Dumped was the word for it: ma.s.s data transfer via comm link from the emba.s.sy"s secured computers to the Triumph in orbit. Galeni would have had convulsions; screw Galeni, it was all his fault for disappearing in the first place. Miles thoughtfully didn"t ask Ivan, either. Miles"s legal position, if it came to that, was that the Dendarii were de facto Barrayaran troops and the data transfer therefore internal to the Imperial military. Technically. Miles included all of Galeni"s personnel files too, in fully accessed form. Miles"s legal position there was that the seal was only to protect Galeni from the prejudice of Barrayaran patriots, which the Dendarii clearly were not. One argument or the other had to work.
"Tell the spooks that finding Galeni is a contract," Miles told Elli, "part of the fleet-wide fund-raising drive. We only get paid for producing the man. That could actually be true, come to think of it."
He fell into bed hoping his subconscious would work it out during what was left of the night, but woke blank and bleary as before. He set Barth and a couple of the other non-coms to rechecking the movements of the courier officer, the other possible weak link in the chain. He sat tight, waiting for the police to call, his imagination weaving daisy chains of ever more gaudy and bizarre explanatory scenarios. Sat still as stone in a darkened room, one foot tapping uncontrollably, feeling like the top of his head was about to blow off.
On the third day Elli Quinn called in.
He snapped the comm link into place in the holovid, hungry for the pleasure of seeing her face. It bore a most peculiar smirk.
"I thought this might interest you," she purred. "Captain Thorne was just contacted with a fascinating contract offer for the Dendarii."
"Does it have a fascinating price?" Miles inquired. The gears in his head seemed to grind as he tried to switch back to Admiral Naismith"s problems, which had been overwhelmed and forgotten in the past two days" uncertain tensions.
"A hundred thousand Betan dollars. In untraceable cash."
"Ah..." That came to close to half a million Imperial marks. "I thought I"d made it clear we weren"t going to touch anything illegal this time. We"re in enough trouble as it is."
"How does a kidnapping grab you?" She giggled inexplicably.
"Absolutely not!"
"Oh, you"re going to make an exception in this case," she predicted with confidence, even verve.
"Elli..." he growled warningly.
She controlled her humor with a deep breath, though her eyes remained alight. "But Miles-our mysterious and wealthy strangers want to hire Admiral Naismith to kidnap Lord Miles Vorkosigan from the Barrayaran emba.s.sy."
"It"s got to be a trap," Ivan jittered nervously, guiding the groundcar Elli had rented through the levels of the city. Midnight was scarcely less well lit than daytime, though the shadows of their faces shifted as the sources of illumination flitted by outside the bubble canopy.
The grey Dendarii sergeant"s uniform Ivan wore flattered him no less than his Barrayaran dress greens, Miles noted glumly. The man just looked good in uniform, any uniform. Elli, sitting on Miles"s other side, seemed Ivan"s female twin. She simulated ease, lithe body stretched out, one arm flung carelessly and protectively across the back of the seat above Miles"s head. But she had taken to biting her nails again, Miles noted. Miles sat between them in Lord Vorkosigan"s Barrayaran dress greens, feeling like a piece of wilted watercress between two slices of moldy bread. Too d.a.m.n tired for these late-night parties.
"Of course it"s a trap," said Miles. "Who set it and why, is what we want to find out. And how much they know. Have they set this up because they believe Admiral Naismith and Lord Vorkosigan to be two separate people-or because they don"t? If the latter, will it compromise Barrayar"s covert connection with the Dendarii Mercenaries in future operations?"
Elli"s sideways glance met Miles"s. Indeed. And if the Naismith game were over, what future had they?
"Or maybe," said Ivan helpfully, "it"s something totally unrelated, like local criminals looking for a spot of ransom. Or something really tortuous, like the Cetagandans trying to get Admiral Naismith in deep trouble with Barrayar, in hopes that we"d have better luck killing the little spook than they have. Or maybe-"
"Maybe you"re the evil genius behind it all, Ivan," Miles suggested affably, "clearing the chain of command of compet.i.tion so you can have the emba.s.sy all to yourself."
