"Anthony,.Piers.-.Mute (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Susan)

"Well, you did warn me about auditors."

She laughed. "So I did. I didn't mean you to take it so to heart."

, "I trust you to do your business. I'm not sure what that business is."

"You have a microscopic memory. I'm an auditor."

Knot felt a chill. Why her reference to memory? "Fortunately, I'm not an auditor. I don't need to entrap anyone."

She drew on his arm. "Did I offend you? I apologize and offer to make delicious amends."

"No offense," he said quickly. He had the growing feeting that he was fencing with someone of greater skill than his own.

"But you reacted." She turned a beautifully innocent gaze on him. "Knot, I don't want it to be negative between us. What did I say to hurt you?"

"We mutants can be very sensitive about our abnormalities, hi the presence of normals." That wasn't it, but he was most concerned that she not catch on to his real worry.

"Six-four fingers? That's hardly enough to notice. I'm sure / haven't noticed."

"Obviously." He had to smile, relaxing. She was on the wrong track. "Here is the cave."

"Already? We were just getting warmed up."

"There's always the return trip. I know a longer, more scenic route."

"Oh? I thought you distrusted my motive." Х "I do. So I had better ascertain what it is before letting you go."

"That's more tike it." She peered into the cave. "Is it safe?"

"Should be. It has endured for thousands of minutes."

"You hollowed out a whole cave, just to hide your project?"

"Well, it isn't easy to hollow out half a cave."

She delivered a reproving glance. She was so cute it was
hard for him to keep properly in mind that she was extremely hazardous to his welfare. "The leadmuter did it, before we tuned him in to lead. He changed the rock to lead because the metal was denser and occupied less space than ordinary material. He hollowed out quite a chamber, entertaining himself."

"I don't understand. You said he did this before he learned about lead, yetЧ"

"He turned ordinary rock to lead, at first. Then it occurred to us that if he could do that, he might in turn convert the lead to something even more dense. So we persuaded him to change his lead to gold, almost twice as compact. That pleased him, because it gave him more room in his cave with less debris. Then we started using the gold for our artworkЧthe enclave has a number of fine sculptors and other artisansЧso we did him the additional favor of hauling the gold out of his way. That keeps his cave entirely clean, so he's happy. We tuned him into lead as a raw material, instead of as a product."

"Lead transmuted into gold," Finesse murmured. "No wonder your enclave is self-sufficient."

"Oh, we don't sell much of the gold," Knot hastened to assure her. "We do trade some of it for other things we need."

"Barter,** she agreed. "Avoiding discovery and taxation."

"Until now," he agreed glumly.