I did not understand then what Caesar meant by “both flags,” but I would soon: Sniper’s bull’s-eye had inspired an opposite. The first one I saw was ragged, in Alexandria, rendered in rough paint on a cut-up shirt, but within a few days shops would dye real ones. The flag of the Alliance, the one which flutters over Romanova’s Senate and her offices, has on it a ring of eight abstracted, bird-like Vs which circle the Earth’s blue orb (the number eight was fixed by Kovács and Thomas Carlyle back when dozens of fledgling Hives threatened to drown the flag in Vs if they made one V per Hive; our founders never dreamed someday the flock would dwindle to our meager seven). But now the Alliance flag had birthed a sequel, improvised in the heat of pre-war, with seven birdlike Vs flying, not in a ring, but in a flock, like geese, one great V formed of lesser Vs, united. A V of Vs. The first time I saw it I did not have to ask, only marvel at the clarity of the sigil which now flutters over many houses, and in many colors: gray Vs on purple over a Masonic theatre, azure Vs on white over a Cousins’ library, red and green Vs on white (plus one Korean blue) over a Mitsubishi farm. Many lintels boast both the Olympic rings and this new V of Vs flag. Anyone can use it, and each who raises the banner can imagine that his own Hive is the leader of the flock, that J.E.D.D. Mason is truly a [insert Hive here] at heart. I weep so often that it must mean little to you by now, but perhaps this moment may move you. There are so many flags. Thousands upon thousands, brave, brave bash’es who have learned of O.S., of the corruption in the CFB, of the Mitsubishi’s Canner Device, of Madame, of the Hives’ shame, of Romanova’s shame, and want change, and trust He who now proposes it, vague as His newborn plan still is. Unite the Hives, the flocking Vs urge. I want a better world badly enough to smash this one to make it, and to risk my life alongside yours, J.E.D.D. Mason, by raising your banner and letting the whole world know I side with you. When the Olympics end, and Sniper’s brazen faction rises to strike down both you and the new world you stand for, you will not face them alone.

“Can you answer my question now, Achilles?” Caesar asked as we waited for our summoned cars. “Which side will you take if, after we crush O.S., we fail to make my son accept my terms?”

Achilles sighed, glancing again at silent Aldrin. “You have both the past and the future on your side, MASON.”

The Emperor’s smile did not feel like Death’s now, but like a living man’s. “I thought Utopia might be the last thing making you hesitate.”

“Second-to-last. You still don’t have Mycroft Canner.”