Shadow of the Hegemon, the - Book 2 (Ender)

were in Hyderabad."
    "I know where Petra is."
    "Unless they've moved her."
    "Do you have any better sources? I tried to think of any way I could to get a message to Bean without getting caught. Finally I realized there was no computer solution. I had to bring the message in my head."
    "So come with us."
    "Not that simple," she said. "If they think I'm a captive, you'll never get out of here. Handheld g-to-a."
    "Ouch," said Suriyawong. "Ambush. They knew we were coming?"
    "No," said Virlomi. "They knew I was here. I didn't say anything, but they all knew that the Woman-in-hiding was at this bridge, so they figured that the gods were protecting this place."
    "And the gods needed g-to-a missiles?"
    "No, I'm the one they're protecting. The gods have the bridge, the men have me. So here's the deal. You pull your explosives off the bridge. Abort the mission. They see that I have the power to make the enemy go away without harming anything. And then they watch me call one of your departing choppers down to me, and I get on of my own free will. That's the only way you're getting out of here. Not really anything I designed, but I don't see any other way out."
    "I always hate aborting missions," said Suriyawong. But before she could argue, he laughed and said, "No, don't worry, it's fine. It's a good plan. If Bean were down here on this bridge, he'd agree in a heartbeat."
    Suriyawong walked back to his men. "No, it's not a god or a holy woman. She's Virlomi, a Battle School grad, and she has intelligence that's more valuable than this bridge. We're aborting the mission."
    The soldier took this in, and Suriyawong could see him trying to factor the magical element in with the orders.
    "Soldier," said Suriyawong, "I have not been bewitched. This woman knows the groundplan of the Indian Army high command base in Hyderabad."
    "Why would an Indian give that to us?" the soldier asked.
    "Because the bunduck who's running the Indian side of the war has a prisoner there who's vital to the war."
    Now it was making sense to the soldier. The magic element receded. He pulled his satrad off his belt and punched in the abort code. All the other satrads immediately vibrated in the preset pattern.
    At once the explosives teams began dismantling. If they were to evacuate without dismantling, a second code, for urgency, would be sent. Suriyawong did not want any part of their materiel to fall into Indian hands. And he thought a more leisurely pace might be better.
    "Soldier, I need to seem to be hypnotized by this woman," he said. "I am not hypnotized, but I'm faking it so the Indian soldiers all around us will think she's controlling me. Got that?"
    "Yes sir."
    "So while I walk back toward her, you call Bean and tell him that I need all the choppers but mine to evacuate, so the Indians can see they're gone. Then say 'Petra.' Got that? Tell him nothing else, no matter what he asks. We may be monitored, if not here, then in Hyderabad." Or Beijing, but he didn't want to complicate things by saying that.
    "Yes sir."
    Suriyawong turned his back on the soldier, walked three paces closer to Virlomi, and then prostrated himself before her.
    Behind him, he could hear the soldier saying exactly what he had been told to say.
    And after a very little while, choppers began to rise into the air from both sides of the ravine. Bean's troops were on the way out.
    Suriyawong got up and returned to his men. His company had come in two choppers. "All of you get in the chopper with the explosives," he said. "Only the pilot and co-pilot stay in the other chopper."
    The men obeyed immediately, and within three minutes Suriyawong was alone at his end of the bridge. He turned and bowed once again to Virlomi, then walked calmly to his chopper and climbed aboard.
    "Rise slowly," he told the pilot, "and then pass slowly near the woman in the middle of the bridge, doorside toward her. At no point is any weapon to be trained on her. Nothing remotely threatening."
    Suriyawong watched through the window. Virlomi was not signaling.
    "Rise higher, as if we were leaving," said Suriyawong.
    The pilot obeyed.
    Finally, Virlomi began waving her arms, beckoning with both of them, slowly, as if she were reeling them back in with each movement of her arms.
    "Slow down and then begin to descend toward her. I want no chance of error. The last thing we need is some downdraft to get her caught in the blades."
    The pilot laughed grimly and brought the chopper like a dancer down onto the