"Oh, I'm sure Virlomi's people will do a splendid job," said Ender. "As I said, I accept your kind invitation. Now, let's leave this boat and go ashore, neh?"
"As you wish," said Virlomi. "I'll be glad to have you. But I also warned you, and as long as this ship is still here, you're free to move on. You won't like it when Randall turns his wrath on you. He has a way with words."
"Just words?" said Ender. "So he's nonviolent?"
"So far," said Virlomi.
"Then I'm safe," said Ender. "Thank you for the great honor you paid me. Please let it be known that I'm here. And that I really am that Andrew Wiggin."
"Are you sure?" asked Virlomi.
"Insane people are always sure," said Valentine.
Ender laughed, and so Virlomi did, too—a nervous chuckle.
"I'd invite you to join me for supper tonight," said Virlomi, "only one of my affectations is to eat little, and of course, as a Hindu, I eat an entirely vegetarian cuisine."
"Sounds excellent," said Valentine.
"Tell us when and where, and we'll be there," said Ender.
With a few more parting words, Virlomi left.
Valentine turned on Ender, angry and sad, both at once. "Did you bring me here to watch you die?"
"I didn't bring you anywhere," said Ender. "You just came."
"That doesn't answer my question."
"Everyone dies, Valentine. Mother and Father are dead. Peter is dead. Graff is probably dead by now."
"You forget that I know you, Ender," said Valentine. "You have decided to die. You've decided to provoke this boy into killing you."
"Why would you think that?"
"Look at the names you chose for passwords, Ender! You can't live with the guilt."
"Not guilt, Val," said Ender. "Responsibility."
"Don't make this boy kill you," said Valentine.
"I won't make anybody do anything. How about that?"
"I should have stayed home and watched Peter conquer the world."
"Oh, no, Valentine. We're on a much more interesting trajectory through space-time."
"I'm not going to sleep through my life like you are, Ender. I have work to do. I'm going to write my histories. I'm not burdened with a death wish."
"If I wished to be dead," said Ender, "I would have let Bonzo Madrid and his friends beat my brains out in a bathroom in Battle School."
"I know you," said Valentine.
"I know you think you do," said Ender. "And if I die, you'll think I chose to. The truth is much more complicated. I don't intend to die. But I'm not afraid of the risk of death. Sometimes a soldier has to put himself in harm's way in order to achieve victory."
"It's not your war," said Valentine.
Ender laughed. "It's always my war."
CHAPTER
22
To: VWiggin%Ganges@ColLeague.Adm/voy
From: AWiggin%Ganges@ColLeague.Adm/voy
Subj: If I am dead
Dear Val,
I don't expect to be dead. I expect to be alive, in which case, you won't receive this, because I will keep sending the do-not-deliver code until after the coming confrontation.
This is about the case. The code to unlock it is the name of your favorite stuffed animal when you were six. When you open it, hold what you find in your hands for a good long time. If you come up with some good ideas, then act on them; otherwise, please repack the item exactly as you found it, and arrange to ship it to Abra Tolo on Shakespeare with a message: "This is what I found that day. Please don't let it be destroyed."
But you won't need this, because, as is my fashion, I expect to win.
Love,
your demanding and mysterious little brother,
Ender
or, I suppose I should now say: Ended
Since the starship had not arrived full of new colonists, it was almost inconsequential to most of the people of the city of Andhra. Of course everyone turned out to watch the shuttle land. And there was some commotion as a few trade goods were loaded off and many supplies were loaded on. But the tasks being carried out were repetitive and people quickly lost interest and went back to their work. Governor Virlomi's visit to the shuttle was taken as good manners by those who heard about it—few knew or cared what the ordinary protocol would be, and so didn't realize that it had been altered. And those who did know simply took it as part of Virlomi's character—or her pose—that she did not make the visitors come to her.
Only when that evening's supper saw strangers come to Virlomi's house—which Achilles and his fellow "Natives of Ganges" liked to refer to as "the governor's mansion"—did anyone's curiosity get aroused. A teenage boy; a young woman of about twenty. Why were they the only passengers on the starship? Why was Virlomi giving them special honors? Were they new colonists or government officials or . . . what?
Since this was the ship that was supposed to take Achilles into exile for his "crime" of striking the governor, he was, quite naturally, anxious to find out anything he could to derail the plan. These guests were unusual, unexpected, unannounced, unexplained. That had to mean they presented an opportunity to embarrass Virlomi, at the very least—to stymie her or destroy her, if things went well.
It took two days of having his supporters consort with the crew before someone finally got their hands on the manifest and discovered the names of the passengers. Valentine Wiggin, student. Andrew Wiggin, student.
Student?
Achilles didn't even have to look anything up. The ship's last call had been to Shakespeare Colony. Up to the time of that ship's arrival, the governor of Shakespeare had been Andrew Wiggin, retired admiral of the I.F. and much-cited commander of the I.F. forces in the Third Formic War. Two starflights at relativistic speed explained the boy's age. Boy? One year older than Achilles.
Wiggin was tall, but Achilles was taller; strong, but Achilles was stronger. Wiggin was chosen for Battle School because he was smart, but Achilles had never encountered anyone in his life who was as intelligent as he. Virlomi was Battle School bright—but she forgot things that he remembered, overlooked things that he noticed, thought two moves ahead instead of ten. And she was the closest to being in his league.
Achilles had learned to conceal just how intelligent he was, and to treat others as if he thought them his equal. But he knew the truth and counted on it: He was quicker, smarter, deeper, subtler than anyone else. Hadn't he, as a mere boy on a faraway colony world, using only the lowest-priority ansible messaging, created a significant political movement on Earth?
Even intelligent people are sometimes just plain lucky. Wiggin's arrival just at this time clearly fell into that category. Wiggin couldn't have known that he was coming to the colony where dwelt the son of Achilles the Great, whom Ender's brother had arranged to murder. And when Achilles-who-was-called-Randall launched his attack on the reputation of Ender Wiggin, labeling him as Ender the Xenocide, he had no idea that within the month that very Andrew Wiggin would be having supper at Virlomi's house.