"How did that happen?"
Ned shrugged. "One of the guards let him walk around. Somehow, he managed to get hit by a beam. We can't figure out how; none of the ways to the guard beams are open. A freakish occurrence.
"Holdreth Khain doesn't know what happened. Evidently, he dragged himself from where he was hit. We have him in the Special Room now."
I got out of the car.
"All's well so far," I told him. "We don't need to worry about the slight burns from a guard beam. They're hard ultra-violet. They won't even touch an Earthman, except after long exposure, and they won't disable a Damakoi very long."
"This is worse than that," Ned said. "His leg is pretty badly blistered, and he's unconscious. The doctor says they're definitely guard beam burns, all right, so we don't have to worry about hard radiation." He spread his hands. "The thing is, the doctor says we can't move him."
I think I must have stood there for a full thirty seconds, saying nothing. The last little piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.
Jedon Onomondo looked puzzled. "What is a guard beam?"
"It's a high-frequency ultra-violet ray," I told him. "It's projected across a hall or door. If anyone crosses it, an alarm rings. But in the section where we are keeping Holdreth Khain, they were all supposed to be shut off because you Damakoi are so sensitive to radiation." I turned to Ned again. "It looks as though there's not much else we can do except take Jedon Onomondo into the Grand Capitol to identify Holdreth Khain. We've got to see whether he's our killer or not."
"All right," Ned agreed. He turned to the Damakoi. "You'll have to come with me. We can't allow you down there without a complete examination."