Mute Read Online Free PDF Page A

after all; it is no colossal shame.”
    “But we’re the best enclave, no burden on the economy of our planet. We want to stay that way.”
    “Solvency that is attained by illegal means is much the same as thievery.” She looked again at the little set of tracks. “I don’t suppose we could take the cart back?”
    “Unsafe,” Knot assured her. “Besides, we must pick up your alarm bleeper before it gets lonely and sets itself off.”
    “It’s a dummy.” But she moved toward the exit passage.
    He followed her out. Obviously she was still teasing him—but why? She had verified what she had come for: the presence of an unregistered mental mutant. There would be hell to pay, for the enclave’s concealment of this asset was a crime against the Coordination Computer, which was the effective executive branch of the human government of the galaxy. She could reasonably expect to face a desperate man in Knot. Why should she leave herself open to persuasion or threat?
    Knot distrusted this, but decided he had better play along.
    He needed to know what this too-attractive and too-devious auditor was really up to. Naturally she had sufficient means of self defense; there would be no physical coercion possible, even if that happened to be his style. It was not his style, not by a parsec. It was time he let her reel him in.
    “You mean I could have laid hands on you any time with impunity?” he asked, as though none of his private thoughts had occurred.
    “That depends.” She selected a hummock and sat down on it. She reached into a pocket and brought out what seemed to be a small ball. “This is Mit,” she said, holding it in the palm of her hand. “Hold him.”
    Knot took Mit. Mit was an ornate shell, of the kind found in oceans, curled into a tightening spiral of nacreous hue, with a shiny pink lip around the opening. “A very pretty conch,” he said. “I like it. Is the ocean audible?” He lifted it toward his ear.
    Then a greenish claw emerged from the shell. Knot paused, startled. The claw was small, but could have taken a nasty nip from his lobe.
    “Mit is a hermit crab,” Finesse said as two hesitant eye stalks appeared. “Very shy around strangers.”
    “A crab—out of water?”
    “He keeps a reserve in his shell, and he’s modified. He can remain indefinitely on land.”
    Knot was fascinated, knowing she was not showing him this as an idle curiosity. This might relate to whatever she was hiding from him. “So he’s more than a shell. I still like him. Come on out, Mit; I would be the last one to hurt you. I like animals.”
    Mit came out. His right claw was comparatively large and strong, while his left was small. He peered up at Knot with coalescing confidence. He tapped his claw against the rim of his shell, once.
    “That’s a click of approval,” Finesse said. “He likes you.”
    “He should. He is built like me. Is Mit a mutant too?”
    “It is normal for crabs to have one claw larger than the other.”
    “I’m not sure you answered my question.”
    “You are not as slow as you look. You are right. Mit is mutant.”
    “Ah. Mental rather than physical? Does he have psi?”
    “Yes. He is probably the best psi-crab in existence. He is clairvoyant and precognitive.”
    Knot laughed, pleased. “He knows there is no danger!”
    “Precisely. No danger to him or to you. When I carry him, I know when there is any threat to me. He hides in his shell and chatters his teeth.”
    “Chatters his teeth!” Knot knew she spoke figuratively. “Did you say he has a double psi talent? I thought that was impossible.”
    “Extremely rare, but it happens. Even triple talents are theoretically possible. One chance in a hundred billion or so, I believe. Since there are not nearly that many mutant births in a century, we really don’t need to let the prospect concern us unduly. CC is very interested in such combinations, and collects all the dual-mutes it finds.”
    Knot felt another chill. He covered