Chapter 615

A king was supposed to be the highest authority in the world.

But if someone else had appointed him, then he wasn’t truly supreme, was he?

"That is a remarkably... heretical way of looking at it."

Stephanie’s eyes shifted, and for a moment she seemed lost in thought.

Evenson smiled at her.

"Human progress has always been accompanied by heresy."

He gave her shoulder another light pat, then turned and walked away.

Stephanie remained alone at the edge of the training grounds.

Evenson’s words had struck something loose inside her.

She remembered exactly who she’d been as a girl.

She had just come through the worst of her rebellious teenage years. Her emotions had settled, and she’d begun to think more seriously about the world when her father, Gideon Malick, finally revealed the thousand-year secret carried by their family.

At first, she’d been stunned.

She’d never known her family had been entrusted with such a mission, much less that the responsibility might one day fall to her.

After that revelation, she was given permission to study the ancient records preserved by the Malick family.

That’s where she learned everything about Hive.

Hive was Hydra’s god.

One day, he would return and use his unimaginable power to seize the world, then share it with his most loyal servants.

Every member of Hydra therefore had to obey Hive without question. His will stood above everything else, and nothing was too great a sacrifice in its service.

Not wealth.

Not one’s future.

Not even family.

Or one’s own life.

That had been Stephanie’s faith.

And while she’d gotten past her rebellious adolescence, she certainly hadn’t gotten past the youthful fantasy that came with it.

There had been times when she secretly imagined Hive returning during her generation.

She’d pictured herself standing at his side as one of his most trusted lieutenants, offering him everything she had and ensuring that no one ever dared defy his will.

Not even her beloved father.

And in the new world Hive created, perhaps she would be appointed its ruler.

That fantasy had lasted until recently.

Then Evenson came to her family’s home and forced everyone to speak plainly.

Her father finally revealed what he really thought.

And Stephanie realized his view was probably shared by many of Hydra’s leaders.

They no longer regarded Hive as a god.

They regarded him as a transaction.

Everything Hydra had done to rescue him was no longer an act of faith. It was an investment.

We bring you back to Earth.

You help us take control of the world.

Simple.

Stephanie had reluctantly accepted that logic at first, but something inside her had remained unsettled.

She couldn’t decide whether abandoning her faith was a betrayal or simply the correct thing to do.

Fortunately, Gideon Malick was a devoted father.

Over the following days, he patiently talked his daughter through her doubts.

Little by little, Stephanie’s doubts began to disappear.

She finally understood that her entire perspective had been wrong.

Her father had put it simply.

If Hydra has enough power to stand beside Hive as an equal, why choose to kneel?

There was something else she’d come to understand.

Hydra’s changing attitude toward Hive was rooted in a brutally practical reality.

The material foundation of human civilization was advancing.

Stephanie’s ancestors had been wise enough to recognize Hive’s power.

But those ancestors had lived more than three thousand years ago.

How could they have known what modern weapons were capable of?

A single modern nuclear weapon possessed more destructive power than anything the ancient world could have imagined.

And the modern world wasn’t short on superhumans, either.

What happened if the Avengers were dropped into ancient Egypt?

Half of them would probably have been worshipped as gods before the day was over.

Thor was an obvious example.

Depending on how one counted the timeline, he might have been around before some of the oldest Egyptian dynasties had even finished getting organized.

Then there was Captain America, the country’s living war hero.

The Hulk, a walking apocalypse.

Tony Stark, with his sky-spanning technology and his ability to create things that ancient people could only have interpreted as divine miracles.

Natasha Romanoff, who could turn charm and deception into weapons.

And Hawkeye?

Even Hawkeye had a bow capable of feats that would have made an ancient king declare him a hero blessed by the heavens.

After examining the problem from every angle, Hydra’s senior leadership had reached the same conclusion.

If Hydra wanted to conquer the modern world using Hive’s power alone, they were gambling on an increasingly shaky proposition.

Even if Hive returned tomorrow, his contribution to Hydra’s conquest might be no greater than what Hydra’s own enormous organization could already provide.

And that was the real problem.

The bargain had changed.

If Hydra possessed enough strength to stand as an equal partner to Hive, willingly reducing themselves to servants was absurd.

Worse, the imbalance would only grow.

Human civilization continued advancing while Hive remained stranded on an alien world.

Every decade, every new technological breakthrough, every new superhuman made Hive’s practical value a little smaller.

His symbolic value, however, remained.

After understanding all of this, Stephanie had finally managed to rebuild her worldview.

It conflicted with her family’s history and with everything Hydra had believed for generations.

But history was considered sacred because of what it could do in the present.

It created unity.

It preserved shared values.

It gave people reasons to sacrifice for something larger than themselves.

In that sense, history was a tool.

A tool for creating real-world power.

And tools existed to serve their purpose.

If a piece of history helped the present, preserve it.

If it no longer served the present, quietly let it gather dust.

And if circumstances changed again?

Bring it back.

Polish it.

Make everyone remember how important it had always been.

History served the present.

Stephanie understood that now.

But Evenson had just given her another thought.

A king who had been accepted as the rightful ruler because someone else granted him divine legitimacy was still dependent on that legitimacy.

If she was willing to abandon the idea of being a servant when she could stand as an equal...

Then why stop there?

If she had the power to go one step further, why settle for being an archangel when she could become God?

The practical value of Hive might have declined, but nobody in Hydra denied that he remained immensely powerful.

That meant the family that secured Hive’s support would inevitably become Hydra’s dominant faction.

Everyone else would have to submit.

But there was something even more frightening.

Someone who could defeat Hive.

Consider it.

Someone receives divine sanction. Everyone bows. The coronation begins. The crown is ready.

Then another person walks into the ceremony and calmly announces:

"Give me a moment. I killed the god who granted him that authority."

At that point, who exactly was still going to argue over who had the right to rule?

That was the extreme end of Hive’s symbolic power.

If Hive represented the seal of legitimacy, then the ultimate symbol would be to take the god’s own skull and use it as that seal.

Stephanie’s eyes suddenly brightened.

The pieces finally clicked into place.

She murmured to herself,

"A king is supposed to be supreme."

Her voice grew firmer.

"But true kings aren’t appointed by anyone."

"They claim the throne themselves."

Evenson walked back into the training area.

Peggy Carter spotted him immediately and hurried over, giving him a slight bow.

The gesture drew everyone’s attention.

The Hydra recruits couldn’t help glancing over.

The instructor who terrified them with a single look was showing that much respect to this man?

Just who was he?

Peggy and Evenson moved off to the side.

"How did it go?" Peggy asked quietly. "Your conversation with the girl."

"Fine."

Evenson’s answer was casual.

Peggy nodded, though she still looked uneasy.

"She’s here to keep an eye on us. She could become a serious obstacle to the plan."

She raised her right hand and made a quick chopping motion.

"So should we deal with her before that happens?"

"No need."

Evenson’s eyes shifted toward Stephanie.

A strange smile appeared on his face.

"Believe me."

His voice dropped.

"Give it a little time, and I can probably have her betray Hydra and kill her own father."

Before Peggy could respond, Evenson’s phone rang.

It was the private phone he used while working at the company.

He checked the screen.

Moira.

He answered.

"What’s up?"

"I have something to report."

Moira sounded serious.

"I’m at the prison. I just performed a basic examination on the girl named Hope."

There was a brief pause.

"I found evidence that she’d previously been subjected to mental control."

Evenson’s expression sharpened.

"So unfortunately, that mind controller really does exist."

...