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."