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"So you're saying he's as guilty as our enemies said he was?"

"I' Not the exact outco actions that could cause real and pere to those boys"

"They were going to kill him!"

"Bonzo was," said Mazer "Stilson was a petty bully"

"But Ender was so untrained he had no idea of the da, or that his shoes had steel toes Weren't we clever to keep hi he wear shoes like that"

"Hyrum, I think Ender's actions were perfectly justified He didn't choose to fight those boys, so the only choice he had was how thoroughly to win"

"Or lose"

"Ender never has the choice to lose, Hyrum It's not in him, even when he thinks it is"

"All I know is that he promised to try to work a picture with me and you into his schedule"

Mazer nodded "And you think that meant that he'd do it"

"He doesn't have a schedule I thought he was being ironic Except for hanging with Valentine, what does he have to do?"

Mazer laughed "What he's been doing forthe formics so obsessively that we all worried about his mental health Only I have to say that with the colonists' ar

rival, he's been preparing to be governor in more than just name"

"Adan will be disappointed"

"Adet his way," said Mazer, "because he doesn't realize Ender is serious about governing the colony What Ender was doing wasthe dossiers of all the colonists--their test results, family relationships with other colonists and with family in and what those places look like and what's been going on there in the past year, during the ti up"