_Dear Cameron_, it said, in the clear script of a voice-writer,
_There's no point in your looking for me here, because I'm not
going to wait here for you to catch me. Be sure that I'll be able
to complete my mission here despite the efforts of your department
and the treachery of my misguided countryman._
_Zorvash Pedrik_
"We'll have to pick up the trail somewhere else," I said. "We better
get moving."
* * * * *
When we reached the lobby, I phoned Ned Dearborn, my second in command.
His blocky features filled the screen and his three-dimensional
representation looked inquisitively at me.
I said: "Ned, get up here to the Grenada and pick up a neutrino
generator in Room 706A. It was sitting on a note to me. It's harmless,
but it's what the boys picked up on the detectors."
Ned smiled grimly. "Just a dummy, eh? Okay; I'll send up a squad right
away. Anything else?"
"Better alert the local police," I told him. "Pick up any Damakoi that
isn't known to us. In case you pick him up, get him as far away from
the city as you can. Take him out and dunk him in the lake if you have
to. Get a plane ready and set up a robopilot.
"Watch him closely. If he's carrying anything at all, shoot first and
ask questions later. Got that?"
"Got it, Chief." His face faded from the screen.
Holdreth Khain looked agitated. "You say that the box on the table was
radioactive? I might have been exposed!"
I shook my head. "Neutrino radiation isn't dangerous, not even to a
Damakoi. Don't worry about it."
"But how do you know it was a neutrino generator?"
"I know what those things look like," I told him. "They are expensive
as hell, and no one would go to the expense of making one just to load
it with ordinary radioactives."
"I hope you're right," said the Damakoi.
I drove Holdreth Khain back to the Capitol. "Look," I told him, "there
are going to be plenty of trigger-happy policemen roaming around this
town for a while. I want to get you to someplace where you'll be safe,
but I've got to keep you near me. If we catch Zorvash Pedrik, I want
you to identify him."
"Yes, I see," he said. "And, if you'll pardon me for thinking of my own
miserable life, I am afraid that Zorvash Pedrik intends to kill me for
betraying him." He thought for a minute. "I would be safe inside the
Capitol," he said at last.
I suppose the expression on my face must have shown him what I thought
of the idea of allowing any Damakoi inside the Grand Capitol, because
he said, hurriedly: "Surely you must know that I am not carrying a
theta bomb or any other kind of atomic bomb. Your radiation detectors
would have spotted it, would they not?"
I had to admit that they would have spotted it if he were carrying
anything that would fission.
"Very well, then. You will have me under guard, will you not? Your men
can watch me. They wouldn't let me get away with anything odd."
It sounded logical, and I admitted it. "Okay," I said, "we'll put you
in the basement of the Grand Capitol. You'll be safe there, and if we
catch the killer, you'll be right there to identify him."
* * * * *
We pulled up in front of the Grand Capitol, and the Damakoi and I
climbed out of the car. I'll admit that I still wasn't absolutely sure
of my guess about Holdreth Khain, but since I knew he wouldn't be
dangerous by himself, I felt I could take the chance.
The guards had the car surrounded by the time we got out. They took a
good look at the Damakoi, and went over him again with detectors and
searched him physically.
"You'll have to change your clothes completely," I told him. "We had
one assassin who was wearing a special plastic suit that evaporated
into a poisonous gas. It was rather nasty."
"Certainly," agreed Holdreth Khain. The guards led him away to the
dressing room.
I went inside and got on the phone to the Special Supplies Warehouse.
The supply officer faded into the screen.
"What is it, Mr. Cameron?"
"Do you happen to have a twelve by twelve foot piece of invisible
plexisteel?" I asked.
"We can cut you one in a hurry," he said.
"Cut me _two_," I ordered, "and get them over here to the Grand Capitol
building fast--and I really mean _fast_."
"We'll have them there in seven--no, _six_ minutes."
"Right. And send along construction men with them. I'm building a trap
for a killer who thinks he's clever." I didn't add _I hope_, but I
thought it.
I was sure that there would be no slip-ups. I'd been picked for my
ability to outguess and out-think anyone and everyone who might try to
hurt the Galactic Government, and so far, I'd succeeded; the Government
itself had withstood everything sent against it.
