"Perhaps al-Caliph has some intelligence indicating that the Emperor of China is in alliance with the Hegemon," said Thorn.
"Peter Wiggin," said Virlomi, "knows how to use people who don't know they're being used."
Alai listened to her and thought: That principle might as easily apply to the Armenians as to Han Tzu. Perhaps they're being used by Peter Wiggin without their consent. A simple matter to send Bean and Petra to visit the Arkanians, and then plant a false story that this means the Armenians are about to join the FPE.
Alai raised a hand. "Najjas. Would you compare the language in the Martel essays with the writings of Peter Wiggin, including the Locke essays, and tell me if they might be written by the same hand?"
A murmur of approval around the table.
"We will not take action against Armenia," said Caliph Alai, "based on unsubstantiated rumors from the nets. Nor based on our longstanding suspicion of the Armenians."
Alai watched their reaction. Some nodded approvingly, but most hid their reactions. And Musafi, the youngest of his wazirs, showed his skepticism.
"Musafi, speak to us," said Alai.
"It makes little difference to the people," said Musafi, "whether we can prove that the Armenians are plotting against us or not. This isn't a court of law. They are being told by many that instead of gaining India peacefully by marriage, we lost it the same way."
Alai did not look at Virlomi; nor did he sense any stiffening or change in her attitude.
"We did nothing when the Hegemon humiliated the Sudanese and stole Muslim land in Nubia." Musafi raised his hand to the inevitable objection. "The people believe the land was stolen."
"So you fear that they will think the Caliph is ineffective."
"They expected you to spread Islam throughout the world. Instead, you seem to be losing ground. The very fact that Armenia cannot be the source of a serious invasion also means that it's a safe place to take some limited action that will assure the people that the Caliphate is still watching over Islam."
"And how many men should die for this?" said Alai.
"For the continued unity of the Muslim people?" asked Musafi. "As many as love God."
"There's wisdom in this," said Alai. "But the Muslim people are not the only people in the world. Outside of Islam, Armenia is perceived as a heroic victim nation. Isn't there a chance that any kind of action in Armenia will be seen as proof that Islam is expanding, just as Martel charges? Then what happens to the Muslim minorities in Europe?"
Virlomi leaned forward, looking each of the counselors boldly in the face, as if she had authority at this table. Her stance was more aggressive than Alai ever showed to his friends. But then, these were not her friends. "You care about unity?"
"It's always been a problem in the Muslim world," said Alamandar. Some of the men chuckled.
"The 'Free People' can't invade us because we're more powerful than they are at any point where they might attack," said Virlomi. "Is our goal to unite the world under the leadership of Caliph Alai? Then our great rival is not Peter Wiggin. It's Han Tzu. He came to me with plots against Caliph Alai. He proposed marriage with me, so India and China could unite against Islam."
"When was this?" asked Musafi.
Alai understood why he was asking. "It was before Virlomi and I even considered marriage, Musafi. My wife has behaved with perfect propriety."
Musafi was satisfied; Virlomi showed no sign that she even cared what the interruption had been about. "You don't fight wars to enhance domestic unity--to do that, you pursue economic policies that make your people fat and rich. Wars are fought to create safety, to expand borders, and to eliminate future dangers. Han Tzu is such a danger."
"Since he has taken office," said Thorn, "Han Tzu has taken no aggressive action. He has been conciliatory with all his neighbors. He even sent home the Indian prime minister, didn't he?"
"That was no conciliatory gesture," said Virlomi.
"The expansionist Snow Tiger is gone, his policies failed. We have nothing to fear from China," said Thorn.
He had gone too far, and everyone at the table knew it. It was one thing to make suggestions, and quite another to flatly contradict Virlomi.
Pointedly, Virlomi sat back and looked at Alai, waiting for him to take action against the offender.
But Thorn had earned his nickname because he would say uncomfortable truths. Nor did Alai intend to start banishing advisers from his council just because Virlomi was annoyed with them. "Once again, our friend Thorn proves that his name is well chosen. And once again, we forgive him for his bluntness--or should I say, sharpness?"
