Room 318, Saturday Morning
One of the downsides of Jim's departure - not that Peter would recognize it that way - was that Peter was back to getting very little sleep half the time. With no necessity on his side to pretend like he had a normal teenage boy's sleep schedule, it was so easy for Peter to stay up till all hours of the night.
Of course, that ease was now also marred with frustration: his informant hadn't digged up anything worthwhile about the kidnapped Battle School students, and Peter was running out of leads. He had spent the night poking around websites and talking to more of his informants, hoping something would come up - but as had been the case for the past two months, nothing had.
He rubbed at his eyes, and felt exhaustion sinking his body heavily into his chair. Okay. Maybe it was time to sleep.
He logged out of his browser and was about to shut down his desk when he heard the tell-tale noise of an email coming in. Ugh. Did he really want to deal with yet another 'sorry, I don't know' tonight...?
He took a peek at the email's send-to, and stilled.
To:Demosthenes%Tecumseh@freeamerica.org, Locke%erasmus@polnet.gov
From: dontbother@firewall.set
Re: Achilles heel
Dear Peter Wiggin,
A message smuggled to me from the kidnapped children confirms they are (or were, at the time of sending) together, in Russia near the sixty-fourth parallel, doing their best to sabotage those trying to exploit their military talents. Since they will doubtless be separated and moved frequently, the exact location is unimportant, and I am quite sure you already knew Russia was the only country with both the ambition and the means to acquire all the members of Ender's jeesh.
I'm sure you recognize the impossibility of releasing these children through military intervention - at the slightest sign of a plausible effort to extract them, they will be killed in order to deprive an enemy of such assets. But it might be possible to persuade either the Russian government or some if not all of those holding the individual children that releasing them is in Russia's best interest. This might be accomplished by exposing the individual who is almost certainly behind this audacious action, and your two identities are uniquely situated to accuse him in a way that will be taken seriously.
Therefore I suggest that you do a bit of research into a break-in at a highsecurity institution for the criminally insane in Belgium during the League War. Three guards were killed and the inmates were released. All but one were recaptured quickly. The one who got away was once a student at Battle School. He is behind the kidnapping. When it is revealed that this psychopath has control of these children, it will cause grave misgivings inside the Russian command system. It will also give them a scapegoat if they decide to return the children.
Don't bother trying to trace this email identity. It already never existed. If you can't figure out who I am and how to contact me from the research you're about to do, then we don't have much to talk about anyway.
Peter's heart had sank when he'd seen this letter to Demosthenes had also been sent to Locke. The salutation "Dear Peter Wiggin" only confirmed it - someone besides the office of the Polemarch had broken his identities. He expected the worst - some kind of blackmail or a demand that he support this or that cause.
To his surprise, the message was nothing of the kind. Exhaustion vanished - or was pushed aside. He was not going to go to bed now, when someone had just thrown such a tantalizing trail of breadcrumbs into his lap.
Of course he immediately searched the news archives and found the break-in at a high-security mental hospital near Gent. Finding the name of the inmate who got away was much harder, requiring that, as Demosthenes, he ask for help from a law enforcement contact in Germany, and then, as Locke, for additional help from a friend in the Anti-Sabotage Committee in the Office of the Hegemon.
It yielded a name that made Peter laugh, since it was in the subject line of the email that prompted this search. Achilles, pronounced "ahSHEEL" in the French manner. An orphan rescued from the streets of Rotterdam by, of all things, a Catholic nun working for the procurement section of the Battle School. He was given surgery to correct a crippled leg, then taken up to Battle School, where he lasted only a few days before being exposed as a serial killer by some of the other students, though in fact he had not killed anyone in the Battle School.
The list of his victims was interesting. He had a pattern of killing anyone who had ever made him feel or seem helpless or vulnerable. Including the doctor who had repaired his leg. Apparently he wasn't much for gratitude.
Putting together the information, Peter could see that his unknown correspondent was right. If in fact this sicko was running the operation that was using these kids for military planning, it was almost certain that the Russian officers working with him did not know his criminal record. Whatever agency liberated Achilles from the mental hospital would not have shared that information with the military who were expected to work with him. There would be outrage that would be heard at the highest levels of the Russian government.
