Shadow Puppets

Shadow Puppets, a science fiction work by Orson Scott Card, came out in 2002. Originally titled Shadow of Death, it follows Shadow of the Hegemon as the third installment of the Bean Quartet. The story centers on Peter, Ender's brother, now Earth's Hegemon. Acting on a tip from inside China, where Achilles is imprisoned, Peter plans for Bean to lead a mission to rescue Achilles during transport.

At the last moment, doubting Bean's cooperation, Peter assigns Suriyawong, a Battle School student from Thailand, instead. Peter intends to spy on Achilles, take over his network, and hand him over for trial, given Achilles has betrayed Russia, Pakistan, and India. Achilles kills anyone who has seen him vulnerable. Bean and his friend Petra, who served under Ender and travels with him, have witnessed Achilles in such a state and go into hiding to prepare for a future fight.

Bean believes Peter has gravely misjudged Achilles and feels unsafe unless concealed. During their travels, Petra convinces Bean to marry her and have children by taking him to Anton, the namesake of Anton's Key, Bean's genetic condition. Bean is hesitant to father children, not wanting to pass on the gene. He finds Volescu, the doctor who originally activated the key, and has him prepare nine embryos through artificial insemination.

Volescu pretends to identify three embryos with Anton's Key and discards them. One of the remaining six is implanted into Petra, while the others are kept under guard. Meanwhile, Bean learns that Han Tzu, a Battle School comrade, was not the informant in the message to Peter about Achilles. Realizing it was a setup, Bean alerts Peter's parents, who flee with Peter from the Hegemon's compound in Brazil, which Achilles takes over.

Bean narrowly survives an assassination attempt and escapes to Damascus. There, they find Alai, another Battle School comrade, now the unrivaled Caliph of a nearly unified Muslim world. Bean and Petra's embryos are stolen; Bean suspects Achilles will use them as bait. Peter and his parents escape to the former Battle School space platform, relying on Colonel Graff, now Minister of Colonization.

Shortly after arrival, a message betrays their presence. Faking their departure, they discover the traitor is a Battle School teacher. An unmanned decoy shuttle is shot down over Brazil. In the previous novel, China conquered India and Indochina.

Alai plans to liberate them by feinting an invasion of China, then attacking India once China's armies withdraw. His invasion succeeds, and the Chinese government, realizing their danger, disavows Achilles and provides evidence he destroyed the decoy shuttle. With nowhere to go, Achilles contacts Bean, offering the embryos for safe passage. Bean and Peter return to the Hegemon's compound.

Achilles expects Bean to be distracted by the embryos and plants a bomb in their transport container. When Bean sees through that trap, Achilles offers fake embryos in petri dishes to lure Bean into a vulnerable position. Bean again sees through the deception, pulls out a pistol, and shoots Achilles in the eye—the same way Achilles killed his first victim, Poke, in Ender's Shadow. The novel ends with Peter restored as Hegemon, Petra reunited with Bean, a Caliph commanding the world's Muslims, China reduced in territory and forced to accept humiliating surrender terms, and the embryos still lost.