Adam nodded. If killing really carried such a heavy price, then those two methods truly were the ones that left a man with no move left to make.
Isolation meant shutting Adam out of the group: no intelligence, no resources, no help of any kind. "Putting him to use" was the other extreme—handing him the hardest, most dangerous assignments, take it or leave it. Take it, fine: if you die out there or fail to finish the job, that's your own problem. Refuse, and the isolation carried on.
To an ordinary apprentice that was a dead knot with no way out. But to Adam...
Heh.
Adam checked on the devil's condition in his mind while he waited for the four to finish clearing the battlefield. Half an hour slipped by quickly, and the five of them set off back to command headquarters.