{"id":1154,"date":"2005-08-15T14:11:05","date_gmt":"2005-08-15T14:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/?p=1154"},"modified":"2016-10-26T12:30:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T12:30:47","slug":"asp-by-sean-t-m-stiennon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/story-contest\/asp-by-sean-t-m-stiennon\/","title":{"rendered":"Asp, by Sean T. M. Stiennon"},"content":{"rendered":"

SFReader 2004 Story Contest
\nSecond\u00a0Place Winner<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In some ways, this tale seems like a “throwback” to the kind of SF story that was popular in the mid to late eighties. \u00a0In other ways, the story feels completely new. \u00a0And it is new, if only for the fact that the author, Mr. Stiennon, is quite new himself, having not yet quite attained the tender age of seventeen. \u00a0We hope to show our prescience about the future of spec-fiction by awarding young Sean Second Place in this year’s contest. – D.B.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Beam brought the news to Blademaster while he was sleeping on a pile of crates in the storeroom, a curved knife held in the palm of one hand.<\/p>\n

“Alex, there’s a new Advan.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster’s eyes snapped open and he flicked the knife away with a thought. \u00a0He faced the young man, putting his hood down and twisting his baseball cap around until the brim was parallel with his neck.<\/p>\n

“Plenty of new Advans all the time. \u00a0Most can’t do more than lick things six feet away or something like that. \u00a0This one better?”<\/p>\n

The gleam of white teeth lit up Beam’s Asian face. \u00a0“Sure. \u00a0This one’s got fangs.”<\/p>\n

“So?”<\/p>\n

“Three inches. \u00a0With venom glands.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster let out his breath slowly. \u00a0“Alright. \u00a0Tell me who he is.”<\/p>\n

“We don’t know the name or the address, but he’s about twenty-three. \u00a0He works at a restaurant on Kappa St.-Italian, I think. \u00a0Uses fake dental devices to disguise the teeth.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster stood, throwing himself off the crates. \u00a0It was always unnerving looking into Beam’s eyes-he felt an urge to slip on his sunglasses.<\/p>\n

“How did you find him?”<\/p>\n

“Shag was eating out. \u00a0The metal-mouth junk didn’t fool him. \u00a0He got a good look into the guy’s mouth and saw the sacks.”<\/p>\n

“Any other Advances I should know about?”<\/p>\n

“Shag didn’t notice anything else.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster rubbed at the dark stubble on his chin. \u00a0It had been a while since his last shave. \u00a0“Last question: Do the Whites know about him?”<\/p>\n

“We don’t think so.”<\/p>\n

“We? \u00a0You mean Shag and you?”<\/p>\n

“No, I’ve already told Cloak. \u00a0He told me to get you on the job.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster scrunched up one eye and twisted his lips. \u00a0“Did he say who’s coming with me? \u00a0I prefer to pick my own squad.”<\/p>\n

“He knows that, but he suggested Shag and I. \u00a0We’re the Blademaster Crew, y’know.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster nodded. \u00a0“Small enough not to attract immediate attention, but tough. \u00a0Sounds good. \u00a0You ready?”<\/p>\n

“Shag isn’t.”<\/p>\n

“Get him ready. \u00a0One hour.”<\/p>\n

Beam nodded, still grinning, and ran off, leaving Blademaster standing in darkness. \u00a0He stayed there for a moment before going to the door, running over a mental catalog of his knives.<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

They left the base by a side door that no one used–openly. \u00a0Most of the surrounding buildings were abandoned like the base appeared to be, although street kids sometimes came down there for their pot parties and drinking. \u00a0No one was there to notice the three young men make their way through the alleys and gutters into the busier parts of town, shrouded by black night.<\/p>\n

Blademaster walked behind the other two, even though he was their leader. \u00a0It was a habit. \u00a0The three had worked together before, and if they encountered anybody dangerous this way, Beam could flash them, Shag could bowl them over, and Blademaster could do a more thorough and deadly attack. \u00a0Although they carried no guns–not many did, with the city’s laws–they all knew that they had nothing to be afraid of unless the Whites showed up.<\/p>\n

Kappa Street cut through the heart of the city’s downtown. \u00a0It was a place where people went to eat–Japanese, Chinese, Afghan, Russian, and, of course, Italian. \u00a0There was McDonald’s and KFC for less refined tastes, along with a TGIF for those in between.<\/p>\n

