Card, Orson Scott - Ender's Saga 7 - Shadow Puppets

by Orson Scott Card

  “And if we touch him,” said Mother, “there’s a real possibility that we will be struck dead on the spot.”

  Other people had mothers who were compassionate, tender, comforting, understanding. His mother was a sarcastic hag who clearly hated him and always had.

  “Ice bucket,” said Father.

  “No ice.”

  “But it holds water.”

  This was too stupid. The old throw-water-on-the-sleeping-teenager trick.

  “Just go away, I’m getting up in a couple of minutes.”

  “No,” said Mother. “You’re getting up now. Your father is filling the ice bucket. You can hear the water running.”

  “OK, OK, leave the room so I can take my clothes off and get in the shower. Or is this just a subterfuge so you can see me naked again? You’ve never let me forget how you used to change my diapers, so apparently that was a very important stage in your life.”

  He was answered by having water dashed in his face. Not a whole bucketful, but enough to soak his head and shoulders.

  “Sorry I didn’t have time to fill it,” said Father. “But when you started making crude sexual innuendos to my wife, I had to use whatever amount of water was at hand to shut you up before you said enough that I would have to beat your bratty little face in.”

  Peter got up from the mattress on the floor and pulled off the shorts he slept in. “Is this what you came in to see?”

  “Absolutely,” said Father. “You were wrong, Theresa: he does have balls.”

  “Not enough of them, apparently.”

  Peter stalked between them and slammed the bathroom door behind him.

  Half an hour later, after keeping the press waiting only ten minutes past the appointed time, Peter walked alone onto the platform at one end of a packed conference room. All the reporters were holding up their little steadycams, the lenses peering out between the fingers of their clenched fists. It was the best turnout he had ever had at a press conference-though to be fair he had never actually held one in the United States. Maybe here they would all have been like this.

  “I’m as surprised as you are to find myself here today,” said Peter with a smile. “But I must say I’m grateful to the source that provided me with information that allowed me to make my exit, along with my family, from a place that had once been a safe haven, but which had become the most dangerous place in the world to be.

  “I am also grateful to the government of the United States, which not only invited me to bring the office of Hegemon here, on a temporary basis, of course, but also provided me with a generous contingent of the Secret Service to secure the area. I don’t believe they’re necessary, at least not in such numbers, but then, until recently I didn’t think I needed any protection inside the Hegemony compound in Ribeirdo Preto.”

  His smile invited a laugh, and he got one. More of a release of tension than real amusement, but it would do. Father had stressed that-make them laugh now and then, so everybody feels relaxed. That will make them think you’re relaxed and confident, too.

  “My information suggests that the many loyal employees of the Office of Hegemon are in no danger whatsoever, and when a new permanent headquarters is established, I invite all those who want to, to resume their jobs. The disloyal employees, of course, already have other employment.”

  Another laugh-but a couple of audible groans, too. The press smelled blood, and it didn’t help that Peter looked-and was-so very young. Humour, yes, but don’t look like a wise-cracking kid. Especially don’t look like a wise-cracking kid whose parents had to drag him out of bed this morning.

  “I will not give you any information that would compromise my recent benefactor. What I can tell you is this: My inconveniently sudden journey-this disruption in the Office of Hegemon-is entirely my fault.”

  There. That wasn’t what a kid would say. That wasn’t even what adult politicians usually said.

  “Against the advice of my military commander and others, I brought the notorious Achilles Flandres, at his own request and with his assurances of loyalty to me, into my compound. I was warned that he could not be trusted, and I believed those warnings.

  “However, I thought I was clever enough and careful enough to detect any betrayal on his part in plenty of time. That was a miscalculation on my part. Thanks to the help of others, it was not a fatal one.

  “The disinformation now coming from Achilles Flandres in the former Hegemony compound about my alleged embezzlement is, of course, false. I have always maintained the financial records of the Hegemony in public. The broad categories of income and disbursement have been published every year on the nets, and this morning I have opened up the entire set of financial records of the Hegemony, and my own personal records, on a secure site with the address ‘Hegemon Financial Disclosure.’ Except for a few secret items in the budget, which any military analyst can tell you is barely enough to account for the very few military actions of my office over the past few years, every dollar is accounted for. And, yes, we do keep those records in dollars, since the Hegemony currency has fluctuated widely in value, but with a distinctly downward trend, in recent years.”

