"Enough of this nonsense," said Peter. "We've all faced some nasty blows today. But we've got an alliance started here, haven't we? You're acting in my interest tonight, getting that groundswell started so I can reveal myself on the world's stage. And I've got to get you into Thailand, in a position of trust and influence, before I expose myself as a teenager. Which of us gets to sleep first, do you think?"
"Me," said Sister Carlotta. "Because I don't have any sins on my conscience."
"Kuso," said Bean. "You have all the sins of the world on your mind."
"You're confusing me with somebody else," said Sister Carlotta.
To Peter their banter sounded like family chatter--old jokes, repeated because they're comfortable.
Why didn't his own family have any of that? Peter had bantered with Valentine, but she had never really opened up to him and played that way. She always resented him, even feared him. And their parents were hopeless. There was no clever banter there, there were no shared jokes and memories.
Maybe I really was raised by robots, Peter thought.
"Tell your parents we really appreciated the dinner," said Bean.
"Home to bed," said Sister Carlotta.
"You won't be sleeping in your hotel tonight, will you?" said Peter. "You'll be leaving."
"We'll email you how to contact us," said Bean.
"You'll have to leave Greensboro yourself, you know," said Sister Carlotta. "Once you reveal your identity, Achilles will know where you are. And even though India has no reason to kill you, Achilles does. He kills anyone who has even seen him in a position of helplessness. You actually put him in that position. You're a dead man, as soon as he can reach you."
Peter thought of the attempt that had been made on Bean's life. "He was perfectly happy to kill your parents right along with you, wasn't he?" Peter asked.
"Maybe," said Bean, "you should tell your mom and dad who you are before they read about it on the nets. And then help them get out of town."
"At some point we have to stop hiding from Achilles and face him openly."
"Not until you have a government committed to keeping you alive," said Bean. "Until then, you stay in hiding. And your parents, too."
"I don't think they'll even believe me," said Peter. "My parents, I mean. When I tell them that I'm really Locke. What parents would? They'll probably try to commit me as delusional."
"Trust them," said Bean. "I think you think they're stupid. But I can assure you that they're not. Or at least your mother isn't. You got your brains from somebody. They'll deal with this."
So it was that when Peter got home at ten o'clock, he went to his parents' room and knocked on their door.
"What is it?" asked Father.
"Are you awake?" Peter asked.
"Come in," said Mother.
They chatted mindlessly for a few minutes about dinner and Sister Carlotta and that delightful little Julian Delphiki, so hard to believe that a child that young could possibly have done all that he had done in his short life. And on and on, until Peter interrupted them.
"I have something to tell you," said Peter. "Tomorrow, some friends of Bean's and Carlotta's will be starting a phony movement to get Locke nominated as Hegemon. You know who Locke is? The political commentator?"
They nodded.
"And the next morning," Peter went on, "Locke is going to come out with a statement that he has to decline such an honor because he's just a teenage boy living in Greensboro, North Carolina."
"Yes?" said Father.
Did they really not get it? "It's me, Dad," said Peter. "I'm Locke."
They looked at each other. Peter waited for them to say something stupid.
"Are you going to tell them that Valentine was Demosthenes, too?" asked Mother.