gs. I was relieved by his assurance that he had not, for it would
have wrecked the whole plan. Everything depended upon our ability to
surprise the Sinsings.

So I pledged the Council and my companions to secrecy, and allowed it to
be believed that we were about to take to the air and the trees against
the Bad Bloods.

That outfit must have been badly scared, the way they were "burning" the
ether with ultrophone alibis and propaganda for the benefit of the more
distant gangs. It was their old game, and the only method by which they
had avoided extermination long ago from their immediate neighbors--these
appeals to the spirit of American brotherhood, addressed to gangs too
far away to have had the sort of experience with them that had fallen to
our lot.

I chuckled. Here was another good reason for the shift in my plans. Were
we actually to undertake the exterminations of the Bad Bloods at once,
it would have been a hard job to convince some of the gangs that we had
not been precipitate and unjustified. Jealousies and prejudices existed.
There were gangs which would give the benefit of the doubt to the Bad
Bloods, rather than to ourselves, and the issue was now hopelessly
beclouded with the clever lies that were being broadcast in an unceasing
stream.

But the extermination of the Sinsings would be another thing. In the
first place, there would be no warning of our action until it was all
over, I hoped. In the second place, we would have indisputable proof, in
the form of their rep-ray ships and other paraphernalia, of their
traffic with the Hans; and the state of American prejudice, at the time
of which I write held trafficking with the Hans a far more heinous thing
than even a vicious gang feud.

I called an executive session of the Council at once. I wanted to
inventory our military resources.

I created a new office on the spot, that of "Control Boss," and
appointed Ned Garlin to the post, turning over his former responsibility
as Plants Boss to his assistant. I needed someone, I felt, to tie in the
records of the various functional activities of the campaign, and take
over from me the task of keeping the records of them up to the minute.

I received reports from the bosses of the ultrophone unit, and those of
food, transportation, fighting gear, chemistry, electronic activity and
electrophone intelligence, ultroscopes, air patrol and contact guard.

My ideas for the campaign, of course, were somewhat tinged