There were four others in the room--a pudgy balding man named Reynolds, a youthful smiling man who called himself Tompkins, a short, cold-eyed man introduced as McDermott, and a lanky fellow who spoke his name drawlingly as Patterson. As each of them in turn was introduced, he gave the Darruui recognition signal. "The other four of us are elsewhere in the eastern hemisphere of Earth," Carver said. "But six should be enough to handle the situation." Harris glanced at his five comrades. "What are you planning to do?" "Attack the Medlins, of course. We'll have to wipe them out at once." Harris nodded. Inwardly he felt troubled; it seemed to him now that the Medlins had been strangely sincere in releasing him, though he knew that that was preposterous. He said, "How?" "They trust you. You're one of their agents, so far as they think." "Right." "You'll return to them and tell them you've disposed of me, as instructed. Only you'll be bearing a subsonic on your body. Once you're inside, you activate it and knock them out--you'll be shielded." "And I kill them when they're unconscious?" "Exactly," Carver said. "You can't be humane with Medlins. It's like being humane with bloodsucking bats or with snakes." The Darruui called McDermott said, "We'll wait outside until we get the signal that you've done the job. If you need help, just let us know." Harris moistened his lips and nodded. "It sounds all right." Carver said, "Reynolds, insert the subsonic." The bald man produced a small metal pellet the size of a tiny bead, from which three tantalum filaments projected. He indicated to Harris that he should roll up his trousers to the thigh. Instead, Harris dropped them. Reynolds drew a scalpel from somewhere and lifted the flap of nerveless flesh that served as trapdoor to the network of devices underneath. With steady, unquivering fingers, he affixed the bead to the minute wires already set in Harris' leg, and closed the wound with nuplast. Carver said, "You activate it by pressing against the left-hip neural nexus. It's self-shielding for a distance of three feet around you, so make sure none of your victims are any closer than that." "It radiates a pretty potent subsonic," Reynolds said. "Guaranteed knockout for a radius of forty feet." "Suppose the Medlins are shielded against subsonics?" Harris asked. Carver chuckled. "This is a variable-cycle transmitter. If they've perfected anything that can shield against a random wave, we might as well give up right now. But I'm inclined to doubt they have." * * * * * All very simple, Harris thought as he rode across town to the Medlin headquarters. Simply walk in, smile politely, stun them all with the subsonic, and boil their brains with your disruptor. He paused outside the building, thinking.