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

[momslilassassin]

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.

	Ben's expression was one that his classmates at school very rarely saw: one of absolute focus. He didn't waste time and energy on pointless small talk, merely glanced at Bean when they arrived at the entrance point, lightsaber hilt ready in his right hand.
	"Achilles will have a container that purports to be a transport refrigerator for a half dozen frozen embryos," Bean said, looking over his IF-given men. He didn't acknowledge Ben. "If I have you carry it outside, then that means I’m sure it’s a bomb or contains some toxin, and I want it treated that way-even if I say something different inside there. If it turns out to have been embryos after all, well, that’s my own mistake, and I’ll explain it to my wife. If I have the doctor here carry it, that means I’m sure it’s the embryos, and the package is to be treated that way."
	"And what if you're not sure?" Peter asked. He also made a good show of ignoring Ben. Neither of them had any intention of letting him in on this mission.
	"I’ll be sure," said Bean, "or I won’t give it to anybody." "Why don’t you just carry it yourself?" asked the hazardist, "And tell us what to do when it gets outside?"
	Peter rolled his eyes, but only a little bit. "Mr. Delphiki doesn't expect to come out alive."
	"My goal for all four of you," said Bean, "is for you to walk out of there uninjured. There’s no chance of that if you start shooting, for any reason. That’s why none of you is going to carry a loaded weapon." They looked at him as if he were insane. "I’m not going in there unarmed," said one of the other men. "Fine," said Bean. "Then there’ll be one less. He didn’t say I had to bring five."
	"Technically," said Peter to the other sharpshooter, "you won’t be unarmed. Just unloaded. So they’ll treat you as if did have bullets, because they won’t know you don’t." "I’m a soldier, not a sap," said the man, and he walked away. Fine. They could do this without--
	Of course, this would be the moment Ender chose to speak up from his vantage point. "Then take Ben," he said, simply. "He's ready." He glanced towards the boy in question, and added, "And he won't shoot anyone." Ender wasn't foisting anyone's death on Ben's shoulders; that was an order as much as anything.
	And Ben recognized it as such. He gave Ender a quick look, fond exasperation mingling with just a little bit of gratitude. Of course, if things got ugly, he'd use the lightsaber, neatly evading Ender's order, and just never mention it. He stalked closer to Bean and Peter, daring them to countermand Ender's order.
	Bean chewed on his lower lip. The word Wiggins obviously passed through his mind, but he didn't say anything. Finally, he looked away from Ender. "I guess we're ready to go," he said, flicking his eyes over each member of his team - including Ben. Ben could take his cue from that.
	Ben nodded gravely at him, too much of a professional to waste energy gloating. Besides, he was tired of tossing his resume at Bean and waiting to be acknowledged for what he could bring to the group. "Back soon," he said with a tiny smile aimed at Ender.
	Ender gave him a barely perceptible nod. There was a hint of just don't, Ben in his expression. He wouldn't put it past Ben to try something on a loophole.
	Ben wasn't the only one looking at Ender, but Bean broke his gaze quickly enough, and nodded at his crew. Then he began walking, and the rest of the crew followed, stepping through the gate into the east garden. Birds in all the trees ranted their calls as if they were trying to memorize something and just couldn’t get it to stick. There was not a soul in sight. Bean wasn’t going to wander around searching for Achilles. He definitely wasn’t going to get far from the gate. So, about ten paces in, he stopped. So did the others. And they waited.
	It didn’t take long. A soldier in the Hegemony uniform stepped out into the open. Then another, and another, until the fifth soldier appeared. Suriyawong. He gave no sign of recognition. Rather he looked right past both Bean and Peter as if they were nothing to him.
	Ben decided against waving like a spaz just to see if Suriyawong would blink, and instead tried to figure out if Suriyawong was a hostage or working for Achilles.
	Achilles stepped out behind them-but stayed close to the trees, so he wouldn’t be too easy a target for sharpshooters. He was carrying, as promised, a small transport fridge. "Bean," he said with a smile. "My, how you’ve grown." Bean said nothing. "Oh, we aren’t in a jesting mood," he said. He was smiling broadly by now. "I’m not either, really. It’s almost a sentimental moment for me, to see you again. To see you as a man. Considering I knew you when you were this high." He held out the transport fridge, a heavy weight on his arm, and still he was smiling. "Here they are, Bean."
	One of Bean's eyebrows went up. "You're just going to give them to me?"
	Achilles shrugged a shoulder, an easy, casual move that set Bean's nerves on edge. "I don’t really have a use for them. There weren’t any takers in the auction."
	Ben's snort was barely audible. How dumb did this guy really think they were?