Still, there had been slip-ups before. The security network protecting
President Deller had failed badly when a Damakoi assassin smuggled
himself into the Golden Palace. A meeting of the Solar Subcouncil had
been bombed two years before despite the most painstaking precautions.
There was no way of being absolutely sure--I could only do my best.
After all, the Damakoi weren't stupid--fanatic maniacs, yes, but not
stupid.
I carefully checked the loading of my blaster, just in case I'd need
it. Then I called Ned in and gave him his orders. Ned repeated them and
then said: "I hope you're right, Chief."
"So do I," I agreed. "But it's the only way to handle the Damakoi."
"That planet's a plague spot," Ned said bitterly. "We ought to send the
Galactic Fleet in there with a half-dozen good-sized planet wrecking
bombs, and get rid of every damned one of them once and for all."
"You're being hasty, Ned," I said. "That would be genocide, the one
thing that every race fears more than anything else. The Galactic
Government would fall within a week after such an order was given."
"I know it; it was just wishful thinking."
"We'll get it under inter-planetary control," I told him. "That's the
sort of thing the Grand Council is working on right now. Once the
proper laws are passed, we'll have Damak under our thumb and force them
to be law-abiding citizens. That's why they're so anxious to blow up
the Capitol before anything definite is done."
"Yeah. Well, what do you want me to do after I've set up the
plexisteel?"
"Nothing," I said. "We just wait. That's all we can do. Just wait."
* * * * *
We waited. Every cop in town was patrolling the streets, watching for
a strange Damakoi. They had full, three-D photographs of the eight
Damakoi known to be in the city; anyone who didn't match one of those
photos would be picked up--or shot.
Before he could do anything, the assassin would have to get inside
the Grand Capitol Building, and I was fairly sure he couldn't do that
without my knowing it. But if I was wrong, the Galactic Government
would be ruined.
I sat in my office for hours, smoking one cigarette after another and
fortifying myself with coffee. The tension on my nerves was building up
hour by hour until I could hardly sit down. I wanted to slug someone,
to break open a Damakoi face with a fist and strangle the life out of
his killer soul.
The phone chimed and I jumped a foot before I realized what it was. I
forced myself to be calm and reached over to turn on the screen.
The sharp-nosed, blue-skinned face of a Damakoi resolved itself on the
screen. I recognized him immediately. It was Jedon Onomondo. He wasn't
known to be absolutely trustworthy, but he had been useful to us in the
past by giving us information we couldn't get otherwise.
"Hello, Jedon Onomondo," I said. "What is it?"
"Hello, Mr. Cameron." His voice was excited. "Listen, I want to talk to
you."
"Go ahead," I said.
"No, not over the phone. There might be a tap. Listen, my life is in
danger. You've got to come over to my place right away. You know where
it is. I want to tell you something I found out--it's hot."
And he hung up without another word. I headed for his place.
* * * * *
Fifteen minutes later, I was going up the lift tube of a middle-class
apartment house, heading toward the ninth floor. I had a sneaking hunch
that I already knew what Jedon Onomondo would have to say, but I wanted
to be positive. I rapped on the door of his apartment. The door opened
a crack; an eye peered out.
"Come in, Mr. Cameron," Jedon Onomondo said, swinging the door wide.
I didn't step in immediately; I took a quick look around the room,
keeping my hand on my blaster butt. There was no one else in sight
except the Damakoi.
I went on in and prowled around the room to satisfy myself that there
was no one else present. Then I searched the rest of the apartment. The
place was empty.
Jedon Onomondo was sitting in the middle of his living room,
nervously smoking a Terran cigarette. The Damakoi are one of the few
extraterrestrials who have taken up the use of tobacco. They looked
ludicrous.
I didn't sit down. "All right; what's so all-fired important that it
can't be told over the phone?"
The Damakoi blew out a long plume of smoke. "I understand you're
looking for one of my countrymen who intends to set off a bomb inside
the Grand Capitol Building," he said.
"How do you know?"
He looked pained. "Look, Mr. Cameron, just how dumb do you think I am?
I have bits of inside information. I pick things up here and there. I
put them together."
"All right," I said. "What about it?"
"You're looking all over the city for a guy by the name of Zorvash
Pedrik. He's supposed to have a bomb on him--a theta bomb. Right?"