic jams and grit.  The particles continued to rasp between
Daisy's neck and the collar of her uniform.

Answering the latest of Muffy's questions, Daisy said,
"If Snakeskin had wanted to find Meizhen earlier, he could have."

"Then why didn't he?"

"He had no reason to.  Remember he didn't know she was
pregnant.  True, he figured she was hiding something, but he also figured it couldn't
be all that important.  Whatever the case, he decided he could afford to let
her sulk."

"Maybe he wanted her to think that he'd forgotten all
about her, that she was safe.  Perhaps that way, she would become careless and
reveal the truth."

Daisy's estimate of Muffy's abilities went up a notch. 
"Good point."

Two notches.

Muffy gazed out the window, at the traffic snarl slowly
swirling them.  "What is she hiding, I wonder."

"That's the question of the hour."

"Very good, and how do you propose we go about
answering it?"

"We find the bitch."

But first, after a good night's sleep and a long hot shower,
Daisy had a few questions to ask Dr. Lopez.  He'd been lying through his teeth,
and Daisy wanted to find out why.

#

Arrangements were made, and at the appointed hour the next
morning, Daisy and Muffy's taxi pulled up in front of an apartment building
that was old but stylish.

The building's neighborhood was old but not so stylish.  The
saplings planted along the sidewalk and the new transit kiosks promised an
energetic comeback.  The graffiti scratched into the kiosks and the litter
thrown into the gutters said otherwise.

The doctor's unit was on the building's top floor and faced
the street.  The decor was from the middle-gunsel period.

Daisy asked the doctor's guards, Rudy and Trudy, to take a
hike.  They objected.  She asked them to think about it.  A man with two broken
ribs wasn't going very far, and if they pissed her off, they stood a good
chance of pissing off Snakeskin Wong.  Trudy and Rudy thought about it and agreed
to wait in the hall.

Muffy went into the kitchen and made tea.

Daisy sat Lopez down at his dining-room table.

They talked about Mars.  How different it was from Earth. 
How domed cities were inherently claustrophobic to anyone not raised in one. 
How space colonies were actually more viable than planetary or lunar colonies. 
How much Lopez was looking forward to returning to Chicago, assuming Snakeskin
allowed him to go on breathing.  Lopez had made a lot of money.  Mars had been
fun, but home was where his heart was.  Blue sky and the wind off the lake. 
Fresh air with real dirt in it, not Martian grit.  What the hell was in that
grit, anyway?

As far as Daisy had ever heard, grit was just grit.  It was
Martian soil that came in from the outside.  It came in on tires, tracks,
wheels, and boots.  It sifted up through the foundations.  It sprinkled down
through the joints between the dome panels.  It mixed in with the detritus of
human habitation, and it became something else, something
other
.

The tea arrived.

Muffy poured three cups of it.  The table was chrome with a
glass top.  Their cups clanked on the glass.  Muffy brought placemats.

To Lopez, Daisy said, "Tell me about your medical practice."

"Pretty routine.  Pelvic exams.  Pap smears.  Imaging. 
Fertility issues.  Prenatal care.  'Oh, listen to your baby's heartbeat.  Isn't
it wonderful?'  Delivery."  He rattled off the categories as though he
were reading a restaurant menu.

"Mostly for Snakeskin's people?  Their families?"

"About half and half.  Half civilians.  Half
tong."

"Any tong people not associated with the Celestial
Fraternal Benevolent and Protective Association?"

The caged look returned to Lopez's eyes.  "Some, but
Snakeskin himself approved each of them on a case-by-case basis."

And had no doubt used those patients, and Lopez, to gather
and dispense sensitive information.

Lopez would be doing good to live out the year.  If
Snakeskin didn't go after him, someone else would.  The tongs were big in
Chicago.

"About the procedures, any abortions?"

"Yes, but not many.  Children are valued on Mars."

"Any miscarriages?" Daisy asked.

"A few," Lopez said.

"Did Meizhen ever have one?"

"No."

The answer had come way too quickly.

"Tell me, Doctor Lopez, how many more bones would you
like to have broken?" Daisy asked.  She glanced at Muffy.  "My
partner here has completed more than her share of courses in physical
interrogation."

Muffy glared at Lopez.

Daisy continued, "Oh, I know she looks like the sort of
girl you'd like to take home to meet the folks, but that's only on the
outside.  On the inside she's a whole different story."

Lopez swallowed hard.  "Oh, all right," he said,
his resolve visibly shattering.  "Meizhen had two miscarriages.  She and
Snakeskin were trying to have a baby."

"Looks like the third try would have been the
charm," Daisy said.

"Not a chance.  She wouldn't have, couldn't have
carried it to term."

"Why is that?"

Lopez took a pad off a nearby shelf.  His hands flickered
over the screen and then he handed the pad to Daisy.  "That's why,"
he said.  "Snakeskin's modified genetics—his snakeskin, if you will—isn't
compatible with an unaltered human DNA profile."

Daisy looked at the screen and clenched her jaws together to
keep from gasping out loud.

The screen showed two stills, side by side.  The stills were
of malformed fetuses, fairly far along.  They had brightly colored scales
rather than human skin.

Lopez said, "The modified genes aren't supposed to
bleed through like that, but every once in a while, they do."

"Why?"

"Blame it on random chance.  Blame it on Martian grit. 
Take your pick."

That explanation made about as much sense as it needed to.

"Why did you lie to us about Meizhen's pregnancy,
yesterday in Snakeskin's office?" Daisy asked.  "You knew damn good
and well what was going on."

"I was following his," Lopez said.  "If he'd
wanted you to know the details, he would have told you.  Why don't you ask him
why he didn't?"

"I will," Daisy said.  But she knew she couldn't,
not without further endangering Lopez's life.

Muffy took the pad and stared at it for a long couple of
seconds.  Her eyes grew very large and very round.  She gagged and ran from the
room.

#

Snakeskin's house hadn't changed much in the two and a half
years since Daisy had last been there.  It was the same rambling pile of brick,
ceramics, glass, and steel it had always been.  Nor had her Aunt Hester's
attitudes had changed even less.  The woman's combination of embracing warmth
and prickly irritation was just as confusing and just as disquieting as it ever
had been.

The servants had stripped Meizhen Fitzgerald's apartment to
the walls.  They had vacuumed, shampooed, scrubbed, and cleaned.  The rooms stood
ready to receive their next tenant.