	It was audible enough to send Bean's own thoughts into a whirlwind. His eyes flew to the hazardist. "Would you do me a favour and take this outside for me?" he said, patiently, and nodded at the case. The hazardist approached, picked it up, and began to head outside. He turned back to Achilles. "Your friend went through a lot of trouble to get these for you."
	"What trouble?" Achilles asked, patiently. "He bribed a guard. With my money."
	"How did you get him to help you, anyway?" Bean's tone was too focused, too intent; he realised he was giving part of the game away, but he didn't really care.
	Ben had been around enough people of Achilles' type to wonder how much a little flattery would get them. Megalomaniacs tended to enjoy monologuing about how brilliant they were. "Blackmail," Ben guessed. "Achilles seems remarkably adept at ferreting out information people don't want him to have."
	"Ah, Ender's pet has joined the conversation," Achilles said, more than pleased, and beamed. "Nice guess, but no. He owed me. I’m the one who got him out of jail. I got our brilliant Hegemon here..." Achilles's grin got aimed at Peter, "...to give me authority to authorize the release of prisoners whose crimes had ceased to be crimes. He didn’t make the connection that I’d be releasing Bean's creator into the wild."
	Peter didn't say anything, but his jaw set just a little more.
	Ben stomped down hard on his flare of temper. Letting Achilles know he'd managed to be irritating wouldn't help anything. "Very neat," he commented blandly.
	"You trained these men well, Bean," said Achilles. "Being with them is like… well, it’s like being with my family again. Like on the streets, you know?" There was no answer forthcoming. Achilles carried on. "So what did you want to talk to me about?"
	"A couple of little questions I’m curious about," Bean said, nonchalantly. "I’ll listen. Maybe I’ll answer." "Back in Hyderabad. There was a Chinese officer who knocked you unconscious to break our stalemate." "Oh, is that who did it?" Achilles's voice was light, questioning. "Whatever happened to him?" "I’m not sure. I think his chopper was shot down in combat only a few days later." "Oh," said Bean. "Too bad. I wanted to ask him what it felt like to hit you." "Really, Bean, aren’t we both too old for that sort of gibe?" Outside the gate there was a muffled explosion.
	Ben didn't flinch. He'd also refrained from checking the Force for signs of life when the fridge had been taken out. If the embryos had been eliminated, well, he didn't really want to be the first to know.
	Achilles, for his part, seemed startled, ducking his head and looking around. "...What was that?"
	"I’m pretty sure," said Bean, "that it was an explosion." "Of what?" "Of the bomb you just tried to give me,," Bean replied, his eyes narrowed, but his posture casual. "Inside a containment chamber."
	Achilles tried to look innocent for all of a moment. "I don’t know what you..." But then he seemed to realize there was no point in feigning ignorance when the thing had just exploded. He pulled the remote detonator out of his pocket, pressed the button a couple of times. "Damn all this modern technology, nothing ever works right." He grinned at Bean. "Got to give me credit for trying."
	"Don't think we will," Ben replied.
	"Your friend is snarky," Achilles observed, idly. "But they're safe. You'll have to come inside with me if you want to see, though."
	Bean shrugged. "Okay."
	Achilles pursed his lips in thought. "That’ll take us outside the range of the sharpshooters you no doubt have all around the compound, waiting to shoot me down."
	"And inside the range of whoever you have waiting for me there."
	Achilles sighed, leaning forward a little with a vague smile plastered all over his face. "Bean. Be realistic. You’re dead whenever I want you dead."
	"Well," Bean said, and his eyes flicked towards Ben. He had to make sure everyone who might refuse to stay put was with the program, and he had a suspicion Ben was one of them. "That’s not strictly true. You’ve wanted me dead a lot more often than I’ve died."
	Ben wasn't letting his hand drift near his lightsaber and was projecting an aura of bored nonchalance. But no, Bean wouldn't be dead whenever Achilles wanted him dead, thank you very much. He glanced back at Bean, his expression very much "don't think you're going in alone."
	"Do you know what your friend Poke was saying just before she had that accident and fell into the Rhine?" There was no reaction from Bean. "She was saying that I shouldn’t hold a grudge against you for telling her to kill me when we first met. He’s just a little kid, she said. He didn’t know what he was saying." Still, Bean said nothing. "I wish I could tell you Sister Carlotta’s last words, but… you know how collateral damage is in wartime. You just don’t get any warning." Achilles crossed his arms. "I wonder what yours will be. Or theirs. Or Ender's? He's close, now. What would be the Xenocide's last words, you think?"