Elli glanced at him sharply, to be sure he was joking. Ivan just grinned. "Ooh, I like that one."
"The only thing we can be sure of is that it"s not a Cetagandan a.s.sa.s.sination attempt," Miles sighed.
"I wish I was as sure as you seem to be," muttered Elli. It was late evening of the fourth day since Galeni"s disappearance. The thirty-six hours since the Dendarii had been offered their peculiar contract had given Elli time for reflection; the initial charm had worn off for her even as Miles had become increasingly drawn in by the possibilities.
"Look at the logic of it," argued Miles. "The Cetagandans either still think I"m two separate people, or they don"t. It"s Admiral Naismith they want to kill, not the Barrayaran prime minister"s son. Killing Lord Vorkosigan could restart a b.l.o.o.d.y war. In feet, we"ll know my cover"s been blown the day they stop trying to a.s.sa.s.sinate Naismith-and start making a great and embarra.s.sing public flap about Dendarii operations against them instead. They wouldn"t miss that diplomatic opportunity for anything. Particularly now, with the right-of-pa.s.sage treaty through Tau Ceti up in the air. They could cripple our galactic trade in one move."
"They could be trying to prove your connection, as step one of just that plan," said Ivan, looking thoughtful.
"I didn"t say it wasn"t the Cetagandans," said Miles mildly. "I just said that if it was, this isn"t an a.s.sa.s.sination."
Elli groaned.
Miles looked at his chrono. "Time for the last check."
Elli activated her wrist comm. "Are you still up there, Bel?"
Captain Thorne"s alto voice lilted back, signalling from the aircar that followed with its troop of Dendarii soldiers. "I have you in my sights."
"All right, keep us that way. You watch the back from above, we"ll watch the front. This will be the last voice contact till we invite you to drop in."
"We"ll be waiting. Bel out."
Miles rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Quinn, watching the gesture, remarked, "I"m really not crazy about springing the trap by letting them take you."
"I have no intention of letting them take me. The moment they show their hand, Bel drops in and we take them instead. But if it doesn"t look like they want to kill me outright, we could learn a lot by letting their operation run on a few steps further. In view of the, ah, Situation at the emba.s.sy, it could be worth a little risk."
She shook her head in mute disapproval.
The next few minutes pa.s.sed in silence. Miles was about halfway through a mental review of all the branching possibilities they had hammered out for this evening"s action when they pulled up in front of a row of ancient, three-story houses crammed together along a crescent street. They seemed very dark and quiet, unoccupied, apparently in process of condemnation or renovation.
Elli glanced at the numbers on the doors and swung up the bubble canopy. Miles slid out to stand beside her. From the groundcar, Ivan ran the scanners. "There"s n.o.body home," he reported, squinting at his readouts.
"What? Not possible," said Elli.
"We could be early."
"Rats," said Elli. "As Miles is so fond of saying, look at the logic. The people who want to buy Lord Vorkosigan didn"t give us this rendezvous till the last second. Why? So we couldn"t get here first and check it out. They have to be set up and waiting." She leaned back into the car"s c.o.c.kpit, reaching over Ivan"s shoulder. He turned his hands palm-out in acquiescence as she ran the scan again. "You"re right," she admitted, "but it still feels wrong."
Was it chance vandalism that a couple of streetlights were broken out, just here? Miles peered into the night.
"Don"t like it," Elli murmured. "Let"s not tie your hands."
"Can you handle me, all by yourself?"
"You"re drugged to the eyeb.a.l.l.s."
Miles shrugged, and let his jaw hang slack and his eyes track randomly and not quite in unison. He shambled beside her as her hand pinched his upper arm, guiding him up the steps. She tried the door, an old-fashioned one hung on hinges. "It"s open." It swung wide squeaking, revealing blackness.
