Foundation Fear by Gregory Benford Read Free Book Online Page B

circle of expectant faces.
    Hari's next group proved different. Not the usual mix of diplomats, aristos, and anxious
     brownclad assistants, his lieutenant told him, but high figures. “People with punch,” the
     man whispered.
    A large, muscular man was holding forth at the center of a circle, a dozen faces raptly
     following his every word. The protocol lieutenant tried to whisk them past, but Hari
     stopped her. “That's ... ”
    “Betan Lamurk, sir.”
    “Knows how to hold a crowd.”
    “Indeed, sir. Would you like a formal introduction?”
    “No, just let me listen.”
    It was always a good idea to size up an opponent before he knew he was being watched.
     Hari's father had taught him that trick, just before his first matheletic competition.
     Such techniques had not managed to save his father, but they worked in the milder groves
     of academe.
    Black hair invaded his broad brow like a pincer attack, two pointed wedges reaching down
     to nearly the end of his eyebrows. His hooded eyes were widely spaced and blazed intently
     from a rigging of mirth wrinkles. A slender nose seemed to point to his proudest feature,
     a mouth assembled from varying parts. The lower lip curled in full, impudent humor. The
     upper, thin and muscular, curled downward in a curve that verged on a sneer. A viewer
     would know the upper lip could overrule the lower at any moment, shifting mood abruptly --
     a disquieting effect which could not have been bettered if he had designed it himself.
    Hari realized quickly that, of course, Lamurk had.
    Lamurk was discussing some detail of interZonal trade in the Orion spiral arm, a hot issue
     before the High Council at the moment. Hari cared nothing about trade, except as a
     variable in stochastic equations, so he simply watched the man's manner.
    To underline a point Lamurk would raise his hands over his head, fingers open, voice
     rising. Then, his point made, his voice evened out and he lowered them to chest height,
     held precisely side by side. As his well-modulated voice became deeper and more
     reflective, he moved the hands apart. Then -- voice rising again -- his hands soared to
     head level and windmilled one around the other, the subject now complex, the listener
     thereby commanded to pay close attention.
    He kept close eye contact with the whole audience, a piercing gaze sweeping the circle. A
     last point, a quick touch of humor, grin flashing, sure of himself -- a pause for the next
     question.
    He finished his point with, “ -- and for some of us, 'Pax Imperium' looks more like Tax
     Imperium,' eh?” Then he saw Hari. A quick furrowing of his brow, then, “Academician
     Seldon! Welcome! I'd been wondering when I was going to get to meet you.”
    “Don't let me interrupt your, ah, lecture.”
    This provoked some titters and Hari saw that to accuse a member of the High Council of
     pontificating was a mild social jab. “I found it fascinating.”
    “Pretty humdrum stuff, I'm afraid, compared to you mathists,” Lamurk said cordially.
    “I am afraid my mathematics is even more dry than Zonal trade.”
    More titters, though this time Hari could not quite see why.
    “I just try to separate out the factions,” Lamurk said genially. “People treat money like
     it is a religion.”
    This gained him some agreeing laughter. Hari said, “Fortunately, there are no sects in
     geometry.”
    “We're just trying to get the best deal for the whole Empire, Academician.”
    “The best is the enemy of the good, I'd imagine.”
    “I suppose then, you'll be applying mathematical logic to our problems on the Council?”
     Lamurk's voice remained friendly, but his eyes took on a veiled character. “Assuming you
     gain a ministership?”
    “Alas, so far as the laws of mathematics are sharp and certain, they do not refer to
     reality. So far as they refer to reality, they are not certain.”
    Lamurk glanced at the crowd, which had grown considerably. Dors