were Sikhs stood up and said, to Achilles' soldiers, "Are we under threat of death from you?"
"As long as you serve the oppressor," one of them answered.
"He is the oppressor!" one of the Sikh Battle Schoolers said, pointing to Achilles.
"Do you think the Chinese will be any kinder to our people than New Delhi has?" said the other.
"Remember how the Chinese treated Tibet and Taiwan! That is our future, because of him!"
The Sikh soldiers were obviously wavering.
Achilles drew a pistol from his back and shot the soldiers dead, one after another. The last two had time to try to rush at him, but every shot he fired struck home.
The pistol shots still rang in the room when Sayagi said, "Why didn't they shoot you?"
"I had them unload their weapons before entering the room," Achilles said. "I told them we didn't want any accidents. But don't think you can overpower me because I'm alone with a half-empty clip. This room has long been wired with explosives, and they go off when my heart stops beating or when I activate the controller implanted under the skin of my chest."
A pocket phone beeped and, without lowering his gun, Achilles answered it. "No, I'm afraid one of my soldiers went out of control, and in order to keep the children safe, I had to shoot some of my own men. The situation is unchanged. I am monitoring the perimeter. Keep back, and these children will be safe."
Petra wanted to laugh. Most of the Battle Schoolers here were older than Achilles himself.
Achilles clicked off the phone and pocketed it. "I'm afraid I told them that I had you as my hostages before it was actually true."
"Caught you with your pants down, ne?'' said Sayagi. "You had no way of knowing you'd need hostages, or that we'd all be here. There are no explosives in this room."
Achilles turned to him and calmly shot him in the head. Sayagi crumpled and fell. Several of the others cried out. Achilles calmly changed clips.
No one charged him while he was reloading.
Not even, thought Petra, me.
There's nothing like casual murder to turn the onlookers into vegetables.
"Satyagraha," said Petra.
Achilles whirled on her. "What was that? What language?"
"Hindi," she said. "It means, 'One bears what one must.' "
"No more Hindi," said Achilles. "From anyone. Or any other language but Common. And if you talk, it had better be to me, and it had better not be something stupid and defiant like the words that got Sayagi killed. If all goes well, my relief should be here in only a few hours. And then Petra and I will go away and leave you to your new government. A Chinese government."
Many of them looked at Petra then. She smiled at Achilles. "So your tent door is still open?"
He smiled back. Warmly. Lovingly. Like a kiss.
But she knew that he was taking her away solely in order to relish the time in which she would have false hopes, before he pushed her from a helicopter or strangled her on the tarmac or, if he grew too impatient, simply shot her as she prepared to follow him out of this room. His time with her was over. His triumph was near-the architect of China's conquest of India, returning to China as a hero. Already plotting how he would take control of the Chinese government and then set out to conquer the other half of the world's population.
For now, though, she was alive, and so were the other Battle Schoolers, except Sayagi. The reason Sayagi died, of course, was not what he said to Achilles. He died because he was the one who posted the withdrawal plans on Locke's forum. Being plans for a retreat under unpredictable fire, they were still usable even with Chinese troops pouring down into Burma, even with Chinese planes bombing the retreating soldiers. The Indian commanders would be able to make a stand. The Chinese would have to fight hard before they won.
But they would win. The Indian defense could last no more than a few days, no matter how bravely they fought. That was when the trucks would stop rolling and food and munitions would run out. The war was already lost. There was only a little time for the Indian elite to attempt to flee before the Chinese swept in, unresisted, with their behead-the-society method of controlling an occupied country.
While these events unfolded, the Battle School graduates who would have kept India out of this dangerous situation in the first