"I think it's going to take a lot of divisions," said John Paul, "to bring about less division."
"I told you they were happy in Damascus, not that I thought they were right to be," said Petra. "There are signs of trouble ahead. There's an imam preaching that India and Pakistan should be reunited under a single government again."
"Let me guess," said Peter. "A Muslim one."
"If they liked what Virlomi did to the Chinese," said Bean, "they'll love what she can get the Hindus to do to get free of the Pakistanis."
"And Peter will love this one," said Petra. "An Iraqi politician made a speech in Baghdad in which he very pointedly said, 'In a world where Allah has chosen a Caliph, why do we need a Hegemon?'"
They laughed, but their faces were serious when the laughing stopped.
"Maybe he's right," said Peter. "Maybe when this war is over, the Caliph will be the Hegemon, in fact if not in name. Is that a bad thing? The goal was to unite the world in peace. I volunteered to do it, but if somebody else gets it done, I'm not going to get anybody killed just to take the job away from him."
Theresa took hold of his wrist, and Graff chuckled. "Keep talking like that, and I'll understand why I've been supporting you all these years."
"The Caliph is not going to replace the Hegemon," said Bean, "or erase the need for one."
"No?" asked Peter.
"Because a leader can't take his people to a place where they don't want to go."
"But they want him to rule the world," said Petra.
"But to rule the world, he has to keep the whole world content with his rule," said Bean. "And how can he keep non-Muslims content without making orthodox Muslims extremely discontented? It's what the Chinese found in India. You can't swallow a nation. It finds a way to get itself vomited out. Begging your pardon, Petra."
"So your friend Alai will realize this, and not try to rule over non-Muslim people?" asked Theresa.
"Our friend Alai would have no problem with that idea," said Petra. "The question is whether the Caliph will."
"I hope we won't remember this day," said Graff, "as the time when we first started fighting the next war."
Peter spoke up. "As I said before, this war's not over yet."
"Both of the frontline Chinese armies in India have been surrounded and the noose is tightening," said Graff. "I don't think they have a Stalingrad-style defense in them, do you? The Turkic armies have reached the Hwang He and Tibet just declared its independence and is slaughtering the Chinese troops there. The Indonesians and Arabs are impossible to catch and they're already making a serious dent in internal communications in China. It's just a matter of time before they realize it's pointless to keep killing people when the outcome is inevitable."
"It takes a lot of dead soldiers before governments ever catch on to that," said Theresa.
"Mother always takes the cheerful view," said Peter, and they laughed.
Finally, though, it was time for Petra to hear the story of what happened inside the compound. Peter ended up telling most of it, because Bean kept skipping all the details and rushing straight to the end.
"Do you think Achilles believed Suriyawong would really kill Bean for him?" asked Petra.
"I think," said Bean, "that Suriyawong told him that he w
ould."
"You mean he intended to do it, and changed his mind?"
"I think," said Bean, "that Suri planned that moment from the start. He made himself indispensable to Achilles. He won his trust. The cost of it was losing the trust of everyone else."
"Except you," said Petra.
"Well, you see, I know Suri. Even though you can't ever really know anybody--don't throw my own words back up to me, Petra--"
"I didn't! I wasn't!"
"I walked into the compound without a plan, and with only one real advantage. I knew two things that Achilles didn't know. I knew that Suri would never give himself to the service of a man like Achilles, so if he seemed to be doing so, it was a lie. And I knew something about myself. I knew that I could, in fact, kill a man in cold blood if that's what it took to make my wife and children safe."