“It would be a senseless waste of our small supply of fruit and vegetable foods to give them to people already dying. I’m afraid”⁠—the ingratiating smile came again⁠—“we’ve been letting him exercise an authority he isn’t entitled to. He’s really hardly more than a medical student and his diagnoses are only guesses.”

“He’s dead,” Lake said flatly. “His last order will be carried out.”

He looked from the two tired boys to Bemmon, contrasting their thinness and weariness with the way Bemmon’s paunch still bulged outward and his jowls still sagged with their load of fat.

“I’ll send West down to take over in here,” he said to Bemmon. “You come with me. You and I seem to be the only two in good health here and there’s plenty of work for us to do.”