As Alai expected, Rajam waited for him at the top of the imposing stairs leading up to the finest-looking building in the compound. But Alai walked up only a few steps and stopped, turning his back on Rajam and facing the soldiers…and the camera. The light was good here.

The vid crew took their places at the bottom of the steps.

Alai held up his arms for silence and waited. The shouting died down.

“Soldiers of God!” he shouted.

A huge roar, but it subsided at once.

“Where is the general who has led you?”

Another cheer…but one that was noticeably less enthusiastic. Alai hoped that Rajam wouldn’t be too resentful of the difference in their popularity.

Alai did not look—he counted on Ivan to signal him when Rajam was near. He saw Ivan beckoning to Rajam to take his place at Alai’s left hand, directly in front of the camera.

Ivan signaled. Alai turned and embraced and kissed Rajam.

Stab me to death right now, Alai wanted to say. Because this is your last chance, you treasonous, murdering dog.

Instead, he spoke softly into Rajam’s ear. “As my old friend Ender Wiggin used to say, Rajam, the enemy’s gate is down.”

Then he let go of the embrace, ignoring the puzzled look on Rajam’s face, and took his hand, offering him to the cheering of the soldiers.

Alai raised his hands for silence and got it.

“God has seen all the deeds that have been done in his name here in India!”

Cheering. But also, on some faces, uncertainty. They had seen Virlomi’s vid, including the most recent one. Some of them, the brightest of them, knew that they could not be sure what Alai meant by this.

“And God knows, as you all know, that nothing has been done in India except by the will of General Rajam!”

The cheering was definitely half-hearted.

“Now is the day God has appointed to pay the debt of honor that is owed!”

The cheer had barely started when the camera crew pulled out their machine pistols and filled Rajam’s body with bullets.

At first many of the soldiers thought it was an assassination attempt on the Caliph, and there was a roar. Alai was glad to see that these were not the Muslim soldiers of history—few fled from the bullets, and many rushed forward. But Alai raised his arms and strode to a higher position, above the body of Rajam. At the same time, as he had instructed them, Ivan and the two men who were not holding the camera bounded up the steps and stood in line with Alai and raised their weapons above their heads.

“Allahu akbar!” they cried in unison. “Muhammed is his prophet! And Alai is Caliph!”

Again Alai raised his hands, and waited until he had relative silence and the rush toward the steps had ceased. Now there were soldiers all around him.

“The crimes of Andariyy Rajam have made a stink throughout the world! The soldiers of Islam came to India as liberators! In the name of God they came, as friends to our brothers and sisters in India! But Andariyy Rajam betrayed God and his Caliph by encouraging some of our people to commit terrible crimes!