•   CONTENTS                                                         Before Paphos
                          Higher than
           Art Gallery                                               by Loretta Casteen
       o
                          Usual
           Articles                                                  8 January 2007
       o
                          By Derek Paterson
           Columns                                                   It starts again. The baby begins
       o
                                                                     to cough and choke.
                          16 April 2001
           Fiction
       o
                                                                     Locked Doors
                          Perkins came up to me and he was
           Poetry
       o
                          grinning from ear to ear, his eyes dancing by Stephanie Burgis
           Reviews
       o                  with an unexpected madness that made
                                                                     1 January 2007
                          me take a step back and look at him
           Archives
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                          suspiciously.                              You can never let anyone
•   ABOUT US                                                         suspect, his mother told him.
                          "We've got one of them," he told me
                                                                     That was the first rule she taught
                          gleefully.
           Staff
       o
                                                                     him, and the last, before she left
                                                                     him here alone with It.
                          "One of what?" I asked, bewildered.
           Guidelines
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                                                                 Heroic Measures
                    "One of them," he said, as if that
           Contact
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                    explained it. "Cheeky sod from Accounts
                    came upstairs and tried to get a coffee by Matthew Johnson
      o Awards
                    out of our vending machine. Can you          18 December 2006
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                    believe it? Out of our vending machine."
                                                                 Pale as he was, it was hard to
•   SUPPORT US
                    He was holding a plastic coffee cup and I believe he would never rise
                    wanted to sniff it to make sure he wasn't from this bed. Even in the
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                    having a caffeine overload.                  darkest times, she had never
         Bookstore
      o                                                          really feared for him; he had
                    "Are you feeling all right?" I asked.
                                                                 always been strong, so strong.
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                    He nodded, still grinning, and jerked his
                    thumb over his shoulder. "The lads have Love Among the Talus
•   COMMUNITY
                    got him in the toilets. They're giving him a by Elizabeth Bear
      o Forum       damned good thrashing. That'll teach him
                    to come up onto our floor. Accounts will 11 December 2006
      o Readers'
                    think twice before they mess with us
         Choice                                                  Nilufer raised her eyes to his. It
                    again."
                                                                 was not what women did to
                    He turned and stalked away, leaving me men, but she was a princess,
                    confused and shaken. I'd have to have a and he was only a bandit. "I
                    word with someone about him. I didn't want to be a Witch," she said.
                    want to get him into trouble or anything, "A Witch and not a Queen. I
                    but there were limits. If he had a drink wish to be not loved, but wise.
                    problem, the company would try to help Tell your bandit lord, if he can
                    him. There were groups he could              give me that, I might accept his
                    join. . . .                                  gift."
                          As soon as I reached my desk, my phone Archived Fiction Dating back to
                          started ringing and I forgot all about     9/1/00
                          Perkins. It was a busy morning and I only
                          managed to grab a coffee myself around
                          eleven. I glanced at my newspaper while
                          I sipped the foul stuff, wondering whether
                          I'd be better off drinking paint solvent.