The Devil's Eye (35 page)

We went to a place that Kassel liked, and we tried to pretend the meeting had gone well. Mutes don't have alcohol. But Kassel was able to suggest a fruit juice that tasted okay and had a mild kick. So we ordered a round and toasted the Secretary of Naval Affairs. Then Giambrey sent encrypted messages to Kilgore and to our team in the Confederacy. I asked Kassel how long he thought it would take for the Chief Minister to make his call. "No way to know, Chase," he said. "Maybe in the morning. Maybe never. But they might want to use this to get some leverage over the Confederacy. To put the moral onus on the Director." Three days later we got a message from the Secretary:
Be advised that the Chief Minister is giving your request every consideration, and that, furthermore, he is aware of the time factor. Every effort is being made to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. I will advise you as soon as we have a decision.

"What's he deciding?" I asked Kassel. "Whether to call a cease-fire? Or whether he'll negotiate with us?" Kassel didn't know. "But do you want to know what I think?" "You're skeptical that we'll get any help." "That's correct. I'm sorry." He seemed to be staring at something in the distance. "We've spent years attacking Confederate motives. You remember how we talked about the tendency for people to fool themselves? To talk themselves into things?" "We're not alone." "That's right. To do as you ask, they-the administration-would have to reverse course. It would be politically unpopular. The Chief Minister would be seen as exposing Assemblage worlds to attack. Unnecessarily." "We're talking about a
world
." "Yes." "And it comes down to this guy's political career." "I didn't say that it did. I said
maybe
. Or I thought it might." "Kassel, I'm struck that you think it might even be possible. Have you ever been close enough to get a read on this guy?" "What do you mean?" "To see into his mind? The way you see into mine?" He hesitated again. "Yes." "Do you think it's possible he might do that? Reverse course?" "It's possible." He put that big hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry." "You accuse
us
of being savages."

Kassel learned unofficially that a decision was still a few days away. Circe connected with a Mute physicist and moved into quarters at a laboratory. Giambrey took to wandering around New Volaria, making as many contacts as he could. He even drew several speaking engagements, not strictly diplomatic in nature, but more scientific and cultural. It was an opportunity to win friends among influential locals. Alex and I decided it was a good time to visit Selotta and the Museum of Alien Life-forms. So we

