Bruce McAllister- Kin

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Science Fiction

By Bruce McAlliste

Kin

by Bruce McAllister

Fictionwise, Inc.

www.Fictionwise.com

First published in Asimov's, February 2006

NOTICE: This eBook is licensed to the original purchaser

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Kin

by Bruce McAllister

The alien and the boy, who was twelve, sat in the

windowless room high above the city that afternoon. The boy

talked and the alien listened.

The boy was ordinary—the genes of three continents in his

features, his clothes cut in the style of all boys in the vast

housing project called LAX. The alien was something else,

awful to behold; and though the boy knew it was rude, he did

not look up as he talked.

He wanted the alien to kill a man, he said. It was that

simple.

As the boy spoke, the alien sat upright and still on the one

piece of furniture that could hold him. Eyes averted, the boy

sat on the stool, the one by the terminal where he did his

schoolwork each day. It made him uneasy that the alien was

on his bed, though he understood why. It made him uneasy

that the creature's strange knee was so near his in the tiny

room, and he was glad when the creature, as if aware, too,

shifted its leg away.

He did not have to look up to see the Antalou's features.

That one glance in the doorway had been enough, and it

came back to him whether he wanted it to or not. It was not

that he was scared, the boy told himself. It was just the

idea—that such a thing could stand in a doorway built for

humans, in a human housing project where generations had

been born and died, and probably would forever. It did not

seem possible.

He wondered how it seemed to the Antalou.

Kin

by Bruce McAllister

Closing his eyes, the boy could see the black synthetic skin

the alien wore as protection against alien atmospheres. Under

that suit, ropes of muscles and tendons coiled and uncoiled,

rippling even when the alien was still. In the doorway the long

neck had not been extended, but he knew what it could do.

When it telescoped forward—as it could instantly—the head

tipped up in reflex and the jaws opened.

Nor had the long talons—which the boy knew sat in the

claws and even along the elbows and toes—been unsheathed.

But he imagined them sheathing and unsheathing as he

explained what he wanted, his eyes on the floor.

When the alien finally spoke, the voice was inhuman—

filtered through the translating mesh that covered half its

face. The face came back: The tremendous skull, the

immense eyes that could see so many kinds of light and make

their way in nearly every kind of darkness. The heavy welts—

the auxiliary gills—inside the breathing globe. The dripping

ducts below them, ready to release their jets of acid.

"Who is it ... that you wish to have killed?" the voice

asked, and the boy almost looked up. It was only a voice—

mechanical, snake-like, halting—he reminded himself. By

itself it could not kill him.

"A man named James Ortega-Mambay," the boy answered.

"Why?" The word hissed in the stale apartment air.

"He is going to kill my sister."

"You know this ... how?"

"I just do."

The alien said nothing, and the boy heard the long,

whispering pull of its lungs.

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ScienceFictionByBruceMcAllisterKinKinbyBruceMcAllister2Fictionwise,Inc.www.Fictionwise.comCopyright©2006byBruceMcAllisterFirstpublishedinAsimov's,February2006NOTICE:ThiseBookislicensedtotheoriginalpurchaseronly.Duplicationordistributiontoanypersonviaemail,floppydisk,network,printout,oranyothermeansi...

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