thing!"

The lieutenant looked at it, then at the front of the pack. Ruby tips to match your lips, it said under the brand name.

"What are they doing to us?" the sergeant said. He crumpled the cigarette in his fist and threw it down and ground it under his boot. "Isn't it hard enough?"

"It must be a mistake," the lieutenant said. He sounded shaken, too. "Because of the shortage, maybe. Unless it's a fifth column trick. Like the rumor about them not going to wake up again."

"It is just a rumor, isn't it?" the sergeant said. His voice was almost pleading. "We just freeze them for—for the duration, don't we? Don't we, lieutenant? Because I couldn't go on if they were really dead. Nobody could."

The lieutenant spoke sharply. "Snap out of it, sergeant! It's just propaganda. I'm surprised at an old hand like you falling for it."

"I'm not, sir. We couldn't really kill them, could we? It'd be suicide, wouldn't it? It's not total war, is it?"

"Not total, no. There'll be an end to it one day, and then a beginning again. I know it's hard, but it's the only way."

The last of the big trucks had rumbled in from the battlefield. The sergeant watched the gate close in the fading light. Beloved enemy, he thought.

"Three hundred today," he said aloud. "And one was my personal contribution. My platoon was strung out behind me, and she came up over the hill—"

"Sergeant!"

"She was mine. I got her personally. I aimed slow and held the sight on her. Then I let go. It was almost like—"

"Sergeant!" The lieutenant was trembling. "The third person singular is prohibited! You know that, sergeant!"

The sergeant was calm. "Yes, sir." He looked at the young officer. "But I feel better for having told about it. I'm all right now, sir. I hope I didn't upset you."

"No," the lieutenant said. "No. We'll forget about it."

"I'll have one of those cigarettes now, sir, if you don't mind. It doesn't matter about the tip, now that it's dark."

"Well...." The lieutenant hesitated. "I was going to send them back to Quartermaster, with a report. 

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