Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov [102]
It was one leaf to each meat-bit and the whole was taken into the mouth. The waiter had carefully explained how it had to be done. Apparently accustomed to off-planet guests, he had smiled paternally as Trevize and Pelorat gingerly scooped at the steaming bits of meat, and was clearly delighted at the foreigners' relief at finding that the leaves kept the fingers cool and cooled the meat, too, as one chewed.
Trevize said, "Delicious!" and eventually ordered a second helping. So did Pelorat.
They sat over a spongy, vaguely sweet dessert and a cup of coffee that had a caramelized flavor at which they shook dubious heads. They added syrup, at which the waiter shook his head.
Pelorat said, "Well, what happened back there at the tourist center?"
"You mean with Compor?"
"Was there anything else there we might discuss?"
Trevize looked about. They were in a deep alcove and had a certain limited privacy, but the restaurant was crowded and the natural hum of noise was a perfect cover.
He said in a low voice, "Isn't it strange that he followed us to Sayshell?"
"He said he had this intuitive ability."
"Yes, he was all-collegiate champion at hypertracking. I never questioned that till today. I quite see that you might be able to judge where someone was going to Jump by how he prepared for it if you had a certain developed skill at it, certain reflexes--but I don't see how a tracker can judge a Jump series. You prepare only for the first one; the computer does all the others. The tracker can judge that first one, but by what magic can he guess what's in the computer's vitals?"
"But he did it, Golan."
"He certainly did," said Trevize, "and the only possible way I can imagine him doing so is by knowing in advance where we were going to go. By knowing, not judging."
Pelorat considered that. "Quite impossible, my boy. How could he know? We didn't decide on our destination till after we were on board the Far Star."
"I know that. --And what about this day of meditation?"
"Compor didn't lie to us. The waiter said it was a day of meditation when we came in here and asked him."
"Yes, he did, but he said the restaurant wasn't closed. In fact, what he said was: 'Sayshell City isn't the backwoods. It doesn't close down.' People meditate, in other words, but not in the big town, where everyone is sophisticated and there's no place for small-town piety. So there's traffic and it's busy--perhaps not quite as busy as on ordinary days--but busy."
"But, Golan, no one came into the tourist center while we were there. I was aware of that. Not one person entered."
"I noticed that, too. I even went to the window at one point and looked out and saw clearly that the streets around the center had a good scattering of people on foot and in vehicles--and yet not one person entered. The day of meditation made a good cover. We would not have questioned the fortunate privacy we had if I simply hadn't made up my mind not to trust that son of two strangers."
Pelorat said, "What is the significance of all this, then?"
"I think it's simple, Janov. We have here someone who knows where we're going as soon as we do, even though he and we are in separate spaceships, and we also have here someone who can keep a public building empty when it is surrounded by people in order that we might talk in convenient privacy."
"Would you have me believe he can perform miracles?"
"Certainly. If it so happens that Compor is an agent of the Second Foundation and can control minds; if he can read yours and mine in a distant spaceship; if he can influence his way through a customs station at once; if he can land gravitically, with no border patrol outraged at his defiance of the radio beams; and if he can influence minds in such a way as to keep people from entering a building