one city in a world of thousands of such cities. The whole human race, Bean, that's what this test is about. Because the Formics - "
"The Buggers," said Bean. Like most street urchins, he sneered at euphemism.
"They will be back, scouring the Earth, killing every living soul. This test is to see if you are one of the children who will be taken to Battle School and trained to be a commander of the forces that will try to stop them. This test is about saving the world, Bean."
For the first time since the test began, Bean turned his full attention to her. "Where is Battle School?"
"In an orbiting platform in space," she said. "If you do well enough on this test, you get to be a spaceman!"
There was no childlike eagerness in his face. Only hard calculation.
"I've been doing real bad so far, haven't I," he said.
"The test results so far show that you're too stupid to walk and breathe at the same time."
"Can I start over?"
"I have another version of the tests, yes," said Sister Carlotta.
"Do it."
As she brought out the alternate set, she smiled at him, tried to relax him again. "So you want to be a spaceman, is that it? Or is it the idea of being part of the International Fleet?"
He ignored her.
This time through the test, he finished everything, even though the tests were designed not to be finished in the allotted time. His scores were not perfect, but they were close. So close that nobody would believe the results.
So she gave him yet another battery of tests, this one designed for older children - the standard tests, in fact, that six-year-olds took when being considered for Battle School at the normal age. He did not do as well on these; there were too many experiences he had not had yet, to be able to understand the content of some of the questions. But he still did remarkably well. Better than any student she had ever tested.
And to think she had thought it was Achilles who had the real potential. This little one, this infant, really - he was astonishing. No one would believe she had found him on the streets, living at the starvation level.
A suspicion crept into her mind, and when the second test ended and she recorded the scores and set them aside, she leaned back in her chair and smiled at bleary-eyed little Bean and asked him, "Whose idea was it, this family thing that the street children have come up with?"
"Achilles' idea," said Bean.
Sister Carlotta waited.
"His idea to call it a family, anyway," said Bean.
She still waited. Pride would bring more to the surface, if she gave him time.
"But having a bully protect the little ones, that was my plan," said Bean. "I told it to Poke and she thought about it and decided to try it and she only made one mistake."
"What mistake was that?"
"She chose the wrong bully to protect us."
"You mean because he couldn't protect her from Ulysses?"
Bean laughed bitterly as tears slid down his cheeks.
"Ulysses is off somewhere bragging about what he's going to do."
Sister Carlotta knew but did not want to know. "Do you know who killed her, then?"
"I told her to kill him. I told her he was the wrong one. I saw it in his face, lying there on the ground, that he would never forgive her. But he's cold. He waited so long. But he never took bread from her. That should have told her. She shouldn't have gone off alone with him." He began crying in earnest now. "I think she was protecting me. Because I told her to kill him that first day. I think she was trying to get him not to kill me."
Sister Carlotta tried to keep emotion out of her voice. "Do you believe you might be in danger from Achilles?"
"I am now that I told you," he said. And then, after a moment's thought. "I was already. He doesn't forgive. He pays back, always."
"You realize that this isn't the way Achilles seems to me, or to Hazie. Helga, that is. To us, he seems - civilized."
Bean looked at her like she was crazy. "Isn't that what it means to be civilized? That you can wait to get what you want?"
"You want to get out of Rotterdam and go to Battle School so you can get away from Achilles."
Bean nodded.
"What about the other children. Do you think they're in