  Another laugh. But everyone was writing like crazy, too, and he could see that this policy of full disclosure was working.

  “Besides seeing that nothing has been embezzled from the Hegemony,” Peter went on, “you will also see that the Hegemony has been working with extremely limited funds. It has been a challenge, with so little money, to marshal the nations of the world to oppose the imperialistic designs of the so-called ‘Universal People’s State’ otherwise known as the Chinese Empire. We have been extremely grateful to those nations who have continued to support the Hegemony at one level or another. In deference to some of them who prefer their contribution remain secret, we have withheld some twenty names. You are free to speculate about their identity but I will say neither yes or no, except to tell you candidly that China is not one of them.”

  The biggest laugh yet, and a couple of people even clapped their hands a few times.

  “I am outraged that the usurper Achilles Flandres has called into question the credentials of the Minister of Colonisation. But if there were any doubts about Flandres’s plans, the fact that this was his first act should tell you a great deal about the future he plans for us all. Achilles Flandres will not rest until every human being is under his complete control. Or, of course, dead.”

  Peter paused, looked down at the rostrum as if he had notes there, though of course he didn’t.

  “One thing I do not regret, however, about bringing Achilles Flandres to Ribeirdo Preto, is that I have had a chance now to take his measure as a human being-though it is only by the broadest definition that I include him in that category. Achilles Flandres has achieved his power in the world, not by his own intelligence or courage, but by exploiting the intelligence and courage of others. He engineered the kidnapping of the children who helped my brother, Ender Wiggin, save humanity from the alien invaders. Why? Because he knew that he himself did not have any hope of ruling the world if any of them were working against him.

  “Achilles Flandres’s power comes from the willingness of others to believe his lies. But his lies will no longer bring him new allies as they have in the past. He has hitched his little wagon to China and drives China like an ox. But I have heard him laughing at the poor fools in the Chinese government who believed him, mocking them for their petty ambitions, as he told me how unworthy they were to have him guiding their affairs otherwise known as the Chinese Empire.

  “No doubt much of this was merely part of his attempt to convince me that he was no longer working with them. But his ridicule was by name and very specific. His contempt for them was genuine. I almost feel sorry for them-because if his power is ever solidified and he has no further use for them, then they will see what I saw.

  “Of course, he has scorn for me as well, and if he’s laughing at me right now, I can only agree with him. I was snookered, ladies and gentl
emen. In that, I join a distinguished company, some of whom fell from power in Russia after the kidnappings, some of whom are now suffering as political prisoners after China’s conquest of India, and some of whom even now are arresting people in India for… carrying stones.

  “I only hope that I will turn out to be the last person so vain and foolish as to think that Achilles Flandres can be controlled or exploited to serve some higher purpose. Achilles Flandres serves only one purpose-his own pleasure. And what pleases him... would be to rule over every man, woman, and child in the human race.

  “I was not a fool when I committed the Hegemony to opposing the imperialistic acts of the Chinese government. Now, because of my own mistakes, the prestige of the Hegemony is temporarily diminished. But my opposition to the Chinese Empire’s oppression of more than half the people of the world is not diminished. I am the implacable enemy of emperors.

  That was as good a stopping point as any.

  Peter bowed his head briefly to acknowledge their polite applause. Some in the crowd applauded more than politely-but he was also aware of those who did not clap at all.

  The questions began then, but because he had accused himself from the start, he fielded them easily. Two questioners tried to get more information on the source who tipped him off and what it was he tipped Peter off about, but Peter only said, “If I say anything more on this subject, someone who has been kind to me will certainly die. I am surprised you would even ask.” After the second time he said this-word for word-no one asked such a question again.

  As to those whose questions were merely veiled accusations, he agreed with all those who implied that he had been foolish. When he was asked if he had proven himself too foolish to hold the office of Hegemon, his first reply was a joke: “I was told when I took the job in the first place that accepting it proved I was too dimwitted to serve.” Laughter, of course. And then he said, “But I have tried to use that office to serve the cause of peace and self-government for all of humanity, and I challenge anyone to show that I did anything other than advance that cause as much as was possible with the resources I had.”

  Fifteen minutes later, he apologised for having no further time. “But please email me any further questions you might have, and my staff and I will try to get answers back to you in time for your deadlines. One final word before I go.”

  They fell silent, waiting.

