Shadow of the giant

didn't need anybody. Let them go. Let them replace
the old species, bit by bit, over the generations to come."
    "No," said Bean, "I love the old species. And
I hate what you did to me."
    "Without 'what I did to you,' all you'd be is
Nikolai."
    "My brother is a wonderful person. Kind. And very
smart."
    "Very smart, but not as smart as you. Would you really
trade with him? Would you really like to be as dull-witted as he is, compared
to you?"
    Whereupon Bean left, having no answer to Volescu's last
question.
     
     
     
     
     
     
    12
     
    ALLAHU AKBAR
     
     
    From: Graff%[email protected]
    To: Borommakot%[email protected]
    Forwarded and Posted by IcomeAnon
    Encrypted using code ********
    Decrypted using code ***********
    Re: Investment Counselor
     
     
    Your idea of converting the Fantasy Game software into an
investment counselor is going surprisingly well. We haven't had time to do more
than short-term testing, but so far it has outpicked all the experts. We are
paying Ender's pension funds to it. As you suggested, we are making sure that
all investments are under false identities; we are also making sure the
software is hooked widely over the nets in endlessly self-varying forms. It
will be effectively untraceable and unkillable unless someone is making a
systematic international effort to wipe it out, which is unlikely to happen as
long as no one suspects it's there.
     
    Ender will have no need of this money on his colony, and
he'll do a better job if he's not aware that it's there. The first time he
enters the nets after his subjective twenty-first birthday, the software will
reveal itself to him along with the extent of his investments. Given the amount
of time in travel alone, Ender will come of age with a noticeable fortune.
Considerably more, I might add, than even the most optimistic projections of
the value of Hegemony bonds,
     
    But Ender's finances are not an emergency, and your children
are.
     
    A different team is tweaking the database your Ferreira sent
us so it yields us more useful information. It involves a lot of additional
research, not by raw data-seeks, but by individual operators trawling various
medical, voting, tax, real estate, moving company, transportation and other
databases, some of them not legally available. Instead of getting thousands of
positives, of which none is likely to be useful, we are now getting hundreds of
positives of which some might actually go somewhere.
     
    Sorry it takes time, but once we get a decent positive, we
have to check it out, often with landside personnel. And for obvious reasons,
we don't have many of those to work with.
     
    Meanwhile, I suggest you keep in mind that our deal depends
on your making Peter Hegemon in fact as well as name before you go. You asked
me what my standard of success would be. You can go when: Peter has firm
control over more than 50% of the world's population, or Peter has sufficient
military force that he is assured of victory whether or not any potential
opponent is led by Battle School graduates.
     
    Therefore: Yes, Bean, we expect you to go to Rwanda. We are
your best hope for your and your children's survival, and you are our best hope
for assuring Peter will prevail and achieve unity and general peace. Your task
begins with getting Peter that irresistible military force, and our task begins
with finding your babies.
     
    Like you, I hope both our tasks turn out to be achievable.
     
     
    Alai had thought that once he took control of the complex in
Damascus, he'd be free to rule as Caliph.
    It didn't take long to learn otherwise.
    All the men in his palace complex, including his bodyguards,
obeyed him implicitly. But as soon as he tried to leave, even to ride around in
Damascus, those he trusted most would begin to plead with him. "It's not
safe," Ivan Lankowski would say. "When you got rid of the people
controlling you here, it panicked their friends. And their friends include
those who are commanding our armies everywhere."
    "They followed my plan in the war," said Alai.
"I thought they were loyal to the Caliph."
    "They were loyal to victory," said Ivan.
"Your plan was brilliant. And you ... were in Ender's Jeesh. His closest
friend. Of course they followed your plan."
    "So they believed in me from Battle School, but not as
Caliph."
    "They believe in you as Caliph," said Ivan.
"But more as the figurehead kind of Caliph who makes vague religious
pronouncements and encouraging speeches, while you have wazirs and