Mute (55 page)

Still, this galled him. Knot decided to exert his inconveniently individualistic nature again.
Will the hive summon a real arson animal?
he asked the bees.
To fire the terrain behind the lobos?

There was something like an insect chuckle as they assimilated his mental image.
Agreed.

The roaches stirred in his pocket.
We must move out,
he thought, and reached out to squeeze Finesse’s arm in warning.

They hurried away. The lobos, intent on their own mischief, were not aware of the escaping party. Even the tightest of the traps became pervious when clairvoyance was involved.

Then the lobos fired the brush. Enhanced by the ignitant, it burst into violent flame that the wind fanned rapidly toward the house.

And behind the lobos, a rat ran—and fire blazed up in its track, a line of it burning toward the lobos. In a moment the closure was complete; the arsonists were trapped in their own mischief. Knot smiled grimly and turned away; he couldn’t stay to watch the fun.

Naughty man!
Hermine’s faint, admiring thought came. He must have been projecting his mood.

“Problem,” Finesse murmured. “The route I’d worked out goes through the lower-class housing region—and Mit says that is about to be torched.”

“But the high-class neighborhoods won’t be safe either,” Knot pointed out. “The lobos will be watching them. They hate the Macho upper class and want to destroy it; they’ll be concentrating on the best estates.”

“Yes. So we have to hide elsewhere.” She frowned; he could make out her expression more by the set of her body than by her shadowed face. “But tonight fire is a danger anywhere.”

“I could locate a water conduit,” Klisty said eagerly. “That’s the safest place, if there’s fire.”

What does Mit say to that?
Knot asked Hermine. He saw that Finesse was now carrying the weasel and crab, having picked them up when Knot wasn’t paying attention. With their psi, rendezvous was easy.

He says it gets complicated,
Hermine replied.
We should stay above ground as long as possible.

So be it.
They wended their way through the city, losing themselves in its streets. People were coming out in increasing numbers, becoming aware of the fires. Soon the limited reserve power failed, darkening the remaining buildings of the city: the hospitals, police stations, and transportation centers. More people came out, not understanding how a minor problem with animals could get this bad. Now the Macho citizens did not seem at all bold and mighty; they were disorganized, confused, frightened people.

The way is opening,
Hermine advised Knot.
Mit has found a channel. We must move to the end of this street in fifteen minutes; then we shall be safe until ship-time.

Let’s go!
Knot thought with relief. They walked rapidly down the street. He had largely recovered from his wounds, thanks to the excellent medical care he had received, but his leg and abdomen still gave twinges as he exerted himself, and he was not strong. He would need to rest as soon as they were safe.

There was an explosion in a factory building nearby. A column of fire shot slantingly into the night sky, bright smoke roiling from it. Then the dull boom came, as it were an aftershock, shaking the pavement so that windows cracked and loose tiles dropped from the neighboring roofs.

There was a scream of hurt and terror that made them all freeze momentarily. But there was no sound to it. “That was a mental scream!” Finesse cried.

Do not pause,
Hermine thought urgently.
The opening is narrow, and will close off soon.

Oh, the fire—we are trapped!
It was the anonymous person again, the thought seeming female. She was evidently caught in the building that had just been ignited. Knot exchanged glances with Finesse. They both knew it would be folly to ignore Mit’s warning; they had to move.

Then Klisty ran toward the building. “We can’t let her die in fire!” she cried.

Knot and Finesse followed. They knew it was foolish; they probably could not help, and would pay for it exorbitantly, but they had to try.

Stop!
Hermine thought desperately.
This is where precognition ends.

Knot hesitated. This was no minor delay, then; this was a significant turning point in the entire mission. Mit’s ability would be crippled if—

A third time the scream came. Knot galloped on after the girls. If this was fate, so be it; he was human too.

They came to the building. It was a monstrous warehouse. Flames illuminated its upper interior, making the small windows stand out in stark brightness against the exterior gloom. An inferno, inside, with the fire steadily eating downward.

The roaches in Knot’s pocket were restless; it was dangerous here. As though he needed the aid of psi to tell that!

You are throwing away our chance!
Hermine thought despairingly.
Just as you did when we entered the enclave chasm.

Yet we did some good there,
Knot reminded her.

Mit says we may survive, but probably won’t catch our ship.

Our ship departs tomorrow,
Knot responded.
We should have time.
But he knew time was not the question; the loss of half Mit’s psi was the real issue. They faced a completely unknown future, by following this course. They might be all right, or might all die instantly in another explosion of the building.

But he was really reacting on a gut level to a woman in distress, and playing a private hunch. He thought he could help, and still catch the shuttle. And how could the lobos suspect him of staying in the area this way, instead of fleeing? They would assume he had headed straight for the shuttle and try to cut him off there.

Yet Mit’s precognition had not been speculation; it had fathomed a safe way through—that Knot was now giving up. Knot was no precog; his hunches and guesses were virtually worthless. So he could sum it all up: he was basically crazy.

Yet Finesse and Klisty had led the way. Why weren’t
they
dashing for the shuttle? Did they share some sort of morbid wish to miss the ship? If so, why?

The mental scream came again. They had paused only an instant, assessing the situation, though to Knot it seemed like a long time. “All right, let’s not dawdle while she burns,” Knot snapped.
Bees: can you safely fly in there and investigate?

We can try,
the bees buzzed, not even questioning the need. Theoretically they were here to make sure Knot did not betray the hive; now they had been co-opted to his purposes. Probably because the power of his human mind overwhelmed them, at this proximity. He had become their hive. They took off in their formation.

There was another explosion in the building, blasting them with heat and light. The flames dropped two stories, eating more rapidly toward the ground. Come back,
vitamin bees!
Knot called mentally.
This is too dangerous for you, after all.