Elli reluctantly reholstered her stunner and unhooked a handlight from her belt, flashing it into the darkness. An entry hall; rickety-looking stairs ascended to the left, twin archways on either side led into empty, dirty front rooms. She sighed and stepped cautiously across the threshold. "Anybody here?" she called softly. Silence. They entered the left-hand room, the beam of the handlight darting from corner to corner.
"We"re not early," she muttered, "not late, the address is right... where are they?"
He could not very well answer and stay in character. Elli released him, switched the light to her left hand and re-drew her stunner. "You"re too tanked to wander far," she decided, as if talking to herself. "I"m going to take a look around."
One of Miles"s eyelids shivered in acknowledgement. Until she finished checking for remote bugs and scanner beams, he had better keep playing Lord Vorkosigan in a convincingly kidnapped state. After a moment"s hesitation, she took to the stairs. Taking the light with her, dammit.
He was still listening to the swift, faint creak of her footsteps overhead when the hand closed over his mouth and the back of his neck was kissed by a stunner on very light power, zero range.
He convulsed, kicking, trying to shout, trying to bite. His a.s.sailant hissed in pain and clutched harder. There were two-his hands were yanked up behind his back, a gag stuffed into his mouth before his teeth could snap closed on the hand that fed him. The gag was permeated with some sweet, penetrating drug; his nostrils flared wildly, but his vocal cords went involuntarily slack. He seemed out of touch with his body, as if it had moved leaving no forwarding address. Then a pale light came up.
Two large men, one younger, one older, dressed in Earther clothing, shifted in the shadows, faintly blurred. Scanner shields, dammit! And very, very good ones, to beat the Dendarii equipment. Miles spotted the boxes belted to their waists-a tenth the size of the latest thing his people had. Such tiny power packs-they looked new. The Barrayaran emba.s.sy was going to have to update its secured areas... He went cross-eyed, for a mad moment, trying to read the maker"s mark on them, until he saw the third man.
Oh, the third. I"ve lost it, Miles"s panicked thoughts gyrated. Gone right over the edge. The third man was himself.
The alter-Miles, neatly turned out in Barrayaran: dress greens, stepped forward to stare long and strangely, hungrily, into his face as he was held up by the two younger men. He began emptying the contents of Miles"s pockets into his own. Stunner... IDs... half a pack of clove breath mints... He frowned at the breath mints as if momentarily puzzled, then pocketed them with a shrug. He pointed to Miles"s waist.
Miles"s grandfather"s dagger had been willed explicitly to him. The 300-year-old blade was still flexible as rubber, sharp as gla.s.s. Its jewelled hilt concealed the Vorkosigan seal. They took it from beneath his jacket. The alter-Miles shrugged the sheath-strap over his shoulder and refastened his tunic. Finally, he unhooked the scanner-shield belt from his own waist and slipped it swiftly around Miles.
The alter-Miles"s eyes were hot with an exhilarated terror, as he paused to sweep one last glance over Miles. Miles had seen the look once before, in his own face in the mirrored wall of a tube station.
No.
He"d seen it on this one"s face in the mirrored wall of a tube station.
He must have been standing feet away that night, behind Miles at an angle. In the wrong uniform. The green one, at a moment Miles was wearing his Dendarii greys.
Looks like they managed to get it right this time, though....
"Perfect," growled the alter-Miles, freed of the scanner-shield"s sonic m.u.f.fling. "We didn"t even have to stun the woman. She"ll suspect nothing. Told you this would work." He inhaled, jerked up his chin, and smiled sardonically at Miles.
Posturing little martinet, Miles thought poisonously. I"ll get you for that.
Well, I always was my own worst enemy.
The switch had taken only seconds. They carried Miles through the doorway at the back of the room. With a heroic twitch, he managed to b.u.mp his head on the frame, going through.
"What was that?" Elli"s voice called instantly from upstairs.
"Me," the alter-Miles called back promptly. "I just checked around. There"s n.o.body down here either. This is a wash-out."
