Ender's Game

The last bell rings in fifteen minutes. Just enough time to get to my locker, to the library and out the door without being stopped. Hopefully.

Ender slipped out the door to his last period class and crossed the hall to his gray locker. He emptied his bag placing the contents into the open locker and pulled out a green notebook and a paperback book. Quietly closing his locker, Ender headed down the hall.

So far so good. The library was vaguely in sight. No students or teachers anywhere yet. But he knew that wouldn't last long. The teachers were easy enough to get rid of. Just confuse them. And most students would fall into his power too. But his friends did. And neither did she.

Ender looked around the library to make sure his coast was clear. A few random students, the librarian, a couple aides and two teachers. None of which knew where he was supposed to be. Well, none that would bother him at least.

He dropped the book in the drop box and headed to the history section. He needed new reading material to support his next essay for his game. He ran his hand across the spins of the books, taking in the names, until he found one that looked promising.

Pulling it out he read the back and the contents page. Satisfied, he brought it to the check out desk. Students always manned the desk. And when he was in there, it was always Plikt.

He liked Plikt. She was intelligent, friendly and never asked questions. Just the type of person he needed when he would be in the library. His reading material was always random and he never took them out for pleasure reading. Not school reading either. Always for his game. The vast subjects of the books, and the level of study, would raise questions with most people. So he would always make sure it was Plikt who checked him out if he could help it.

"Good choice." Plikt said taking the book from him.

"Have you read it?" Ender asked.

"Twice. Learned quite a bit more the second time."

Ender nodded his head. "So I'll read it twice."

Plikt smiled indistinctly. "Pay attention to the 'third invasion'. There's a lot of hidden strategy and data there."

Ender studied her movements. "I knew there was a reason I liked you."

Plikt scanned the bar code while glancing at the screen. "And here I thought it was my eyes."

Ender watched her stamp the book and hand it to him. He took it. "It was your brilliance that attracted me but your eyes kept me coming back."

Plikt smiled now. "Here." She handed him a small yellow sticky note with a website and email address on it. "Check it out. Then email me. You'll see why."

After momentarily looking at it, Ender placed the paper in the middle of the book and put the book in his bag. "That's one way to get my email." He stated simply.

Plikt was still smiling. "In my tent at hot soup dot com."

Ender watched her expression. "I see you already have it."

"You did say I was brilliant."

"My perfect dream girl. Run away with me."

"Once you return that book, I'll be happy to."

Ender smirked and nodded. Then turned and headed toward the door as the bell rang. Perfect. He placed his bag over his shoulder and headed on his way.

Just outside the library door he thought he was home free. Successfully avoided every one. But he thought too soon.

"Andrew Logan."

He heard the voice from behind him and groaned inwardly. Damn. So close.

A small arm linked itself with his.

"Hello, Poke." He said flatly.

"Walk me home?" She asked in a would-be sweet voice if it wasn't for the fact that it made him shudder every time he heard it.

Keeping a blank stare he nodded. No matter how hard I try, there's just no avoiding you.

"How was your day?" She asked cheerfully.

"Slow. Yours?" And getting slower.

"Great. There's this new girl in my class. Ro. She just moved here from Thailand."

Ender listened to her go on and on about this new girl. This Ro sounded more interesting then Poke herself, he noted. And Poke is the one he's stuck with for the time being. He nodded every now and agian. For once he was hoping his sister would spot him and call to him. So he walked slowly. And luckily he did get rescued.

"Ender!"

He turned to see Payten and Shapiro standing at the corner. They were his sister's friends. But he didn't question his fortune.

"Sorry, Poke. I have to go."

Poke pouted. "Call me later, ok?"

"I'll try. Kiara stays on the phone a lot." Which was true. He just failed to mention that the phone in question was in fact her cell phone. And he has his own.

Ender walked to Shapiro and Payten without glancing back at Poke.

They were smiling when he reached them. "I owe you one." He said joining them as they walked.

"Kiara mentioned that that girl's obsessed with you and you're too nice to tell her to get lost. So we thought we'd help." Shapiro told him.

"After all, you are my best friend's cute little brother." Payten teased and linked her arm in his the way Poke had. But this time he didn't flinch.

Ender smirked. "I don't care what the reason is. Pity. Joking. Anything to get way. And there's worse company I could have."

Shapiro linked her arm with his other.

Ender always liked Kiara's friends. They were nice to him and not just 'my friends little brother' nice. They teased him and talked to him. In school. At his house. Where ever they saw him. Just like they were his friends. Of course, besides the normal sibling arguments, he and Kiara got along great. So there was no rivalry between them and Kiara like that her friends liked him.

"Where's Kiara?" Ender asked.

"We're meeting her at your house." Shapiro said.

"Where we will be doing homework and then meeting the boys at Neverland for some ice cream." Payten finished.

Ender nodded. "Why didn't she walk home with you?"

"Her and Libo are staying after school for a little while." Payten said through gritted teeth and a forced smile.

Ender looked at her scowl, then to Shapiro's frown. "And this is bad because…"

"I just don't really like him much, I guess." Payten said.

"Aren't you all friends with his twin sister?"

"Yes. But that doesn't mean we have to like him."

"Why don't you like him?" Almost as soon as he finished the sentence, he regretted it. The rest of the way home he listened to them list the reasons they didn't like Libo. Or why he wasn't good enough for Kiara.

Once they reached his apartment, Shapiro let go of his arm and led the way up the stairs to their destination. Payten kept his arm as she continued to talk.

