The Galactic Capitol is a great, airy pile of a building that soars a full three hundred stories into the air. It rears up from the heart of Central City, jutting into the sky like the man-made mountain that it is. Around it, the hundreds of floodlights cast a shower of brilliant radiance over its sparkling, milk-white walls. I had stationed armed guards at each of the ten entrances, the fastest and most quick-witted men in the Service. It would be almost impossible for a Damakoi to get inside undetected. But "almost" isn't good enough. My nerves were tighter than violin strings, and they felt as though they were vibrating at high pitch. I was in a hell of a touchy position. If _all_ the Damakoi had been against us, it would have been easy--just blast every one that got within half a light year of the Capitol. Unfortunately, about three out of ten Damakoi were allies, and their insidious inside work on their own planet kept the dangerous fanatics badly crippled. We couldn't afford to kill three innocent Damakoi for every seven guilty. I was pretty sure I knew where Holdreth Khain stood, but I couldn't take any chances. I knew he wasn't carrying a theta bomb on him; the detectors would have picked up the radiation from the two spheres. Even if he'd had it concealed inside his body, there would be no way of putting enough lead around it to conceal it. I wished there was some way I could X-ray him, but X-rays are deadly to the Damakoi. Unlike human beings, the Damakoi can't even stand a little bit of hard radiation; they die if they're even X-rayed. The two of us approached the immense bulk of the Grand Capitol. I was saying, "Damakoi have been upsetting the social equilibrium for over a century. It almost seems as though your people get some sort of unholy joy out of wrecking everything that other beings build, work, and strive for." It was a thinly-veiled insult, and it was meant that way; I wanted to get his reaction. He looked at me oddly for a moment, but he said nothing. "Come along," I said. "Let's go around and meet the guards. I want to make sure they know you. I wouldn't want to have you killed unnecessarily." I took Holdreth Khain from gate to gate, exhibiting him to my men. At each entrance, I saw the men's eyes fill with suspicion while their manners remained polite. "All right," I said, after we had been to all ten gates, "now the guards will recognize you. Let's start looking for Zorvash Pedrik--before he causes trouble." Holdreth Khain nodded grimly. "Let's go." * * * * * 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.