  “The future happiness of the human race depends on good people who want to live at peace with their neighbours, and who are willing to protect their neighbours from those who don’t want peace. I’m only one of those people. I’m probably not the best of them, and I hope to God I’m not the smartest. But I happen to be the one who was entrusted with the office of Hegemon. Until my term expires or I am lawfully replaced by the nations that have supported the Hegemony, I will continue to serve in that office.”

  More applause-and this time he allowed himself to believe that there might be some real enthusiasm in it. He came back to his room exhausted.

  Mother and Father were there, waiting. They had refused to go downstairs with him. “If your mother and father are with you,” Father had said, “then this better be the press conference where you resign. But if you intend to stay in office, then you go down there alone. Just you. No staff. No parents. No friends. No notes. Just you.”

  Father had been right. Mother had been right, too. Ender, bless his little heart, was the example he had to follow. If you lose, you lose, but you don’t give up.

  “How did it go?” asked Mother

  “Well enough, I think,” said Peter “I took questions for fifteen minutes, but they were starting to repeat themselves or get off on wild tangents so I told them to email me any further questions. Was it carried on the vid?”

  “We polled thirty news stations,” said Father, “and the top twenty or so news webs, and most of them had it live.”

  “So you watched?” said Peter

  “No, we flipped through,” said Mother “But what we saw looked and sounded good. You didn’t bat an eye. I think you brought it off.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “Long term,” said Father “You’re going to have a bumpy couple of months. Especially because you can count on it that Achilles hasn’t emptied his quiver yet.”

  “Bow and arrow analogies?” said Peter “You are so old.”

  They chuckled at his joke.

  “Mum. Dad. Thanks.”

  “All we did,” said Father, “was what we knew that tomorrow you would have wished we had done today.”

  Peter nodded. Then he sat down on the edge of the bed. “Man, I can’t believe I was so dumb. I can’t believe I didn’t listen to Bean and Petra and Sun and-”

  “And us,” said Mother helpfully.

  “And you and Graff” said Peter

  “You trusted your own judgement,” said Father, “and that’s exactly what you have to do. You were wrong this time, but you haven’t been wrong often, and I doubt you’ll ever be this wrong again.”

  “For heaven’s sake don’t start taking a vote on your decisions,” said Mother. “Or looking at opinion polls or trying to guess how your actions will play with the press.”

  “I won’t,” said Peter.

  “Because, you see, you’re Locke,” said Mother. “You already ended one war. After a few days or weeks, the press will start remembering that. And you’re Demosthenes-you have quite a fervent following.”

  “Had,” said Peter.

  “They saw what they expected from Demosthenes,” said Mother. “You didn’t weasel, you didn’t make excuses, you took the blame you deserved and refused the accusations that were false. You put out your evidence-”

  “That was good advice, Dad, thanks,” said Peter

  “And,” said Mother, “you showed courage.”

  “By running away from Ribeirdo Preto before anyone so much as glared at me?”

  “By getting out of bed,” she answered.

  Peter shook his head. “Then my courage is nothing but borrowed courage.

  “Not borrowed,” said Mother “Stored up. In us. Like a bank. We’ve seen your courage and we saved some for you when you temporarily ran out and needed some of it back.”

  “Cash flow problem, that’s all it was,” said Father

  “How many times are you two going to have to save me from myself before this whole drama runs its course?” asked Peter.

  “I think… six times,” said Father “No, eight,” said Mother. “You two think you’re so cute,” said Peter “Mm-hm.”

  A knock at the door “Room service!” called a voice from outside.

  Father was at the door in two quick strides. “Three tomato juices?” he asked.

  “No, no, nothing like that. Lunch. Sandwiches. Bowl of ice cream.”

  Even with that reassurance, Father stepped to the side of the door and pulled it open as far as the lock bar allowed. Nobody fired a weapon, and the guy with the food laughed. “Oh, everybody forgets to undo that thing, happens all the time.”

  Father opened the door and stepped outside long enough to make sure nobody else was in the hail waiting to follow room service inside.

  When the waiter was coming through the door Peter turned around to get out of his way, just in time to see Mother slipping a pistol back into her purse.

  “Since when did you start packing?” he asked her.

  “Since your chief of computer security turned out to be Achilles’s good friend,” she said.

  “Ferreira?” asked Peter

  “He’s been telling the press that he installed snoopware to find out who was embezzling funds, and was shocked to discover it was you.”