The key engaged, and as the door slid open, I stepped inside, my blaster held at the ready. The room was empty. The bed was made, the ash-trays were clean, the windows were closed. Zorvash Pedrik might have registered for the room, but he hadn't spent much time in it. He was on the loose--somewhere in the city--carrying around something which could kill everyone in the Grand Capitol if it were set off. "No sign of him," said Holdreth Khain. "Doesn't look that way." Then I spotted something. "Hold it--what's that?" I crossed the room to the writing desk that stood against the far wall. There was a small box on it and it was weighting down a piece of paper. I pulled out the piece of paper. It was a note--addressed to me. _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."