'They did?'
'I heard them. First they say that and then they attack the false reporting on TV and then they demand all troops to be withdrawn.'
'Then why call us CIA-Zionist murderers?' demanded Chinanda. 'And where are these people?'
They looked suspiciously at the ceiling.
'They're up there, you think?' asked Baggish.
But, like the Superintendent, Chinanda didn't know what to think.
'Gudrun is up there. When we came down there was shooting.'
'So maybe Gudrun is dead,' said Baggish. 'Is a trick to fool us.'
'Could be,' said Chinanda, 'British intelligence is clever. They know how to use psycho-warfare.'
'So what we do now?'
'We make our own demands. We show them we are not fooled.'
'If I might just interrupt for a moment,' said Mrs de Frackas, emerging from the cellar, 'it's time I gave the quadruplets their supper.'
The two terrorists looked at her lividly. It was bad enough having the house ringed with troops and police, but when to add to their troubles they had to cope with incomprehensible demands from someone representing the People's Alternative Army and at the same time were confronted by Mrs de Frackas' imperturbable self-assurance, they felt the need to assert their superior authority.
'Listen, old woman,' said Chinanda waving an automatic under her nose for emphasis, 'we give the orders here and you do what we say. You don't we kill you.'
But Mrs de Frackas was not to be so easily deterred. Over a long lifetime in which she had been bullied by governesses, shot at by Afghans, bombed out of two houses in two World Wars and had had to face an exceedingly liverish husband across the breakfast table for several decades, she had developed a truly remarkable resilience and, more usefully, a diplomatic deafness.
'I'm sure you will,' she said cheerfully, 'and now I'll see where Mrs Wilt keeps the eggs. I always think that children can't have enough eggs, don't you? So good for the digestive system.' And ignoring the automatic she bustled about the kitchen peering into cupboards. Chinanda and Baggish conferred in undertones.
'I kill the old bitch now,' said Baggish. 'That way she learns we're not bluffing.'
'That way we don't get out of here. We keep her and the children we got a chance and we keep up the propaganda war.'
'Without TV we got no propaganda war to keep up,' said Baggish. 'That was one of the demands of People's Alternative Army. No TV, no radio, no newspapers.'
'So we demand the opposite, full publicity,' said Chinanda, and picked up the phone. Upstairs Wilt who had been lying on the floor with the telephone to his ear answered it.
'Zis is People's Alternative Army. Communique Two. Ve demand...'
'No you don't. We do the demanding,' shouted Chinanda, 'Ve know British psycho-warfare.'
'Zionist pigs. Ve know CIA murderers,' countered Wilt. 'Ve are fighting for ze liberation of all peoples.'
'We are fighting for the liberation of Palestine...'
'So are ve. All peoples ve fight for.'
'If you would kindly make up your minds who is fighting for what,' intervened the Superintendent, 'we might be able to talk more reasonably.'
'Fascist police pig,' bellowed Wilt. 'Ve no discuss viz you. Ve know who ve are dealing viz.'
'I wish to God I did,' said the Superintendent, only to be told by Chinanda that the People's Army Group was
'Revisionistic-deviationist lumpen schwein,' interjected Wilt. 'Ze revolutionary army of ze