The three slipped onto the sidewalk from an alley and blended with the pedestrians. A digital clock hanging from a street sign said 8:37.<\/p>\n

“Where is it, Shag?” said Blademaster. “There’s at least four Italian places here.”<\/p>\n

“A few blocks up the street. \u00a0I eat there sometimes. \u00a0He’s a new employee–that’s why I noticed him in the first place.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster nodded. \u00a0“Lead on.”<\/p>\n

As they walked, Beam said, grinning, “What are we going to call this one? \u00a0Big fangs like a snake, right, Shag?”<\/p>\n

“Right. \u00a0At least, that’s what I think. \u00a0He had them well concealed. \u00a0But I could tell he was an Advan even apart from that–he didn’t look normal. \u00a0His eyes were a little too big.”<\/p>\n

“Snakeman?” said Beam, then laughed. “Maybe he’ll have grown scales since you saw him.”<\/p>\n

“Ask him what he wants,” said Blademaster. “Let him pick his own name.”<\/p>\n

Beam turned to him, still grinning. \u00a0His teeth flashed bright in the street lights. \u00a0“Just like you, huh?”<\/p>\n

“Yes. \u00a0Like me.”<\/p>\n

They kept walking. \u00a0Blademaster struggled to keep his fingers from the side of his sweatshirt, feeling at the grip of the knife concealed there. \u00a0It wasn’t his only one–his pants were full of them.<\/p>\n

Shag led them to a place that was large and darkly lit-good place for a fight, if it came to that. \u00a0A bright sign above the door, striped in red, green, and white read Mario Pasta’s All-Nite Italian<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Blademaster frowned, narrowing his eyes. \u00a0“All night. \u00a0We should have come later.”<\/p>\n

“We can always wander around for a couple hours and then come back,” said Shag.<\/p>\n

“Yeah,” said Beam, “get some drinks. \u00a0You just call Cloak on the cell and tell him we’ll be a bit late.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster shook his head. \u00a0“No drinks. \u00a0And the longer we’re out here, the sooner the Whites or someone who knows them will recognize us.”<\/p>\n

“Aw, Alex, you know that’s not going to happen,” moaned Beam. “There’s plenty of people like us.”<\/p>\n

“Really? \u00a0Tall man, in his twenties, with a black hoodie, baseball cap, and heavy-looking cargo pants, in the company of an Asian wearing a white t-shirt and yellow jeans, along with a hillbilly? \u00a0How many groups like that are there? \u00a0They might not be confident enough to attack us, but they’d get suspicious. \u00a0I should have taken others. \u00a0Shiftslim and Lead, maybe.”<\/p>\n

“Aren’t you proud of the fame? \u00a0We’re the Blademaster Crew!”<\/p>\n

“We won’t be anymore if the Whites bring in a task force. \u00a0Maybe they’d put our ash boxes next to each other once they’d executed us.”<\/p>\n

Beam frowned–a very rare sight, with him. \u00a0“You’re too afraid of them. \u00a0Last time we met Dervish, Spark, and Cube, we sent ’em back blinded and cut up.”<\/p>\n

“Cloak was with us, then,”<\/p>\n

“He’s an honorary member of the BC. \u00a0So is Spit.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster clenched his teeth. \u00a0“Spit doesn’t need my help to get himself killed.”<\/p>\n

Shag clapped a furry hand on each of their shoulders and rumbled, “We look more suspicious standing here debating. \u00a0Either we go in or we don’t.”<\/p>\n

“We go in,” said Blademaster. “Beam, shut up or you’re out of the ‘BC’.”<\/p>\n

“Aw, say it ain’t so, Alex,” he said, the grin returning in full force.<\/p>\n

Blademaster pushed open the doors, and the three went in. \u00a0There were about twenty diners mulling over wine and pasta, tables lit by candlelight. \u00a0It took Blademaster a moment to notice that the candles were fake and the tablecloths were plastic. \u00a0The three of them were overdressed.<\/p>\n

“Look, Alex, behind the counter,” said Shag. \u00a0He kept moving his head, as if looking for a table, while he spoke.<\/p>\n

There were three people there, and two were women-one young, one older. \u00a0The third was a man who was long in every way–his neck seemed to extend a couple inches too far, and his arms were the same. \u00a0His face was long and dour, half covered by what looked like an extensive piece of orthodontic headgear. \u00a0His eyes were bright green.<\/p>\n

