CHAPTER 8Divide and Rule
Captain Rennie stood, wide legged beneath the blazing sun, and felt his nerves jump and crawl over his soggy skin. Before him a group of men stood in long lines, facing each other, each with a long pole in their hands. They were stripped to the waist and on their tanned skins great weals and bruises showed against the smooth flesh.
“Right,” he snapped, and the butt of his pistol felt heavy in his hand. “Try again. Attack!”
Immediately the men began to lash at each other with the long, heavy poles. They fought with a rim, savage violence, and the smack of wood on flesh and bone echoed flatly through the thick air. Rennie watched them with sick disgust.
Scum, he thought, unwanted scum, and it was his job to turn them into soldiers. They had received full hypno-tu
