Ribeirao Preto, Brazil [May 18th in the Enderverse]

In the morning, Bean got up and posted a message to Achilles, naming a time about an hour later for their meeting. Then he wrote a brief note to Petra, just so she’d know he was thinking of her in case this was the last day of his life. Then another note to his parents, and one to Nikolai. At least if he managed to bring Achilles down with him, they’d be safe. That was something.

He walked downstairs to find Peter, Ben and Ender already waiting beside the IF car that would take them to the perimeter that had been established around the compound. The Wiggins seemed to have achieved some kind of truce, with Ender using Ben as an invisible wall between him and his brother.

They rode in near silence, because there was really nothing more to say.

At the perimeter, near the east gate, Bean found out very quickly that Peter hadn’t lied-the IF was standing behind his determination to go in with Bean’s group. Well, that was fine. Bean didn’t really need his companions to do much.

As he had requested before leaving Damascus, the IF had a uniformed doctor, two highly trained sharpshooters, and a fully equipped hazard squad, one of whom was to come in with Bean’s party.

( This was always here, lala )

[OOC: NFB, NFI, ABC, PDQ, LALALA. Preplayed with the luminous endsthegame, and holy GOD, OSC needs therapy.]