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achievements, and expressing regret at the suffering of their people. It would play well-twenty seconds on the vids, and in full on the nets.
When the ceremonies were done, there was an inspection of their inventory-all the equipment they had been able to rescue from Thailand. Even their fighter-bomber pilots and patrol boat crews had managed to make their way from southern Thailand to the Philippines, so the Hegemon had an air force and a fleet. Peter nodded and commented gravely as he saw each item in the inventory-the cameras were still running.
Later, though, when they were alone, Peter finally allowed himself a rueful, self-mocking laugh. "If it weren't for you I'd have nothing at all," he said. "But to compare this to the vast fleets and air forces and armies that the Hegemon once commanded. . ."
Bean looked at him coldly. "The office had to be greatly diminished," he said, "before they'd have given it to you."
The honeymoon, apparently, was over. "Yes," Peter said, "that's true, of course."
"And the world had to be in a desperate condition, with the existence of the office of Hegemon in doubt."
"That, too, is true," said Peter. "And for some reason you seem to be angry about this."
"That's because, apart from the not-trivial matter of Achilles' penchant for killing people now and then, I fail to see much difference between you and him. You're both content to let any number of people suffer needlessly in order to advance your personal ambitions."
Peter sighed. "If that's all the difference that you see, I don't understand how you could offer your service to me."
"I see other differences, of course," said Bean. "But they're matters of degree, not of kind. Achilles makes treaties he never intends to keep. You merely write essays that might have saved nations, but you delay publishing them so that those nations will fall, putting the world in a position desperate enough that they would make you Hegemon."
"Your statement is true," said Peter, "only if you believe that earlier publication would have saved India and Thailand."
"Early in the war," said Bean, "India still had the supplies and equipment to resist Chinese attack. Thailand's forces were still fully dispersed and hard to find."
"But if I had published early in the war," said Peter, "India and Thailand would not have seen their peril, and they wouldn't have believed me. After all, the Thai government didn't believe you, and you warned them of everything."
"You're Locke," said Bean.