Ender's War

Chapter 17 - Fatal Discovery

"In a way."

"Are you going to tell me? Because if you aren't, I outrank you and I'll just hack into the Battle School myself, and search through all of the files."

Graff held up a hand. "I'm way past keeping secrets from you, son. Once you came to your Greensboro mansion after I sent for you, I knew that it wasn't you. If you were planning against the I.F. you wouldn't have willingly come here."

"But you watched me anyway?" Ender narrowed his eyes, and clenched his hands into fists at his sides.

How dare he? After everything Ender'd done in the name of the International Fleet, how could he doubt his sincerity? How could he think he would flip and use his talents for his own selfish purposes? The only person who he knew that would do that was...

Wait a minute.

"I had to make sure that you and your Jeesh weren't pulling one over on us. What remains of the International Fleet, can't afford to be compromised."

"Are you telling me that Peter is somehow involved?" Ender asked. By the way his brother's name violently rolled off his tongue, anyone would be able to know that they weren't on the best of terms.

Graff braced himself onto his elbows over his desk, and briskly started typing away on his handheld ansible. "It's better if I just show you."

Ended waited for a half-a-minute, until Graff handed him the small device. "Somehow, this morning, our access to the main base, and all of it's previous files, was restored. And we found this, hidden in a secret file in the database."

Ender rose his head, and looked at Graff, trying to gage his expression. The old man held no emotion as he always did whenever he was delivering news, so Ender didn't know whether to brace himself for the worst, or the best.

Open on the screen, was a video. In the top left hand corner, a serial number was displayed. It wasn't the normal code of any I.F. video surveillance, so Ender knew that whatever it was, someone tried to bury it.

Without another moment's hesitation, Ender clicked the play button, and the video came to life.

Ender watched as it became apparent that he was watching surveillance of Mazer's office. The old man had been sitting in his chair, looking extremely worn. Ender could tell by his posture that he was eager to retire, and with good cause. He'd stopped the second Formic war, served the world for a century, and trained him. He deserved to be done, and to finally enjoy life.

A figure could be seen entering the room, gaining Mazer's attention. It was Peter. He walked with an edge of egotism, and his smile was laced with a hint of cockiness. He started a conversation between the two, which only escalated with time.
_

"Speechless?" Peter laughed with even more malice. "But I mean, as long as you agree to call off the International Fleet's counter attack and give me the country, nobody else has to get hurt."

Mazer shook his head furiously. "You know very well that I would never do that!"

"Fine", Peter hissed. "I really did not want it to come to this, but if you will not join me, you are collateral damage."

In one swift motion, Peter reached into his belt, and pulled out a small handgun with a silencer screwed onto the end of the barrel. "You do realize what I have to do?"

Mazer was hesitant, but tried to talk Peter out of it. "You do not have to do anything! Just walk away, Peter", he said. "I am just a week away from retiring and having a normal life. I will not get in your way." He raised his hands in defence to try to persuade him.