Rains moved the drink hastily away. He wanted to speak, but it might be dangerous to open his mouth. The crisis passed. "Put it away!" But Gowru had already refolded it so that the pattern was no longer discernible. The cloth was an unpleasant souvenir.
Egan Rains was silent, studying the Hindu. The man was honest and loyal, that much he could tell. But though he spoke English well, he didn't think extensively in it and most of his thoughts were hidden in a language Rains couldn't translate, mentally or otherwise. "Can you teleport?" he asked.
"A mind carrier?" said Gowru. "No, I'm only a dyeman. I can do nothing else."
He expected that; there weren't many who had multiple powers. "Do you know anyone who can?"
"I have a friend who plays ping pong with it."
That was telekinetics, not teleportation, but it might be what he was after. So far as the Rhine Institute knew, people with either ability existed only in India. "How good is your friend?" he asked.
"At ping pong, very good. At tennis, poor. The ball is too heavy; he can't move it fast enough."
Then that was a false lead. The person he wanted had to be much more adept and powerful. Rains would have to look farther and Gowru would have to help him. "Gowru, I'm an astronomer," he began.
The Hindu raised his eyebrows to express interest. "I've always had a soft spot in my head for astronomy," he declared.