"In spite of the sabotage our people have been committing?" Isobel said.
"That's falling off somewhat," Cliff said. "At first our more enthusiastic followers were able to pull everything from heaving Molotov Cocktails into tanks, to pouring sugar in hover-jeep gas tanks, but the legionnaires have both smartened up and gotten very tough."
"Good," Dave Moroka said now.
They looked at him.
"Atrocities," he said. "In order to guard against sabotage, the legionnaires will be taking measures that will antagonize the people in Tamanrasset. They'll shoot a couple of teenage kids, or something, then they'll have a city-wide mess on their hands."
Isobel said unhappily, "It seems a nasty way to win a war."
Dave grunted his contempt of her opinion. "There is no way of winning a war other than a nasty one."
Bey came in, yawning hugely. His energy was inconceivable to the others. So far as was known, he hadn't slept, other than sitting erect in a moving vehicle, for the past four days. He said to Homer, "Fred Ostrander has been bending my ear for the past hour or so. Do you want to talk to him?"
"About what?" Homer said.
"I don't know. He has a lot of questions. I think he's beginning to suspect—just suspect, understand—that possibly the whole bunch of us aren't receiving our daily instructions from either Moscow or Peking."