Mute Read Online Free PDF

it with a smile. “No wonder I couldn’t bluff you. You know all my secrets.”
    She nodded smugly. “Mit knows, at any rate. Tangible things, mainly; intangibles become too complex for his comprehension.”
    Intangibles were beyond the crab’s limited power. Knot allowed himself more hope. “I find myself liking you, Finesse. Let me be blunt, while I have the clairvoyance in my hand. You’ve been coming on to me from the outset, but you’re a normal, and not an ugly or stupid one. What is on your mind? You can’t find me physically attractive.”
    “Men don’t have to be physically attractive.” She squinted at him appraisingly. “Actually, there is a certain appealing quality to you. Were your proportions normal, you would be a handsome man, and even as it is—”
    “You’re avoiding the issue again. There is no visible reason why you should play up to me, especially on business time. You’ve gotten your information; you verified the power of the leadmuter.
    You caught our enclave cheating the planetary government and hiding a psi-mutant from CC. It makes most sense for you to scoot the hell home to the machine and make your devastating report. Instead you’re acting as though I’m of more interest than—” He paused, glancing down at the hermit crab. “Mit did she come to investigate me ?”
    “Won’t work, Knot,” she said. “He’s only a crab, with the mind of a crab. Even if he could grasp the complexities of human subterfuge, he can neither comprehend your speech nor reply in kind. He tunes in on danger to himself and those nearest him, without defining it. At least, not in our terms. W ere you telepathic, you could converse with him and obtain more specific information; otherwise the best you can do is tap questions on his shell and get yes-no answers. Since I mean you no mischief of a tangible kind, he feels secure. You’ll learn nothing from him you can use.”
    “Getting me fired or transferred to an inclement enclave or lobotomized as a criminal would not be completely intangible, by my reckoning,” Knot said. “You don’t have to club me on the head to hurt me.”
    “Oh, such things are not beyond Mit’s ken. He might not understand them, but he can precog your future grief. And he would inform you by clicking on his shell. But my plans for you are a good deal more devious, and I really do not mean you any harm, Knot. I do rather like you, despite your ornery ways, though I will not pretend you are any rival to a normal or any model of integrity.”
    She was really working him over, but she still had not caught on to his secret, he judged. Best not even to think about that. “And if I take you in my arms and do with you what you’re obviously made for—?”
    “In due course. I’m not an amateur in that respect. But first there is one other thing I must show you.” She reached into another pocket and drew out a small, slender, long animal with a little round, whiskered face. “This is Hermine, the weasel. She’s a mutant too.”
    Knot accepted the weasel in his left hand. She was warm, with sleek fur, and had the secure footing and litheness of a healthy predator. Knot liked all animals other than household pests, but he found himself liking this one in quite a strong, specific way. “And what is your talent, Hermine?” he asked, not expecting an answer.
    Nice man. Like you.
    Knot started, almost dropping the crab in the forgotten hand. “Broadcast telepathy!” he exclaimed. “And near-human intelligence. Mental verbalization. Isn’t that at least a double mutation?”
    “Double mutations of a beneficial nature are prohibitively rare,” Finesse said. “Usually they’ll be a physical-mental combination, such as a minimal body abnormality and a substantial mental one, or vice versa.”
    Did she know? Knot was suddenly nervous again.
    She knows you are a double mutant, Hermine projected.
    And you are a transceiver telepath! Knot thought back. You can read minds, and