Shadow of the giant

still have the four fertilized embryos you already created."
    The would-be father looked up at him blandly. "We'll
adopt next time," he said.
    "We're all very sorry," Rackham went on,
"that these criminals stole the use of your womb to deliver another
woman's child. But the child is truly hers, and if you adopt, you should have
children that were willingly given up by their parents."
    The man nodded. He understood.
    But the woman had the baby in her arms.
    Petra spoke up. "Would you like to hold her
brother?" She reached down and lifted Ender out of the sling. "His
name is Andrew. He's a month old."
    The woman nodded.
    Rackham reached down and took her daughter out of her arms.
Petra handed Ender to her.
    "My ... the girl is ... I call her Bella. My little
Lourinha." She wept.
    Lourinha? The baby's hair, such as it was, was brown. But
apparently it didn't take much lightness of hair to earn the appellation
"blonde."
    Petra took the girl from Rackham's hands. She was even
smaller than Ender, but her eyes were just as intelligent and searching.
Ender's hair was as black as Bean's. Bella's hair was more like Petra's. It
startled her, how happy it made her that the baby took after her.
    "Thank you for bearing my daughter," said Petra.
"I grieve for your grief, but I hope you can also rejoice at my joy."
    Weeping, the woman nodded and clung now to Ender. She turned
her face to the baby and spoke in a small babytalk voice. "Es tu feliz em
ter irminha? Es tu felizinho?" Then she burst into tears and handed Ender
to Rackham.
    Standing, Petra laid Bella into the sling where Ender had
been. Then she took Ender from Rackham and held him against her shoulder.
    "I'm so sorry," said Petra. "Please forgive
me for not letting you keep my baby."
    The man shook his head. "Não ha de que desculpar,"
he said.
    "Nothing to forgive," murmured the stern-looking
woman who was apparently not just a guard, but also an interpreter.
    The woman wailed in grief and leapt to her feet, upsetting
the chair. She sobbed and babbled and clutched at Bella and covered her with
kisses. But she didn't try to take the baby.
    Rackham pulled Petra away as the guard and the husband
pulled the mother back and held her, still wailing and sobbing, while Petra and
Rackham left the house.
    Back in the car, Rackham sat in back with Petra and took
Ender out of her arms for the ride back to the hotel. "They really are
small," he said.
    "Bean calls Ender a toy person," said Petra.
    "I can see why," said Rackham.
    "I feel like a really polite kidnapper," said
Petra.
    "Don't," said Rackham. "Even though they were
embryos when they were stolen from you, it was a kidnapping, and now you're
getting your daughter back."
    "But these people did nothing wrong."
    "Think again," said Rackham. "Remember how we
found them."
    They moved, she remembered. When Volescu's deadman switch
triggered a message, they moved. "Why would they knowingly—"
    "The wife doesn't know. Our deal with the husband was
that we wouldn't tell. He's completely sterile, you see. Their attempt at in
vitro fertilization didn't take. That's why he took Volescu's offer and
pretended to his wife that the baby was really theirs. He's the one that got
the message and made up a reason for them to move to this house."
    "He didn't ask where the baby came from?"
    "He's a rich man," said Rackham. "Rich people
tend to take it for granted that things they want simply come to them."
    "The wife meant no harm, though."
    "Neither did Bean, and yet he's dying," said
Rackham. "Neither did I, and yet I was sent on a voyage that jumped me
decades into the future, costing me everyone and everything. And you'll lose
Bean, even though you've done nothing wrong. Life is full of grief, to exactly
the degree we allow ourselves to love other people."
    "I see," said Petra. "You're the Ministry of
Colonization's resident philosopher."
    Rackham grinned. "The consolations of philosophy are
many, but never enough."
    "I think you and Graff planned the whole history of the
world. I think you chose Bean and Peter for the roles they're playing
now."
    "You're wrong," said Rackham. "Flat wrong.
All that Graff and I ever did was choose the children we thought might win the
war and try to train than for victory. We failed again and again until we found
Ender. And Bean to back him up. And the rest of the Jeesh to help him. And when
the last battle ended and we had won, Graff and I had to face the fact that the
solution to the one problem was now the