packed up and headed out. Humans held a prominent place as the only other known technological species, although our section was guarded by a Neanderthal avatar. He was bearded and muscular, and looked across the museum floor with a steady gaze that was simultaneously hostile and vacuous. When visitors came near him, he activated, shook his spear, growled and grunted, and made other unseemly gestures. A substantial collection of our literature was available, and I was happy to note that the weapons section had been downsized somewhat since my earlier visit. It wasn't that the spears and guns and particle beams and disrupters weren't still there, but they were less prominently displayed than I recalled. I suspected Selotta had gotten to know us somewhat better. Alex spent all his time in the Hall of the Humans, more or less drooling over some of the exhibits. The museum had acquired statuary, lamps, communication devices, furniture, table settings, diaries, sports equipment, religious texts, and a wide range of other artifacts, dating back as much as fourteen thousand years. "Incredible," he said. "Where did they get this stuff?" Some of it, he suspected, might have been taken from Earth during its pretechnological eras. Later, he asked Selotta, who consulted the records. "Nothing here to support that," she said. "But we're talking about a long time ago. Who knows? We can't accurately date a lot of this material." I was interested in touring the area, but I couldn't get Alex away from the museum. Selotta couldn't leave her post, and Kassel was busy doing whatever mayors do. On the third or fourth day, I got tired of artifacts, gathered my courage, and went to the beach. Mute females wear bathing suits that cover everything from the neck to the knees. Sleeves come halfway down the forearms. I would have complied with local standards, but nobody had a bathing suit anywhere close to my size. My outfit was pretty skimpy by their standards, so much so that I wondered whether the authorities would show up and haul me off. But Selotta assured me nobody would find me sexy. ("I mean that in the best sense," she said.) So I really had nothing to worry about. The male suits also concealed pretty much everything from knees to neck. I wondered why a society with such easy access to the most private realities of everyday life would find it appropriate to hide their bodies so completely. The beach was filled. As at home, there were families, and substantial numbers of young males and females in pursuit of each other. I sat for a few minutes listening to the roar of the sea. I was a few pounds heavier than I would have been at home, and I felt as if it showed. But that's an illusion. And anyhow, alone on a beach with creatures who watched me with a combination of dismay and disgust, it didn't seem as if exposure mattered a whole lot. The sun was brighter than it would have been on Rimway. So I got up and made for the ocean. I could feel their eyes on me. But I was getting better at the game. I was able to smile amicably, say hello in my head, hope you're having a nice day, good-looking kid you have there. (That last one took some real discipline, but I think I managed it.) Nobody was in the water. That seemed odd, but I dismissed it. Maybe this was one of those days when everybody just wanted to come down and sit on the beach. I spotted a raft about a hundred meters out. The critical thing at the moment was that it was in the water and away from the Mutes. Which made it just the place for me. There were lots of shells on the beach. And someone had lost a ball. I strolled into the surf, felt the water tug at my ankles. Come on in. I turned and waved at one female child sitting just beyond the reach of the waves. I think, to some extent, I was enjoying the attention. Kolpath on center stage. I got into the ocean and kept going, alternately sucked back toward the beach by the surf and dragged out by the current. The water was green and cold and could have been any ocean back home. A piece of seaweed wrapped itself around one leg. I pulled it free and tossed it away. Ahead, an aircraft was passing. A skimmer no more than a few hundred meters above the water. Otherwise, there was only the sea and that hard bright sky. I got past the surf line and began floating over the waves. Somebody onshore, a young male, started waving at me. That seemed pretty friendly, so I waved back, put my head in the water, and made for the raft.

I'd gone maybe a dozen strokes when I noticed a group of Mutes at the water's edge. They were waving, too. I casually returned the gesture, thinking how I was making a breakthrough. One of them, a male, abruptly charged into the water and began swimming after me. Or at least in my direction. I'll confess that was a scary moment. I wondered whether I'd broken some social convention. In any case, I turned away and set out again for the raft. I'd almost reached it when I became aware that my pursuer was still with me. He was splashing and kicking the water and trying to get my attention. Now, I'd had time to get accustomed to my Mute hosts, but having that thing coming after me, and better equipped to move in the water than I was, was unsettling. I tried not to turn it into a sprint for the raft, but I guess that's what I did. He responded by hitting the water. Hitting it in my direction. Then he was coming again. He caught me as I got to the ladder and tried to haul myself onto the raft. Grabbed my ankle and pulled me back. It wasn't a joke anymore. I looked at the beach and saw that if the Mute planned on having some fun with me, I wasn't going to get any help. I kicked free and he stared at me. Then he jabbed one of those cold gray fingers at the shoreline. I hauled myself up. Almost fell back in because the rungs were too far apart. Two more Mutes started into the water. One was a female. I stood on the raft and looked back at the guy in the water. "What?" I said. He bobbed up and down, making expressions I couldn't read. But he didn't retreat. He showed me his fangs. Great. I held up my hands and thought
Go away
.
Leave me alone.
Then, to my horror, he grabbed hold of the ladder and started to climb it. He stepped onto the raft, pointed at the water, and showed me a mouth full of teeth. He pointed at his bicuspids and pointed again at the water. I got the message. It explained why nobody was on the raft or in the ocean. He began making false starts back toward the beach.
Let's go.
I looked around, half-expecting to see a fin. But there was nothing.

Well, let it never be said a Kolpath can't take a hint. I dived in and struck out for shore. He came in behind me and stayed with me. When we got to the beach, the Mutes froze as they are inclined to do on celebratory occasions. They were all looking at us, and I knew they were talking to him. It was an eerie experience, and it ended simultaneously for everyone. As if someone had fired a gun. They simply dispersed. I walked over to the Mute who'd come after me and formed the words
thank you
as clearly as I could. He looked back at me and cringed. By then, I'd been around them long enough that the cringe didn't surprise me. But I wondered whether he understood the message I was trying to send.

