The doctors looked at each other, frightened.

“They’ll be safe?” asked Alai.

“Better if they don’t see your transportation come and go,” said the pilot. “It will soon be dawn and there’s a little light. But they’ll be safe.”

Alai touched them both as he left the chopper.

He and his men watched as the medical chopper lifted off. Instantly, another chopper arrived, but this time a long-range battlejet, large enough to carry many soldiers into battle, and armed heavily enough to get them past a lot of obstacles.

The door opened, and Peter Wiggin stepped out.

Alai walked up to him. “Salaam,” he said.

“And in you, too, let there be peace,” said Peter.

“You look more like Ender than the public photographs show.”

“I have them retouched by computer to make me look older and smarter,” said Peter.

Alai grinned. “It was nice of you to give us a ride.”

“When Felix told me the sad story of that lonely pedestrian in the Empty Quarter, I couldn’t pass up the chance to help.”

“I thought it would be Bean,” said Alai.

“It’s a whole bunch of men trained by Bean,” said Peter. “But Bean himself is on another errand. In Rwanda, as it happens.”

“So that’s happening now?” asked Alai.

“Oh, no,” said Peter. “We won’t make a move until we see how your little adventure turns out.”

“Then let’s go,” said Alai.

Peter invited Alai to take precedence, but then he himself entered before any of Alai’s soldiers. Ivan made as if to protest, but Alai gestured for him to relax. Alai had already bet everything on Peter’s being cooperative and trustworthy. Now was not the time to worry about assassination or kidnapping. Even though there were twenty Hegemony soldiers already inside, as well as a sizable amount of equipment. Alai recognized the Thai-looking commander as someone he knew from Battle School. Had to be Suriyawong. Alai nodded to him. Suriyawong nodded back.

Once they were under way and on jet power—this time without any embarrassed woman having to be officially rebuked and forgiven and dressed—Peter indicated the men who were with him.

“I assumed,” said Peter, “that the lone hitchhiker our mutual friend told me about didn’t need a large escort.”

“Only enough to get me to where a certain thick rope is coiled like a snake.”

Peter nodded. “I have friends currently trying to find his exact location.”

Alai smiled. “I assume it’s far from the front.”

“If he’s in Hyderabad,” said Peter, “then he will be under extremely heavy guard. But if he’s across the border in Pakistan, security will not be unusually heavy.”

“Either way,” said Alai, “I will not have your men exposed to danger.”

“Or observed,” said Peter. “It wouldn’t do for too many people to know you were brought to real power with the help of the Hegemon.”

“You do seem to be at hand whenever I make a play for power.”

“This is the last time, if you win,” said Peter.