This chapter's epigraph comes from a conversation between Alek and Alek's father. Alek tells his father that he's been reading a book about the history of the Ottoman Empire, and that he came across it on the road. Alek says that he had been reading books from all over the world, trying to learn a new language, when he came upon this book. He says that his father had given him the task of swaying the opinion of the nations so that the patents could be released. This is exactly what Alek is doing now. He tells Alek that the only task he was given was to convince the nations to let the patents be released, starting with telegraph technology. Alek points out that the people who gave him this task were the same people who developed the new ultra-high mobility tanks and the radical insiders in the empire and republic. They were the ones who pushed Alek into this dangerous path. Alek is confident that he will succeed in his mission.