They hated him.
So when they saw the break between him and Virlomi, they exploited it.
Or...was Virlomi behind this?
Was Virlomi pregnant with his child?
The Caliph is dead. But here is his baby, born after he died but infused with the gifts of God from his birth. In the name of the baby Caliph, the council of wazirs will rule. And since the mother of the new Caliph is ruler of India, he will join the two great nations in one. With Virlomi as regent, of course.
No. Virlomi could not have wanted him murdered.
Ivan would have an airplane waiting. The airplane that brought him. With his own trusted crew.
Alai drove at a normal pace. But he did not drive to the checkpoint where he normally entered the airport grounds. In all likelihood, that place would be manned by the conspirators. Instead, he went to a service gate.
The guard sauntered over and started to tell him only authorized service vehicles could use this gate.
"I'm the Caliph, and I want to go through this gate."
"Oh," said the guard, looking confused. "I see. I--"
He pulled out a cellphone and started to punch at it.
Alai didn't want to kill this man. He was an idiot, not a conspirator. So he swung the door open, bumping into the man. Not hard. Just enough to get his attention. Then he closed the door and reached through the window. "Give me that cellphone."
The soldier gave it to him. Alai switched it off.
"I'm the Caliph. When I say to let me through, you don't have to ask anyone else's permission."
The soldier nodded and ran to the controls and the gate slid open.
As soon as Alai was through the gate, he saw a small corporate jet with Cyrillic lettering under the Common letters naming the corporation. The kind of plane Ivan would have used.
The engines started up as Alai approached. No, as Ivan's car approached.
Alai stopped the car and got out. The door of the jet was open, forming steps to the ground. Holding one hand on the pistol in his pocket--for he was taking this plane whether it was Ivan's or not--Alai walked up the steps.
A businessman--or so he seemed--waited for him inside. "Where's Ivan?" he asked.
"We're not waiting for him," said Alai. "He died saving me."
The man nodded once, then went to the door and pushed the button to raise it. Meanwhile he shouted, "Let's go!" and then said to Alai, "Please sit down and fasten your seat belt, my Caliph."
The plane began taxiing before the door was closed.
"Do nothing out of the ordinary," said Alai. "Nothing to alert them. There are weapons here that could easily shoot down this plane."
"Our plan exactly, sir," said the man.
What would the conspirators do, when they found out that Alai had escaped?
They would do nothing. They would say nothing. As long as Alai might turn up alive somewhere, they dared not be on record as saying anything.
In fact, they would continue to act in his name. If they followed Virlomi's plans, if her insane invasion went forward, then Alai would know they were with her.
When they were in the air--having waited for ordinary permission from the controllers--Ivan's man came back and stood diffidently two meters away.
"My Caliph, if I may ask?"
Alai nodded.
"How did he die?"
"He was busy shooting the guards surrounding me. He got two of them before they cut him down. I used his weapon to kill the others. Including Alamandar. Do you know how far the conspiracy went?"
"No sir," said the man. "We only knew that you would be killed on the airplane to Damascus."
"And this airplane? Where is it taking me?"
"It has a very long range, sir," said the man. "Where will you feel safe?"
Petra's mother was tending the babies while Petra and Bean oversaw the last preparations for the opening of hostilities. Peter's message had been terse: How busy can you keep the Turks, while watching out for Russians in the rear?
Turks and Russians allies, or potentially so. What game was Alai playing? Was Vlad in it? Trust Peter not to share any more information than he thought he had to--which was invariably less than other people actually needed.
Still, she and Bean had been spending every spare moment working out ways, using limited, undertrained, and underequipped Armenian forces to cause maximum disruption.
A raid on the most highly visible Turkish target, Istanbul, would enrage them without accomplishing anything.
Blocking the Dardanelles would be a harsh blow against all the Turks, but there was no way to project that much force from Armenia to the western shore of the Black Sea, and maintain it.
Oh, for the days when oil was strategically important! Back then, the Russian, Azerbaijani, and Persian wells in the Caspian would have been a prime target for disruption.
But now the wells had all been dismantled, and the Caspian was mostly used as a source of water, which was desalinated and pumped over to irrigate fields around the Aral Sea, with the runoff being used to replenish that once-dying lake. And to strike at the water pipeline would impoverish poor farmers without affecting the enemy's ability to wage war.
The plan they finally came up with was simple enough, once you bought the concept. "There's no way to strike the Turks directly," said Bean. "Nothing is centralized. So we'll strike Iran. It's highly urbanized, the big cities are all in the northwest, and there'll be an immediate demand for Iranian troops to come home from India to fight us. The Turks will be under pressure to help, and when they launch a very badly planned attack against Armenia, we'll be waiting."
"What makes you think it will be badly planned?" Petra asked.
"Because Alai isn't running the show on the Muslim side."
"When did this happen?"
"If Alai were in control," said Bean, "he wouldn't let Virlomi do what she's doing in India. It's too stupid and it will kill too many men. So...somehow he's lost control. And if that's the case, the Muslim enemy we're facing is incompetent and fanatic. They're acting out of anger and panic, with poor planning."