Ender opened the door and let the girls in first. His parents were still at work and Kiara hadn't arrived yet.

"Thirsty? Hungry?" He asked as they walked into the kitchen.

"Thanks." Shapiro said as Payten nodded and kept talking. They sat in stools facing him at the island.

Ender opened the fridge taking out two cans of soda and a bottle of water for himself. He handed them over and placed a bag of Doritos on the counter before taking his seat in the stool across from them.

They kept talking and Ender kept listening. He found himself playing with a Doritos when Payten addressed him.

"Ender?"

Ender looked up to her. "I'm listening. He's fake." He said repeating the last thing she had said.

The two looked at each other and then back at him. They laughed.

He smirked.

"What do you think of him?" Shapiro asked.

"Don't really know him. It wouldn't be fair of me to judge him yet. I guess as long as Kiara's happy and he treats her like he should, then I don't have a problem with him."

Payten eyed him, surprisingly. Shapiro looked down to the countertop as it suddenly became interesting.

"You make us sound horrible." Payten said quietly.

"Not my intent. Just saying."

They said nothing. Ender sighed with a small smile. "Alright. He's a suck up. But that's all I'm saying and I'll deny that I ever said it if asked in the future."

They laughed.

Ender grinned again. Can't let you be unhappy. After all, you did save me from Poke.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Ender relaxed on his bed reading his newly checked out library book. Half way through, a small yellow piece of paper fell to his lap. Picking it up, he remembered what it was. My bad.

Ender rolled off the top bunk to his bed and landed on his feet. Sitting at his computer, he typed in tomorrowstodaysyesterdaysworlds.gfi. The site came up immediately. Ender gasped. It had to be some gimmick. The site, if real, was a conspiracy. Complete plans to the collapse and total destruction of… everything. Governments, militaries, corporations. Why would somebody post this on the net? The closer he looked, he realized they weren't just plans. A countdown. This isn't real. It can't be real… "It's not." He finished his thoughts aloud.

The bottom of the screen had a link. He clicked on it. The whole next screen was encrypted. He played with it briefly for a while and decided to write to Plikt.

Where did you find this?

What is it? And why did you

give me this address?

BTW Hi. How you doing?

Ender Logan

http/joinmeinmytent/hot. with a couple programs, Ender began his first attempt at breaking the code. Just for fun.

Until his cell phone rang. He got off his chair still watching the screen. "Hello?" He said distractedly into the phone.

"Evening Ender."

"Plikt?" He asked taking his attention away from the screen finally.

"You got it." Came her voice on the other end. And he recognized it now.

"How did you get my number?" He asked flatly.

"If you expect me to run away with you, you have to expect me to do my research on you first. You know? Make sure I'm able to live with you for any length in time."

"Fair enough. So why am I looking at this site?"

"Thought you could help me break it."

"Uh huh. What makes you think I can? You're the brilliant one."

"Brilliance is attracted to brilliance." She stated simply.

"Hmm… Why do we want to decrypt this?"

He heard Plikt shift and type. "It's got to be something important or normal decrypting programs would break it. So why not?" He could hear she was smiling.

"Nice thought. But we're hardly teens yet. What makes you think we can break it?"

"Are you familiar with the Achilles articles?"

"Somewhat."

"Mm hmm… well, his recent article was covering adolescent intelligence. Children today mature faster, grow faster. With challenging assignments that they're interested in-"

"Their minds will expand and new learning and/or living habits will form, enabling a more brilliant mind by the age of thirteen." He finished the sentence for her.

"Word for word. Not bad."

"I get it. I'll play."

"Knew you would. What took you so long?"

"Poke, sister's friends, homework, reading. But mostly… forgot."

Plikt laughed. "I hope you're not always this forgetful. It wouldn't be very good if you forget the directions to where we're running away to. I don't like to be lost."

"I'm not. Haven't you been paying attention? I already have the destination. And I'm quite familiar with its whereabouts."

"Must have missed something."

"In. My. Tent."

Again Plikt laughed. "I look forward to it."

Ender smiled as he played with the site.

XOXOXOXXOXOXOXOXOXXOX

1:30am

So Plikt was right. This sight was more than encrypted. It was blocked ten fold, with highly effective top-notch security in place. Naturally, he had them broken in the first hour. But the encryption programs he already had –yes had, we wont get into why just yet- did nothing unless the words were in Dutch or German or some other language with the same character letters as the English language. And they weren't. He checked.

The security and impossibility to decode this site intrigued him. The levels and efforts to protect this were almost as good as his own, to protect his identity and his game. But not quite. He stopped for the night on this. He needed a break. And he had other plans for this night. Ones of which he had put off all night, playing with Plikt's site.

He logged on to his own site and began typing. This was his game. Not really a game at all. This 'game' held a lot of power. A lot of prestige among the civilized population on Earth. This game had the ability to sway public opinion. He has a powerful voice on the nets and in the paper. Nobody knew he was just a boy. Barely past twelve, actually. But the world didn't know that. Nor would they. Not for a while anyways.

Two hours later. Six proofreads and revises. He was ready to send it. Before he did, he signed it. Not with Ender or Andrew. Not even Logan. That could all be traced. He had worked hard making his dead drops. No tracers. Rerouted so many times it would be nearly impossible to track him down. Not to mention, if anyone was getting close to his discovery, as in seven to twelve more months of research and they'd find him, then he's be warned. And he'd redo it all again, making another dead drop.

His signature was simple. One name. Memorable. Historic. Well known. High Status. Strong. Honest.

Achilles

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