Foundation And Chaos Read Online Free PDF Page A

where we don't have to listen to the street noises, ” the man said. He lifted
     stiff-fingered hands.
    There were few such places around the market. They walked several streets away and found a
     small coco-ice stall.
    The man bought her a red coco-ice, which she accepted despite her distaste for the popular
     Dahlite delicacy. He bought himself a small dark stimulk, which he licked with quiet
     dignity as they sat at a tiny triangular table.
    A square of sky above them darkened so severely that she could barely see his face. His
     lips seemed to glow around the stimulk.
    “I'm looking for young men and women eager to see other parts of Trantor, ” the man said.
    Klia grimaced. “I've heard enough recruiters to last me a lifetime. ” She started to rise.
    The man reached out and took her arm. Without words, she tried to compel him to move it.
     “For your own good, ” he said, and did not react. She tried harder.
    “Let me go, ” she ordered.
    As if stung, the hand withdrew. It seemed to take a few seconds for the man to compose
     himself. “Of course. But this is a good time to listen. ”
    Klia watched the man curiously. She hadn't compelled him; he had obeyed more like a
     servant reacting to his mistress than to a young girl he was trying to collar in a public
     place. Klia focused with more intensity on the man. His surface was not particularly
     attractive, but she encountered unexpected reserves, a central stillness, a peculiar
     metallic sweetness. His emotions did not taste the same as others.
    “I only listen to people who are interesting, ” Klia said. She was starting to sound a
     little too arrogant. She fancied herself a more dignified sort of woman, not a street
     braggart.
    “I see, ” the man said. He finished his stimulk and deftly tossed the stick into a
     receptacle. The proprietress walked to the receptacle, removed five sticks-a meager show
     for the day- and took them back to the rear of the stall to clean. “Well, is survival
     interesting?”
    She nodded. “As a general topic. ”
    “Then listen closely. ” He leaned forward earnestly. “I know what you are and what you can
     do. ”
    “What am I?” Klia asked.
    He looked skyward, just as the square immediately above lickered back to full brightness.
     His skin was unusually sallow, as if he wore makeup against some skin condition, though
     she could not detect the pockmarks of brain fever. Klia's cheeks themselves showed deep
     pocks, beneath the fur. “You had a bout of fever as a child, didn't you?” he asked.
    “Most do. It's typical on Trantor. ”
    “Not just here, young friend. On all human worlds. Brain fever is the ever-present
     companion of intelligent youth, too common to be noticed, too innocuous to be cured. But
     in you, it was no easy childhood illness. It nearly killed you. ”
    Klia's mother had nursed her through the rough time, then had died just months later, in
     an accident in the sinks. She hardly remembered her mother, but her father had told her
     all about the illness. “What about it?”
    His eyes were pale, and she suddenly realized they were not looking directly at her face,
     but at some irrelevant point to the right of her forehead. “I can't see well now. I make
     my way around by feeling the people, where they are, how they move and sound; in a place
     without people I am in some distress. I prefer crowds for that reason. You... do not.
     Crowds irritate you. Trantor is a crowded world. It confines you. ”
    Klia blinked, uncertain whether it was polite to keep staring at his dead eyes. Not that
     she cared overmuch for politeness in a situation such as this.
    “I'm just a runner and sometimes a swapper, ” she said. “No one pays much attention to me.
     ”
    “I can feel you working on me, Klia. You want me to leave you alone. I disturb you, mostly
     because what I am saving has a certain truthful resonance-am I right?”
    Klia's eyes narrowed. She did not