“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!”