"Oh, well, probably better, at that," Kinnison went on arguing with himself. "If I'd tried it out maybe he'd have got onto it and laid me a stymie next time, when I really need it."
Since he had accomplished everything that he could do for the time being, he went free and hurled his speedster toward Earth, now distant indeed. Several times during that long trip he was sorely tempted to call Haynes through his Lens and get things started; but he always thought better of it. This was altogether too important a thing to be sent through so much subether, or even to be thought about except inside an absolutely thought-tight room. And besides, every waking hour of even that long trip could be spent very profitably in digesting and correlating the information he had obtained and in mapping out the salient features of the campaign that was to come. Therefore, before time began to drag, Kinnison landed at Prime Base and was granted instant audience with Port Admiral Haynes.
"Mighty glad to see you, son," Haynes greeted the young Lensman cordially, as he sealed the room thought-tight. "Since you came in under your own power, I assume that you are here to make a constructive report?"
"Better than that, sir. I'm here to start something in a big way. I know at last where their Grand Base is, and have detailed plans of it. I think that I know who and where Boskone is. I know where Helmuth is, and I have worked out a plan whereby, if it works, we can wipe out that base, Boskone, Helmuth, and all the lesser master minds, at one wipe."
"Holy jumping rockets!" For the first time since Kinnison had known him the old man lost his poise. He leaped to his feet and seized Kinnison by the arm. "I knew you were good, but not that good! The Arisians gave you the treatments you wanted, then?"
"They sure did," and the younger man reported as briefly as possible everything that had happened, then outlined the plan upon which he had been working so long.
"I am just as sure that Helmuth is Boskone as I can be of anything that can't be proved," Kinnison declared, bending over a huge chart and sketching rapidly. "Helmuth speaks for Boskone, and nobody else ever does, not even Boskone himself. None of the other big shots know anything about Boskone or ever heard him speak; but they all jump through their hoops when Helmuth, 'speaking for Boskone,' cracks the whip. And I couldn't get a trace of Helmuth ever taking anything up with any higher-ups. Therefore, I am dead certain that when we get Helmuth we get Boskone.
"But that's going to be a real job of work. I scouted his headquarters from stem to gudgeon, as I told you; and Grand Base is absolutely impregnable as it stands. I never imagined anything like it. It makes Prime Base here look like a deserted cross roads after a hard winter. They've got screens, pits, projectors, accumulators, all on a gigantic scale. In fact, they've got everything. But you can get all that from the tape. I have learned definitely that we cannot take them by any possible direct frontal attack. Even if we attacked with every ship and mauler we've got throughout the galaxy they could stand us off. And they can match us, ship for ship. We'd never get near that base at all if they knew that we were coming."
"Well, if it's such an impossible job, what——"