Alan Dean Foster by Slipt

Author:Slipt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2012-01-26T22:56:14+00:00

Arriaga Ramirez’s opinion of his daughter normally would have stood up to examination. Usually Amanda was clearheaded, did think things through. But that morning she had panicked a little. After all, she was only sixteen, and the sight of the bug unnerved her more than it might have an adult.

At least, she thought it was a bug. The legs which held it tight against the wall were made of metal. It’s body was plastic instead of chitin, and it sent out its messages by methods rather more complex than rubbing hind legs together.

She wouldn’t have seen it at all if she hadn’t bumped the telephone with her hand the first time she’d reached for it. She was going to call Nancy Sue down the street and see if maybe she wanted to come over and gossip and do some homework together. Amanda was assigned the same homework as the rest of the kids. She had the option of attending class or working at home. She’d elected to stay home for the last several school days, pleading fatigue.

When she’d reached for the phone and bumped it the back part had slipped away, exposing the small strip of grey plastic. Leaning close she’d been able to see where it had been fastened to the wall behind the phone, had been able to see clearly the tiny wires that ran from the plastic to places she didn’t think they were supposed to go.

She knew the plastic and wires weren’t part of the phone system. She knew because she hadn’t seen the grey plastic before. There were two other telephones in the house and when she found the plastic and the wires attached to them too, she started getting really worried.

Her mom was out shopping. Her dad was working on the boat. She was all alone in the house, a house suddenly filled with nasty little grey spies. The house backed onto a sidearm of the bay and fronted on a quiet, tree-lined street. There were vacant lots on both sides and it was a long walk to the nearest occupied home, Mr. and Mrs. Coxley’s.

Being alone had never bothered her before. There was about as much crime in Port Lavaca as in the middle of the bay. But the two deputies didn’t patrol very much, especially when it was hot out, and when they did make rounds they kept largely to the business district way out by the highway.

Everyone knew what went on in a small town like Port Lavaca, but that didn’t mean they’d know when some strangers came slipping in through an unlocked back door or open window. And she was trapped inside the house, unable to call for help without a mysterious Someone knowing about it immediately because of the omnipresent grey bugs…

Calm down, she ordered herself. You’re getting all excited over nothing. No one was crawling through the window to get at her. No hand appeared around the kitchen doorway leveling a gun at her. They didn’t know that she knew.

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