"I don't think so," said Vlad. "Yes, Hot Soup and Alai are in the thick of things, but Virlomi wasn't in the Jeesh. And the rest of the Jeesh—Bean and Petra are with you, struggling for world peace, yes? Like beauty pageant contestants? Dink is in a joint Anglo-American project which means he has had his balls cut off, militarily speaking. Shen is marking time in some ceremonial position in Tokyo. Dumper is a monk, I think, or whatever they call them. A shaman. In the Andes somewhere. Crazy Tom is at Sandhurst confined to a classroom. Carn Carby is in Australia where they may or may not have a military but nobody cares. And Fly Molo ... well, he's a busy boy in the Philippines. But not their president or even an important general."
"That squares with my tally, though I think Carn would argue with you about the value of the Australian military."
Vlad waved the objection aside. "My point is, most nations that have this 'treasured national resource' are far more concerned to keep us under observation and away from power than to actually use us to make war."
Peter smiled. "Yes. Either they have you up to your elbows in blood, or they have you locked in a box. Anybody happily married?"
"We're none of us even twenty-five yet. Well, maybe Dink. He always lied about his age. Most of us are in our teens or barely out of them."
"They're afraid of you. All the more so now, because the nations that actually used their Jeesh members in war are now governed by them."
"If you can call 'worldwide Islam' a nation. I, personally, call it a riot with scripture."
"Just don't say that in Baghdad or Tehran," said Peter.
"As if I could ever go to those places."
"Vlad," said Peter. "How would you like to be free of all this beauty?"
Vlad hooted with laughter. "So you're here representing Graff?"
Peter was taken aback. "Graff came to you?"
"Be head of a colony. Get away from it all. All-expenses-paid vacation ... that takes the rest of your life!"
"Not a vacation," said Peter. "Very hard work. But at least you have a life."
"So Peter the Hegemon wants Ender's Jeesh offplanet. Forever."
"Do you want my job?" said Peter. "I'll resign it today if I thought it would go to you. You or any member of Ender's Jeesh. You want it? Think you can hold it? Then it's yours. I only have it because I wrote the Locke essays and stopped a war. But what have I done lately? Vlad, I don't see you as a rival. How could I? What freedom do you have to oppose me?"
Vlad shrugged. "All right, so your motives are pure."
"My motives are realistic," said Peter. "Russia is not using you right now, but they haven't killed you or locked you up. If they ever decide that war is desirable or necessary or unavoidable, how long before you get promoted and put into the thick of things? Especially if the war goes badly for a while. You are their nuclear arsenal."
"Not really," said Vlad. "Since my brain is supposed to be the pay-load of this particular missile, and my brain was defective enough to seem to trust Achilles, then I must not be as good as the other Jeesh members."
"In a war against Han Tzu, how long before you commanded an army? Or at least were put in charge of strategy?"
"Fifteen minutes, give or take."
"So. Is Russia more or less likely to go to war, knowing they have you?"
Vlad smiled a little and ducked his head. "Well, well. So the Hegemon wants me out of Russia so Russia won't be so adventurous."
"Not quite so simple," said Peter. "There'll come a day when much of the world will have merged their sovereignty—"
"By which you mean they will have surrendered it."
"Into one government. It won't be the big nations. Just a bunch of little ones. But unlike the United Nations and the League of Nations and even the Hegemony in its previous form, it will not be designed to keep the central government as powerless as possible. The nations in this league will maintain no separate army or navy or air force. They will not have separate control over their own borders—and they will collect no customs. Nor will they maintain a separate merchant marine. The Hegemony will have power over foreign policy, period, without rival. Why would Russia ever join such a confederacy?"
"It never would."
Peter nodded. And waited.
"It never would unless it thought that it was the only safe thing to do."
"Add the word 'profitable' into that sentence and you'll be closer to right."
"Russians are not Americans like you, Peter Wiggin. We don't do things for profit motive."
"So all those bribes go into charitable causes."
"They keep the bookmakers and prostitutes of Russia from starving," said Vlad. "Altruism at its finest."
"Vlad," said Peter. "All I'm saying is, think about this. Ender Wiggin did two great deeds for humanity. He wiped out the Buggers. And he never returned to Earth."
Vlad turned on Peter with real fire in his eyes. "Do you think I don't know who arranged for that?"
"I advocated it," said Peter. "I wasn't Hegemon then. But do you dare to tell me I was wrong? What would have happened if Ender himself were here on Earth? Everybody's hostage. And if his homeland managed to keep him safe, what then? Ender Wiggin, the Bugger-slayer, now at the head of the armed forces of the dreaded United States. Think of the jockeying, the alliances, the preemptive attacks, all because this great and terrible weapon was in the hands of the nation that still thinks it has the right to judge and govern all the world."
Vlad nodded. "So it's just a happy coincidence that it left you without a rival for the Hegemony."
"I have rivals, Vlad. The Caliph has millions of followers who believe that he's the one God chose to be ruler over the earth."
"Aren't you making the same offer to Alai?"
"Vlad," said Peter. "I don't expect to persuade you. Only to inform you. If there comes a day when you think your best hope of safety is to leave Earth, post a note to me at the website I'll link to you in an email. Or if you realize that the only chance your nation has of peace is for all its Battle School grads to disappear from Earth, tell me, and I'll do all I can to get them safely out and off."
"Unless I go to my superiors and tell them all that you just told me."
"Tell them," said Peter. "Tell them and lose the last shreds of freedom that you have."
"So I won't tell them," said Vlad.
"And you'll think about it. It will be there in the back of your mind."
"And when all the Battle School grads are gone," said Vlad, "there will be Peter. Brother of Ender Wiggin. The natural ruler of all humankind."
"Yes, Vlad. The only chance we have of unity is to have a strong consensus leader. Our George Washington."
"And that's you."
"It could be a Caliph, and we'd have a future as a Muslim world. Or we might all be made into vassals of the Middle Kingdom. Or—tell me, Vlad—should we prefer to be ruled over by the government that now treats you so kindly?"
"I'll think about this," said Vlad. "And you think about something else. Ambition was part of the basis by which we were chosen for Battle School. Just how self-sacrificing do you think we'll be? Look at Virlomi. As shy a person as Battle School could possibly admit. But to achieve her purpose, she made herself into a god. And she does seem to play the part with enthusiasm, doesn't she?"
"Ambition balanced against survival instinct," said Peter. "Ambition leads you to great risk. But ambition never leads you to certain destruction."