Orson Scott Card - Ender 08 - Shadow of the Giant

by Orson Scott Card

  "I have them retouched by computer to make me look older and smarter," said Peter.

  Alai grinned. "It was nice of you to give us a ride."

  "When Felix told me the sad story of that lonely pedestrian in the Empty Quarter, I couldn't pass up the chance to help."

  "I thought it would be Bean," said Alai.

  "It's a whole bunch of men trained by Bean," said Peter. "But Bean himself is on another errand. In Rwanda, as it happens."

  "So that's happening now?" asked Alai.

  "Oh, no," said Peter. "We won't make a move until we see how your little adventure turns out."

  "Then let's go," said Alai.

  Peter invited Alai to take precedence, but then he himself entered before any of Alai's soldiers. Ivan made as if to protest, but Alai gestured for him to relax. Alai had already bet everything on Peter's being cooperative and trustworthy. Now was not the time to worry about assassination or kidnapping. Even though there were twenty Hegemony soldiers already inside, as well as a sizable amount of equipment. Alai recognised the Thai-looking commander as someone he knew from Battle School. Had to be Suriyawong. Alai nodded to him. Suriyawong nodded back.

  Once they were under way and on jet power—this time without any embarrassed woman having to be officially rebuked and forgiven and dressed—Peter indicated the men who were with him.

  "I assumed," said Peter, "that the lone hitch-hiker our mutual friend told me about didn't need a large escort."

  "Only enough to get me to where a certain thick rope is coiled like a snake."

  Peter nodded. "I have friends currently trying to find his exact location."

  Alai smiled. "I assume it's far from the front."

  "If he's in Hyderabad," said Peter, "then he will be under extremely heavy guard. But if he's across the border in Pakistan, security will not be unusually heavy."

  "Either way," said Alai, "I will not have your men exposed to danger."

  "Or observed," said Peter. "It wouldn't do for too many people to know you were brought to real power with the help of the Hegemon."

  "You do seem to be at hand whenever I make a play for power."

  "This is the last time, if you win," said Peter.

  "This is the last time either way," said Alai, then grinned. "Either the soldiers will follow me or they won't."

  "They will," said Peter. "If they get the chance."

  Alai indicated his small escort. "That's what my camera crew is here to ensure."

  Ivan smiled and lifted his shirt enough to show that he was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying grenades and clips and a machine pistol.

  "Oh," said Peter. "I thought you had gained weight."

  "We Battle School boys," said Alai, "we always have a plan."

  "You're not going to fight your way in, then."

  "We're going to walk in as if we expected to be obeyed," said Alai. "With cameras rolling. It's a simple plan. But it doesn't have to work for very long. That thick rope, it always did love a camera."

  "A vain and brutal man, my sources say," said Peter. "And not stupid."

  "We'll see," said Alai.

  "I think you're going to succeed," said Peter.

  "So do I."

  "And when you do," said Peter, "I think you're going to do something about the things Virlomi has been complaining about."

  "It's because of those things that I could not wait for a more opportune time. I must wash Islam clean of this bloody stain."

  "I believe that with you as Caliph, the Free People of Earth can coexist with a united Islam," said Peter.

  "I believe so as well," said Alai. "Though I can never say so."

  "But what I want," said Peter, "is insurance that I can use in case you don't survive. Either today or at some future point, I want to make sure I don't have to face a Caliph I can't coexist with."

  Peter handed Alai a couple of sheets of paper. It was a script. Alai began to read.

  "If you die a natural death and pass on your throne to someone you have chosen, then I'll have no need of this," said Peter. "But if you were murdered or kidnapped or exiled or otherwise dethroned by force, then I want this."

  "And what if you are killed or otherwise forcibly removed from office?" asked Alai. "What happens to this vid then, assuming I say these things for the camera?"

  "Try to encourage your followers not to think that killing me would be good for Islam," said Peter, "and my soldiers and doctors will guard against any other possible causes of my untimely death."

  "In other words, I just have to risk it," said Alai.

