Shadow of the giant

not.
You'll watch events unfold. You all know how to contact me. The offer is open.
We're done here for today."
    "No we're not," said Shen. "Because you
aren't doing anything about the real problem."
    "Which is?"
    "We're just potential warmongers and baby
killers," said Shen. "You're not doing a thing about Hot Soup and
Alai."
    "And Virlomi," added Fly Molo. "If you want
somebody who's dangerous, it's her."
    "They will get the same offer as you," said
Rackham. "In fact, one of them already has."
    "Which one?" asked Dink.
    "The one who was in a position to hear it," said
Graff.
    "Hot Soup, then," said Shen. "Because you
couldn't even get in to meet Mr. Caliph."
    "What smart fellows you all turned out to be,"
said Graff.
    " 'Waterloo was won,' " quoted Rackham, " 'on
the playing fields of Eton.' "
    "What the hell does that mean?" asked Carn Carby.
"You never even went to Eton."
    "It was an analogy," said Rackham. "If you
hadn't spent your entire childhood playing war games, you'd actually know
something. You're all so uneducated."
     
     
     
    17
     
    BOATS
     
     
    From: Champi%T'it'[email protected]
    To: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au
    Re: "Good Idea"
     
    Of course Graff's "offer" sounded like a good idea
to YOU. You live in Australia.
     
    —Dumper
     
    From: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au
    To: Champi%T'it'[email protected]
    Re: Ha ha
     
    People who live on the moon—pardon me, the Andes— shouldn't
joke about Australia.
     
    —Carn
     
    From: Champi%T'it'[email protected]
    To: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au
    Re: "Who was joking?"
     
    I've seen Australia and I've lived on an asteroid and I'd
take the asteroid.
     
    —Dumper
     
    From: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au
    To: Champi%T'it'[email protected]
    Re: Asteroid
     
    Australia doesn't need life support like an asteroid or coca
like the Andes to be livable. Besides, you only liked the asteroid because it
was named Eros and that's as close to sex as you've ever gotten.
     
    —Carn
     
    From: Champi%T'it'[email protected]
    To: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au
    Re: At least
     
    At least I have a sex. Male, by the way. Open your fly and
check to see what you are. (You grip the handle of the zipper and pull
downward.) (Oh, wait, you're in Australia. Upward, then.)
     
    —Dumper
     
    From: WallabyWannabe%BoyGenius@stratplan/mil.gov.au
    To: Champi%T'it'[email protected]
    Re: Let's see ... zipper ... fly ... pull...
     
    Ouch! Ow! Oweeee!
    —Carn
     
    The sailors were so nervous to have The Lady aboard their
dhow that it was a wonder they didn't swamp the boat just getting out to sea.
And sailing was slow, with lots of tacking; even turning the ship seemed to
require as much work as the reinvention of navigation. Virlomi showed none of
her impatience, though.
    It was time for the next step—for India to reach for the
world stage. She needed an ally to free her nation from the foreign occupiers.
Even though the atrocities had ended—nothing filmable now—Alai persisted in
keeping his Muslim troops all over India. Waiting for Hindu provocations.
Knowing that Virlomi couldn't control her people as tightly as Alai now
controlled his troops.
    But she wasn't going to bring Han Tzu into the picture. She
had fought too hard to get the Chinese out of India to invite them back again.
Besides, even though they had no religion to force on people like Alai's
Muslims, the Chinese were just as arrogant, just as sure they were entitled to
rule the world.
    And these Jeeshboys, they were so sure they could be her
masters. Didn't they understand that her whole life was a repudiation of their
sense of superiority? They had been chosen to wage war against aliens. The gods
fought on their side in that war. But now the gods fought on Virlomi's side.
    She hadn't been a believer when she began. She exploited her
knowledge of the folk religion of her people. But over the weeks and months and
years of her campaign against China and then against the Muslims, she had seen
how everything bent and turned to lit her plans. Everything she thought of
worked; and since there were tests proving that Alai and Han Tzu were smarter
than she was, it must be that entities wiser than they were providing her with
her ideas.
    There was only one person now who could give her the help
she needed, and only one man in the world whom it would not demean her to
marry. After all, when she married it would be all India marrying; and whatever
children she bore