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

testing our compliance or something."
    "All this in five weeks?"
    "Three weeks of kuso classes, and then two weeks of war games. When we finish our plan, see, they run it on the computer to show us how it went. Someday they're going to catch on that the only way to do this that isn't a waste of time is to have one of us making the plan for the opponent as well."
    "My guess is you just told them."
    "I've told them before but they're hard to persuade. Typical military types. Makes you understand why the whole concept of Battle School was developed in the first place. If the war had been up to adults, there'd be Buggers at every breakfast table in the world by now."
    "But they are listening?"
    "I think they record it all and play it back at slow speeds to see if we're passing messages subvocally."
    Petra smiled.
    "So why did you finally decide to cooperate?" he asked.
    She shrugged. "I don't think I decided."
    "Hey, they don't pull you out of the room until you express really sincere interest in being a good, compliant little kid."
    She shook her head. "I don't think I did that."
    "Yeah, well, whatever you did, you were the last of Ender's jeesh to break, kid."
    A short buzzer sounded.
    "Time's up," said Dink. He got up, leaned over, kissed her brow, and left the room.
    Six weeks later, Petra was actually enjoying the life. By complying with the kids' demands, their captors had finally come up with some decent equipment. Software that allowed them very realistic head-to-head strategic and tactical war-gaming. Access to the nets so they could do decent research into terrains and capabilities so their wargaming had some realism -- though they knew every message they sent was censored, because of the number of messages that were rejected for one obscure reason or another. They enjoyed each other's company, exercised together, and by all appearances seemed to be completely happy and compliant Russian commanders.
    Yet Petra knew, as they all knew, that every one of them was faking. Holding back. Making dumb mistakes which, if they were made in combat, would lead to gaps that a clever enemy could exploit. Maybe their captors realized this, and maybe they didn't. At least it made them all feel better, though they never spoke of it. But since they were all doing it, and cooperating by not exposing those weaknesses by exploiting them in the games, they could only assume that everyone felt the same about it.
    They chatted comfortably about a lot of things -- their disdain for their captors, memories of Ground School, Battle School, Command School. And, of course, Ender. He was out of the reach of these bastards, so they made sure to mention him a lot, to talk about how the IF was bound to use him to counter all these foolish plans the Russians were making. They knew they were blowing smoke, that the IF wouldn't do anything, they even said so. But still, Ender was there, the ultimate trump card.
    Till the day one of the erstwhile teachers told them that a colony ship had gone, with Ender and his sister Valentine aboard.
    "I didn't even know he had a sister," said Hot Soup.
    No one said anything, but they all knew that this was impossible. They had all known Ender had a sister. But ... whatever Hot Soup was doing, they'd play along and see what the game was.
    "No matter what they tell us, one thing we know," said Hot Soup. "Wiggin is still with us."
    Again, they weren't sure what he meant by this. After the briefest pause, though, Shen clapped his hand to his chest and cried out, "In our hearts forever."
    "Yes," said Hot Soup. "Ender is in our hearts."
    Just the tiniest extra emphasis on the name "Ender."
    But he had said Wiggin before.
    And before that, he had called attention to the fact that they all knew Ender had a sister. They also knew that Ender had a brother. Back on Eros, while Ender was in bed recovering from his breakdown after finding out the battles had been real, Mazer Rackham had told them some things about Ender. And Bean had told them more, as they were trapped together while the League War played itself out. They had listened as Bean expounded on what Ender's brother and sister meant to him, that the reason Ender had been born at all during the days of the two-child law was because his brother and sister were so brilliant, but the brother was too dangerously aggressive and the sister too passively compliant. How Bean knew all this he wouldn't tell, but the information was indelibly planted in their memories, tied