Shadow of the giant

ready to hear of him with
fresh ears, with open minds.
    She couldn't leave him alone in the apartment. It was a
drizzly afternoon, though. Was it worth risking him catching cold?
    She bundled him well and carried him in a sling in front of
her. He was so small, it felt like he was lighter than her purse. Her umbrella
shielded them both from the rain. They'd be fine.
    It was a long walk to the Metro station, but that was the
best—and the driest—way to get to the liaison office of the Ministry of
Colonization, where she could sign up. That would be a risk, of course. They
might fingerprint her. They might run a check. But... surely they knew that
many people would choose to go on a colony ship because they needed to get away
from their old lives. And if they found that she had changed her name, the
shoplifting arrest might explain it. She had been drifting into crime and ...
what would they assume? Drugs, probably ... but now she wanted a fresh start,
under a new name.
    Or maybe she should use her real name.
    No, because under that name she had no baby. And if they
questioned whether "Randall" was really hers and ran a genetic test,
they'd find that he had none of her genes. They'd wonder where she had kidnapped
him. He was so small they'd think he was a newborn. And the birth had been so
easy, there'd been no tearing—did they have tests to determine if she had ever
given birth? Nightmares, nightmares. No, she'd give them her new name and then
be prepared to run if they came looking for her. What else could she do?
    It was worth the risk, to get him off planet.
    On the way to the Metro she walked past a mosque, but there
were cops outside, directing traffic. Had there been a bombing? Those were
happening in other places—Europe, she kept hearing—but not in America, surely.
Not lately, anyway.
    No, not a bombing. Just a speaker. Just...
    "Caliph Alai." She heard someone say it, almost as
if they had been speaking to her.
    Caliph Alai! The one man on Earth who seemed to have the
courage to stand against Peter Wiggin.
    Luckily she had a scarf over her head—she looked Muslim
enough for this secular town, where plenty of Muslims wore no special clothing
at all. Nobody challenged her, a woman with a baby, though they did make
everybody leave things like umbrellas and purses and jackets at the security
counter.
    She walked into the women's section of the mosque. She was
surprised at how the carved and decorated latticework interfered with her
ability to see what was going on in the men's part of the mosque. Apparently
even liberal American mosques still thought women did not need to see the
speaker for themselves. Randi had heard about such things, but the only church
she had ever attended was Presbyterian and families sat together there.
    There were cameras all over the men's section, so maybe the
view from here was as good as most men were getting. She wasn't converting to
Islam, anyway, she just wanted to catch a glimpse of Caliph Alai.
    He was speaking in Common, not Arabic. She was glad of that.
    "I remain Caliph, no matter where I live. I will take
with me in my colony only Muslims who believe in Islam as a religion of peace.
I leave behind me the bloodthirsty false Muslims who called their Caliph a
black dog and tried to murder me so they could make war on their harmless
neighbors.
    "Here is the law of Islam, from the time of Muhammed
and forever: God gives permission to go to war only when we are attacked by an
enemy. As soon as a Muslim raises his hand against an enemy who has not
attacked him, then he is not engaged in jihad, he has become shaitan himself. I
declare that all those who plotted the invasion of China and Armenia are not
Muslims and any good Muslim who finds these men must arrest them.
    "From now on Muslim nations may only be governed by
leaders who were freely elected. Non-Muslims may vote in these elections. It is
forbidden to molest any non-Muslim, even if he used to be a Muslim, or deprive
him of any of his rights, or put him at any disadvantage. And if a Muslim
nation votes to join the Free People of Earth and abide by its constitution,
that is permitted by God. There is no offense in it."
    Randi was heartsick. This was just like Vlad's speech. A
complete capitulation to Peter Wiggin's phony "ideals." They had
apparently blackmailed or drugged or frightened even Caliph Alai.
    She picked her way carefully over and around the woman
seated and standing and leaning in the packed women's