Wiggin wasn't taking the bait. "I asked you a question, soldier."
"I'll earn their respect, sir, if you don't stop me."
To his surprise, Wiggin grinned. "I'm helping you."
"Like hell."
"Nobody would notice you, except to feel sorry for the little kid. But I made sure they all noticed you today."
You should have done your research, Wiggin. You're the only one who didn't know already who I was.
"They'll be watching every move you make," said Wiggin. "All you have to do to earn their respect now is be perfect."
"So I don't even get a chance to learn before I'm being judged." That's not how you bring along talent.
"Poor kid. Nobody's treatin' him fair."
Wiggin's deliberate obtuseness infuriated Bean. You're smarter than this, Wiggin!
Seeing Bean's rage, Wiggin brought a hand forward and pushed him until his back rested firmly against the wall. "I'll tell you how to get a toon. Prove to me you know what you're doing as a soldier. Prove to me you know how to use other soldiers. And then prove to me that somebody's willing to follow you into battle. Then you'll get your toon. But not bloody well until."
Bean ignored the hand pressing against him. It would take a lot more than that to intimidate him physically. "That's fair," he said. " If you actually work that way, I'll be a toon leader in a month."
Now it was Wiggin's turn to be angry. He reached down, grabbed Bean by the front of his flash suit, and slid him up the wall so they stood there eye to eye. "When I say I work a certain way, Bean, then that's the way I work."
Bean just grinned at him. In this low gravity, so high in the station, picking up little kids wasn't any big test of strength. And Wiggin was no bully. There was no serious threat here.
Wiggin let go of him. Bean slid down the wall and landed gently on his feet, rebounded slightly, settled again. Wiggin walked to the pole and slid down. Bean had won this encounter by getting under Wiggin's skin. Besides, Wiggin knew he hadn't handled this situation very well. He wouldn't forget. In fact, it was Wiggin who had lost a little respect, and he knew it, and he'd be trying to earn it back.
Unlike you, Wiggin, I do give the other guy a chance to learn what he's doing before I insist on perfection. You screwed up with me today, but I'll give you a chance to do better tomorrow and the next day.
But when Bean got to the pole and reached out to take hold, he realized his hands were trembling and his grip was too weak. He had to pause a moment, leaning on the pole, till he had calmed enough.
That face-to-face encounter with Wiggin, he hadn't won that. It might even have been a stupid thing to do. Wiggin had hurt him with those snide comments, that ridicule. Bean had been studying Wiggin as the subject of his private theology, and today he had found out that all this time Wiggin didn't even know Bean existed. Everybody compared Bean to Wiggin - but apparently Wiggin hadn't heard or didn't care. He had treated Bean like nothing. And after having worked so hard this past year to earn respect, Bean didn't find it easy to be nothing again. It brought back feelings he thought he left behind in Rotterdam. The sick fear of imminent death. Even though he knew that no one here would raise a hand against him, he still remembered being on the edge of dying when he first went up to Poke and put his life in her hands.
Is that what I've done, once again? By putting myself on this roster, I gave my future into this boy's hands. I counted on him seeing in me what I see. But of course he couldn't. I have to give him time.
If there was time. For the teachers were moving quickly now, and Bean might not have a year in this army to prove himself to Wiggin.
CHAPTER 14 - BROTHERS
"You have results for me?"
"Interesting ones. Volescu was lying. Somewhat."
"I hope you're going to be more precise than that."
"Bean's genetic alteration was not based on a clone of Volescu. But they are related. Volescu is definitely not Bean's father. But he is almost certainly Volescu's [sic - should be "Bean's"] half-uncle or a double cousin. I hope Volescu has a half-brother or double