A few of the Servicers managed to meet his eyes at least, but even the oldest of them, wise Phoenix, struggled to voice an answer.

In the hush, those of us with half an ear still on the broadcast heard as Speaker Jin and her weary allies in the Senate marshaled calm enough to call the vote. Ockham Prospero Saneer would have his terra ignota, one-thirty-eight to sixty-two, no veto. The hate-hot eyes of Cookie and her opposition scanned the ranks, jumping from bull’s-eye to bull’s-eye, counting enemies.

Menestius: “I’m willing… to risk my life… in this…” one Servicer ventured, screwing up her courage, “because I’m not so coward as to hide when the world needs saving.”

Achilles: “You should be. Hades is no perfumed paradise, if it exists for you at all.”

Menestius: “Some causes are worth it.”

Achilles: “You think mine is?”

Menestius: “Yes. You want to end the war.”

Achilles: “Everyone wants to end the war.”

Outis: “But you don’t want anything else.”

Achilles: “I want many things. Believe me, I want many, many things.”

Outis: “But, unlike everyone else in our era, given a choice between two plans in which Plan A has an eighty percent chance of preserving the Hive system and a one percent chance of exterminating the human race, and Plan B would almost certainly destroy the Hives but would definitely save the human race, you wouldn’t pause to think about plan A, would you? You’d put humanity’s safety first, whatever it meant for any side or faction.”

Achilles: “… True…”

Menestius: “Exactly! You aren’t biased by our times. You aren’t feeling violated by O.S. You don’t have a Hive to protect. You weren’t raised to hero-worship Thomas Carlyle and Romanova. This might end in anarchy, or dictatorship, or the return of geographic nations, but however it ends it needs to end with humanity surviving. None of us can face that choice without being distracted by the temptation to preserve the world order we’ve grown up in. You can.”

Achilles: A long pause. “True. But what about all of you? I won’t trust anyone with mixed loyalty to guard my back. Think carefully, each of you: will you genuinely follow me, obey me absolutely, even against the world order you’ve grown up in? Will you generally serve whatever side I take? Wholeheartedly? I could decide to join the Masons and make them masters of this world, or I could decide to wipe their Empire off the face of the Earth. Following me means accepting either path, any path, and dying for whatever side I take. Will you do this?”

Menestius: “Yes.”

Achilles: “Why trust me that much? What if I exploit that trust? What if I use you to make myself Emperor of half the world, and then throw you away?”

Phoenix: “You would never do that.”

Achilles: “You’ve only known me ten days.”