“Do what you do best, Alex. \u00a0Tell me when to flash ’em,” whispered Beam.<\/p>\n

“Not now,” snapped Blademaster. “We’ve got to catch him alone.”<\/p>\n

Shag shrugged. \u00a0“We should have come back later.”<\/p>\n

“No. \u00a0We need to know when his shift ends. \u00a0Do you know?”<\/p>\n

Shag shook his head once in each direction.<\/p>\n

Blademaster sighed. \u00a0“Let’s sit down, then.”<\/p>\n

The chairs all had a strange bulge in the back, as if to discourage patrons from doing more than eating-quickly. \u00a0The table-plastic felt like it was coated with a thin layer of grease.<\/p>\n

“Don’t stare,” Blademaster told Beam. “We’re just guys coming in off the street.”<\/p>\n

“I’m not looking at him. \u00a0Back in moment.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster didn’t have time to stop him. \u00a0It was too late to call him back without suspicion, and he didn’t turn around to see Blademaster’s angry expression. \u00a0He made a straight line to the counter and the young woman behind it, wearing his best smile. \u00a0She smiled shyly in return.<\/p>\n

“Hey there, my friends and I would like a bottle of your finest red wine. \u00a0What would you recommend?”<\/p>\n

She smiled shyly. \u00a0“Well, er… I don’t really know. \u00a0You’ll have to specify something.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster heard Shag snort. \u00a0Beam didn’t know the first thing about wine. \u00a0He faked it.<\/p>\n

“I’ll have the Morrazi ’98 then, if you please.”<\/p>\n

She pursed her lips, looking at her screen. \u00a0“Erm… I don’t see anything like that here, sir.”<\/p>\n

He could only be seen in profile, but it was enough for his widening grin to be visible. \u00a0“Maybe you’ve got something else I might like.”<\/p>\n

He threw one of his elbows onto the counter and leaned forward. \u00a0Blademaster hung his head and gritted his teeth.<\/p>\n

The woman took a step back from the counter, blushing. \u00a0“We’ve got other wine. \u00a0I see one ’98 that you can get for $20.”<\/p>\n

Beam kept going. \u00a0“What time do you get off work?”<\/p>\n

She frowned now. \u00a0“Sir, please make your order. \u00a0Then go away.”<\/p>\n

“Alright. \u00a0But what time does he get off work?” said Beam, languidly aiming a thumb at the Advan who stood a few feet away.<\/p>\n

That was too much. \u00a0Blademaster threw his chair back and came towards him, with Shag following a second behind. \u00a0He clapped a hand down on Beam’s shoulder, hard. \u00a0“I’m sorry, Miss. \u00a0My friend is drunk.”<\/p>\n

“Hey! \u00a0That’s a lie, Bladeboy!”<\/p>\n

It took Blademaster a little over a second to smash Beam’s head down into the counter, hard. \u00a0It left a bloodstain behind.<\/p>\n

“I’m very sorry. \u00a0We’ll leave.”<\/p>\n

“You’d better,” she spat.<\/p>\n

“Alex, he’s gone!” said Shag, his voice grating.<\/p>\n

Blademaster turned to see the Advan gone, and the door to the kitchen still swaying on its hinges. \u00a0He released Beam, slapped a palm down onto the counter, and vaulted over it.<\/p>\n

“Hey! \u00a0What do you think you’re doing?” shouted the older lady.<\/p>\n

He kept going, charging for the doors with his left fist held out like a battering ram. \u00a0His right hand went for a knife. \u00a0Behind, he heard Shag’s heavy boots hit the floor and come pounding after him. \u00a0There was a bright flash, like lightning, a scream from the young woman, and a jaunty “Sorry, baby,” from Beam before he followed.<\/p>\n

The kitchen was obscured by steam from a dozen pots lined up along its stoves, but Blademaster saw the door at the other end of the room swung shut. \u00a0He ran for it, his right hand coming up with a four-inch switchblade extended. \u00a0It was a simple weapon–the kind that he kept a dozen of in his room–but the blade was sturdy and the construction was light enough for him to handle it easily.<\/p>\n

He ducked the arm one of the cooks sent out to stop him, then heard Shag’s fist impact with the man’s face. \u00a0Hopefully, he hadn’t hit him too hard–Shag could easily break bones with his bare hands. \u00a0Shouts from the other cooks, and another impact, told him that Beam was following.<\/p>\n