  "Come now," said Peter, "the only way this vid will be useful is if you aren't around to repudiate it. And if I'm dead, it will have no value to my unworthy successor."

  Alai nodded. "True enough."

  He stood up, opened his suitcase, and dressed in the flamboyant costume of a Caliph as the Muslim people expected to see him. Meanwhile, Peter's vidman set up his equipment—and the backdrop, so it wouldn't be obvious it was taped on a battle craft, surrounded by soldiers.

  At the gate of the heavily guarded military complex at Hyderabad— once the headquarters of the Indian military, then of the Chinese occupiers, and now of the Pakistani "liberators"—three motorcycles pulled up, two of them carrying two men each, and the third a single rider with a satchel on the seat behind him.

  They stopped well back from the gate, so no one would suppose it was an attempt at a suicide bombing. They all held up their hands so some trigger happy guard wouldn't take a shot at them while one of the men pulled a video camera out of the satchel and fitted a satellite feed to the top of it.

  That got the attention of the guards, who immediately phoned for advice from someone in authority.

  Only when the camera was ready did the man who had been alone on his cycle peel back the travelling coat that had covered him. The guards were almost blinded by the whiteness of his robes, and long before he had his kaffia-cloth and 'agal-rope in place on his head.

  Even the guards who weren't close enough to recognise him by face guessed from the clothing and from the fact that he was a young black man that their Caliph had come to see them. None of the common soldiers and few of the officers suspected that General Rajam would not be happy to have a visit from the Caliph. So they raised their voices in cheers—some of them in an ululation meant to suggest the cries of Arab warriors riding into battle, though all the soldiers here were Pakistani.

  The camera rolled as Alai raised his arms to receive the adulation of his people.

  He strode through the checkpoint unmolested.

  Someone brought him a jeep, but he refused and kept walking. But the vidman and his crew got into the jeep and rode along beside and then ahead of the Caliph. While the Caliph's aide, Ivan Lankowski, dressed in civilian clothes like the vid crew, explained to the officers who trotted alongside him that the Caliph was here to bestow upon General Rajam the honours he had earned. He expected General Rajam and those men he wished to have share this honour greet the Caliph in the open square before all of the Caliph's soldiers.

  This word quickly spread, and before long, Alai's progress was accompanied by thousands of uniformed soldiers, cheering and calling his name. They kept a path clear for the vid crew, and those who thought they might be within line of sight of the camera made an especially exuberant show of their love for the Caliph, in case someone from home was watching and might recognise them.

  Alai was reasonably confident that whatever Rajam might be planning, he wouldn't do it in front of a live satellite feed, with thousands of soldiers looking on. Rajam would have had Alai die in a plane crash on the way, or be assassinated somewhere far from Rajam himself. Now that he was here, Rajam would play a waiting game, to see what Alai was up to, meanwhile looking for some innocent-seeming way for Alai to be gotten rid of—killed, or trundled back to Damascus and kept under closer guard.

  As Alai expected, Rajam waited for him at the top of the imposing stairs leading up to the finest-looking b
uilding in the compound. But Alai walked up only a few steps and stopped, turning his back on Rajam and facing the soldiers ... and the camera. The light was good here.

  The vid crew took their places at the bottom of the steps.

  Alai held up his arms for silence and waited. The shouting died down.

  "Soldiers of God!" he shouted.

  A huge roar, but it subsided at once.

  "Where is the general who has led you?"

  Another cheer... but one that was noticeably less enthusiastic. Alai hoped that Rajam wouldn't be too resentful of the difference in their popularity.

  Alai did not look—he counted on Ivan to signal him when Rajam was near. He saw Ivan beckoning to Rajam to take his place at Alai's left hand, directly in front of the camera.

  Ivan signalled. Alai turned and embraced and kissed Rajam.

  Stab me to death right now, Alai wanted to say. Because this is your last chance, you treasonous, murdering dog.

  Instead, he spoke softly into Rajam's ear. "As my old friend Ender Wiggin used to say, Rajam, the enemy's gate is down."