Later that evening, when I saw Selotta, I told her about it. She said yes, there'd been a sighting of a school of
vooparoo
during the early morning. Of course, she added, I was free to translate the word any way I liked. A vooparoo was a creature very much like a coelenterate, or jellyfish, with a soft gelatinous structure and long, trailing tentacles. It varied in size from near-microscopic to about ten meters. The ones seen in the vicinity of the beach had been big, and a warning had been issued. Even the very small ones, she explained, delivered a painful sting. The bigger ones were lethal to Mutes. Nobody knew how such a bite would affect a human, but I was pretty sure it wouldn't have been helpful. "I guess," she said, "the people on the beach didn't want you to be the first to find out."

Selotta's home was a white-and-gold villa at the edge of town. The walls were dark-stained to a degree that most people would have found oppressive. The furniture was large, the rooms were wide, and the ceilings were high. I found myself constantly climbing up onto armchairs. Even Alex was lost in the

vastness of the rooms. The villa had an enclosed deck, with several chairs and a table. The evening of the
vooparoo
, I was out there with Selotta while the kitchen made dinner. Alex was, as usual, buried in Mute ancient history. Kassel hadn't come home yet. He'd been involved during the last few days in a political squabble over commercial licensing, so he'd been late getting in every evening. "Don't let him joke with you," said Selotta. "It's always like that. He pretends to be annoyed, and keeps saying he won't stand for election next term, but I've heard all that before. He likes being mayor, and the voters seem to like him. So I guess he'll be at it for a while." She'd been preparing special meals for us. Despite her best efforts though, and those of the AI, the food tended to be much the same thing every day. But it was digestible, and that was all that mattered. She had an order in somewhere for food that she said would be more to our liking, but the delivery had been delayed. It was a long way to Khaja Luan, the nearest human world. We were talking about Kassel when Giambrey called.
"I got some good news,"
he said.
"The Assemblage is going to issue a statement tonight, in a few hours, declaring a cease-fire. Our people in the Confederacy expect them to respond in kind."

It called for a celebration.

Selotta had neighbors who, believe it or not, wanted to meet us. So they came over that night, six of them, plus a couple of older children. Equipped with voice boxes. Things were somewhat tense at first until we all got used to one another. Mostly we talked politics. How life would be better if we could, as one of them said, "stop the nonsense." In the end we raised glasses of fruit juice to ourselves, Mutes and people, one for all and all for one. Mutes, by the way, do not toast happy occasions with liquid beverages the way we do. That may be because they've never discovered alcoholic drinks or anything else that distorts awareness. Maybe alcohol wouldn't work on them. I don't know. Alex thinks it's because of their telepathic dimension, that it would be bad form to introduce confusion into someone else's mind. Selotta had no idea why we would bother with such a pointless exercise. She added that she couldn't see that
I
had an explanation for it either. But they all played along. The neighbors thought the raising of the glasses a quaint custom, and I suspected if they could laugh, they'd have been doing so. So we drank to Ilya Frederick, who was our woman in the Confederacy and who would, we all hoped, be able to talk sense to the politicians. A female looked my way. She was young, and did not have a voice box. She and Selotta exchanged something. Then Selotta looked at me: "Kasta says it is all right for me to tell you this. She thinks it is a pity that there are not more humans like you and Alex. She thinks you are the exceptions. And that your brothers and sisters cannot be trusted." It didn't matter. They caught on, and we toasted everybody. After we'd drunk to Salud Afar, one of them, the biggest Mute I'd ever seen, offered his hope that something could be done for that unhappy world. "As they have done something for
us
." "And what have they done for us?" Selotta asked, knowing the answer, I'm sure, but wanting it said aloud. "Why," he said, "they brought us Chase and Alex." He was a giant, and his name came out as Goolie, or something like that. He lived alone in a stone house just off the beach, Selotta explained. He'd been a teacher at one time, but now simply spent his time reading.