Blademaster went through the door into a dark room. \u00a0The illuminated space around the door was filled with crates. \u00a0He opened his hand so that the knife was on his palm, its blade stabbing out over his fingers. \u00a0“We know what you are,” he said to the darkness.<\/p>\n

The attack came quickly. \u00a0A snarling face, green eyes opened wide and serpentine fangs gleaming, lunged out at him from the darkness. \u00a0Even the tongue was forked.<\/p>\n

Blademaster connected his mind with the symbol he had scraped into the knife’s blade and launched it while bending his legs and ducking beneath the strike. \u00a0The man’s jaw had opened too wide for any normal human, and Blademaster saw that his neck had stretched out. \u00a0Then, just as Shag and Beam entered the room, it whipped back into the darkness. \u00a0Blademaster drew another knife, identical to the first, and threw it with his power. \u00a0He couldn’t tell whether it had hit, but he heard a hiss from the darkness and the sound of another door opening.<\/p>\n

“Flash him first chance you get,” he told Beam. \u00a0“Shag, we’re going to try and take him alive, but break bones if you have to.”<\/p>\n

Then he moved towards the slit of pale light that was the doorway, leaping over crates he could barely see. \u00a0Blademaster came into the moonlight with a third switchblade in one hand and three small triangular blades hovering above the palm of his other hand.<\/p>\n

A motorcycle engine roared, and Blademaster could see headlights moving away down the alley towards the street. \u00a0Even though he almost never swore, the temptation was strong. \u00a0That Advan could move fast.<\/p>\n

Blademaster launched a pair of his triangles, but neither of them seemed to hit anything. \u00a0He mentally pulled another two from the pouch on his waist and sprinted after the Advan. \u00a0As Blademaster watched, he pulled out onto the road and sped away.<\/p>\n

“Move! \u00a0Move!” he shouted, clearing a garbage can in a single leap.<\/p>\n

They were confronted by the steady flow of glaring lights and rushing sound as they hit the street. \u00a0Already, the motorcycle with the long-limbed Advan crouched on it was receding. \u00a0But, a second later, a silver Taurus sedan pulled up to the curb, and the driver unlocked the doors. \u00a0Shag had pulled one open, almost wrenching it off its hinges, before they could hit the lock button again. \u00a0He threw the passenger–a young man wearing an overblown anime t-shirt–to the sidewalk and then did the same for the driver. \u00a0He went for the wheel while Blademaster sat down next to him and Beam clambered into the back.<\/p>\n

Shag didn’t need to wait for an order to slam the gas pedal into the floor and send them rocketing into the stream of traffic. \u00a0Horns honked.<\/p>\n

“You’re good, Shag,” said Beam. “Not a cop in sight.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster spent a few seconds replacing his hovering blades with balls of blunt steel-small enough to control easily, but heavy enough to do damage. \u00a0If he was going to take this Advan alive, he’d need them.<\/p>\n

“Hey, guys, I’ve got a name for him,” said Beam, grinning. “Most guys would say ‘Viper’ or ‘Python’, but I’ve got a better one: Asp!”<\/p>\n

“Asp it is. \u00a0Shut up,” said Blademaster, trying to see where the motorcycle had gone.<\/p>\n

He almost put a blade in Beam’s head when he saw him popping off an old man in a red Corvette. \u00a0Someday, Beam would do something that would either kill him or put him in a 10×10 cell for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

There were two intersections ahead: One turned green just before Shag went through it, and the other turned red as the traffic river of Syster Avenue cut across it. \u00a0Blademaster thought he saw a tall neck in the back-up at the intersection.<\/p>\n

“Faster,” he hissed.<\/p>\n

Shag was swerving around other cars, dodging between lanes. \u00a0Now it was Beam who was getting the finger. \u00a0Speaking quickly, Blademaster told them his plan. \u00a0They came to the intersection before Beam had time to comment.<\/p>\n

The brakes squealed as Shag slammed them down. \u00a0The car had been clocking at least eighty, and Blademaster almost hit his head on the dashboard. \u00a0He felt Beam slam into the back of his seat.<\/p>\n

“Out!” he snapped.<\/p>\n

He didn’t wait for his companions. \u00a0Blademaster threw his door open hard enough to rock the suspension, jumped out, and dashed between the parked cars. \u00a0The cross traffic hadn’t slowed a bit. \u00a0He had time. \u00a0The motorcycle was three cars back from the intersection. \u00a0Blademaster sent a ball straight at the scrawny chest of the man perched on top of it.<\/p>\n

