Shadow of the giant

can't do, but which would destroy you if they
did it anyway, you must plan to counter. This was elementary.
    No one from Ender's Jeesh would have made such a mistake.
    Alai knew. He had warned her from the start. Her troops
weren't ready for such a campaign. It would be a slaughter. And here they were
now, dying all around her, the whole highway thick with corpses. Her men had
been reduced to piling up the dead as makeshift bulwarks against enemy fire.
There was no point in her issuing commands, because they would not be
understood or obeyed.
    And yet her men fought on.
    Her cellphone rang.
    She knew at once that it was the enemy, calling her to ask
her to surrender. But how could they know her cellphone number?
    Was it possible that Alai was with them?
    "Virlomi."
    Not Alai. But she knew the voice.
    "This is Suri."
    Suriyawong. Were these FPE troops? Or Thai? How could Thai
troops get across Burma and all the way up here?
    Not Chinese troops at all. Why was it suddenly so clear now?
Why hadn't it been clear before, when Alai was warning her? In their private
talks, Alamandar said it would all work because the Russians would have the
Chinese army fully involved in the north. Whichever attack Han Tzu defended
against, the other side would be able to rampage through China. Or if he tried
to fight both, then each would destroy that part of his army in turn.
    What neither of them had realized was that Han Tzu was just
as capable of finding allies as they were.
    Suriyawong, whose love she had spurned. It felt like so many
years ago. When they were children. Was this his vengeance, because she had
married Alai instead of him?
    "Can you hear me, Vir?"
    "Yes," she said.
    "I would rather capture these men," he said.
"I don't want to spend the rest of the day killing them all."
    "Then stop."
    "They won't surrender while you're still fighting. They
worship you. They're dying for you. Tell them to surrender, and let the
survivors go home to their families when the war is over."
    "Tell Indians to surrender to Siamese?"
    As soon as she said it, she regretted it. Once she had cared
first for the lives of her men. Now, suddenly, she found herself speaking out
of injured pride.
    "Vir," said Suri. "They're dying for nothing.
Save their lives."
    She broke the connection. She looked at the men around her,
the ones that were alive, crouching behind piles of their comrades' bodies,
searching for some kind of target out in the trees, up the slopes ... and
seeing nothing.
    "They've stopped shooting," said one of her
surviving officers.
    "Enough men have died for my pride," said Virlomi.
"May the dead forgive me. I will live a thousand lives to make up for this
one vain, stupid day." She raised her voice. "Lay down your weapons.
Virlomi says: Lay down your weapons and stand up with your hands in the air.
Take no more lives! Lay down your weapons!"
    "We will die for you, Mother India!" cried one of
the men.
    "Satyagraha!" shouted Virlomi. "Bear what
must be borne! Today what you must bear is surrender! Mother India commands you
to live so you can go home and comfort your wives and make babies to heal the
great wounds that have been torn in the heart of India today!"
    Some of her words and all of the meaning of her message were
passed up and down the highway of corpses.
    She set the example by raising her hands and walking out
beyond the wall of bodies, into the open. Of course no one shot at her, because
no one had during the whole battle. But soon others joined her. They lined up
on the same side of the corpse wall that she had chosen, leaving their weapons
behind them.
    From out of the trees on both sides of the highway, wary
Thai soldiers emerged, guns still at the ready. They were covered with sweat
and the frenzy of killing was only just leaving them.
    Virlomi turned and looked behind her. Emerging from the
trees on the other side of the road was Suriyawong. She walked back over the
walls of corpses to meet him in the grass on the other side. They stopped when
they were three paces apart.
    She gestured up and down the road. "So. This is your
work."
    "No, Virlomi," he said sadly. "It's
yours."
    "Yes," she said. "I know."
    "Will you come with me to tell the other two armies to
stop fighting? They'll only give up when you tell them to."
    "Yes," she said. "Now?"
    "Phone them and see if they obey. If I try to lead you
away right now, these soldiers will take up arms again to stop me. For some
reason they still worship you."
    "In India we