Please tell them that Suriyawong and I are alive. We will come out of hiding when we see Sister Carlotta with at least one high government official who Suriyawong would recognize on sight. Please act immediately. If I am wrong, you will be embarrassed. If I am right, you will have saved my life.
"I'm sick to my stomach thinking of how humiliated I'm going to be. Who are these people you're writing to?"
"People I trust. Like you."
Then, before sending the message, he added Peter's "Locke" address to the destination box.
"You know Ender Wiggin's brother?" asked Suriyawong.
"We've met."
Bean logged off.
"What now?" asked Suriyawong.
"We hide somewhere, I guess," said Bean.
Then they heard an explosion. Windows rattled. The floor trembled. The power flickered. The computers began to reboot.
"Got that done just in time," said Bean.
"Was that it?" asked Suriyawong.
"E," said Bean. "I think we're dead."
"Where do we hide?"
"If they did the deed, it's because they think we were still in there. So they won't be watching for us now. We can go to my barracks. My men will hide me."
"You're willing to bet my life on that?" asked Suriyawong.
"Yes," said Bean. "My track record of keeping you alive is pretty good so far."
As they walked out of the building, they saw military vehicles rushing toward where gray smoke was billowing up into the moonlit night. Others were heading for the entrances to the base. No one would be getting in or out.
By the time they reached the barracks where Bean's strike force was quartered, they could hear bursts of gunfire. "Now they're killing all the fake Indian spies this will be blamed on," said Bean. "The Chakri will regretfully inform the government that they all resisted capture and none were taken alive."
"Again you accuse him," said Suriyawong. "Why? How did you know this would happen?"
"I think I knew because there were too many smart people acting stupidly," said Bean. "Achilles and the Chakri. And he treated us angrily. Why? Because killing us bothered him. So he had to convince himself that we were disloyal children who had been corrupted by the I.F. We were a danger to Thailand. Once he hated us and feared us, killing us was justified."
"That's a long stretch from there to knowing they were about to kill us."
"They were probably set to do it at my quarters. But I stayed with you. It was quite possible they were planning for another opportunity--the Chakri would summon us to meet him somewhere, and we'd be killed instead. But when we stayed for hours and hours in your quarters, they realized this was the perfect opportunity. They had to check with the Chakri and get his consent to do it ahead of schedule. They probably had to rush to get the Indian stooges into place--they might even be genuine captured spies. Or they might be drugged Thai criminals who will have incriminating documents found on them."
"I don't care who they are," said Suriyawong. "I still don't understand how you knew."
"Neither do I," said Bean. "Most of the time, I analyze things very quickly and understand exactly why I know what I know. But sometimes my unconscious mind runs ahead of my conscious mind. It happened that way in the last battle, with Ender. We were doomed to defeat. I couldn't see a solution. And yet I said something, an ironic statement, a bitter joke--and it contained within it exactly the solution Ender needed. From then on, I've been trying to heed those unconscious processes that give me answers. I've thought back over my life and seen other times when I said things that were not really justified by my conscious analysis. Like the time when we stood over Achilles as he lay on the ground, and I told Poke to kill him. She wouldn't do it, and I couldn't persuade her, because I truly didn't understand why. Yet I understood what he was. I knew he had to die, or he would kill her."
"You know what I
think?" said Suriyawong. "I think you heard something outside. Or noticed something subliminally on the way in. Somebody watching. And that's what triggered you."
Bean could only shrug. "You may well be right. As I said, I don't know."
It was after hours, but Bean could still palm his way through the locks to get in without setting off alarms. They hadn't bothered to deauthorize him. His entry into the building would show up on a computer somewhere, but it was a drone program and by the time any human looked at it, Bean's friends should have things well in motion.
Bean was glad to see that even though his men were in their home barracks on the grounds of the Thai high command base, they had not slacked in their discipline. No sooner were they inside the door than both Bean and Suriyawong were seized and pressed against the wall while they were checked for weapons.