The two hundred Arab riders make a line down the far dune, then race towards the small column of the French Foreign Legion that they have spotted on the dune’s crest. Then, screaming, they storm forward because this is yet another patrol that has to be destroyed on El Karima’s orders.
A few days ago, El Karima held a council of war with all the officers of the Dulac army and told them what to do. “Every Legion dog that puts a foot out of Dini Salam must be killed,” she told them. “In that way, we will slowly eliminate all of them. They will send out bigger and bigger patrols because they will never believe that we would want to wage war now. But one day, they will send out a huge force of their men, and that day we will eradicate them too and weaken the garrison significantly so that we c