"What if this is Alai's doing, and you don't know him as well as you think?"
"Petra," said Bean. "We know Alai."
"Yes, and he knows us."
"Alai is a builder, like Ender. He always has been. An empire won through audacious and bloody conquest isn't worth having. He wants to build his Muslim empire the way Peter is building the FPE, by transforming Islam into a system that other nations will want, voluntarily, to join. Only somebody's decided not to follow his path. Either Virlomi or the hotheads within his own government."
"Or both?" asked Petra.
"Anything's possible."
"Except Alai controlling the Muslim armies."
"Well, it's simple enough," said Bean. "If we're wrong, and the Turkish counterattack is brilliantly planned, then we'll lose. As slowly as possible. And hope Peter has something else up his sleeve. But our assignment is to draw Turkish forces and attention away from China."
"And meanwhile, we'll be putting pressure on the Muslim alliance," said Petra. "No matter what the Turks do, the Persians won't believe they're doing enough."
"Sunni against Shi'ite," said Bean. "It's the best I could think up."
So for the past two days they had been drawing up plans for the quick, audacious airborne attack on Tabriz, and then, when the Iranians started to react to that, an immediate evacuation and airborne attack on Tehran. Meanwhile, Petra, in command of the defense of Armenia, would be prepared to make the Turkish counterattack pay for every meter of progress through the mountains.
Now everything was ready, awaiting only the word from Peter. Petra and Bean weren't really necessary while the troops began their deployment and the supplies were moved to depots in the areas where they'd be needed. Everything was in the hands of the Armenian military.
"What scares me," Petra told Bean, "is how they have absolute confidence that we know what we're doing."
"Why does that scare you?"
"Doesn't it scare you?"
"Petra, we do know what we're doing. We just don't know why."
It was in that lull, between planning and getting the order to go ahead, that Petra got a call on her cellphone. From her mother.
"Petra, they say they're friends of yours, but they're taking the babies."
Panic stabbed through her. "Who's with them? Put the one in charge on the phone."
"He won't. He just says, the 'teacher' says to meet them at the airport. Who's the teacher? Oh, God help us, Petra! This is like the time they kidnapped you."
"Tell them we'll be at the airport and if they've hurt the babies I'll kill them. But no, Mother, it's not the same thing at all."
Unless it was.
She told Bean what was happening, and they calmly made their way to the airport. They saw Rackham waiting at the curb and made the driver let them off there.
"I'm sorry to frighten you," said Rackham. "But we don't have time for arguments until we get on the plane. Then you can scream at me all you like."
"Nothing is so urgent you have to steal our babies," said Petra, putting as much venom into her voice as she could.
"See?" said Rackham. "Arguing instead of coming with me."
They followed him then, through back passages and out to a private jet. Petra protested as they went. "Nobody knows where we are. They'll think we ran out on them. They'll think we were kidnapped."
Rackham just ignored her. He moved very quickly for a man so old.
The babies were on the plane, each one being cared for by a separate nurse. They were fine. Only Ramon was still nursing, because the two with Bean's syndrome were eating more-or-less solid food now. So Petra sat down and fed him, while Rackham sat down opposite them in the luxury jet and, as the plane took off, began his explanation.
"We had to get you out of there now," he said, "because the airport at Yerevan is going to be blown to bits in an hour or two, and we need to be out over the Black Sea before it happens."
"How do you know?" demanded Petra.
"We have it from the man who planned the attack."
"Alai?"
"It's a Russian attack," said Rackham.
Bean blew up. "Then what was all that kuso about distracting the Turks!"
"It all still applies. As soon as we see the attack planes take off from southern Russia, I'll let you know and you can give the word to launch your attack on Iran."
"This is Vlad's plan," said Petra. "A sudden preemptive strike to keep the FPE from doing anything. To neutralize me and Bean."
"Vlad wants you to know he's very sorry. He's used to none of his plans actually being used."
"You've been talking to him?"
"We got him out of Moscow about three hours ago and debriefed him as quickly as possible. We think they don't know he's gone. Even if they do know, it's no reason for them not to go ahead with their plan."
The telephone beside Rackham's seat beeped once. He picked it up. Listened. Pressed a button and handed it over to Petra. "All right, the rockets have launched."
"I assume I need the country code?"
"No. Put in the number as if you were still in Yerevan. As far as they'll know, you are. Tell them that you're conferring with Peter and you'll rejoin them with the attack in progress."
"Will we?"
"And then call your mother and tell her you're all right and not to talk about what happened."
"Oh, that's about an hour too late."
"My men told her that if she called anyone but you until she heard from you again, she'd be very sorry."
"Thank you for terrifying her even more. Do you have any idea what this woman has been through in her life?"
"It always turns out all right, though. So she's better off than some."
"Thanks for your cheery optimism."
A few minutes later, the strike force was launched and a warning was given to evacuate the airport, reroute all incoming flights, evacuate the parts of Yerevan nearest the airport, and alert the men at all possible military targets inside Armenia.
