"Perhaps it's merely that Julien is an Ace from a different time." A different reign; Katya and Clive were not and would never be Athena and David. Though he suspected that behind her bright smiles, Katya was as paranoid as the previous monarchs had ever been. "And we need an Ace who's sharpest in the new way." They'd see if that Ace was Ethan. Jordan did think he could be it, of course.

But only time would tell.

"It will be interesting to see what he does with this," he said. "It seems he's doing specialized training at the moment."