Laughter...but they were still wary of Virlomi's wrath.
"I see that this counsel prefers to send Muslims to die in cosmetic wars, while the real enemy is allowed to gather strength unmolested, solely because he has not attacked us yet." She turned directly to Thorn. "My husband's good friend Thorn is like the man in a leaky boat, surrounded by sharks. He has a rifle, and his fellow passenger says, 'Why don't you shoot those sharks! Once the boat sinks and we're in the water, you won't be able to use the rifle!'
"'You fool,' says the man. 'Why should I provoke the sharks? None of them has bit me yet.'"
Thorn seemed determined to press his luck. "The way I heard the story, the boat was surrounded by dolphins, and the man shot at them until he ran out of ammunition. 'Why did you do that?' his friend asked, and the man said, 'because one of them was a shark in disguise.'
"'Which one?' said his companion.
"'You fool,' says the man. 'I told you he's in disguise.' Then the blood in the water drew many sharks. But the man's gun was empty."
"Thank you all for your wise counsel," said Alai. "I must now think about all that you have said."
Virlomi smiled at Thorn. "I must remember your alternate version of the story. It's hard to decide which one is funnier. Maybe one is funny to Hindus, and the other to Muslims."
Alai stood up and began shaking hands with the men around the table, in effect dismissing each one in turn. It had already been rude for Virlomi to continue the conversation. But still she would not let up.
"Or perhaps," she said to the group as a whole, "Thorn's story is funny only to the sharks. Because if his story is believed, the sharks are safe."
Virlomi had never gone this far before. If she were a Muslim wife, he could take her by the arm and gently lead her from the room, then explain to her why she could not say such things to men who were not free to answer.
But then, if she were a Muslim wife, she wouldn't have been at the table in the first place.
Alai shook hands with the rest of them, and they showed their deference to him. But he also saw a growing wariness. His failure to stop Virlomi from giving such outrageous offense--to a man who had admittedly gone too far himself--looked like weakness to them. He knew they were wondering just how much influence Virlomi had over him. And whether he was truly functioning as Caliph any more, or was just a henpecked husband, married to a woman who thought she was a god.
In short, was Caliph Alai succumbing to idolatry by being married to this madwoman?
Not that anyone could say such a thing--even to each other, even in private.
In fact, they probably weren't thinking it, either.
I'm thinking it.
When he and Virlomi were alone, Alai walked out of the room to the conference room toilet, where he washed his face and hands.
Virlomi followed him inside.
"Are you strong or weak?" she asked. "I married you for your strength."
He said nothing.
"You know I'm right. Peter Wiggin can't touch us. Only Han Tzu stands between us and uniting the world under our rule."
"That's not true, Virlomi," said Alai.
"So you contradict me, too?"
"We're equals, Virlomi," said Alai. "We can contradict each other--when we're alone together."
"So if I'm wrong, who is a greater threat than Han Tzu?"
"If we attack
Han Tzu, unprovoked, and it looks as if he might lose--or he does lose--then we can expect the Muslim population of Europe to be expelled, and the nations of Europe will unite, probably with the United States, probably with Russia. Instead of a mountain border that Han Tzu is not threatening, we'll have an indefensible border thousands of kilometers long in Siberia, and enemies whose combined military might will dwarf ours."
"America! Europe! Those fat old men."
"I see you're giving my ideas careful consideration," said Alai.
"Nothing's certain in war," said Virlomi. "This might happen, that might happen. I'll tell you what will happen. India will take action, whether the Muslims join us or not."
"India, which has little equipment and no trained army, will take on China's battle-hardened veterans--and without the help of the Turkish divisions in Xinjiang and the Indonesian divisions in Taiwan?"
"The Indian people do what I ask them," said Virlomi.
"The Indian people do what you ask them, as long as it's possible."
"Who are you to say what's possible?"
"Virlomi," said Alai. "I'm not Alexander of Macedonia."
"That much is abundantly clear. In fact, Alai, what battle have you ever fought and won?"
"You mean before or after the final war against the Buggers?"
"Of course--you were one of the sacred Jeesh! So you're right about everything forever!"
