Xenocide (Ender Wiggins Saga)

don't know," said Mayor Kovano. "No mayor has ever done anything like that before."
    "No other mayor ever had the need."
    "People will say that I used the slightest excuse to take dictatorial powers."
    "Maybe they will," said Valentine.
    "They'll never believe that there would have been a riot."
    "So perhaps you'll get defeated at the next election," said Valentine. "What of that?"
    Peregrino laughed aloud. "She thinks like a cleric," he said.
    "I'm willing to lose an election in order to do the right thing," said Kovano, a little resentfully.
    "You're just not sure it's the right thing," said Valentine.
    "Well, you can't know that there'll be a riot tonight," said Kovano.
    "Yes I can," said Valentine. "I promise that unless you take firm control right now, and stifle any possibility of crowds forming tonight, you will lose a lot more than the next election."
    The Bishop was still chuckling. "This does not sound like the woman who told us that whatever wisdom she had, she would share, but we mustn't hope for much."
    "If you think I'm overreacting, what do you propose?"
    "I'll announce a memorial service for Quim tonight, and prayers for peace and calm."
    "That will bring to the cathedral exactly the people who would never be part of a riot anyway," said Valentine.
    "You don't understand how important faith is to the people of Lusitania," said Peregrino.
    "And you don't understand how devastating fear and rage can be, and how quickly religion and civilization and human decency are forgotten when a mob forms."
    "I'll put all the police on alert tonight," said Mayor Kovano, "and put half of them on duty from dusk to midnight. But I won't close the bars or declare a curfew. I want life to go on as normally as possible. If we started changing everything, shutting everything down, we'd just be giving them more reasons to be afraid and angry."
    "You'd be giving them a sense that authority was in command," said Valentine. "You'd be taking action that was commensurate with the terrible feelings they have. They'd know that somebody was doing something ."
    "You are very wise," said Bishop Peregrino, "and this would be the best advice for a large city, especially on a planet less true to the Christian faith. But we are a mere village, and the people are pious. They don't need to be bullied. They need encouragement and solace tonight, not curfews and closings and pistols and patrols."
    "These are your choices to make," said Valentine. "As I said, what wisdom I have, I share."
    "And we appreciate it. You can be sure I'll be watching things closely tonight," said Kovano.
    "Thank you for inviting me," said Valentine. "But as you can see, as I predicted, it didn't come to much."
    She got up from her chair, her body aching from sitting so long in that impossible posture. She had not bowed herself forward. Nor did she bow even now, as the Bishop extended his hand to be kissed. Instead, she shook his hand firmly, then shook Mayor Kovano's hand. As equals. As strangers.
    She left the room, burning inside. She had warned them and told them what they ought to do. But like most leaders who had never faced a real crisis, they didn't believe that anything would be different tonight from most other nights. People only really believe in what they've seen before. After tonight, Kovano will believe in curfews and closings at times of public stress. But by then it will be too late. By then they will be counting the casualties.
    How many graves would be dug beside Quim's? And whose bodies would go into them?
    Though Valentine was a stranger here and knew very few of the people, she couldn't just accept the riot as inevitable. There was only one other hope. She would talk to Grego. Try to persuade him of the seriousness of what was happening here. If he went from bar to bar tonight, counseling patience, speaking calmly, then the riot might be forestalled. Only he had any chance of doing it. They knew him. He was Quim's brother. He was the one whose words had so angered them last night. Enough men might listen to him that the riot might be contained, forestalled, channeled. She had to find Grego.
    If only Ender were here. She was a historian; he had actually led men into battle. Well, boys, actually. He had led boys. But it was the same thing-- he'd know what to do. Why is he away now? Why is this in my hands? I haven't the stomach for violence and confrontation. I never have. That's why Ender was born in the first place, a third child conceived at