"Bruce McAllister- Kin" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcallister Bruce)

city?"
"I do not," the mesh answered, "and it is indeed ... my
affair if ... the unborn female child of Family Tuckey-Yatsen
dies."
"I do not know what you mean."
"She is to live, Ortega-Mambay ... Her brother wishes a
sibling.... He lives and schools ... in three small rooms while
his parents work ... somewhere in the city.... To him ... the
female child his mother carries ... is already born. He has
great feeling for her ... in the way of your kind, Ortega-
Mambay."
This could not be happening, Ortega-Mambay told himself.
It was insane, and he could feel rising within him a rage he
hadn't felt since his first job with the government. "How dare
you!" he heard himself say. "You are standing on the home
planet of another race and ordering me, a federal official, to
obey not only a child's wishes, but your ownтАФyou, a Visitor
and one without official standing among your own kindтАФ"
"The child," the alien broke in, "will not die. If she dies, I
will ... do what I have been ... retained to do."



10
 Kin
by Bruce McAllister


The alien stepped then to the heli and the man's side, so
close they were almost touching. The man did not back up.
He would not be intimidated. He would not.
The alien raised two of its four arms, and the man heard a
snicking sound, then a pop, then another, and something
caught in his throat as he watched talons longer and
straighter than anything he had ever dreamed of slip one by
one through the creature's black syntheskin.
Then, using these talons, the creature removed the door
from his heli.
One moment the alloy door was on its hinges; the next it
was impaled on the talons, which were, Ortega-Mambay saw
now, so much stronger than any nail, bone or other
integument of Terran fauna. Giddily he wondered what the
creature possibly ate to make them so strong.
"Get into your vehicle, Ortega-Mambay," the alien said.
"Proceed home. Sleep and think ... about what you must do
... to keep the female sibling alive."
Ortega-Mambay could barely work his legs. He was trying
to get into the heli, but couldn't, and for a terrible moment it
occurred to him that the alien might try to help him in. But
then he was in at last, hands flailing at the dashboard as he