	"You said you'd take us to the embryos," Bean said, pointedly ignoring his little monologue. His head tipped forward into a little nod, a signal to Ben. Okay. He'd come along.
	Ben was more than used to monologuing--Jacen had been quite fond of it--and based on Achilles' track record, could guess what had really happened to Poke and Sister Carlotta. The part about Ender Ben ignored entirely. Mentioning Ender's name was as close as Achilles was ever going to get to him, as far as Ben was concerned. If that looked like it was going to change, well, Ben had a lightsaber. And he didn't miss. He shifted a little closer to Bean and asked, "Are we going to retrieve the embryos or do you have another hour or two of musings you'd like to share with us?"
	"Snarky again," Achilles said, thoughtfully. "Fine. Follow me." As soon as Achilles’s back was turned, the doctor looked at Bean and frantically shook his head. "It’s all right," Bean told the doctor and the other soldier. "You can go on out. You won’t be needed any more." Achilles turned back around. "You’re letting your escort go?"
	"Except for Peter and Ben," Bean said, shrugging. "They can't get enough of me, I guess."
	"Oh, but you're not snarky," Ben replied in an undertone.
	"Just go with it," Bean whispered back.
	"I didn't hear either of them say that," Achilles said, thoughtfully. He smiled at Peter. "I especially expected him to stay away, considering how eager he was to get away from the compound to begin with..."
	"I’m trying to figure out how you were able to fool so many people," Peter spoke up, finally.
	"But I’m not trying to fool you," said Achilles. "Though I can see how someone like you would long to find a really masterful liar to study with." He cracked up, turning on his heel, and headed towards the main compound, out of earshot.
	Ben glanced at Achilles's back and then rolled his eyes before following along after him. He didn't disagree with Achilles' assessment of Peter and that annoyed him. He didn't want any kind of common ground with this guy.
	Peter took a deep breath, and moved closer to the two of them as they went for the building. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
	Bean shot him an amused look. "I told you. I have no idea."
	"Well, we're not going into that building and ending up dead," Ben said. "Other than that, I'm flexible."
	"I'm still pretty sure I'll wind up dead." Bean, don't sound so cheerful. "Alai said something about asking yourself what Ender would do. I figure that isn't always the worst advice."
	Peter shot him a positively foul look.
	Ben smothered a smile. He didn't like either of the other boys, but he didn't like Peter more and watching his annoyance at being compared to Ender was always entertaining. "You're not ending up dead," he told Bean. "Sorry to disappoint you."
	"Bean," Achilles said, coming to a stop amidst his crew of soldiers.. "I can’t believe you didn’t make some kind of arrangement for me to get out of here."
	Bean snorted. "There’s no arrangement to get you out of here, Achilles, because there’s no place for you to go. The only people that still had any use for you are busy getting their butts kicked by a bunch of pissed-off Muslims. You saw to it that you couldn’t go anywhere in space when you shot down Peter's would-be shuttle after you dethroned him."
	Ben bit back his instinct to comment about what a shame that was, Achilles being such a people person and all. "If you wanted to get out, you should have made that a precondition of the meeting," he pointed out instead.
	"You know, for someone who doesn't know anything about this place, you sure talk a lot," Achilles drawled, thoughtfully. "Did you think adding an unknown element to the mix would give you the advantage, Bean? Maybe it already has. I know you had to have caught my informant to get Peter off that shuttle." He shot Ben a speculative look. "Maybe I misjudged the strays."
	"Oh, probably," Ben agreed, examining his fingernails. "For someone who doesn't know much about anything, you sure talk a lot."
	"Clever," Achilles replied, "If indicative of ignorance on your own part."
	"I think," Bean interrupted, before that could get out of hand, "that you don’t have the embryos at all. I think you dispersed them as soon as you got them. I think you already had them implanted in surrogates."
	"Wrong," said Achilles. He reached inside his pants pocket and took out a small container. Exactly like the ones in which the embryos had been frozen. "I brought one along, just to show you. Of course, he’s probably thawed quite a bit. My body heat and all that. What do you think? Do we still have time to get this little sucker implanted in somebody? Petra’s already pregnant. I hear, so you can’t use her. I know! Peter’s mother! She always likes to be so helpful, and she’s used to giving birth to geniuses. Here, Peter, catch!" He tossed the container toward Peter, but too hard, so it sailed over Peter’s upstretched hands and went for the floor.
	Ben probably shouldn't have done it, but he reached into the Force and stopped the vial before it hit, hovering just a few inches above the floor. He stalked over, scooped it up, and handed it to Bean, then shot Achilles a look that could've cut through durocrete. "That's one."
