Enders In Exile Read Online Free PDF

the weapon he was forging. Bean would have won
the war even if I was out of the picture, but Graff couldn't know that.
It was a terrible gamble. Because Graff also knew that if I got out of
that confrontation with Bonzo alive—victorious—then
I would believe in myself. My ability to win under any circumstances.
The game didn't give me that—it was just a game. Bonzo showed
me that in real life I could win. As long as I understood my enemy.
You
understand what that means, Mazer."
    "Even if anything
you're saying were true . . ."
    "Take this vid and
introduce it into evidence. Or if, by some remote chance, nobody's
recording our conversation, then testify on his behalf. Let them
know—the court martial—let them know that Graff
acted properly. I was angry at him for doing it that way, and I suppose
I still am. But if I were in his place, I would have done the same. It
was part of winning the war. People die in war. You send your soldiers
into combat and you know some of them won't come back. But Graff didn't
send Bonzo. Bonzo was a volunteer for the duty he assigned
himself—attacking me and allowing us all to learn that no, I
would not allow myself to lose, ever. Bonzo volunteered. Just like the
buggers volunteered by coming here and trying to wipe out human life.
If they'd left us alone, we wouldn't have hurt them. The court martial
has to understand. I am what Battle School was designed to create, what
the whole world
wanted
it to create. Graff cannot
be blamed for shaping and sharpening the weapon. He did not wield it.
No one did. Bonzo found a knife and cut himself on it. That's how they
have to look at it."
    "Are you done?" Mazer
had asked.
    "Why, are you running
out of recording room?"
    Mazer got up and left.
    When he came back, he
said nothing about their discussion. But Ender was now free to come and
go anywhere. They no longer tried to hide things from him. He was able
to read the transcript of Graff's arraignment.
    He had been right on
every point.
    Ender also understood
that Graff would not be convicted of anything serious—he
would not go to prison. The court martial existed only to damage Ender
and make it impossible for America to use him as a military leader.
Ender was a hero, yes, but he was now officially a really scary kid.
The court martial would cement that image in the public mind. People
might have rallied around the savior of the human race. But a monstrous
kid who killed other children? Even if it was self-defense, it was just
too terrible. Ender's political future on Earth was nonexistent.
    Ender tracked how the
commentator Demosthenes responded as things began to come out in the
trial. For months—ever since it became clear that Ender was
not
being sent home immediately—the famous American chauvinist
had been agitating on the nets to "bring the hero home." Even now, as
Ender's private killings were being used against Graff at the trial,
Demosthenes still declared, more than once, that Ender was a "weapon
that belongs to the American people."
    This practically
guaranteed that no one from any other nation would consent to that
weapon getting into American hands.
    Ender thought at first
that Demosthenes must be a complete idiot, playing his hand completely
wrong. Then he realized that Demosthenes might be doing it on purpose,
energizing the opposition, because the last thing Demosthenes wanted
was a rival for American political leadership.
    Was the man that
subtle? Ender pored over his essays—what else did he have to
do?—and saw a pattern of self-defeat. Demosthenes was
eloquent, but he always pushed a little too hard. Enough to energize
the opposition, inside and outside America. Discrediting his own side
of every argument.
    Deliberately?
    Probably not. Ender
knew the history of leaders—especially of the original
Demosthenes. Eloquence didn't imply intelligence or deep analysis. True
believers in a cause often behaved in self-defeating ways because they
expected other people to see the