Crawford wins the loyalty of the Tuareg warriors by offering to make them the core of El Hassan’s Desert Legion during wartime and his policemen and rangers during peacetime. Rex Donaldson, ex-field expert for the African Department of the British Commonwealth, arrives to join Crawford's organization, bringing fieldworkers Jack and Jimmy Peters and David Moroka with him. As they are being briefed, David thwarts an assassination attempt against Crawford, killing the assassin. Crawford then sends Rex to recruit troops in Senegal and Mali. Now guarded by fifteen Tuareg warriors, Crawford’s group travels the country to rally up forces for the upcoming Tamanrasset battle. They capture Dr. Warren Harding Smythe's American Medical Relief team and force them to join the group. As Crawford's team puts together El Hassan’s government, Jack proposes that they make Esperanto the common language of the movement. Kenny Ballalou arrives from the West with news: several Reunited Nations development