  Then he let go of the embrace, ignoring the puzzled look on Rajam's face, and took his hand, offering him to the cheering of the soldiers.

  Alai raised his hands for silence and got it.

  "God has seen all the deeds that have been done in his name here in India!"

  Cheering. But also, on some faces, uncertainty. They had seen Virlomi's vid, including the most recent one. Some of them, the brightest of them, knew that they could not be sure what Alai meant by this.

  "And God knows, as you all know, that nothing has been done in India except by the will of General Rajam!"

  The cheering was definitely half-hearted.

  "Now is the day God has appointed to pay the debt of honour that is owed!"

  The cheer had barely started when the camera crew pulled out their machine pistols and filled Rajam's body with bullets.

  At first many of the soldiers thought it was an assassination attempt on the Caliph, and there was a roar. Alai was glad to see that these were not the Muslim soldiers of history—few fled from the bullets, and many rushed forward. But Alai raised his arms and strode to a higher position, above the body of Rajam. At the same time, as he had instructed them, Ivan and the two men who were not holding the camera bounded up the steps and stood in line with Alai and raised their weapons above their heads.

  "Allahu akbar!" they cried in unison. "Muhammed is his prophet! And Alai is Caliph!"

  Again Alai raised his hands, and waited until he had relative silence and the rush toward the steps had ceased. Now there were soldiers all around him.

  "The crimes of Andariyy Rajam have made a stink throughout the world! The soldiers of Islam came to India as liberators! In the name of God they came, as friends to our brothers and sisters in India! But Andariyy Rajam betrayed God and his Caliph by encouraging some of our people to commit terrible crimes!

  "God has already declared the penalty for such crimes! Now I have come to cleanse Islam of such evil. Never again will any man or woman or child have reason to fear the army of God! I command all the soldiers of God to arrest any man who committed atrocities against the people we came to liberate! I command the nations of the world to give no shelter to these criminals. I command my soldiers to arrest any man who ordered such atrocities, and any man who knew of the atrocities but did nothing to punish the offenders. Arrest them and bear witness against them, and in the name of God I will judge them.

  "If they refuse to submit themselves to my authority, then they are in rebellion against God. Bring them to me for judgement; if they do not resist you, and they are innocent, they have nothing to fear. In every city and fortress, in every camp and airfield, let my soldiers arrest the offenders and bring them to the officers who are loyal to God and the Caliph!"

  Alai held his pose for a long ten seconds while the soldiers cheered. Then he saw the camera lowered, as some soldiers already dragged various men toward him and others ran for nearby buildings, in search of others.

  It was a very rough kind of justice that was going to go on now, as the Muslim army tore itself apart. And it would be interesting to see where such men as Ghaffar Wahabi, the prime minister of Pakistan, aligned themselves. It would be a shame to have to use this army to subdue a Muslim government.

  But Alai had to act quickly, even if it was messy. He could not afford to let any of the offenders get away to plot against him.

  And as he watched the accused men being lined up in front of him, under the direction of Ivan and his men, who seemed unlikely to be killed today after all, Alai spoke inside his mind: There, Hot Soup! See how Alai adapted your trick to his purposes.

  We still learn from each other, we soldiers of Ender's Jeesh.

  As for you, Peter, keep your little vid. It will never be needed. For all men are only tools in the hand of God, and I, not you, am the tool God has chosen to unite the world.

  CHAPTER 13 — FOUND

  From: Graff%pilgrimage@colmin.gov

  To:PADelphiki@TutsiNet.rw.net

  Re: Can you travel?

  Since your husband is busy in Rwanda right now, I wonder if you are able to travel? We expect no physical danger apart from the normal rigours of air travel. But with little Ender still so young, you will probably want to leave him behind. Or not—if you wish to bring him, we will do our best to accommodate you.

