I tried to keep a grim smile off my face. This bird was a true Damakoi; he hated the killer policy, but saw nothing strange in the fact that he had wiped out fourteen of them himself. If he had.
"Luckily," he continued, "I happened to find out what Zorvash Pedrik intended to do. I could not kill him personally, but I have been able to get here in time to head him off. I want you to find him—before he succeeds."
I nodded slowly. "I understand, Holdreth Khain. It is a noble and honorable thing that you are doing. I'll see to it that you get a proper reward for this information."
"No reward will be necessary," the Damakoi said. "The failure and death of Zorvash Pedrik will be reward enough for me."
"All right," I said, "let's see what we can figure out."
I was sitting right on top of a powder keg, and I knew it—but what could I do but see it through?
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.