Dale looked at the mystery item with a frown. Could it be? He vaguely remembered thinking that her gun had been too short . . . but what if it hadn’t been a gun at all? What if it was a taser? It had somehow exploded—maybe Lyra had done something to it. If she had, it wouldn’t have been intentional. Probably she was just trying to defend herself . . . maybe that was why the doctors seemed so concerned with fixing her hand. Perhaps Lyra thought she was to blame, and then thought that if they took the girl with him, they could fix her and give her back uninjured. 