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    Stormgren had half expected this, though he wondered why Joe was confirming his suspicions. He had long suspected the existence of an extremist movement inside-or on the frontiers of-the Freedom League.
    "As a matter of interest," he said, "how did you kidnap me?"
    He hardly expected a reply to this, and was somewhat taken aback by the other's readiness-even eagerness-to answer.
    "It was all rather like a Hollywood thriller," said Joe cheerfully. "We weren't sure if Karellen kept a watch on you, so we took somewhat elaborate precautions. You were knocked out by gas in the air-conditioner--that was easy. Then we carried you out into the car-no trouble at all. All this, I might say, wasn't done by any of our people. We hired-er-professionals fur the job. Karellen may get them-in fact, he's supposed to
    -but he'll be no wiser. When it left your house, the car drove into a long road tunnel not a thousand kilometres from New York. It came out again on schedule at the opposite end, still carrying a drugged man extraordinarily like the Secretary-General. Quite a while later a large truck loaded with metal cases emerged in the opposite direction and drove to a certain airfield where the cases were loaded aboard a freighter on perfectly legitimate business. I'm sure the owners of those cases would be horrified to know how we employed them.
    "Meanwhile the car that had actually done the job continued
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    elaborate evasive action towards the Canadian border. Perhaps Karellen's caught it by now: I don't know or care. As you'll iee-I do hope you appreciate my frankness-our whole plan depended on one thing. We're pretty sure that Karellen can ee and hear everything that happens on the surface of the Earth-but unless he uses magic, not science, he can't see mderneath it. So he won't know about the transfer in the tunnel-at least until it's too late. Naturally we've taken a risk, but there were also oneor two other safeguards I won't go into aow. We may want to use them again, and it would be a pity to give them away."
    Joe had related the whole story with such obvious gusto that Stormgren could hardly help smiling. Yet he also felt very iisturbed. The plan was an ingenious one, and it was quite possible that Karellen had been deceived. Stormgren was not even certain that the Overlord kept any form of protective rnrveillance over him. Nor, clearly, was Joe. Perhaps that was why he had been so frank-he wanted to test Stormgren's reactions. Well, he would try and appear confident, whatever his real feelings might be.
    "You must be a lot of fools," said Stormgren scornfully, "if you think you can trick the Overlords as easily as this. In any case, what conceivable good will it do?"
    Joe offered him a cigarette, which Stormgren refused, then [it one himself and sat on the edge of the table. There was an ominous creaking and he jumped off hastily.
    "Our motives," he began, "should be pretty obvious. We've found arguments useless, so we have to take other measures. There have been underground movements before, and even Karellen, whatever powers he's got, won't find it easy to deal with us. We're out to fight for our independence.
    Don't misunderstand me. There'll be nothing violent-at [hat, anyway-but the Overlords have to use human agents, and we can make it mighty uncomfortable for them."
    Starting with me, I suppose, thought Stormgren. He wondered if the other had given him more than a fraction of the whole story. Did they really think that these gangster methods would Influence Karellen in the slightest? On the ther hand, it was quite true that a well-organized resistance movement could make life very difficult. For Joe had put his [luger on the one weak spot in the Overlords' rule. Ultimately, all their orders were carried out by human agents. If these were
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    terrorized into disobedience, the whole system might collapse. It was only a faint possibility, for Stormgren felt confident that Karellen would soon find some