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"Yes, yes, I read all about how young Alexander was. It helped that he was the son of the king and that he fought unmotivated armies of mercenaries."
"So you think the Buggers are motivated."
"The Buggers are a commander's dream," said Helena. "They don't question orders, they just do.
Whatever."
"Also a commander's nightmare," said Sillain. "They don't think for themselves."
"John Paul Wieczorek is the real thing," said Helena. "And in thirty-five years, he'll be forty. So the Alexander theory won't have to be tested."
"Now you're talking as if you're sure he'll be the one."
"I don't know that," said Helena. "But he's something. The things he says."
"I read your report."
"When he said, 'I'd rather keep you as a friend than keep that thing,' I about lost it. I mean, he's five."
"And that didn't set off your alarms? He sounds coached."
"But he wasn't. His parents didn't want any of them tested, least of all him, being underage and all."
"They said they didn't want."
"The father stayed home from work to try to stop me."
"Or to make you think he wanted to stop you."
"He can't afford to lose a day's pay. Noncompliant parents don't get paid vacations."
"I know," said Sillain. "Wouldn't it be ironic if this John Paul Whatever—"
"Wieczorek."
"Yes, that's the one. Wouldn't it be ironic if, after all our stringent population control efforts—for the sake of the war, mind you—it turned out that the commander of the fleet turned out to be the seventh child of noncompliant parents?"
"Yes, very ironic."
"I think one theory was that birth order predicts that only firstborns would have the personality for what we need."
"All else being equal. Which it isn't."
"We're so ahead of ourselves here, Captain Rudolf," said Sillain. "The parents are not likely to say yes, are they?"
"No, not likely," said Helena.
"So it's all moot, isn't it?"
"Not if..."
"Oh, that would be so wise, to make an international incident out of this." He leaned back in his chair.
"I don't think it would be an international incident."
"The treaty with Poland has very strict parental-control provisions. Have to respect the family and all."
"The Poles are very anxious to rejoin the rest of the world. They aren't going to invoke that clause if we impress on them how important this boy is."
"Is he?" asked Sillain. "That's the question. If he's worth the gamble of making a huge stink about it."
"If it starts to stink, we can back off," said Helena.
"Oh, I can see you've done a lot of public relations work."
"Come see him yourself," said Helena. "He'll be six in a few days. Come see him. Then tell me whether he's worth the risk of an international incident."
This was not at all how John Paul wanted to spend his birthday. Mother had made candy all day with sugar she begged from neighbors, and John Paul wanted to suck on his, not chew it, so it would last and last. Instead Father told him either to spit it out into the garbage or swallow it, and so now it was swallowed and gone, all for these people from the International Fleet.
"We got some questionable results from the preliminary screening," said the man. "Perhaps because the child had listened to three previous tests. We need to get accurate information, that's all."
He was lying—that was obvious, from the way he moved, the way he looked Father right in the eye, unwaveringly. A liar who knew he was lying and was trying hard not to look like he was lying. The way Thomas always did. It fooled Father but never Mother, and never John Paul.
So if the man was lying, why? Why was he really coming to test John Paul again?
He remembered what he had thought right after the woman tested him three weeks ago, that she had found what she was looking for. But then nothing had happened and he figured he must have been wrong. Now she was back and the man who was with her was telling lies.
The family was banished to other rooms. It was evening, time for Father to go to his second job, only he couldn't go while these people were here or they'd know, or guess, or wonder what he was doing, hour after hour during the evening. So the longer this took, the less money Father would earn tonight, and therefore the less food they'd be able to eat, the less clothing they'd have to wear.
The man even sent the woman out of the room. That a
He didn't like at all the way the man looked at their house. At the other children. At Mother and Father. As if he thought himself better than they were.
The man asked a question.
John Paul answered in Polish instead of Common.
The man looked at him blankly. He called out, "I thought he spoke Common!"
The woman stuck her head back into the room. Apparently she had only gone to the kitchen. "He does, fluently," said the woman.
The man looked back at John Paul, and the disdainful look was gone. "So what game are you playing?"
In Polish, John Paul said, "The only reason we're poor is because the Hegemon punishes Catholics for obeying God."
"In Common, please," said the man.
"The language is called English," said John Paul in Polish, "and why should I talk to you at all?"
The man sighed. "Sorry to waste your time." He got up.
The woman came back into the room. They thought they were whispering soft enough, but like most adults, they thought that children didn't understand adult conversations so they weren't all that careful about being quiet.
"He's defying you," said the woman.
"Yes, I guessed that," said the man testily.
"So if you go, he wins."
Good one, thought John Paul. This woman wasn't stupid. She knew what to say to make this man do what she wanted.
"Or somebody does."
She walked over to John Paul. "Colonel Sillain thinks I was lying when I said you did so well on the tests."
In Common, John Paul said, "How well did I do?"
The woman only got a little smile on her face and glanced back at Col. Sillain.
Sillain sat back down. "All right then. Are you ready?"
In Polish, John Paul said, "I'm ready if you speak Polish." Impatiently, Sillain turned back to the woman. "What does he want?"
In Common, John Paul said to the woman, "Tell him I don't want to be tested by a man who thinks my family is scum."
"In the first place," said the man, "I don't think that."
"Liar," said John Paul in Polish.
He turned to the woman. She shrugged helplessly. "I don't speak Polish either."
John Paul said to her, in Common, "You rule over us but you don't bother to learn our language.
Instead we have to learn yours."
She laughed. "It's not my language. Or his. Common is just a universalized dialect of English, and I'm German." She pointed at Sillain. "He's Fi
"Listen," said Sillain, turning to John Paul. "I'm not going to play around anymore. You speak Common, and I don't speak Polish, so answer my questions in Common."
"What are you going to do?" asked John Paul in Polish, "put me in jail?"
It was fun watching Sillain turn redder and redder, but then Father came into the room, looking very weary. "John Paul," he said. "Do what the man asks."
"They want to take me away from you," said John Paul in Common.
"Nothing of the kind," said the man.
"He's lying," said John Paul.
The man turned slightly red.
"And he hates us. He thinks we're poor and that it's disgusting to have so many children."
"That is not true," said Sillain.
Father ignored him. "We are poor, John Paul."
"Only because of the Hegemony," said John Paul.
"Don't preach my own sermons back at me," said Father. But he switched to Polish to say it. "If you don't do what they want, then they can punish your mother and me."