"And it was my plan that destroyed the Chinese will to fight."
"Your plan--which depended on my little band of patriots holding the Chinese army at bay in the mountains of eastern India."
"No, Virlomi. Your holding action saved thousands of lives, but if every single Chinese they sent over the mountain had faced us in India, we would have won."
"Easy to say."
"Because my plan was for the Turkish troops to take Beijing while most of the Chinese forces were tied up in India, at which point the Chinese troops would have been called back from India. Your heroic action saved many lives and made our victory quicker. By about two weeks and an estimated hundred thousand casualties. So I'm grateful. But you've never led large armies into combat."
Virlomi waved it away, as if such a gesture could make the fact of it disappear.
"Virlomi," said Alai. "I love you, and I'm not trying to hurt you, but you've been fighting all this time against very bad commanders. You've never come up against someone like me. Or Han Tzu. Or Petra. And definitely no one like Bean."
"The stars of Battle School!" said Virlomi. "Ancient test scores and membership in a club whose president got outmaneuvered and sent into exile. What have you done lately, Caliph Alai?"
"I married a woman with a bold plan," said Alai.
"But what did I marry?" asked Virlomi.
"A man who wants the world to be united in peace. I thought the woman who built the Great Wall of India would want the same thing. I thought our marriage was part of that. I never knew you were so bloodthirsty."
"Not bloodthirsty, realistic. I see our true enemy and I'm going to fight him."
"Our rival is Peter Wiggin," said Alai. "He has a plan for uniting the world, but his depends on the Caliphate collapsing into chaos and Islam ceasing to be a force in the world. That's what the Martel essay was designed to do--provoke us into doing something stupid in Armenia. Or Nubia."
"Well, at least you see through that."
"I see through all of it," said Alai. "And you don't see the most obvious thing of all. The longer we wait, the closer we come to the day when Bean will die. It's a cruel and terrible fact, but when he's gone, then Peter Wiggin loses his greatest tool."
Virlomi looked at him with withering scorn. "Back to the Battle School test scores."
"All the kids in Battle School were tested," said Alai. "Including you."
"Yes, and what did that get any of them? They sat here in Hyderabad like passive slaves while Achilles bullied them. I escaped. Me. Somehow I was different. But did that show up on any of their tests in Battle School? There are things they didn't test for."
Alai did not tell her the obvious: She was different only because Petra asked her for help, and not someone else. She would not have escaped without Petra's request.
"Ender's Jeesh didn't come from the tests," said Alai. "We were chosen because of what we did."
"Because of what you did that Graff thought was important. There were qualities that he didn't know were important, so he didn't watch for them."
Alai laughed. "What, you're jealous because you weren't in Ender's Jeesh?"
"I'm disgusted that you still believe that Bean is irresistible because he's so 'smart.'"
"You haven't seen him in action," said Alai. "He's scary."
"No, you're just scared."
"Virlomi," said Alai, "don't do this."
"Don't do what?"
"Don't force my hand."
"I'm not forcing anything. We're equals, right? You'll tell your armies what to do, and I'll tell mine."
"If you send your troops on a suicide attack against China, then China will be at war with me, too. That's what our marriage means. So you're committing me to war whether I like it or not."
"I can win without you."
"Don't believe your own propaganda, my beloved," said Alai. "You aren't a god. You aren't infallible. And right now, you're so irrational that it scares me."
"Not irrational," said Virlomi. "Confident. And determined."
"You studied where I did. You already know all the reasons why an attack against China is insane."
"That's why we'll achieve surprise. That's why we'll win. Besides," said Virlomi, "our battle plans will be drawn up by the great Caliph Alai. And he was a member of Ender's Jeesh!"
"What happened to the idea of our being equals?" said Alai.
"We are equals."
"I never forced you to do anything."
"And I'm not forcing you, either."
"Saying that over and over won't make it true."
"I'm doing what I choose, and you're doing what you choose. The only thing I want from you is--I want your baby inside me before I lead my troops to war."
"What do you think this is, the middle ages? You don't lead your troops to war."
"I do," said Virlomi.