"You think?" Miles heard her cantering down the stairs. "We could wait a while."
Elli"s wristcom chimed. "Elli?" came Ivan"s voice thinly. "I just got a funny blip in the scanners a minute ago."
Miles"s heart lurched in hope.
"Check again." The alter-Miles"s voice was cool.
"Nothing, now."
"Nothing here either. I"m afraid something"s panicked them, and they"ve aborted. Pull in the perimeter and take me back to the emba.s.sy, Commander Quinn.
"So soon? You sure?"
"Now, yes. That"s an order."
"You"re the boss. d.a.m.n," said Elli regretfully "I had my heart set on that hundred thousand Betan dollars."
Their syncopated footsteps echoed out the hallway and were muted by the closing door. The purr of a groundcar faded in the distance. Darkness, silence scored by breathing.
They dragged Miles along again, out a back door, through a narrow mews and into the back seat of a groundcar parked in the alley. They sat him up like a mannequin between them, while a third kidnapper drove. Miles"s thoughts spun dizzily along the edge of consciousness. G.o.dd.a.m.n scanners... five-year-old technology from the rim zone, which put it maybe ten years behind Earth"s-they"d have to bite the budget bullet and sc.r.a.p the Dendarii scanner system fleet-wide, now-if he lived to order it.... Scanners, h.e.l.l. The fault didn"t lie in the scanners. Wasn"t the formerly-mythical unicorn hunted with mirrors, to fascinate the vainglorious beast while its killers circled for the strike? Must be a virgin around here somewhere....
This was an ancient district. The tortuous route the groundcar was taking could be either to confuse him or merely the best shortcut local knowledge could supply. After about a quarter hour they dove into an underground parking garage and hissed to a halt. The garage was small, clearly private, with room for only a few vehicles.
They hauled him to a lift tube and ascended one level to a short hallway. One of the goons pulled off Miles"s boots and scanner-shield belt. The stun was starting to wear off. His legs were rubbery, shot with pins and needles, but at least they propped him up. They released his wrists; clumsily, he tried to rub his aching arms. They popped the gag from his mouth. He emitted a wordless croak.
They unlocked a door in front of him and bundled him into a windowless room. The door closed behind with a click like trap jaws snapping. He staggered and stood, feet spread a little, panting.
A sealed light fixture in the ceiling illuminated a narrow room furnished only with two hard benches along the walls. To the left a doorframe with the door removed led to a tiny, windowless washroom.
A man, wearing only green trousers, cream shirt, and socks, lay curled on one of the benches, facing the wall. Stiffly, gingerly, he rolled over and sat up.
One hand flung up automatically, as if to shield his reddened eyes from some too-bright light; the other pressed the bench to keep him from toppling. Dark hair mussed, a four-day beard stubble. His shirt collar hung open in a V, revealing a throat strangely vulnerable, in contrast to the usual turtle-armored effect of the high, closed Barrayaran tunic collar. His face was furrowed.
The impeccable Captain Galeni. Rather the worse for wear.
Chapter Eight.
Galeni squinted at Miles. "b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l," he said in a flattened voice.
"Same to you," Miles rasped back.
Galeni sat up straighter, bleary eyes narrowing with suspicion. "Or-is it you?"
"I don"t know." Miles considered this. "Which me were you expecting?" He staggered over to the bench opposite before his knees gave way and sat, his back against the wall, feet not quite reaching the floor. They were both silent for a few minutes, taking in the details of the other.
"It would be pointless to throw us together in the same room unless it were monitored," said Miles at last.
For answer Galeni flipped an index finger up toward the light fixture.
"Ah. Visual too?"
"Yes."
Miles bared his teeth and smiled upward.
Galeni was still regarding him with wary, almost painful uncertainty.
Miles cleared his throat. There was a bitter tang lingering in his mouth. "I take it you"ve met my alter-ego?"
"Yesterday. I think it was yesterday." Galeni glanced at the light.