Ender's Shadow

the content of some of the questions. But he still did remarkably well. Better than any student she had ever tested.
      And to think she had thought it was Achilles who had the real potential. This little one, this infant, really -- he was astonishing. No one would believe she had found him on the streets, living at the starvation level.
      A suspicion crept into her mind, and when the second test ended and she recorded the scores and set them aside, she leaned back in her chair and smiled at bleary-eyed little Bean and asked him, "Whose idea was it, this family thing that the street children have come up with?”
      "Achilles' idea," said Bean.
      Sister Carlotta waited.
      "His idea to call it a family, anyway," said Bean.
      She still waited. Pride would bring more to the surface, if she gave him time.
      "But having a bully protect the little ones, that was my plan," said Bean. "I told it to Poke and she thought about it and decided to try it and she only made one mistake.”
      "What mistake was that?”
      "She chose the wrong bully to protect us.”
      "You mean because he couldn't protect her from Ulysses?”
      Bean laughed bitterly as tears slid down his cheeks.
      "Ulysses is off somewhere bragging about what he's going to do.”
      Sister Carlotta knew but did not want to know. "Do you know who killed her, then?”
      "I told her to kill him. I told her he was the wrong one. I saw it in his face, lying there on the ground, that he would never forgive her. But he's cold. He waited so long. But he never took bread from her. That should have told her. She shouldn't have gone off alone with him." He began crying in earnest now. "I think she was protecting me . Because I told her to kill him that first day. I think she was trying to get him not to kill me.”
      Sister Carlotta tried to keep emotion out of her voice. "Do you believe you might be in danger from Achilles?”
      "I am now that I told you," he said. And then, after a moment's thought. "I was already. He doesn't forgive. He pays back, always.”
      "You realize that this isn't the way Achilles seems to me, or to Hazie. Helga, that is. To us, he seems -- civilized.”
      Bean looked at her like she was crazy. "Isn't that what it means to be civilized? That you can wait to get what you want?”
      "You want to get out of Rotterdam and go to Battle School so you can get away from Achilles.”
      Bean nodded.
      "What about the other children. Do you think they're in danger from him?”
      "No," said Bean. "He's their papa.”
      "But not yours. Even though he took bread from you.”
      "He hugged her and kissed her," said Bean. "I saw them on the dock, and she let him kiss her and then she said something about how he promised, and so I left, but then I realized and I ran back and it couldn't have been long, just running for maybe six blocks, and she was dead with her eye stabbed out, floating in the water, bumping up against the dock. He can kiss you and kill you, if he hates you enough.”
      Sister Carlotta drummed her fingers on the desk. "What a quandary.”
      "What's a quandary?”
      "I was going to test Achilles, too. I think he could get into Battle School.”
      Bean's whole body tightened. "Then don't send me. Him or me.”
      "Do you really think ..." Her voice trailed off. "You think he'd try to kill you there?”
      " Try? " His voice was scornful. "Achilles doesn't just try .”
      Sister Carlotta knew that the trait Bean was speaking of, that ruthless determination, was one of the things that they looked for in Battle School. It might make Achilles more attractive to them than Bean. And they could channel such murderous violence up there. Put it to good use.
      But civilizing the bullies of the street had not been Achilles' idea. It had been Bean who thought of it. Incredible, for a child so young to conceive of it and bring it about. This child was the prize, not the one who lived for cold vengeance. But one thing was certain. It would be wrong of her to take them both. Though she could certainly take the other one and get him into a school here on Earth, get him off the street. Surely Achilles would become truly civilized then, where the desperation of the street no longer drove children to do such hideous things to each other.
      Then she realized what nonsense she had been thinking. It wasn't the desperation of the street that drove Achilles to murder Poke. It was pride. It was Cain, who thought