"Virlomi has the stronger hand," said Petra.
"I don't see it," said Peter. "What am I missing?"
"Han Tzu won't just sit there while the Muslim armies try to subdue India. The Muslim supply lines either run across the vast Asian desert or through India or by sea from Indonesia. If the Indian supply lines are cut, how long can Alai hold his armies there in numbers sufficient to keep Han Tzu contained?"
Peter nodded. "So you think Alai will run out of food and bullets before Virlomi runs out of Indians."
"I think," said Bean, "that what we just saw was a marriage proposal."
Peter laughed. But since Bean and Petra weren't laughing ... "What are you talking about?"
"Virlomi is India," said Bean. "She just said so. And Han Tzu is China. And Alai is Islam. So will it be India and China against the world, or Islam and India against the world? Who can sell that marriage to their own people? Which throne will sit beside the throne of India? Whichever one it is, that's more than half the population of the world, united."
Peter closed his eyes. "So we don't want either to happen."
"Don't worry," said Bean. "Whichever happens, it won't last."
"You're not always right," said Peter. "You can't see that far ahead."
Bean shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. I'll be dead before it all shakes out."
Petra growled and stood up and paced.
"I don't know what to do," said Peter. "I tried to talk to Alai, and all I did was provoke a coup. Or rather, Petra did that." He couldn't hide his annoyance. "I wanted him to control his people, but they're out of control. They're roasting cows in the streets of Madras and Bombay and then killing the Hindus who riot. They're beheading any Indian that someone accuses of being a lapsed Muslim—or even the grandchild of lapsed Muslims. Do I just sit here and watch the world collapse into war?"
Petra snapped at him. "I thought that was part of your plan. To make yourself seem indispensable."
"I don't have a great plan," said Peter. "I just... respond. And I'm asking you about it instead of figuring things out on my own because the last time I ignored your advice it was a disaster. But now I find out you don't actually have any advice. Just predictions and assumptions."
"I'm sorry," said Bean. "It didn't cross my mind you were asking for advice."
"Well, I am," said Peter.
"Here's my advice," said Bean. "Your goal isn't to avoid war."
"Yes it is," said Peter.
Bean rolled his eyes. "So much for listening."
"I'm listening," said Peter.
"Your goal is to establish a new order in which war between nations becomes impossible. But to get to that Utopian place, there's going to have to be enough war that people will know the thing they're desperate to avoid."
"I'm not going to encourage war," said Peter. "It would discredit me completely as a peacemaker. I got this job because I'm Locke!"
"If you stop objecting and listen," said Petra, "you'll eventually get Bean's advice."
"I'm the great strategist, after all," said Bean with a wry smile. "And the tallest man in the Hegemony compound."
"I'm listening," said Peter again.
"You're right, you can't encourage war. But you also can't afford to try to stop wars that can't be stopped. If you're seen to try and fail, you're weak. The reason Locke was able to broker a peace between the Warsaw Pact and the West was that neither side wanted war. America wanted to stay home and make money, and Russia didn't want to run the risk of provoking I.F. intervention. You can only negotiate peace when both sides want it—badly enough to give up something in order to get it. Right now, nobody wants to negotiate. The Indians can't— they're occupied, and their occupiers don't believe they pose a threat. The Chinese can't—it's politically impossible for a Chinese ruler to settle for any boundary short of the borders of Han China. And Alai can't because his own people are so flushed with victory that they can't see any reason to give anything up."
"So I do nothing."
"You organize relief efforts for the famine in India," said Petra.
"The famine that Virlomi is going to cause."
Petra shrugged.
"So I wait until everybody's sick of war," said Peter.
"No," said Bean. "You wait until the exact moment when peace is possible. Wait too long, and the bitterness will run too deep for peace."
"How do I know when the time is right?"
"Beats me," said Bean.
"You're the smart ones," said Peter. "Everyone says so."
"Stop the humble act," said Petra. "You understand perfectly what we're saying. Why are you so angry? Any plan we make now will crumble the first time somebody makes a move that isn't on our script."
Peter realized that it wasn't them he was angry at. It was his mother and her ridiculous letter. As if he had the power to "rescue" the Caliph and the Chinese emperor and this brand new Indian goddess and "set them free" when they had all clearly maneuvered themselves into the positions they were in.
"I just don't see," said Peter, "how I can turn any of this to my advantage."
"You just have to watch and keep meddling," said Bean, "until you see a place where you can insert yourself."
"That's what I've been doing for years."
"And very well, too," said Petra. "Can we go now?"
"Go!" said Peter. "Get your evil scientist. I'll save the world while you're out."
"We expect no less," said Bean. "Just remember that you asked for the job. We didn't."
They got up. They started for the door.
"Wait a minute," said Peter.
They waited.
"I just realized something," Peter said.
They waited some more.
"You don't care."
Bean looked at Petra. Petra looked at Bean. "What do you mean we don't care?" said Bean.
"How can you say that?" said Petra. "It's war, it's death, it's the fate of the world."
"You're treating it like ... like I was asking advice about a cruise. Which cruise line to go on. Or ... or a poem, whether the rhymes are good."
Again they looked at each other.
"And when you look at each other like that," said Peter. "It's like you're laughing, only you're too polite to show it."
"We're not polite people," said Petra. "Especially not Julian."
"No, that's right, it's not that you're polite. It's that you're so much wrapped up in each other that you don't have to laugh, it's like you already laughed and only you two know about it."
"This is all so interesting, Peter," said Bean. "Can we go now?"
"He's right," said Petra. "We aren't involved. Like he is, I mean. But it's not that we don't care, Peter. We care even more than you do. We just don't want to get involved in doing anything about it because...."
They looked at each other again and then, without saying another word, they started to leave.
"Because you're married," said Peter. "Because you're pregnant. Because you're going to have a baby."
"Babies," said Bean. "And we'd like to get on with trying to find out what happened to them."
"You've resigned from the human race is what you've done," said Peter. "Because you invented marriage and children, suddenly you don't have to be part of anything."