Title is clunky.
“That’s gonna happen no matter what, Hey-You. You think the Dominion is gonna decide, ‘Shoot! A bunch of folks in the badlands up and wrecked our base! Guess we shouldn’t go there anymore.’” Tabetha shook her head. “That’s not how those so-and-so’s do things, and you know it.”
“No,” Rex agreed, “it’s not. But every one of those motherless sons we kill first is one more Purty won’t have later to burn out farmers and townsfolk. I’m not going to pretend I don’t know that. That’s not how we do things. Not in Deseret.”
It was the most powerful temptation in the world for Tabetha to throw, There ain’t no Deseret no more! back in Rex’s face, and she wondered later what would have happened if she had. Aside from infuriating Rex no end, naturally, which was one reason why she didn’t. The man was almost supernaturally reasonable, but there were limits.
The other reason was, she didn’t think Deseret was dead. Not yet.