	"Thanks, Ben," Bean said, honestly, and took it. "But no thanks, Achilles." He dropped the vial onto the floor and crushed it under his boot.
	Achilles' mouth formed a perfect 'o'. "You are one harsh disciplinarian," he said, "Your kids can't get away with anything with you."
	Ben quickly stomped down on his gag reflex so his expression didn't change from the glare he'd been shooting Achilles. "His right," he said, though he wasn't sure he believed that.
	"You know, I asked myself a lot of questions," Bean said, advancing on Achilles. He paid no heed to the smashed test tube on the floor. "Primarily the one Alai keeps asking himself-- You know. What would Ender do. Like those old bracelets from way back before space travel took off. Call it a dysfunction that comes with the job."
	"You can’t kill me," Achilles said, stepping backwards. "You don’t know where the embryos are."
	"I'm not Ender, though," Bean said, lightly, "Neither's Peter. And this isn't Ender's game. But I know you don’t have them. And that I’m not going to get them without letting you go. And I’m not letting you go. So I guess that means the embryos are forever lost to me." Bean reached into the butt holster that rode inside his pants, hanging from the waistband, and pulled out the flat .22-caliber pistol concealed there.
	Ben had a bad feeling about this, but he wasn't going to do a thing to stop it from playing out. This, too, was Bean's right.
	"Suri," Achilles said, backing away, "Are you asleep?"
	Suri said nothing. But he drew a long knife from its sheath.
	"That’s not what’s needed here." Achilles shot Suriyawong a... concerned look.
	"Hold still, Achilles," said Bean. "Take it like a man. Besides, if I miss, you might live through it and spend the rest of your days as a brain-damaged shell of a man. We want this to be nice and clean and final, don’t we?"
	Ben shot Bean a look. "Don't taunt him. Just end this."
	"Oh, I just want to see how far he's going to dig," Bean said, lightly, pointing the gun at Achilles' left eye, then the right.
	Far into his pocket, apparently. Achilles yanked the vial out of his pocket - a little nervously. "This is the real thing, Bean." He reached out his hand, offering it. "You killed one, but there are still the other four."
	Bean obliged by slapping it out of his hands, letting it break as it hit the floor. "I know you. I know that you would never promise me something you could actually deliver."
	The muscles along Ben's jawline clenched. He could only get himself to believe that assassination was for the greater good when it was an aggressive form of defense, and giving Achilles the rope to hang himself with was tipping too far over the line into just plain murder for him. "Bean," he said quietly. "If you know that, then do it."
	"He's not going to do anything," Achilles snapped. "Suriyawong! Shoot him!"
	"Sir," said Suriyawong. It was the first word he'd spoken all day. Suriyawong knelt down, laid his knife on the smooth floor, and slid it toward Achilles until it rested at his feet.
	"What’s this supposed to be?" demanded Achilles. "The loan of a knife," said Suriyawong. Respectfully. "But he has a gun!"
	"I expect you to solve your own problems without getting any of my men killed," Suriyawong said, his voice even, his face unmarked by any expression. "Shoot him!" Achilles was past commanding into pleading, now. "I thought you were my friend." "I told you from the start." Suriyawong was unmoving. "I serve the Hegemon."
	Ben quested out into the Force to determine Suriyawong's state of mind and hid a grim smile. This wasn't going to end well for Achilles.
	"Come on now, Bean. We’ve known each other a long time." Achilles began to back towards the wall, realising his entire power base had just fallen out from under him. He tried to lean against it. But his legs were a little wobbly and he started to slide down the wall. "I know you, Bean. You can’t just kill a man in cold blood, no matter how much you hate him." He took a gasping, terrified breath. "It’s not in you to do that."
	I just ask myself, 'what would Ender do?' said Alai again, somewhere in the past. Bean didn't spend a lot of time on the thought. "Yes," he said, pointing the gun at Achilles' right eye, "It is." He pulled the trigger. Achilles' head rocked back from the force of the bullet impacting between his eyelids. It lasted no more than a split second. Then he slumped to the floor. Anyone else might've said it was anti-climactic. "The enemy's gate is down," Bean muttered under his breath, and lowered the gun. The objective is to fall towards the enemy's gate. He didn't feel particularly like rejoicing. But at least it was done.
	Ben's attention shifted immediately to the men who'd come in with Achilles, hand reaching for the hilt of his lightsaber. "And we'll be going now," he said, no hint of revulsion in his voice or in his Force-presence. Karla didn't need to know how he felt about this.
	Bean shot him a quick sideways glance. "Don't worry about them," he said. Peter tried to calm his breathing. "Come on, Suri. Let's go."
	"Oh, now we trust people," Ben muttered to himself.

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