And even if the government did not act to get rid of Achilles and release the kids, the Russian Army jealously guarded its independence from the rest of the government, especially the intelligence-and-dirty-jobs agencies. There was a good chance that some of these children might "escape" before the government acted-indeed, such unauthorized actions might force the government to make it official and pretend that the "early releases" had been authorized.
It was always possible, of course, that Achilles would kill one or more of the kids as soon as he was exposed. At least Peter would not have to face those particular children in battle. And now that he knew something about Achilles, Peter was in a much better position to face him in a head-to-head struggle. Achilles killed with his own hands. Since that was a very stupid thing to do, and Achilles did not test stupid, it had to be an irresistible compulsion. People with irresistible compulsions could be terrifying enemies - but they could also be beaten.
For the first time in weeks, Peter felt a glimmer of hope. This was how his work as Locke and Demosthenes paid off - people with certain kinds of secret information that they wanted to make public found ways to hand it to Peter without his even having to ask for it. Much of his power came from this disorganized network of informants. It never bothered his pride that he was being "used" by this anonymous correspondent. As far as Peter was concerned, they were using each other. And besides, Peter had earned the right to get such helpful gifts.
Still, Peter always looked gift horses in the mouth. As either Locke or Demosthenes, he emailed friends and contacts in various government agencies, trying to get confirmation of various aspects of the story he was preparing to write. Could the break-in at the mental institution have been carried out by Russian agents? Did satellite surveillance show any kind of activity near the sixty-fourth parallel that might correspond with the arrival or departure of the ten kidnapped kids? Was anything known about the whereabouts of Achilles that would contradict the idea of his being in control of the whole kidnap operation?
Finally, what active work he could do exhausted, Peter sat back into his chair and stared at his screen. Should he write this via Demosthenes? It might scare up a few people against the Red Menace and maybe put some pressure on the government...
He wouldn't realize until the squirrels started knocking on his door that he still had radio to do, and by then, the adrenaline had dissipated, and he was left feeling excruciatingly tired.
Lovely.
[[ door is closed, but post is open. Parts under the cut taken from Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Hegemon, details of what Peter's up to NFB. ]]
Of course, that ease was now also marred with frustration: his informant hadn't digged up anything worthwhile about the kidnapped Battle School students, and Peter was running out of leads. He had spent the night poking around websites and talking to more of his informants, hoping something would come up - but as had been the case for the past two months, nothing had.
He rubbed at his eyes, and felt exhaustion sinking his body heavily into his chair. Okay. Maybe it was time to sleep.
He logged out of his browser and was about to shut down his desk when he heard the tell-tale noise of an email coming in. Ugh. Did he really want to deal with yet another 'sorry, I don't know' tonight...?
He took a peek at the email's send-to, and stilled.
To:Demosthenes%Tecumseh@freeamerica.org, Locke%erasmus@polnet.gov
From: dontbother@firewall.set
Re: Achilles heel
Dear Peter Wiggin,
A message smuggled to me from the kidnapped children confirms they are (or were, at the time of sending) together, in Russia near the sixty-fourth parallel, doing their best to sabotage those trying to exploit their military talents. Since they will doubtless be separated and moved frequently, the exact location is unimportant, and I am quite sure you already knew Russia was the only country with both the ambition and the means to acquire all the members of Ender's jeesh.
I'm sure you recognize the impossibility of releasing these children through military intervention - at the slightest sign of a plausible effort to extract them, they will be killed in order to deprive an enemy of such assets. But it might be possible to persuade either the Russian government or some if not all of those holding the individual children that releasing them is in Russia's best interest. This might be accomplished by exposing the individual who is almost certainly behind this audacious action, and your two identities are uniquely situated to accuse him in a way that will be taken seriously.
Therefore I suggest that you do a bit of research into a break-in at a highsecurity institution for the criminally insane in Belgium during the League War. Three guards were killed and the inmates were released. All but one were recaptured quickly. The one who got away was once a student at Battle School. He is behind the kidnapping. When it is revealed that this psychopath has control of these children, it will cause grave misgivings inside the Russian command system. It will also give them a scapegoat if they decide to return the children.
