Telempath

THE WORLD WAS FINISHED
BUT ISHAM STONE WASNT . . .

 His name is Isham Stone, and hes the second-best assassin in the world. He is many miles from home, half-dead, his left arm is gangrenous, and he possesseslike everyone elsea sense of smell a thousand times better than a wolfs. Ahead of him, in the stinking ruins of a great city, hides the greatest killer of all time, Wendell Morgan Carlson. All Isham has to do is stay alive long enough to find Carlson and kill him.

But Carlson is guarded by ghosts . . .

They rode the winds when Earth was bubbling rock. They were a mighty civilization before the first amphibians were hatched. They shared the world with men for half a million years before either side became aware of the otherand for centuries thereafter we refused to believe they truly existed.

In our arrogance, we assumed that life was an exclusive property of solids and liquids . . .

Now they have declared war on us, and our race is nearly annihilated. Thanks to the man Isham has come to kill. . . .

Praise for a Hugo- and Nebula-Winning Master Storyteller

Nobodys perfect, but Spider comes pretty damned close! Ben Bova

 . . . Id nominate Spider Robinson as the new Robert Heinlein. The New York Times

 Sheer good storytelling . . . imaginative and captivating. . . . Publishers Weekly

Cover art by Patrick Turner

Paperback

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

First printing, January 2000

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN: 0-671-31825-X

Copyright © 2001 by Spider Robinson

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
https://www.baen.com

Production by Windhaven Press
Auburn, NH

Electronic version by WebWrights
http://www.webwrights.com

This book is dedicated
to Charles and Evelyn for the
heredity and environment,
to Jeanne and Luanna for the patience,
and to the Bearden Bulldogs
for the sawbuck.

Winds out on the ocean
Blowin' wherever they choose.
The winds ain't got to emotion, babe:
They don't know the blues.
—James Taylor

BAEN BOOKS by SPIDER ROBINSON

The Star Dancers (with Jeanne Robinson)
Starmind (with Jeanne Robinson)
Deathkiller
Lifehouse
User Friendly
By Any Other Name
Telempath
Callahan's Lady (upcoming)