As for Petra's mother, she was crying so hard--with relief, with anger at what had happened--that Petra could hardly make herself understood. But finally the conversation ended and Petra was more pissed off than ever. "What gives you the right? Why do you think you--"
"War gives me the right," said Rackham. "If I'd waited till you could come home and get your babies and then meet us at the airport, this plane would never have taken off. I have my men's lives to think of here, not just your mother's feelings."
Bean put a hand on Petra's knee. She accepted the need for calm, and fell silent.
"Mazer," said Bean, "what's this about? You could have warned us with a phone call."
"We have your other babies."
Petra was already emotional. She burst into tears. Quickly she controlled herself. And hated the fact that she had acted so...maternal.
"All of them? At once?"
"We've been watching some of them for several weeks," said Rackham. "Waiting for an opportune moment."
Bean waited only a moment before saying, "Waiting for Peter to tell you that it was all right. That you didn't need us any more for his war."
"He still needs you," said Rackham. "As long as he can have you."
"Why did you wait, Mazer?"
"How many?" said Petra. "How many are there?"
"One more with Bean's syndrome," said Rackham. "Four more without it."
"That's eight," said Bean. "Where's the ninth?"
Rackham shook his head.
"So you're still looking?"
"No, we're not," said Rackham.
"So you have definite information that the ninth wasn't implanted. Or it's dead."
"No. We have definite information that whether it's alive or dead, we have no search criteria left. If the ninth baby was ever born, Volescu hid the birth and the mother too well. Or the mother is hiding herself. The software--the mind game, if you will--has been very effective. We wouldn't have found any of the normal children without its creative searches. But it also knows when it has nothing more to try. You have eight of the nine. Three of them have the syndrome, five are normal."
"What about Volescu?" asked Petra. "Can we drug him?"
"Why not torture?" said Rackham. "No, Petra. We can't. Because we need him."
"For what? His virus?"
"We already have his virus. And it doesn't work. It's a bust. Failure. Dead end. Volescu knew it, too. He just enjoyed tormenting us with the thought that he had endangered the entire world."
"So what do you need him for?" demanded Petra.
"We need him to work on the cure for Bean and the babies."
"Oh, right," said Bean. "You're going to turn him loose in a lab."
"No," said Rackham. "We're going to put him in space, on an asteroid-based research station, closely supervised. He's been tried and is under sentence of death for terrorism, kidnapping, and murder--the murders of your brothers, Bean."
"There's no death sentence," said Bean.
"There is in military court in space," said Rackham. "He knows he's alive as long as he's making progress on finding a legitimate cure for you and the babies. Eventually, our team of co-researchers will know everything he knows. When we don't need him anymore..."
"I don't want him killed," said Bean.
"No," said Petra. "I want him killed slowly."
"He might be evil," said Bean, "but I wouldn't exist if not for him."
"There was a day," said Rackham, "when that would be the biggest crime you charged him with."
"I've had a good life," said Bean. "Strange and hard sometimes. But I've had a lot of happiness." He squeezed Petra's knee. "I don't want you to kill him."
"You saved your own life--from him," said Petra. "You owe him nothing."
"It doesn't matter," said Rackham. "We have no intention of killing him. When he's no longer useful, he goes into a colony ship. He's not a vi
olent man. He's very smart. He could be useful in understanding alien biota. It would be a waste of a resource to kill him. And there's no colony that will have equipment he could adapt to create anything...biologically destructive."
"You've thought of everything," said Petra.
"Again," said Bean, "you could have told us this over the telephone."
"I didn't want to," said Rackham.
"The I.F. doesn't send a team like this or a man like you on an errand like this just because you didn't want to use the phone."
"We want to send you now," said Rackham.
"In case you haven't been listening to yourself," said Petra, "there's a war on."
Bean and Rackham ignored her. They just looked at each other for a long time.
And then Petra saw that Bean's eyes were welling up with tears. That didn't happen very often.
"What's happening, Bean?"
Bean shook his head. To Rackham he said, "Do you have them?"
Rackham took an envelope out of his inside jacket pocket and handed it to Bean. He opened the envelope, removed a thin sheaf of papers, and handed them to Petra.
"It's our divorce decree," said Bean.
Petra understood at once. He wasn't taking her with him. He was leaving her behind with the normal children. He was going to take the three children with the syndrome out into space with him. He wanted her to be free to remarry.
"You are my husband," she said. She tore the papers in half.
"Those are copies," said Bean. "The divorce has legal force whether you like it or not, whether you sign them or not. You're no longer a married woman."
"Why? Because you think I'm going to remarry?"
Bean ignored her. "But all the children have been certified as legitimately ours. They aren't bastards, they aren't orphans, they aren't adopted. They're the children of divorced parents, and you have custody of five of them, and I have custody of three. If the ninth one is ever found, then you'll have custody."
"That ninth one is the only reason I'm listening to this," said Petra. "Because if you stay you'll die, and if we both go, then there might be a child who..."
But she was too angry to finish. Because when Bean planned this, he couldn't have known there'd be one child missing. He'd already done this and kept it secret from her for...for...
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