be for the rest of humanity, no matter how richly Achilles deserved to die, she would not be his executioner, not now, not if she had to give her own life to kill him. If that made her a selfish coward, so be it.
They pulled and pulled and finally, with a whoosh, the door passed the threshold of wind resistance and locked nicely into place. Achilles pulled the lever that locked it.
"Traveling with you is always such an adventure," said Petra.
"No need to shout," said Achilles. "I can hear you just fine."
"Why can't you just run with the bulls at Pamplona, like any normal selfdestructive person?" asked Petra.
He ignored her gibe. "I must value you more than I thought." He said it as if it took him rather by surprise.
"You mean you still have a spark of humility? You might actually need someone else?"
Again he ignored her words. "You look better without blood all over your face."
"But I'll never be as pretty as you."
"Here's my rule about guns," said Achilles. "When people are getting shot, always stand behind the shooter. It's a lot less messy there."
"Unless people are shooting back."
Achilles laughed. "Pet, I never use a gun when someone might shoot back."
"And you're so well-mannered, you always open a door for a lady."
His smile faded. "Sometimes I get these impulses," he said. "But they're not irresistible."
"Too bad. And here you had such a good insanity defense going."
His eyes blazed for a moment. Then he went back to his seat.
She cursed herself. Goading him like this, how is it different from jumping out of the airplane?
Then again, maybe it was the fact that she spoke to him without cringing that made him value her.
Fool, she said to herself. You are not equipped to understand this boy-you're not insane enough. Don't try to guess why he does what he does, or how he feels about you or anybody or anything. Study him so you can learn how he makes his plans, what he's likely to do, so that someday you can defeat him. But don't ever try to understand. If you can't even understand yourself, what hope do you have of comprehending somebody as deformed as Achilles?
They did not land in Kabul. They landed in Tashkent, refueled, and then went over the Himalayas to New Delhi.
So he lied to her about their destination. He hadn't trusted her after all. But as long as he refrained from killing her, she could endure a little mistrust.
COMMUNING WITH THE DEAD
To: Carlotta%
[email protected]/orders/sisters/ind
From: Locke%
[email protected] Re: An answer for your dead friend
If you know who I really am, and you have contact with a certain person purported to be dead, please inform that person that I have done my best to fulfill expectations. I believe further collaboration is possible, but not through intermediaries. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then please inform me of that, as well, so I can begin my search again.
Bean came home to find that Sister Carlotta had packed their bags.
"Moving day?" he asked.
They had agreed that either one of them could decide that it was time to move on, without having to defend the decision. It was the only way to be sure of acting on any unconscious cues that someone was closing in on them. They didn't want to spend their last moments of life listening to each other say, "I knew we should have left three days ago!" "Well why didn't you say so?" "Because I didn't have a reason."
"We have two hours till the flight."
"Wait a minute," said Bean. "You decide we're going, I decide the destination." That was how they'd decided to keep their movements random.
She handed him the printout of an email. It was from Locke. "Greensboro, North Carolina, in the U.S.," she said.
"Perhaps I'm not decoding this right," said Bean, "but I don't see an invitation to visit him."
"He doesn't want intermediaries," said Carlotta. "We can't trust his email to be untraced."
Bean took a match and burned the email in the sink. Then he crumbled the ashes and washed them down the drain. "What about Petra?"
"Still no word. Seven of Ender's jeesh released. The Russians are simply saying that Petra's place of captivity has not yet been discovered."
"Kuso," said Bean.
"I know," said Carlotta, "but what can we do if they won't tell us? I'm afraid she's dead, Bean. You've got to realize that's the likeliest reason for them to stonewall."
Bean knew it, but didn't believe it. "You don't know Petra," he said.
"You don't know Russia," said Carlotta.
"Most people are decent in
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