Asp heard Blademaster’s tennis shoes hammering against the asphalt before the ball could hit. \u00a0He twisted away from it and ended up on the roof of one of the parked cars. \u00a0His face turned towards Blademaster, jaw stretched wide and fangs showing. \u00a0Blademaster heard screams and terrified swearing from the occupants of the cars. \u00a0He pulled a knife-this one a six inch fixed blade-and jumped onto the rear hood of Asp’s perch. \u00a0He latched onto another pair of balls and threw them both, one a split-second after the other. \u00a0With impossible speed, Asp dodged both and sent a fist towards Blademaster. \u00a0The Advan’s wrist stretched. \u00a0Blademaster dodged, but the blow clipped his jaw and opened a stream of blood.<\/p>\n

“Leave me alone!” Asp shrieked.<\/p>\n

There was a flash, like the lights being turned on in a dark room, and Asp screamed and clutched at his eyes. \u00a0Blademaster heard Beam’s voice shout, “Get ‘im, Bladeboy!”<\/p>\n

Blademaster came back from Asp’s blow and went up onto the car’s roof, but Asp was gone. \u00a0He had recovered from Beam’s flash long enough to see his way to jump to the next car over.<\/p>\n

Another fist snapped out at Blademaster, the wrist stretching grotesquely. \u00a0Blademaster leapt too, going around it, and twisted past a second fist. \u00a0His knife shot toward Asp’s chest. \u00a0The Advan slid around it like his namesake and came at Blademaster with his fangs. \u00a0Blademaster leapt back off the car to dodge and watched the neck snap over him. \u00a0The spaces between the vertebrae were inches wide.<\/p>\n

He turned and glanced over his shoulder to see Shag and Beam holding off a crowd of angry faced men and women, some of them holding tire irons, baseball bats, and small knives. \u00a0Shag shattered a man’s face with a blow from one hairy fist while Beam made eye contact with a young Latino and blinded him with a bright flash from his irises.<\/p>\n

When Blademaster looked back at the roof of the car, Asp was gone. \u00a0He saw the Advan leap onto the sidewalk two lanes away and run into an alley. \u00a0Blademaster went after him, chest heaving from exhaustion. \u00a0Asp was a runner. \u00a0He had to have trained for it to go that fast.<\/p>\n

The parked cars began to move as the light finally changed. \u00a0Blademaster went between the last two and avoided being run over by inches. \u00a0He hoped that Shag and Beam weren’t hurt, but he didn’t have time to check on them. \u00a0His sneakers ate up the ground as he went into the alley and drew a trio of balls and a combat dagger. \u00a0Asp was dangerous-the dagger was to kill him if he couldn’t be captured.<\/p>\n

Blademaster was five yards into the alley, with a row of garbage cans on his left, when a sobbing moan echoed between the walls, coming from some place he couldn’t pinpoint.<\/p>\n

“Please… leave me alone,” said Asp. “I wasn’t going to hurt any of you.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster thought better of answering. \u00a0He took a couple steps backwards to get himself away from the garbage cans and scanned the darkness. \u00a0His eyes had been blinded by headlights-he could see very little. \u00a0Asp wouldn’t be any better, though, and he had gotten a flash from Beam.<\/p>\n

Blademaster waited. \u00a0The three steel orbs moved in a slow circle above his hand, catching colored lights from the street in their polished surfaces.<\/p>\n

“I’ll kill you if you keep chasing me!” Asp croaked. \u00a0He was crying.<\/p>\n

“It’s either us or the Whites. \u00a0Advans can’t be neutral,” said Blademaster, voice even.<\/p>\n

“Why not?”<\/p>\n

“People try to kill us when they find us. \u00a0The police don’t like us. \u00a0We need to come together.”<\/p>\n

“You and the Whites aren’t together!”<\/p>\n

“Enough talk. \u00a0I leave that sort of thing to my master.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster pulled a triangular blade and set it hovering behind his head, just in case. \u00a0It was one of his larger ones, big enough to penetrate ribs.<\/p>\n

The attack came suddenly. \u00a0A garbage can emerged from the darkness just ahead of Blademaster, its contents spilling out behind it. \u00a0He dodged to the side, and it crashed to the ground a few feet away. \u00a0Then he rushed down the alley, hurling a couple balls in front of him.<\/p>\n

