* * * * *
Somewhere in the city was a killer with a theta bomb--if Holdreth Khain
wasn't lying. And I had a hunch he was telling the truth about Zorvash
Pedrik.
There were eight Damakoi legitimately in the city. All of them were
known to be pro-Galactic men with the possible exception of a Damakoi
by the name of Jedon Onomondo, who was still suspected of having
anti-Government sentiments in spite of the fact that he had helped us
in one or two minor matters.
But Jedon Onomondo had been in the city for three months or so; we'd
had him tailed all that time. He couldn't have come to Earth in the
last week in an indetectable spaceship.
Nevertheless, I ordered a double watch kept on him.
The next stop was to comb the city for radiation sources.
Ditherium is funny stuff. There are two kinds: positive and negative.
When one kind gets near the other, the radiation given out increases
as the distance between them decreases. At ten feet from each other,
they give out easily detectable X-rays. Within a few inches, they flare
violently in the hard gamma.
I knew that no Damakoi could carry them around unless they were encased
in heavy lead; the radiation would kill him.
Even so, I started looking for radiation in the city. I had an odd
hunch I'd find something.
It took several hours to go over the whole city. The normal sources,
such as the power pile on Four Hundredth Street East, were quickly
spotted and ruled out. But eventually we located a center of neutrino
radiation in the Hotel Grenada, up on Skyline Drive.
"He's in the Hotel Grenada," I told Holdreth Khain. "Let's surprise him
before he has a chance to set off that bomb."
* * * * *
The Hotel Grenada was a huge, ancient structure that had been built
just after the atomic bombs had blasted the city during the Final War,
and it showed every century of its age. It had once been an imposing
structure, but its chromium trim had begun to peel, and the aluminum
siding was whitely pitted with oxide.
I walked into the lobby and flashed my identity bracelet at the
bored-looking clerk. "Do you have any Damakoi registered here?"
The clerk looked a little bewildered. "Gosh, mister, I wouldn't know a
Damakoi if I saw one. We got lots of aliens registered, though."
"I am a Damakoi," said Holdreth Khain. There was a touch of pride in
his voice, and I felt my nerves tighten a little more.