Shadow of the giant

have it
because I wrote the Locke essays and stopped a war. But what have I done
lately? Vlad, I don't see you as a rival. How could I? What freedom do you have
to oppose me?"
    Vlad shrugged. "All right, so your motives are
pure."
    "My motives are realistic," said Peter.
"Russia is not using you right now, but they haven't killed you or locked
you up. If they ever decide that war is desirable or necessary or unavoidable,
how long before you get promoted and put into the thick of things? Especially
if the war goes badly for a while. You are their nuclear arsenal."
    "Not really," said Vlad. "Since my brain is
supposed to be the pay-load of this particular missile, and my brain was defective
enough to seem to trust Achilles, then I must not be as good as the other Jeesh
members."
    "In a war against Han Tzu, how long before you
commanded an army? Or at least were put in charge of strategy?"
    "Fifteen minutes, give or take."
    "So. Is Russia more or less likely to go to war,
knowing they have you?"
    Vlad smiled a little and ducked his head. "Well, well.
So the Hegemon wants me out of Russia so Russia won't be so adventurous."
    "Not quite so simple," said Peter. "There'll
come a day when much of the world will have merged their sovereignty—"
    "By which you mean they will have surrendered it."
    "Into one government. It won't be the big nations. Just
a bunch of little ones. But unlike the United Nations and the League of Nations
and even the Hegemony in its previous form, it will not be designed to keep the
central government as powerless as possible. The nations in this league will
maintain no separate army or navy or air force. They will not have separate
control over their own borders—and they will collect no customs. Nor will they
maintain a separate merchant marine. The Hegemony will have power over foreign
policy, period, without rival. Why would Russia ever join such a
confederacy?"
    "It never would."
    Peter nodded. And waited.
    "It never would unless it thought that it was the only
safe thing to do."
    "Add the word 'profitable' into that sentence and
you'll be closer to right."
    "Russians are not Americans like you, Peter Wiggin. We
don't do things for profit motive."
    "So all those bribes go into charitable causes."
    "They keep the bookmakers and prostitutes of Russia
from starving," said Vlad. "Altruism at its finest."
    "Vlad," said Peter. "All I'm saying is, think
about this. Ender Wiggin did two great deeds for humanity. He wiped out the
Buggers. And he never returned to Earth."
    Vlad turned on Peter with real fire in his eyes. "Do
you think I don't know who arranged for that?"
    "I advocated it," said Peter. "I wasn't
Hegemon then. But do you dare to tell me I was wrong? What would have happened
if Ender himself were here on Earth? Everybody's hostage. And if his homeland
managed to keep him safe, what then? Ender Wiggin, the Bugger-slayer, now at
the head of the armed forces of the dreaded United States. Think of the
jockeying, the alliances, the preemptive attacks, all because this great and
terrible weapon was in the hands of the nation that still thinks it has the
right to judge and govern all the world."
    Vlad nodded. "So it's just a happy coincidence that it
left you without a rival for the Hegemony."
    "I have rivals, Vlad. The Caliph has millions of
followers who believe that he's the one God chose to be ruler over the
earth."
    "Aren't you making the same offer to Alai?"
    "Vlad," said Peter. "I don't expect to
persuade you. Only to inform you. If there comes a day when you think your best
hope of safety is to leave Earth, post a note to me at the website I'll link to
you in an email. Or if you realize that the only chance your nation has of
peace is for all its Battle School grads to disappear from Earth, tell me, and
I'll do all I can to get them safely out and off."
    "Unless I go to my superiors and tell them all that you
just told me."
    "Tell them," said Peter. "Tell them and lose
the last shreds of freedom that you have."
    "So I won't tell them," said Vlad.
    "And you'll think about it. It will be there in the
back of your mind."
    "And when all the Battle School grads are gone,"
said Vlad, "there will be Peter. Brother of Ender Wiggin. The natural
ruler of all humankind."
    "Yes, Vlad. The only chance we have of unity is to have
a strong consensus leader. Our George Washington."
    "And that's you."
    "It could be a Caliph, and we'd have a future as a
Muslim world. Or we might all be made into vassals of