"You do if you're a squad commander. There's no point when you have an army of a million men. They can't see you so it doesn't help."
"You reminded me a minute ago that you aren't Alexander of Macedon. Well, Alai, I am Jeanne d'Arc."
"When I said I'm not Alexander," said Alai, "I wasn't referring to his military prowess. I was referring to his marriage to a Persian princess."
She looked irritated. "I studied his campaigns."
"He returned to Babylon and married a daughter of the old Persian Emperor. He made his officers marry Persians, too. He was trying to unite the Greeks with the Persians and form them into one nation, by making the Persians a little more Greek, and the Greeks a little more Persian."
"Your point?"
"The Greeks said, We conquered the world by being Greek. The Persians lost their empire by being Persian."
"So you aren't trying to make your Muslims more Hindu or my Hindus more Muslim. Very good."
"He tried to combine soldiers of Persia and soldiers of Greece into one army. It didn't work. It fell apart."
"We're not making those mistakes."
"Exactly," said Alai. "I'm not going to make mistakes that destroy my Caliphate."
Virlomi laughed. "All right, then. If you think invading China is such a mistake, what are you going to do? Divorce me? Void our treaty? What then? You'll have to retreat from India and you'll look like even more of a zhopa. Or you'll try to stay and then I'll go to war against you. It all comes crashing down, Alai. So you're not going to get rid of me. You're going to stay my husband and you're going to love me and we'll have babies together and we'll conquer the world and govern it together and do you know why?"
"Why?" he said sadly.
"Becau
se that's how I want it. That's what I've learned over the past few years. Whatever I think of, if I decide I want it, if I do what I know I need to do, then it happens. I'm the lucky girl whose dreams come true."
She came to him, wrapped her arms around him, kissed him. He kissed her back, because it would be unwise of him to show her how sad and frightened he was, and how little he desired her now.
"I love you," she said. "You're my best dream."
20
PLANS
From: ImperialSelf%
[email protected] To: Weaver%
[email protected], Caliph%Salaam
@caliph.gov
Re: Don't do this
Alai, Virlomi, what are you thinking? Troop movements can't be hidden. Do you really want this bloodbath? Are you bent on proving that Graff is right and none of us belong on Earth?
Hot Soup
From: Weaver%
[email protected] To: ImperialSelf%
[email protected] Re: Silly boy
Did you think that Chinese offenses in India would be forgotten? If you don't want bloodshed, then swear allegiance to Mother India and Caliph Alai. Disband your armies and offer no resistance. We will be far more merciful to the Chinese than the Chinese were to India.
From: Caliph%
[email protected] To: ImperialSelf%
[email protected] Re: Look again
Take no precipitate action, my friend. Things will not go as they appear to be going.
Mazer Rackham sat across from Peter Wiggin in his office in Rotterdam.
"We're very concerned," said Rackham.
"So am I."
"What have you set in motion here, Peter?"
"Mazer," said Peter, "all I've done is keep pressing, using what small tools I have. They decide how to respond to that pressure. I was prepared for an invasion of Armenia or Nubia. I was prepared to take advantage of a mass expulsion of Muslims from some or all European nations."
"And war between India and China? Are you prepared for that?"
"These are your geniuses, Mazer. Yours and Graff's. You trained them. You explain to me why Alai and Virlomi are doing something so stupid and suicidal as to throw badly armed Indian troops against Han Tzu's battle-hardened, fully equipped, revenge-hungry army."
"So that's not something you did."
"I'm not like you and Graff," said Peter, irritated. "I don't think I'm some master puppeteer. I've got this amount of power and influence in the world, and it doesn't amount to much. I have a billion or so citizens who have not yet become a genuine nation, so I have to keep dancing just to keep the FPE viable. I have a military force which is well trained and well equipped, has excellent morale, and is so small it wouldn't even be noticed on a battlefield in China or India. I have my personal reputation as Locke and my not-so-empty-anymore office as Hegemon. And I have Bean, both his actual abilities and his extravagant reputation. That's my arsenal. Do you see anything in that list that would allow me to even think of starting a war between two major world powers over whom I have no influence?"