“Romanova does not kill. This Universal Free Alliance has never executed a human being, and should not begin now, and that is what this would mean if it passes, even if an independent Blacklaw carried out the deed. We did not execute the war criminals of the Church War, we did not execute the assassin of Mycroft MASON, we did not execute Mycroft Canner, and we should not execute Ojiro Cardigan Sniper. We are different from past governments, and our lack of capital punishment is a part of that difference, symbolic perhaps but still important. Every life on Earth will be fundamentally changed if this Alliance kills. I know many of you will object that this is Whitelaw thinking projecting itself into areas of Universal Law, and that I am thinking of the moral effect this will have on the character of our government and its people. If you think that, you’re right, I personally am thinking like a Whitelaw, but to you I propose three other important reasons to oppose this motion, that have nothing to do with the principles of Character Laws. First, we need Sniper alive. We need information only Sniper can give us about O.S. and this conspiracy, and the reasons for the attack on Tribune Mason. Without information to calm things, the present crisis could grow even more heated, endangering the security of this Alliance and the entire world. It would be irresponsible for this body to permit the destruction of such a vital tool for peace. Second, assassination is assassination, and it would be the deepest hypocrisy for us to authorize an assassination even as we put on trial those incriminated in the O.S. assassination system. We cannot justly and rationally examine the moral and legal questions raised by those who have claimed that Hives have the right to kill if we muddle that process by radically changing the Alliance’s own policies on killing at the same time. Last, and this may seem similar to my first but it is fundamentally different: there is a lot of talk these days of war. Some think we’re on the brink. I think we’re not, but I do think violence breeds violence. If Sniper is killed there will be violent repercussions, globally, which might claim many lives. Voting to kill Sniper would kill hundreds, probably thousands of others, and possibly start a war. We don’t need to do that. Justice will be done—no one doubts we’ll punish Sniper appropriately once they’re captured—but those other deaths won’t be justice, they’ll just be deaths.”

“Thank you, Minister Luo. I call the vote.”

Can you believe, reader, that I felt no envy? I had expected to, watching someone else attain the bloody prize my youthful planning had so hungered for: to make the Romanovan Senate—the greatest body of our united Earth—debate whether or not to kill a human being. But after I had shared so many meals and afternoons with Sniper, envy was not in my mind; friends’ deaths I fear.