"Father," said Mother, "why don't you call for some protection?"
Father hesitated.
Bean understood why. The political game was a delicate one, and anything Father did right now could have repercussions throughout his career. "You won't be perceived as asking for special privileges for yourself," said Bean. "Nikolai and I are a precious national resource. I believe the prime minister is on record as saying that several times. Letting Athens know where we are and suggesting they protect us and get us out of here is a good idea."
Father got on the cellphone.
He got only a System Busy response.
"That's it," said Bean. "There's no way the phone system can be too busy here on Ithaca. We need a boat."
"An airplane," said Mother."
"A boat," said Nikolai. "And not a rental. They're probably waiting for us to put ourselves in their hands, so there won't be a struggle."
"Several of the nearby houses have boats," said Father. "But we don't know these people."
"They know us," said Nikolai. "Especially Bean. We are war heroes, you know."
"But any house around here could be the very one from which they're watching us," said Father. "If they're watching us. We can't trust anybody."
"Let's get in our bathing suits," said Bean, "and walk to the beach and then wander as far as we can before we cut inland and find somebody with a boat."
Since no one had a better plan, they put it into action at once. Within two minutes they were out the door, carrying no wallets or purses, though Father and Mother slipped a few identification papers and credit cards into their suits. Bean and Nikolai laughed and teased each other as usual, and Mother and Father held hands and talked quietly, smiling at their sons ... as usual. No sign of alarm. Nothing to cause anyone watching to spring into action.
They were only about a quarter mile up the beach when they heard an explosion -- loud, as if it were close, and the shockwave made them stumble. Mother fell. Father helped her up as Bean and Nikolai looked back.
"Maybe it's not our house," said Nikolai.
"Let's not go back and check," said Bean.
They began to jog up the beach, matching their speed to Mother, who was limping a little from having skinned one knee and twisted the other when she fell. "Go on ahead," she said.
"Mother," said Nikolai, "taking you is the same as taking us, because we'd do whatever they wanted to get you back."
"They don't want to take us," said Bean. "Petra they wanted to use. Me they want dead."
"No," said Mother.
"He's right," said Father. "You don't blow up a house in order to kidnap the occupants."
"But we don't know it was our house!" Mother insisted.
"Mother," said Bean. "It's basic strategy. Any resource you can't get control of, you destroy so your enemy can't have it."
"What enemy?" Mother said. "Greece has no enemies!"
"When somebody wants to rule the world," said Nikolai, "eventually everyone is his enemy."
"I think we should run faster," said Mother.
They did.
As they ran, Bean thought through what Mother had said. Nikolai's answer was right, of course, but Bean couldn't help but wonder: Greece might have no enemies, but I have. Somewhere in this world, Achilles is alive. Supposedly he's in custody, a prisoner because he is mentally ill, because he has murdered again and again. Graff promised that he would never be set free. But Graff was court-martialed -- exonerated, yes, but retired from the military. He's now Minister of Colonization, no longer in a position to keep his promise about Achilles. And if there's one thing Achilles wants, it's me, dead.
Kidnaping Petra, that's something Achilles would think of. And if he was in a position to cause that to happen -- if some government or group was listening to him -- then it would have been a simple enough matter for him to get the same people to kill Bean.
Or would Achilles insist on being there in person?
Probably not. Achilles was not a sadist. He killed with his own hands when he needed to, but would never put himself at risk. Killing from a distance would actually be preferable. Using other hands to do his work.
Who else would want Bean dead? Any other enemy would seek to capture him. His test scores from Battle School were a matter of public record since Graff's trial. The military in every nation knew that he was the kid who in many ways had topped Ender himself. He would be the one most desired. He would also be the one most feared, if he were on the other side in a war. Any of them might kill him if they knew they couldn't take him. But they would try to take him first. Only Achilles would prefer his death.
But he said nothing of this to his family. His fears about Achilles would sound too paranoid. He wasn't sure whether he believed them himself. And yet, as he ran along the beach with his family, he grew more certain with every step that whoever had kidnaped Petra was in some way under Achilles' influence.
They heard the rotors of helicopters before they saw them, and Nikolai's reaction was instantaneous. "Inland now!" he shouted. They scrambled for the nearest wooden stairway leading up the cliff from the beach.
They were only halfway up before the choppers came into view. There was no point in trying to hide. One of the choppers set down on the beach below them, the other on the bluff above.
"Down is easier than up," said Father. "And the choppers do have Greek military insignia."
What Bean didn't point out, because everyone knew it, was that Greece was part of the New Warsaw Pact, and it was quite possible that Greek military craft might be acting under Russian command.
In silence they walked back down the stairs. Hope and despair and fear tugged at them by turns.
The soldiers who spilled out of the chopper were wearing Greek Army uniforms.
"At least they're not trying to pretend they're Turks," said Nikolai.
"But how would the Greek Army know to come rescue us?" said Mother. "The explosion was only a few minutes ago."
The answer came quickly enough, once they got to the beach. A colonel that Father knew slightly came to meet them, saluting them. No, saluting Bean, with the respect due to a veteran of the Formic War.
"I bring you greetings from General Thrakos," said the colonel. "He would have come himself, but there was no time to waste when the warning came."
"Colonel Dekanos, we think our sons might be in danger," said Father.
"We realized that the moment word came of the kidnapping of Petra Arkanian," said Dekanos. "But you weren't at home and it took a few hours to find out where you were."
"We heard an explosion," said Mother.
"If you had been inside the house," said Dekanos, "you'd be as dead as the people in the surrounding houses. The army is securing the area. Fifteen choppers were sent up to search for you -- we hoped -- or, if you were dead, the perpetrators. I have already reported to Athens that you are alive and well."
"They were jamming the cellphone," said Father.
"Whoever did this has a very effective organization," said Dekanos. "Nine other children, it turns out, were taken within hours of Petra Arkanian."
"Who?" demanded Bean.
"I don't know the names yet," said Dekanos. "Only the count."
"Were any of the others simply killed?" asked Bean.
"No," said Dekanos. "Not that I've heard, anyway."
"Then why did they blow up our house?" Mother demanded.
"If we knew why," said Dekanos, "we'd know who. And vice-versa."
They were belted into their seats. The chopper rose from the beach -- but not very high. By now the other choppers were ranged around them and above them. Flying escort.
"Ground troops are continuing the search for the perpetrators," said Dekanos. "But your survival is our highest priority."
"We appreciate that," said Mother.
But Bean was not all that appreciative. The Greek military would, of course, put them in hiding and protect them carefully. But no matter what they did, the one thing they could not do was conceal the knowledge of his location from the Greek government itself. And the Greek government had been part of the Russia-dominated Warsaw Pact for generations now, since before the Formic War. Therefore Achilles -- if it was Achilles, if it was Russia he worked for, if, if -- would be able to find out where they were. Bean knew that it was not enough for him to be in protection. He had to be in true concealment, where no government could find him, where no one but himself would know who he was.