  We have confirmed the identity of one of your children. A daughter. Naturally, we are finding the children who share Bean's genetic condition first. We have already accessed blood samples from the child, taken at the hospital because the birth was premature. The genetic match is absolute: She is yours. In all likelihood this will be difficult for the erstwhile parents, especially for the mother, who, like the victim of the proverbial cuckoo, has just borne another female's child. I will understand completely if you prefer not to be present. Your presence, however, might also help them believe in the reality of the true mother of "their" child. Your call.

  Petra was furious with Peter—and with Graff. These plotters, so sure they know what's best for everyone. If they were holding off on the announcement of ratification while the turmoil—no, the bloodbath—in the Muslim world continued, then why couldn't Bean come with her to pick up the first of their missing children to be found?

  No, that was impossible, he needed to cement the allegiance of the Rwandan military, and so on and so on, as if it really mattered. And most maddening of all, why did Bean go along with it? Since when had Bean become obedient? "I have to stay," he said, over and over, without any further explanation, despite her demand for some kind of justification.

  Was Bean a plotter too? But not against her, surely. Why would he conceal his thinking from her? What secrets would he keep?

  But when it became clear that Bean would not come with her, Petra packed baby clothes, diapers, and a change of clothes for herself into a single bag, then scooped up little Ender and headed for Kayibanda Airport.

  She was met there by Mazer Rackham. "You came to Kigali instead of meeting me there?" she said.

  "Hello to you too," said Rackham. "We're not trusting commercial flights on this matter. We believe Achilles's network has been broken, but we can't risk having your baby kidnapped or you harmed en route."

  So Achilles still bends us and costs us time and money, even after death. Or else he's just your excuse for making sure you supervise everything directly. Why are Bean's and my children so important to you? How do I know that you, too, don't have some plan to harness our children to the yoke of some noble world-saving project?

  What she said aloud was, "Thank you."

  They took off on a private jet that pretended to belong to one of the big solar desalinisation companies that were developing the Sahara.

  Nice to know which companies the I.F. is using as a cover for planet side operations.

  They overflew the Sahara, and Petra couldn't help but be pleased at the sight of a restored Lake Chad and th
e vast irrigation project surrounding it. She had read that the desalination on the Libyan coast was now proceeding faster than evaporation, and that Lake Chad was already affecting weather in the surrounding area. But she had not been prepared to see so many kilometers of grassland, or the herds of animals grazing on it. The grass and vines were turning sand and shale into fertile soil again. And the dazzling surface of Lake Chad was dotted with the sails of fishing boats.

  They landed in Lisbon and Rackham took her first to a hotel, where she nursed Ender, cleaned herself up, then put the baby into a sling in front of her. Carrying him she went back down to the lobby, where Rackham met her and led her to the limo waiting outside.

  To her surprise, she felt a sudden stab of fear. It had nothing to do with this car, or their destination today. She remembered the day in Rotterdam when Ender was implanted in her womb. Bean emerged from the hospital with her and the drivers of the first couple of taxis were smoking. So Bean made her get in the third one. He got into the first one himself.

  The first two cabs had been part of a kidnapping and murder plot, and Bean only narrowly escaped death. The cab she entered was part of an entirely different plot—one to save her life.

  "You know this driver?" asked Petra.

  Mazer nodded gravely. "We leave nothing to chance," he said. "The driver is a soldier. One of ours."

  So the I.F. had trained military personnel on Earth, wearing civilian clothes and driving limousines. Such a scandal.

  They drove up into the hills, to a large and lovely home with an astonishing view of the city and the bay and, on a clear day, the Atlantic beyond. The Romans saw this place, ruled in this city. The Vandals took it, and then the Visigoths. The Moors got it next, and then the Christians took it back. From this city, sailing ships went out and rounded Africa and colonised in India and China and Africa and, eventually, Brazil.

  And yet it was nothing more than a human city in a lovely setting. Earthquakes and fires had come and gone, but people still built in the hills and on the flat. Storms and calms and pirates and war had taken ship after ship, and yet people still put out to sea with nets or trade goods or guns. People made love and grew babies, in the mansions just as in the tiny houses of the poor.