One of them hit. \u00a0He heard the smack as clearly as it had come from a great bell, and then the thud of Asp hitting the pavement. \u00a0Before he could recover, Blademaster was on his chest, dagger held against his throat.<\/p>\n

“I give you a choice,” said Blademaster. “Either join the Advance Legion, led by Cloak, or I kill you.”<\/p>\n

The tears on the young man’s face sparkled in the light reflected by Blademaster’s dagger. \u00a0Now, the fangs bulging beneath his lips looked almost pitiful. \u00a0“Please… I don’t want to fight. \u00a0You’ll make me fight. \u00a0Your war with the Whites will just go on and on until half of you are dead and the other half are either killed by mobs or captured for… research.”<\/p>\n

The last word sent a sob racking through his body, and it made a shiver run down Blademaster’s spine as well. \u00a0It was the fear of every Advan. \u00a0Worse than death.<\/p>\n

“So you won’t join Cloak?”<\/p>\n

“No! \u00a0He’ll make me chase after Advans like me, who want to be left alone and don’t want to fight and die. \u00a0I’ll have to kill them or die myself, and I don’t want to!”<\/p>\n

Blademaster saw the hand begin to shift and slammed a ball into it. \u00a0Asp screamed, almost cutting his own throat against Blademaster’s dagger.<\/p>\n

Blademaster’s mouth was dry. \u00a0“Your choice.”<\/p>\n

Asp was heaving with uncontrollable sobs. \u00a0“N-n-o,” he croaked. “Kill.”<\/p>\n

His arm tensed. \u00a0Suddenly, Blademaster was sharply aware of the cool wind that was blowing in the alley, of how it rattled the strings on his hood and brushed his hair. \u00a0His eyes locked with Asp’s serpentine gaze. \u00a0He was right -Cloak had been looking for another good hunter, and Asp was powerful enough for the job.<\/p>\n

Blademaster hated killing people like this, when they were on their backs and helpless. \u00a0Usually it, happened while he was fighting them, with just a quick blade in the chest or the throat. \u00a0And Asp was too weak in mind for what Cloak would want him to do. \u00a0Especially if he cried when faced with death.<\/p>\n

“Swear to me that you will never join the Whites.”<\/p>\n

Asp’s tears seemed to dry up almost instantly from shock. \u00a0“What?”<\/p>\n

“Swear you won’t join the White Alliance!”<\/p>\n

“I-I swear it.”<\/p>\n

“Then get up and go. \u00a0Be out of the city by dawn.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster stood up, sweeping the steel ball up from Asp’s hand with a strand of his thought. \u00a0It had left a dark bruise, but nothing worse.<\/p>\n

The other Advan was breathing heavily, chest heaving against his t-shirt.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t got enough money for a plane….”<\/p>\n

“Then take a bus. \u00a0Shut up and go.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster left the alley without looking back and heard feet running away in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n

He met Shag and Beam at the closest rendezvous, near a telephone booth that had been vandalized years ago and never repaired. \u00a0Both of them had cuts and bruises, and Beam was nursing one of his wrists, but they wouldn’t need more than showers and band-aids.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I had to kill him. \u00a0He was desperate-and dangerous,” said Blademaster.<\/p>\n

Shag nodded. \u00a0“I could have told you he’d be like that.”<\/p>\n

Blademaster glared. \u00a0“Then why didn’t you?”<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t matter. \u00a0You know Cloak’s orders.”<\/p>\n

“Yes.”<\/p>\n

Beam grinned. \u00a0“Oh, well. \u00a0I wouldn’t have wanted a human snake in the Legion anyway.”<\/p>\n

It took a lot of effort not to stab him, and even more not to punch him, but Blademaster just gritted his teeth in the shadow of his hood. \u00a0“Let’s get back and make our report.”<\/p>\n

The three moved off into the dark streets of the city. \u00a0This time, Blademaster hung back a little further than normal, his head bowed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SFReader 2004 Story Contest Second\u00a0Place Winner In some ways, this tale seems like a “throwback” to the kind of SF story that was popular in the mid to late eighties. \u00a0In other ways, the story feels completely new. \u00a0And it is new, if only for the fact that the author, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[352],"tags":[485,342,365],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfreader.com\/r\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}