Ender's Shadow

children got to be first in line. If you couldn't hold on to a family, you could get pretty hungry. And nobody looked up to you.
      Still, Bean couldn't resist trying to get close enough to some of the other families to hear their talk. Find out how the other groups worked.
      The answer was easy to learn: They didn't work all that well. Achilles really was a good leader. That sharing of bread -- none of the other groups did that. But there was a lot of punishing, the bully smacking kids who didn't do what he wanted. Taking their bread away from them because they didn't do something, or didn't do it quickly enough.
      Poke had chosen right, after all. By dumb luck, or maybe she wasn't all that stupid. Because she had picked, not just the weakest bully, the easiest to beat, but also the smartest, the one who understood how to win and hold the loyalty of others. All Achilles had ever needed was the chance.
      Except that Achilles still didn't share her bread, and now she was beginning to realize that this was a bad thing, not a good one. Bean could see it in her face when she watched the others do the ritual of sharing with Achilles. Because he got soup now -- Helga brought it to him at the door -- he took much smaller pieces, and instead of biting them off he tore them and ate them with a smile. Poke never got that smile from him. Achilles was never going to forgive her, and Bean could see that she was beginning to feel the pain of that. For she loved Achilles now, too, the way the other children did, and the way he kept her apart from the others was a kind of cruelty.
      Maybe that's enough for him, thought Bean. Maybe that's his whole vengeance.
      Bean happened to be curled up behind a newsstand when several bullies began a conversation near him. "He's full of brag about how Achilles is going to pay for what he did.”
      "Oh, right, Ulysses is going to punish him, right.”
      "Well, maybe not directly.”
      "Achilles and his stupid family will just take him apart. And this time they won't aim for his chest. He said so, didn't he? Break open his head and put his brains on the street, that's what Achilles'll do.”
      "He's still just a cripple.”
      "Achilles gets away with everything. Give it up.”
      "I'm hoping Ulysses does it. Kills him, flat out. And then none of us take in any of his bastards. You got that? Nobody takes them in. Let them all die. Put them all in the river.”
      The talk went on that way until the boys drifted away from the newsstand.
      Then Bean got up and went in search of Achilles.

3
     
    Payback
     
     
      "I think I have someone for you.”
      "You've thought that before.”
      "He's a born leader. But he does not meet your physical specifications.”
      "Then you'll pardon me if I don't waste time on him.”
      "If he passes your exacting intellectual and personality requirements, it is quite possible that for a minuscule portion of the brass button or toilet paper budget of the I. F., his physical limitations might be repaired.”
      "I never knew nuns could be sarcastic.”
      "I can't reach you with a ruler. Sarcasm is my last resort.”
      "Let me see the tests.”
      "I'll let you see the boy. And while we're at it, I'll let you see another.”
      "Also physically limited?”
      "Small. Young. But so was the Wiggin boy, I hear. And this one -- somehow on the streets he taught himself to read.”
      "Ah, Sister Carlotta, you help me fill the empty hours of my life.”
      "Keeping you out of mischief is how I serve God.”
     
      Bean went straight to Achilles with what he heard. It was too dangerous, to have Ulysses out of the hospital and word going around that he meant to get even for his humiliation.
      "I thought that was all behind us," said Poke sadly. "The fighting I mean.”
      "Ulysses has been in bed for all this time," said Achilles. "Even if he knows about the changes, he hasn't had time to get how it works yet.”
      "So we stick together," said Sergeant. "Keep you safe.”
      "It might be safer for all," said Achilles, "if I disappear for a few days. To keep you safe.”
      "Then how will we get in to eat?" asked one of the younger ones. "They'll never let us in without you.”
      "Follow Poke," said Achilles. "Helga at the door will let you in just the same.”
      "What if Ulysses gets you?" asked one of the young ones. He rubbed the tears out of his eyes, lest he be shamed.
      "Then I'll be dead," said Achilles. "I don't