Don't bother trying to trace this email identity. It already never existed. If you can't figure out who I am and how to contact me from the research you're about to do, then we don't have much to talk about anyway.
Peter's heart had sank when he'd seen this letter to Demosthenes had also been sent to Locke. The salutation "Dear Peter Wiggin" only confirmed it - someone besides the office of the Polemarch had broken his identities. He expected the worst - some kind of blackmail or a demand that he support this or that cause.
To his surprise, the message was nothing of the kind. Exhaustion vanished - or was pushed aside. He was not going to go to bed now, when someone had just thrown such a tantalizing trail of breadcrumbs into his lap.
Of course he immediately searched the news archives and found the break-in at a high-security mental hospital near Gent. Finding the name of the inmate who got away was much harder, requiring that, as Demosthenes, he ask for help from a law enforcement contact in Germany, and then, as Locke, for additional help from a friend in the Anti-Sabotage Committee in the Office of the Hegemon.
It yielded a name that made Peter laugh, since it was in the subject line of the email that prompted this search. Achilles, pronounced "ahSHEEL" in the French manner. An orphan rescued from the streets of Rotterdam by, of all things, a Catholic nun working for the procurement section of the Battle School. He was given surgery to correct a crippled leg, then taken up to Battle School, where he lasted only a few days before being exposed as a serial killer by some of the other students, though in fact he had not killed anyone in the Battle School.
The list of his victims was interesting. He had a pattern of killing anyone who had ever made him feel or seem helpless or vulnerable. Including the doctor who had repaired his leg. Apparently he wasn't much for gratitude.
Putting together the information, Peter could see that his unknown correspondent was right. If in fact this sicko was running the operation that was using these kids for military planning, it was almost certain that the Russian officers working with him did not know his criminal record. Whatever agency liberated Achilles from the mental hospital would not have shared that information with the military who were expected to work with him. There would be outrage that would be heard at the highest levels of the Russian government.
And even if the government did not act to get rid of Achilles and release the kids, the Russian Army jealously guarded its independence from the rest of the government, especially the intelligence-and-dirty-jobs agencies. There was a good chance that some of these children might "escape" before the government acted-indeed, such unauthorized actions might force the government to make it official and pretend that the "early releases" had been authorized.
It was always possible, of course, that Achilles would kill one or more of the kids as soon as he was exposed. At least Peter would not have to face those particular children in battle. And now that he knew something about Achilles, Peter was in a much better position to face him in a head-to-head struggle. Achilles killed with his own hands. Since that was a very stupid thing to do, and Achilles did not test stupid, it had to be an irresistible compulsion. People with irresistible compulsions could be terrifying enemies - but they could also be beaten.
For the first time in weeks, Peter felt a glimmer of hope. This was how his work as Locke and Demosthenes paid off - people with certain kinds of secret information that they wanted to make public found ways to hand it to Peter without his even having to ask for it. Much of his power came from this disorganized network of informants. It never bothered his pride that he was being "used" by this anonymous correspondent. As far as Peter was concerned, they were using each other. And besides, Peter had earned the right to get such helpful gifts.
Still, Peter always looked gift horses in the mouth. As either Locke or Demosthenes, he emailed friends and contacts in various government agencies, trying to get confirmation of various aspects of the story he was preparing to write. Could the break-in at the mental institution have been carried out by Russian agents? Did satellite surveillance show any kind of activity near the sixty-fourth parallel that might correspond with the arrival or departure of the ten kidnapped kids? Was anything known about the whereabouts of Achilles that would contradict the idea of his being in control of the whole kidnap operation?
Finally, what active work he could do exhausted, Peter sat back into his chair and stared at his screen. Should he write this via Demosthenes? It might scare up a few people against the Red Menace and maybe put some pressure on the government...
He wouldn't realize until the squirrels started knocking on his door that he still had radio to do, and by then, the adrenaline had dissipated, and he was left feeling excruciatingly tired.
Lovely.
[[ door is closed, but post is open. Parts under the cut taken from Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Hegemon, details of what Peter's up to NFB. ]]