They straggled back, shaken by the blast but intact.

“I can help!” Klisty cried. “I can find a water pipe leading inside.” She stretched out her arms and closed her eyes, concentrating. Knot knew Mit could probably do the job faster, but it was better to save the crab for more critical work. “Over there—slow water moving.” She pointed.

“A sewer pipe,” Knot said. “Is it possible to get in and out, quickly?”

Mit says there is an access conduit beside it,
Hermine thought.

So Mit was back in action.
Lead us to it,
Knot thought.
I don’t like the way that building is blowing up.

It will destruct completely in thirteen minutes,
she thought reassuringly.
But Mit is not sure you can effect a rescue in that time.

I’ll try, though.
At least Mit and Hermine had stopped reminding him of the disaster of his course. They weren’t nags. Knot followed directions and found the conduit entrance. He crawled in—and discovered he could not move efficiently. His body was wrong, and on hands and knees he found his injuries hampering him, and the cramped pipe prevented him from improving his lot.

“I’ll do it!” Finesse cried. Knot peered up at her, and saw her face changing color in the fierce illumination of the flickering flames.

At the moment she most resembled a creature of hell, but her mission was that of an angel. “I’m smaller, and in better health.”

“You were lasered too,” he reminded her.

“Minor—and I don’t need my collarbone for this.”

Knot yielded to common sense. “Make it fast!”

She wriggled past him, bestowing a kiss on the way, and disappeared down the smaller pipe. Hermine and Mit were with her, so he knew he should have confidence in her security. Still, the occasional shaking of the ground as the building disintegrated, and the inexorably approaching flames made him increasingly nervous. He also worried about Klisty, outside on the street. Check on her, he told the bees, and they set up a continuous circuit, buzzing from pipe to street, reporting:
good...good...good.
It was reassuring.

Then Hermine’s thought came:
It is a woman with a mutant baby. She is injured; we cannot bring her out.

Failure, after all! But he would not accept it.
Then save the baby!
Knot thought. If they could rescue the baby, they might also rescue the mother. He thought fleetingly of Thea the mermaid, longing for her baby. He hoped she would never be trapped in a burning building.

Mit says he can’t see the baby’s future—or ours, if the baby is with us.

A psi neutralized? This could be a problem.
Is Finesse’s psi operable in the baby’s presence?

A pause.
Yes. Mit cannot answer, but Finesse was able to make me afraid of spider webs.

So the baby’s psi-negation affected only Mit. That would be a grave liability—but suddenly the nature of the crab’s reservations about this diversion mission was coming clear. No one liked having his psi blocked out.

Still, they wouldn’t have to keep the baby; they just had to rescue it. Then they could separate from it, and Mit’s talents would function properly again.
Bring the baby out. Hurry. That fire is close, and any blast could put it down to the basement.

Mit doesn’t foresee a blast.

Mit’s precog is nulled.

Oh.
The weasel had been set back by the realization. Then:
Finesse wants to know what about the mother?

You really can’t rescue her?

She is mortally injured and will die within an hour anyway; only her concern for her baby sustains her now.

That seemed final.
Put me in touch with the mother. Relay my thoughts to her: Woman, I am Knot, a psi mutant. I will take your baby to safety. Give it to the woman. We have only a few minutes before the building destructs.

The woman’s relayed thought came back. She was not a telepath; only the force of her fear and pain and concern for the baby had enabled her to broadcast her scream to nearby receptive minds. Probably the presence of Hermine and the bees had facilitated this, too.
Can I trust you?

We would not endanger ourselves to make this rescue if we did not care,
he assured her.
We were passing, picked up your mental scream, and came to help. We can’t save you, but we can save your baby.

Yes...
There was a pause while she passed the baby to Finesse.
Thank you. I know I am dying anyway. But my little boy Harlan I hid here to protect him from CC registration. His father is a disk captain who doesn’t even know. I feared my child would be taken from me if CC learned he was strong psi.

Does his psi cancel clairvoyance?
Knot asked.
We have experienced damping.

It confuses precognition. Harlan is a randomizer. No one can predict him. Because CC uses precog, and needs predictability, I feared for him.

That seemed a reasonable fear. Such a mutant could be a monkey wrench in CC’s works. Mit’s reservations might be tiny compared to CC’s reservations! Best to keep Harlan well away from the computer.
We are CC agents—but we are humans too. We will give Harlan to some responsible agency so that CC will not know.

CC agents!
she thought with horror.
CC will know! My baby will be lobotomized!

No!
Knot thought back.
We will protect him!

Then a huge, authoritative explosion shook the conduit, followed by a continuing shudder as the building collapsed into leaping flames.

Finesse!
Knot thought, horrified.

Safe,
Hermine’s thought came.
Coughing in the conduit.

Relief!
And the mother?

She is gone. You should not have told her about CC.

Yes, he should have had more sense. How awful for the woman’s last thought to be of betrayal and despair.

Finesse wriggled down the conduit, bearing the baby, who seemed too frightened to cry. “We must hide him from CC,” Knot told her as he made room for her to pass.

“Where will this baby be safe, in this city?” she demanded.

Knot had no immediate answer. They emerged at the street. The fire had spread to adjacent houses, and people were collecting outside. A number were injured.
Mit says we may be trapped,
Hermine thought.
He can’t tell while we have the baby, but his clairvoyance shows no likely escape right now.

“So we’ll stay here and help,” Knot decided. “We can’t catch that ship until we find a home for the baby, and right now we have no safe place.”

“Oh, let me hold him!” Klisty cried. She had the little girl’s attraction to babies. Finesse considered momentarily, then passed Harlan over.