The doorman recognized Petra from her pictures, which appeared in the Armenian papers whenever there was a story about Bean. He not only let them go up unannounced, but also insisted on carrying their bags.
"You two, and three babies, this all the luggage you have?"
"We hardly ever wear clothes," said Petra, as if this were the most sensible thing in the world.
They were halfway up in the elevator before the doorman laughed and said, "You joking!"
Bean smiled and tipped him a hundred-dollar coin. The doorman flipped it in the air and pocketed it with a smile. "Good thing he give me! If Petra Arkanian give, my wife never let me spend!"
After the elevator doors closed, Bean said, "From now on, in Armenia you tip."
"They'd keep the tip either way, Bean. It's not like they give it back to us."
"Oh, eh."
Petra's mother could have been standing at the door, she opened it so quickly. Maybe she was.
There were hugs and kisses and a torrent of words in Armenian and Common. Unlike the cabdriver and doorman, Petra's parents were fluent in Common. So was Stefan, who had cut his high school classes today. And young David was obviously being raised with Common as his first language, since that's what he was chattering in almost continuously from the moment Petra entered the flat.
There was a meal, of course, and neighbors invited in, because it might be the big city, but it was still Armenia. But in only a couple of hours, it was just the nine of them.
"Nine of us," said Petra. "Our five and the four of you. I've missed you."
"Already you have as many children as we did," said Father.
"The laws have changed," said Bean. "Also, we didn't exactly plan to have ours all at once."
"Sometimes I think," said Mother to Petra, "that you're still in Battle School. I have to remind myself, no, she came home, she got married, she has babies. Now we finally get to see the babies. But so small!"
"They have a genetic condition," said Bean.
"Of course, we know that," said Father. "But it's still a surprise, how small they are. And yet so ... mature."
"The really little ones take after their father," said Petra, with a wry smile.
"And the normal one takes after his mother," said Bean.
"Thank you for letting us use your flat for the unofficial meeting tonight," said Bean.
"It's not a secure site," said Father.
"The meeting is unofficial, not secret. We expect Turkish and Azerbaijani observers to make their reports."
"Are you sure they won't try to assassinate you?" asked Stefan.
"Actually, Stefan, they brainwashed you at an early age," said Bean. "When the trigger word is said, you spring into action and kill everybody at the meeting."
"No, I'm going to a movie," said Stefan.
"That's a terrible thing to say," said Petra. "Even as a joke."
"Alai isn't Achilles," said Bean to Stefan. "We're friends, and he won't let Muslim agents assassinate us."
"You're friends with your enemy," said Stefan, as if it were too incredible.
"It happens in some wars," said Father.
"There is no war yet," Mother reminded them.
They took the hint, stopped talking about current problems, and reminisced instead. Though since Petra had been sent to Battle School so young, it's not as if she had that much to reminisce about. It was more like they were briefing her about her new identity before an undercover mission. This is what you should remember from your childhood, if you'd had one.
And then the Prime Minister, the President, and the Foreign Minister showed up. Mother took the babies into her bedroom, while Stefan took David out to see a movie. Father, being Deputy Foreign Minister, was allowed to stay, though he would not speak.
The conversation was complex but friendly. The Foreign Minister explained how eager Armenia was to join the FPE, and then the President echoed everything he had said, and then the Prime Minister began another repetition.
Bean held up a hand. "Let's stop hiding from the truth. Armenia is a landlocked country, with Turks and Azerbaijanis almost completely surrounding you. With Georgia refusing to join the FPE at present, you worry that we couldn't even supply you, let alone defend you against the inevitable attack."
They were obviously relieved that Bean understood.
"You just want to be left alone," he said.
They nodded.
"But here's the truth: If we don't defeat Caliph Alai and break up this strange and sudden union of Muslim nations, then Caliph Alai will eventually conquer all the surrounding nations. Not because Alai himself wants to, but because he can't remain Caliph for long if he isn't aggressively pursuing an expansionist policy. He says that's not his intent, but he'll certainly end up doing it because he'll have no choice."
They didn't like hearing this, but they kept listening.
"Armenia will fight Caliph Alai sooner or later. The question is whether you'll do it now, while I still lead the forces of the FPE in your defense, or later, when you stand utterly alone against overwhelming force."
"Either way, Armenia will pay," said the President grimly.
"War is unpredictable," said Bean. "And the costs are high. But we didn't put Armenia where it is, surrounded by Muslims."
"God did," said the President. "So we try not to complain."
"Why can't Israel be your provocation?" asked the Prime Minister. "They are militarily much stronger than we are."
"The opposite is true," said Bean. "Geographically their position is and always has been hopeless. And they have integrated so closely with the Muslim nations surrounding them that if they now joined the FPE, the Muslims would feel deeply betrayed. Their fury would be terrible, and we could not defend them. While you—let's just say that over the centuries, Muslims have slaughtered more Armenians than they ever did Jews. They hate you, they regard you as a terrible intrusion into their lands, even though you were here long before any Turks came out of central Asia. There's a burden of guilt along with the hatred. And for you to join the FPE would infuriate them, yes, but they wouldn't feel betrayed."
"These nuances are beyond me," said the President skeptically.
"They make an enormous difference in the way an army fights. Armenia is vital to forcing Alai to act before he's ready. Right now the union with India is still merely formal, not a fact on the ground. It's a marriage, not a family."
"You don't need to quote Lincoln to me."
Petra inwardly winced. The quote about "a marriage, not a family" did not come from Lincoln at all. It came from one of her own Martel essays. It was a bad sign if people were getting Lincoln and Martel confused. But of course it was better not to correct the misattribution, lest it appear that she was way too familiar with the works of Martel and Lincoln.
"We stand where we've stood for weeks," said the President. "Armenia is being asked too much."
"I agree," said Bean. "But keep in mind that we're asking. When the Muslims finally decide that Armenia shouldn't exist, they won't ask."
The president pressed his fingers to his forehead. It was a gesture that Petra called "drilling for brains." "How can we hold a plebiscite?" he asked.
"It's precisely the plebiscite that we need."
"Why? What does this do for you militarily except overextend your forces and draw off a relatively small part of the Caliph's armies?