Read Jason King: Agent to the Stars 1: The Enclaves of Sylox for Free Online

this planet is my home. I am a native. So you see it is you who are the alien here.”
    “I’m not an alien; I’m a Human!”
    “On Sylox, Humans are the aliens—”
    “But we don’t stink.”
    “Jonathan!”
    “That is quite all right, Mrs. Wilson,” Bill said with a smile. He crouched down on his reverse-jointed legs until he was at the level of Jonathan’s head. He leaned in closer and flared his nostrils. “I’m afraid you do have a distinctive odor, young Human. It is not unpleasant, yet you do stink , as you put it.”
    I watched as Jonathan’s mouth fell open even more and his eyes grew large, and then he slowly reached out his hand toward Bill’s face. “Can I touch you?”
    “Jonathan, you’re being rude,” Jennifer said as she reached out to intercept Jonathan’s thin hand.
    “It is quite acceptable, Mrs. Wilson,” Bill said. “I would be just as curious if my race had not had generations of experience with other species.”
    Jonathan ran his fingers over the small knobs forming Bill’s skin. “They’re soft! I thought they’d be hard.”
    “If they were hard, I would have difficulty speaking or making expressions – like this.” The alien opened his eyes wide and stretched out a toothy grin easily ten inches wide.
    Bill then patted the precocious nine-year-old on the head and straightened up. “My friend, Jason King, I must attend to my duties. Mrs. Wilson – and family – I hope you find success in your search for a home. And if you do change your mind about living outside the city boundaries, I am sure you will find Zanzibar to be an acceptable substitute. I will see you for the game, Jason.”

 

    Chapter 5

    After Bill left, I was able to herd the Wilson family through the flow of pedestrian traffic on the landing and out the terminal building to my waiting van. The vehicle was large enough to accommodate the entire family, and as we climbed in, I made a conscious effort not to let my eyes linger too long on the beautiful Miranda Moore. If anything was going to happen between us, it would come later, after I completed my professional duties.
    As always, my first priority was to make money, and I didn’t want to jeopardize that by coming off as some sex-crazed male who couldn’t think beyond his penis. However, in the presence of the alluring Miranda Moore, I was having a hard time maintaining the façade – the façade of not being a sex-crazed male who couldn’t think beyond his penis. And for that, I placed the blame squarely on Miranda – and her dark, mischievous eyes.
    **********
    Before leaving the vast parking structure at the terminal, I showed Jennifer pictures of the homes I’d selected for her on my datapad. None of them seemed to excite her very much, although she was polite enough to point out the positives in all of them. She did this more for the benefit of the children, even though I could tell she was disappointed.
    “This one has a nice bathroom.”
    Only half the homes we’ll see today have Human-acceptable bathrooms.
    “The bedrooms in this one are really huge.”
    They should be. The home was built for creatures resembling Minotaurs, standing six feet tall at the shoulders.
    “This one is next to a park.”
    Eventually, I’d have to let her know that it’s not so much a park … as a hunting preserve. And not hunting with guns, but with claws and teeth. It was a nice place to look at, but you wouldn’t want to go in there – ever!
    We pulled out of the terminal complex and merged onto a familiar looking freeway – ribbons they were called here – with an abundance of traffic. Jennifer Wilson sat in the passenger seat next to me, while Miranda had taken a spot in the center of the wide seat behind me, flanked by young Melissa and the curious Jonathan Wilson.
    The morose and pre-occupied Heather Wilson sat in the third row seat by herself, engrossed in the smartphone she’d barely pulled her attention from since first walking off the shuttle.