"We have renounced military jihad. The only purification and redemption we attempt is of the soul."
"Do all wars have to be holy wars?"
"No, but unholy wars damn all those who take part in them."
"Who else but you can stand against China?"
"The Europeans. The North Americans."
"It's hard to stand when you have no spine."
"They're an old and tired civilization. We were, too, once. It took centuries of decline and a series of bitter defeats and humiliations before we made the changes that would allow us to serve Allah in unity and hope."
"And yet you maintain armies. You have a network of operatives who shoot their guns when they need to."
Alai nodded gravely. "We're prepared to use force to defend ourselves if we're attacked."
Petra shook her head. For a moment she had felt frustrated because the world needed rescuing, and it sounded as though Alai and his people were renouncing war Now she was just as disappointed to realize that nothing had really changed. Alai was planning war-but intended to wait until some attack made his war "defensive." Not that she disagreed with the justness of defensive war. It was the falseness of pretending that he had renounced war when he was in fact planning for it.
Or maybe he meant exactly what he said.
It seemed so unlikely.
"You're tired," said Alai. "Even though the jet lag from the Netherlands is not so bad, you should rest. I understand you were ill on your flight."
She laughed. "You had someone on the plane, watching me?"
"Of course," he said. "You're a very important person."
Why should she be important to the Muslims? They didn't want to use her military talents, and she had no political influence in the world. It had to be her baby that made her valuable-but how would her child, if she even had one, have any value to the Islamic world?
"My child," she said, "will not be raised to be a soldier."
Alai raised a hand. "You leap to conclusions, Petra," he said. "We are led, we hope, by Allah. We have no wish to take your child, and while we hope that there will someday be a world in which all children will be raised to know Allah and serve him, we have no desire to take your child from you or keep him here with us."
"Or her," said Petra, unreassured. "If you don't want our baby, why am I an important person?"
"Think like a soldier," said Alai. "You have in your womb what our worst enemy wants most. And, even if you don't have a baby, your death is something that he has to have, for reasons deep in the evil of his heart. His need to reach for you makes you important to those of us who fear him and want to block his path."
Petra shook her head. "Alai," she said, "I and my child could die and it would be a mere blip on the rangeflnder[?] to you and your people."
"It's useful for us to keep you alive," said Alai.
"How pragmatic of you. But there's more to it than that."
"Yes," said Alai. "There is."
"Are you going to tell me?"
"it will sound very mystical to you," said Alai.
"But that's hardly a surprise, coming from the Caliph."
"Allah has brought something new into the world-I speak of Bean, the genetic difference between him and the rest of humanity. There are imams who declare him to be an abomination, conceived in evil. There are others who say he is an innocent victim, a child who was conceived as a normal embryo but was altered by evil and can't help what was done to him. But there are others-and the number is by far larger-who say that this could not have been done except by the will of Allah. That Bean's abilities were a key part of our victory over the Formics, so it must have been God's will that brought him into existence at the time we needed him. And since God has chosen to bring this new thing into the world, now we must watch and see whether God allows this genetic change to breed true."
"He's dying, Alai," said Petra.
"I know," said Alai. "But aren't we all?"
"He didn't want to have children at all."
"And yet he changed his mind," said Alai. "The will of God blossoms in all hearts."
"So maybe if the Beast kills us, that's the will of God as well. Why did you bother to prevent it?"
"Because my friends asked me to," said Alai. "Why are you making this so complicated?