supplied. And these offensives had chewed through fuel and munitions. In a few days, they would have to choose between fueling tanks and fueling supply trucks. They were about to become a very hungry all-infantry army.
As soon as Achilles left, Sayagi stood up. "It is time to write down our plan for withdrawal and submit it. We must declare victory and withdraw."
There was no dissent. Even though the vids and the nets were full of stories of the great Indian victories, the advance into Thailand, these plans had to be written down, the orders drawn up, while there was still time and fuel enough to carry them out.
So they spent that morning writing each component of the plan. Sayagi, as their de facto leader, assembled them into a single, fairly coherent set of documents. In the meantime, Petra browsed the net and worked on the project she had been assigned by Achilles, taking no part in what they were doing. They didn't need her for this, and it was her desk that was most closely monitored by Achilles. As long as she was being obedient, Achilles might not notice that the others were not.
When they were almost done, she spoke up, even though she knew that Achilles would be notified quickly of what she said-that he might even be listening through that hearing aid in his ear. "Before you email it," she said, "post it."
At first they probably thought she meant the internal posting, where they could all read it. But then they saw that, using her fingernail on a piece of rough tan toilet paper, she had scratched a net address and was now holding it out.
It was Peter Wiggin's "Locke" forum.
They looked at her like she was crazy. To post military plans in a public place?
But then Sayagi began to nod. "They intercept all our emails," he said. "This is the only way it will get to Chapekar himself."
"To make military secrets public," someone said. He did not need to finish. They knew the penalty.
"Satyagraha," said Sayagi. He took the toilet paper with the address and sat down to go to that netsite. "I am the one doing this, and no one else," he said. "The rest of you warned me not to. There is no reason for more than one person to risk the consequences." Moments later, the data was flowing to Peter Wiggin's forum.
Only then did he send it as email to the general command-which would be routed through Achilles' computer.
"Sayagi," someone said. "Did you see what else is posted here? On this netsite?"
Petra also moved to the Locke forum and discovered that the lead essay on Locke's site was headed, "Chinese treachery and the fall of India." The subhead said, "Will China, too, fall victim to a psychopath's twisted plans?"
Even as they were reading Locke's essay detailing how China had made promises to both Thailand and India, and would attack now that both armies were fully exposed and, in India's case, overextended, they received emails that contained the same essay, pushed into the system on an urgent basis. That meant it had already been cleared at the top-Chapekar knew what Locke was alleging.
Therefore, their emailed plans for immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from Burma had reached Chapekar at exactly the time when he knew they would be necessary.
"Toguro," breathed Sayagi. "We look like geniuses."
"We are geniuses," someone grumbled, and everyone laughed.
"Does anyone think," asked the Tamil, "we'll hear another pep talk from our Belgian friend about how well the war is going?"
Almost as an answer, they heard gunfire outside.
Petra felt a thrill of hope run through her: Achilles tried to make a run for it, and he was shot.
But then a more practical idea replaced her hope: Achilles foresaw this possibility, and has his own forces already in place to cover his escape.
And finally, despair: When he comes for me, will it be to kill me, or take me with him?
More gunfire.
"Maybe," said Sayagi, "we ought to disperse."
He was walking toward the door when it opened and Achilles came in, followed by six Sikhs carrying automatic weapons. "Have a seat, Sayagi," said Achilles. "I'm afraid we have a hostage situation here. Someone made some libelous assertions about me on the nets, and when I declined to be detained during the inquiry, shooting began. Fortunately, I have some friends, and while we're waiting for them to provide me with transportation to a neutral location, you are my guarantors of safety."
Immediately, the two Battle School grads who