“So while the people and the Olympic Spirit live on, the letter of the law can get stuffed?” Ancelet’s brief chuckle seemed aimed mostly at himself. “I don’t mean to tease. You’re right. I may fail. War may be inevitable, as Mycroft fears. I’m glad the Hive has another force separate from me to protect it. I also understand why you are being careful. You have every reason to doubt my fitness for this position, my loyalty to the Hive, even the validity of an election held in such circumstances. On my end, what I can say is that I trust you, Ockham… Prospero,” he corrected himself. “I genuinely trust you, but at present it’s only intellectual trust, based on Mycroft’s descriptions of you and your past actions. It will take time and interaction for that to mature into personal trust.”

Something relaxed in Prospero, just a bit, in his spine, his shoulders, as the freshly planted seed of confidence extended its first tender leaf. “Former President Ganymede alone had the authority to give O.S. orders, but Chief Director Hotaka Andō Mitsubishi and Prime Minister Casimir Perry were consulted before each strike.”

“Why?”

“From the beginning, through convention but no rule, the Chief Director of the Mitsubishi Hive has been taken into the confidence of whatever Humanist executive commands O.S., and O.S. has been used to aid the Mitsubishi Hive.”

“Why?”

Now it was Prospero whose black brows narrowed. “Possibly because the center that originally built the Transit Network was partly staffed by Mitsubishi. Possibly because the center’s first Co-Directors, Orion Saneer and Tungsten Weeksbooth, thought it would be a good way to pull the Mitsubishi into a long-term alliance. Possibly because when the system was first formed Olympian President Adeline Dembélé wanted to involve the Mitsubishi for reasons now lost to history. O.S. intentionally keeps few records, so many details are irretrievable.”

How does it feel, I wonder, to bear the sins, not of a father, but of a semiparent, half forgotten? Before your dynasty was founded, noble king, some maternal grandfather, with far too many “greats” before his name, was a murderer. Before your forefathers made the small fortune you used to make your large one, they bought their tickets to the New World with corpse-loot. Before there was a Humanist President there was an Olympian President, whose successors merged with O.B.P. to form the Humanists, and it was that Olympian President who brought O.S.’s curse on both your houses.

“Is that why, when the bash’ takes in new bash’mates each generation, they’re usually from Mitsubishi bash’es?” Ancelet asked.

“It is a rule,” Prospero confirmed. “Outside spouses and bash’mates must be approved by the Executive, and must have Humanist or Mitsubishi backgrounds, or, with extra permissions and background checks, European.”

Ancelet nodded. “How did Europe get involved?”