Shadow of the giant

wise nods and palliative words,
and they would go home and feel good about having helped promote "peace on
Earth."
    Alai had complained to Virlomi afterward. Wasn't it enough
for the Americans that the whole world used their dollar and let them dominate
the I.F.? Wasn't it enough for the Russians that Caliph Alai was keeping his
armies away from their frontier and was doing nothing to support Muslim rebel
groups inside their borders?
    And the French—what did they expect Alai to do when he heard
what their government's opinion was? Didn't they understand that they were
spectators now in the great game, by their own choice? The players were not
going to let the fans call the plays, no matter how well they played back in
their day.
    Virlomi listened benignly and said nothing in all these
meetings. Most of the visitors came away with the impression that she was a
figurehead, and Caliph Alai was in complete control. This impression did no
harm. But as Alai and his closest advisers knew, it was also completely false.
    Today's meeting was far more important. Gathered at this
table were the men who actually ran the Muslim empire—the men Alai trusted, who
made sure that the heads of the various Muslim states did what Alai needed them
to do, without chafing at how thoroughly they were under the Caliph's thumb.
Since Alai had the ecstatic support of most of the Muslim people, he had
enormous leverage in gaining the cooperation of their governments. But Alai did
not yet have the clout to set up an independent system of finance. So he was
dependent on contributions from the various republics and kingdoms and Islamic
states that served him.
    The men at this table made sure that the money flowed inward
toward Hyderabad, and obedience flowed outward, with the least possible
friction.
    The most remarkable thing about these men was that they were
no richer now than they had been when he appointed them. Despite all their
opportunities to take a bribe here or exact a bit of a kickback there, they had
remained pure. They were motivated by devotion to the Caliph's cause and pride in
their positions of trust and honor.
    Instead of one wazir, Alai had a dozen. They were gathered
at this table, to counsel him and hear his decisions.
    And every single one of them resented Virlomi's presence at
the table.
    And Virlomi did nothing to help alleviate this. Because even
though she spoke softly and briefly, she persisted in using the quiet voice and
enigmatic attitude that had played so well among Hindus. But Muslims had no
goddess tradition, except perhaps in Indonesia and Malaysia, where they were
especially alert to stamp out such tendencies where they found them. Virlomi
was like an alien being among them.
    There were no cameras here. The role wasn't working for this
audience. So why did she persist in acting the goddess here?
    Was it possible she believed it? That after years of playing
the part in order to keep Indian resistance alive she now believed that she was
divinely inspired? Ridiculous to think she actually believed she was divine
herself. If the Muslim people ever believed she thought that, they would expect
Alai to divorce her and have done with this nonsense. They accepted the idea
that the Caliph, like Solomon of old, might marry women from many kingdoms in
order to symbolize the submission of those kingdoms to Islam as a wife submits
to a husband.
    She couldn't believe she was a goddess. Alai was sure of
that. Such superstitions would have been stamped out in Battle School.
    Then again, Battle School was over years ago, and Virlomi
had lived in isolation and adulation during most of that time. Things had
happened that would change anybody. She had told him about the campaign of
stones in the road, the "Great Wall of India," how she had seen her
own actions turn into a vast movement. About how she first became a holy woman
and then a goddess in hiding in eastern India.
    When she taught him about Satyagraha, he thought he
understood. You sacrifice anything and everything in order to stand for what's
right without causing harm to another.
    And yet she had also killed men with a gun she held in her
own hand. There were times when she did not shrink from war. When she told him
of her band of warriors who had stood off the whole Chinese army, preventing
them from flooding back into India, from even resupplying the armies that
Alai's Persians and Pakistanis were systematically destroying, he realized how
much he owed to her