Shadow of the giant

under Muslim
occupation I do not travel to India.
     
    From: Weaver%[email protected]
    To: PeterWiggin%[email protected]
    Re: Place
     
    I will not set foot on any country but India; you will not
enter India.
     
    Therefore: Colombo, Sri Lanka. I will come in a boat. Mine
will not be comfortable. If you bring a better one, we'll enjoy our visit much
more.
     
     
    Fly Molo met Bean at the Manila airport and did his best not
to look shocked at how tall Bean was.
    "You said your business was personal," said Fly.
"Forgive my suspicious nature. You are the head of FPE armed forces, and I
am head of Filipino armed forces, and yet we have nothing to discuss?"
    "I'm assuming that your military is superbly trained
and well equipped."
    "Yes," said Fly.
    "Then until it's time for us to deploy somewhere, our
planning and logistics departments have far more to say to each other than you
or I do. Officially speaking."
    "So you're here as a friend."
    "I'm here," said Bean, "because I have a
child in Manila. A boy. They tell me his name is Ramon."
    Fly grinned. "And yet this is your first time here? Who
was the mother, a flight attendant?"
    "The baby was stolen from me, Fly. As an embryo. In
vitro fertilization. The child is mine and Petra's. It's especially important
to us, because it's the first we know of that definitely does not have my condition."
    "You mean it isn't ugly?"
    Bean laughed. "You've done well here in the
Philippines, my friend."
    "It's easy. Somebody argues with me, I just say, 'I was
in Ender's Jeesh,' and they shut up and do what I say."
    "It's just like that for me, too."
    "Except for Peter."
    "Especially Peter," said Bean. "I'm the power
behind the throne, didn't you know? Don't you read the papers?"
    "I notice the papers love to mention your zero-wins
record as a commander in Battle School."
    "Some achievements are so extraordinary," said
Bean, "that you never live them down."
    "How's Petra?" asked Fly. And they talked about
people they both knew and reminisced about Battle School and Command School and
the war with the Buggers until they got to a private home in the hills east of
Manila.
    There were several cars in front. Two soldiers wearing their
new FPE uniforms stood at either side of the door.
    "Guards?" asked Bean.
    Fly shrugged. "Not my idea."
    They did not have to prove who they were. And when they got
inside, they realized that this was not the meeting either of them expected.
    It was a reunion, apparently, of Ender's Jeesh—those that
were available. Dink, Shen, Vlad on one side of a long table. Crazy Tom, Carn
Carby, and Dumper—Champi T'it'u—on the other. And at the head of the table,
Graff and Rackham.
    "Now all are here that were invited," said Graff.
"Please, Fly, Bean, take your seats. Bean, I trust that you will tell
Petra all that goes on here. As for Han Tzu and Caliph Alai, they're now heads
of state and don't travel easily or surreptitiously. However, everything we say
to you will be said to them."
    "I know some people who'd like to bomb this room,"
said Vlad.
    "There's still someone unaccounted for," said
Shen.
    "Ender is voyaging safely. His ship is functioning
perfectly. His ansible works well. Remember, though, that for him it has been
scarcely a year since this group destroyed the Hive Queens. Even if you could
talk to him, he would seem ... young. The world has changed, and so have
you." Graff glanced back at Rackham. "Mazer and I are deeply
concerned, about you and about the world as a whole."
    "We're doing all right," said Carn Carby.
    "And thanks to Bean and Ender's big brother, maybe the
world is, too," said Dumper. He said it a little defiantly, as if he
expected to be argued with.
    "I don't give a rat's ass about the world," said
Bean. "I'm being blackmailed into helping Peter. And not by Peter."
    "Bean is referring to a bargain he entered into with me
of his own free will," said Graff.
    "What's this meeting about?" asked Dink.
"You're not our teacher any more." He glanced up at Rackham.
"You're not our commander, either. We haven't forgotten how you both lied
to us continually."
    "We never could convince you of our sincere devotion to
your welfare back in school, Dink," said Graff. "So as Dink requests,
I won't waste time on preliminaries. Look around this table. How old are
you?"
    "Old enough to know better," muttered Carn.
    "What are you, Bean, sixteen?" asked Fly.
    "I was never actually born," said Bean, "and
the records of my decanting were destroyed when