Read Online Vicky Peterwald: Target by Mike Shepherd - Free Book Online

wants me dead. I don’t know who wants me waving their flag. I want to have a better idea of my options.”
    “Very well,” said Mr. Smith. “Let me set your computer to read to you during the night, and I’ll be leaving you.”
    “Leaving me?” Vicky said, with an arched eyebrow.
    “It’s been a busy day, full of surprises and changes,” Mr. Smith said as he stood. “Your computer needs time to process and so do you. As delightful as your company is, I think your head will rest better on your neck if you rest it a bit on your pillow.”
    “Why, sir, that’s the best rejection I’ve ever had,” Vicky said. But she had to admit she was exhausted, and she also was intrigued by this idea of her computer reading to her as she slept. There was no question she had given it a major assignment.
    Mr. Smith bowed his way out of the room, and Vicky stretched out on her new bunk. It was a bit harder than she’d gotten used to on the
Wasp
, but Wardhaven was notorious for the luxury of its warships. She was back home and would have to adjust to the Imperial Navy again.
    She slipped out of her shipsuit and took a hasty shower. She was delighted to find that the harness Mr. Smith had installed to allow her computer to speak to her was easy to hook back up after she washed her hair. Done, she wrapped a bath towel around herself and went to glance out at her day quarters.
    Kit was curled up on the couch, but she roused when Vicky opened her door. Kat had laid a pallet down in front of the doorway to the passageway. No doubt the Marines were on watch out there.
    With a nod to Kit, Vicky returned to her own bed. No one would be interrupting her sleep without finding themselves in one hell of a fight.
    She hardly yawned once before she was asleep.

CHAPTER7
    V ICKY came awake to a cloud of memories swirling in her head. The computer must have sensed her awakening state because it was not talking to her. She lay in bed struggling to bring order out of chaos. Her sleeping mind had turned the information flow from the narrative of the reports into something so powerful, she almost felt like she’d been at the meetings described.
    However helpful the information might be, she’d have to struggle to remember what she’d actually been a part of and what she only dreamed she’d been part of.
    Nice. A Peterwald with a loose hold on reality. So what else is new?
    As her mind ordered the information, she began to realize why Admiral Gort had been hesitant to identify the second party in the bidding war for cute little her. It really was not something solid. Likely, it wasn’t even constant.
    Some people, businesses, associations had been heard to say one thing. Then at another time, they’d say another. If Vicky didn’t know that someone had produced a serious bribe, not just for Admiral Gort but likely for at least seven other battlecruiser division commanders, she wouldn’t be at all sure there was a counterconspiracy to her stepmother’s family.
    The money was there, therefore the conspiracy must be there. Which raised the question, did dear old, no young, Stepmom know about the bribe or were they in the dark about it all?
    Which explained why Admiral Gort was reluctant to take her to bed. Even if he didn’t want to kill her for Stepmom and her vultures, he might have to do the deed to keep the conspiracy a secret.
    The admiral was right—the more she knew, the more danger she was to people whose lives wouldn’t be worth a wooden farthing if they were found out.
    Vicky, girl, you’d better practice keeping your mouth shut.
    She dressed quickly, this time in a standard green Greenfeld shipsuit and entered her day cabin. Kit and Kat were already waiting for her, alert as ever. Mr. Smith and the two Navy men arrived only a few seconds behind her.
    “The admiral has requested your and Mr. Smith’s presence at breakfast in his wardroom,” Kit told them.
    Vicky raised an eyebrow to Mr. Smith, but the look he returned her was