He now focuses on trying to find and destroy the Control Center where the mind control broadcasts originate. Meanwhile, the Fathers decide to start a small victorious war on the country's northern neighbor, Honti. Kammerer surrenders to local gendarmes and is assigned to a penal battalion that is supposed to lead the invasion of the North. In this abortive action, most of his friends perish while Kammerer himself barely escapes annihilation in retaliatory nuclear blasts. Having served in the war, he earns himself a rehabilitation from the state and is installed in a secret research institution at the behest of a powerful Father known as the Wanderer, who remains out of reach.