Full-page spread: the two men walk through the desert, and are silhouetted against the dark sky.

Colonel: “We can talk to them no problem. They talk like parrots — they repeat everything we say to them, at least the second generation. First generation is mute, or just can’t comprehend language.”

General: “You can’t give them instructions and expect them to carry them out then, is that what you’re saying?”

Colonel: “More or less.”