Page 1295 - Enders_Game_Full_Book

"And yet he wants us to advance him."
"I don't know that. He buries himself in his studies. For three months he's been getting perfect scores on every test. But he only reads the lesson material once. His study is on other subjects of his own choosing."
"Such as?"
"Vauban."
"Seventeenth-century fortifications? What is he *thinking*?" "You see the problem?"
"How does he get along with the other children?"
"I think the classic description is 'loner.' He is polite. He volunteers nothing. He asks only what he's interested in. The kids in his launch group think he's strange. They know he scores better than them on everything, but they don't hate him. They treat him like a force of nature. No friends, but no enemies."
"That's important, that they don't hate him. They should, if he stays aloof like that."
"I think it's a skill he learned on the street -- to turn away anger. He never gets angry himself. Maybe that's why the teasing about his size stopped."
"Nothing that you're telling me suggests that he has command potential."
"If you think he's trying to show command potential and failing at it, then you're right." "So ... what do you think he's doing?"
"Analyzing us."
"Gathering information without giving any. Do you really think he's that sophisticated?" "He stayed alive on the street."
"I think it's time for you to probe a little."
"And let him know that his reticence bothers us?"
"If he's as clever as you think, he already knows."
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