Joel bit his lip. All at once, the indicator lit up again. The car was ascending to the ninth floor once more.
Again the doors slid aside. But this time General Fredrik Roos stepped briskly from the cage, turned left down the corridor.
The chief of the Asgardian police had taken only half a dozen steps, though, when he halted. Joel could see his nostrils twitch. Then his hand darted to the jeweled paralyzer at his waist. It was like a man practicing a quick draw—shadow boxing.
Roos pointed the paralyzer at emptiness, pressed the stud. A dazzling yellow beam lanced down the corridor, winked off.
Joel sucked in his breath. The misty outline of a body was materializing on the floor just ahead of Roos!
There had been someone there—someone who'd been invisible until the ray knocked him out!
"Ganelon!" Joel thought. He could see the shape of bare ivory legs and a delicate waist. It was a girl lying huddled on the floor!
Roos had snatched up a heavy vase from a niche in the wall. He was striding toward the unconscious Ganelon girl.
The ray only paralyzed; it didn't kill. Roos was going to murder the spy, Joel realized. At that instant he recognized her.
It was Tamis Ravitz!