Then again, they probably already have a plan to deal with a meteor strike. They probably have a plan for everything. Even a plan they can turn to if…when…I fail.

5

SHIVA

From: Figurehead%[email protected]
To: PeterWiggin%[email protected]
Password: ********
Re: Speaking as a mother

After all these years of posing as the Madonna in your little Pietà, it occurs to me that I might whisper something in your oh-so busy ear:

Ever since Achilles’s little kidnapping venture, the not-so-secret weapon in everyone’s arsenal is whatever array of Battle School graduates they’re able to acquire, keep, and deploy. Now it’s even worse. Alai is Caliph in fact as well as name. Han Tzu is emperor of China. Virlomi is…what, a goddess? That’s what I hear, coming out of India.

Now they will go to war against each other.

What are YOU doing? Betting on the winner and choosing up sides?

Quite apart from the fact that many of these children were Ender’s friends and fellow soldiers, the whole human race owes them our very survival. We took away their childhood. When do they get a life they can call their own?

Peter, I’ve read history. Men like Genghis and Alexander were deprived of a normal childhood and absolutely focused on war and you know what? It deformed them. They were unhappy all the days of their lives. Alexander didn’t know who he was when he stopped conquering people. If he stopped moving forward, slaughtering all the way, he died.

So how about setting these children free? Have you given any thought to that? Talk to Graff. He’ll listen to you. Give these children an out. A chance. A life.

If for no other reason than because they’re Andrew’s friends. They’re like Andrew. They didn’t choose themselves for Battle School.

You, on the other hand, didn’t go to Battle School. You volunteered to save the world. So you have to stay and see it through.

Your loving and ever-supportive mother

A woman’s face appeared on the screen. She was dressed in the simple work-stained clothing of a Hindu peasant woman. But she bore herself like a lady of the highest caste—a concept that still had meaning, despite the long-ago banning of all outward markers of caste.

Peter did not know her. But Petra did. “It’s Virlomi.”

“All this time,” said Bean, “she hasn’t shown her face. Till now.”

“I wonder,” said Petra, “how many thousands of people in India already know her face.”

“Let’s listen,” said Peter. He moused the PLAY button.

“No one is faithful to God who has no choice. That is why Hindus are truly faithful, for they may choose not to be Hindus and no harm comes to them.

“And that is why there are no true Muslims in the world, because they may not choose to cease to be Muslims. If a Muslim tries to become a Hindu or a Christian or even a simple unbeliever, some fanatical Muslim will kill him.”

Pictures were flashed on the screen of beheaded bodies. Well-known images, but still potent as propaganda.