Brothers in Arms b-8

by Lois McMaster Bujold

  "Compelling logic."

  "So why aren't you compelled? And what do you plan to do with them if you do catch 'em?"

  "As for what," said Miles, "it's not too complicated. I want to find Galen and my clone before Destang does, and separate them. And then make sure Destang doesn't find them until I can send a private report home. Eventually, if I vouch for him, I believe a cease-and-desist order will come through countermanding my clone's assassination, without my having to appear directly connected with it."

  "What about Galen?" asked Elli skeptically. "No way are you going to get a cease-and-desist order on him."

  "Probably not. Galen is—a problem I have not solved."

  Miles returned to his cabin, where his fleet accountant caught up with him.

  Lieutenant Bone fell on the eighteen-million-mark credit chit with heartfelt and unmilitary glee. "Saved!"

  "Disburse it as needed," Miles said. "And get the Triumph out of hock. We need to be able to move out at a moment's notice without having to argue about grand theft with the Solar Navy. Ah—hm. D'you think you can create a credit chit, out of petty cash or wherever, in galactic funds, that couldn't in any way be traced back to us?"

  A gleam lit her eye. "An interesting challenge, sir. Does this have anything to do with our upcoming contract?"

  "Security, Lieutenant," Miles said blandly. "I can't discuss it even with you."

  "Security," she sniffed, "doesn't hide as much from Accounting as they think they do."

  "Perhaps I should combine your departments. No?" He grinned at her horrified look. "Well, maybe not."

  "Who does this chit go to?"

  "To the bearer."

  Her brows rose. "Very good, sir. How much?"

  Miles hesitated. "Half a million marks. However that translates into local credit."

  "Half a million marks," she noted wryly, "is not petty."

  "Just so long as it's cash."

  "I'll do my best, sir."

  He sat alone in his cabin after she left, frowning deeply. The impasse was clear. Galen could not be expected to initiate contact unless he saw some way, not to mention some reason, to control the situation or achieve surprise. Letting Galen choreograph his moves seemed fatal, and Miles did not care for the idea of wandering around till Galen chose to surprise him. Still, some sort of feint to create an opening might be better than no move at all, in view of the shrinking time limit. Get off the damn defensive disadvantage, act instead of react… A high resolve, but for the minor flaw that until Galen was spotted Miles had no object to act upon. He growled frustration and went wearily to bed.

  He woke on his own in the dark of his cabin some twelve hours later, noted the time on the glowing digits of his wall clock, and lay a while luxuriating in the remarkable sensation of finally having gotten enough sleep. His greedy body was just suggesting, in the leaden slowness of his limbs, that more would be nice, when his cabin comconsole chimed. Saved from the sin of sloth, he staggered out of bed and answered it.

  "Sir." The face of one of the Triumph's comm officers appeared. "You have a tight-beam call from the Barrayaran Embassy downside in London. They're asking for you personally, scrambled."

  Miles trusted that this was not literally true. It couldn't be Ivan; he would have called on the private comm link. It had to be an official communique. "Unscramble and pipe it in here, then."

  "Should I record?"

  "Ah—no."

  Could the new orders from HQ for the Dendarii fleet have arrived already? Miles swore silently. If they were forced to break orbit before his Dendarii Intelligence people found Galen and Mark . . .

  Destang's grim face appeared over the vid plate. " 'Admiral Naismith.' " Miles could hear the quote marks dropping in around his name. "Are we alone?"

  "Entirely, sir."

  Destang's face relaxed slightly. "Very well. I have an order for you—Lieutenant Vorkosigan. You are to remain aboard your ship in orbit until I, personally, call again and notify you otherwise."

  "Why, sir?" said Miles, though he could damn well guess.

  "For my peace of mind. When a simple precaution will prevent the slightest possibility of an accident, it's foolish not to take it. Do you understand?"

  "Fully, sir."

  "Very well. That's all. Destang out." The commodore's face dissolved in air.

  Miles cursed out loud, with feeling. Destang's "precaution" could only mean that his Sector goons had spotted Mark already, before Miles's Dendarii had—and were moving in for the kill. How fast? Was there still a chance . . . ?"

  Miles slipped on his grey trousers, hung ready to hand, and dug the secured comm link from his pocket and keyed it on. "Ivan?" he spoke into it quietly. "You there?"

  "Miles?"

  It was not Ivan's voice; it was Galeni's. "Captain Galeni? I found the other half of the comm link … ah, are you alone?"

  "At present." Galeni's voice was dry, conveying through no more than the tone his opinion of both the misplaced comm link story and those who invented it. "Why?"

  "How'd you come by the comm link?"

  "Your cousin handed it to me just before he departed on his duties."

  "Left for where? What duties?" Was Ivan swept up for Destang's man-hunt? If so, Miles could happily throttle him for divesting Miles's ear on the proceedings just when it might have done the most good—skittish idiot!—if only—

  "He's escorting the ambassador's lady to the World Botanical Exhibition and Ornamental Flower Show at the University of London's Horticulture Hall. She goes every year, to glad-hand the local social set. Admittedly, she is also interested in the topic."

  Miles's voice rose slightly. "In the middle of a security crisis, you sent Ivan to a flower show?"

  "Not I," denied Galeni. "Commodore Destang. I, ah—believe he felt Ivan could be most easily spared. He's not thrilled with Ivan."

  "What about you?"

  "He's not thrilled with me either."

  "No, I mean, what are you doing? Are you directly involved with the . . . current operation?"

  "Hardly."

  "Ah. I'm relieved. I was a little afraid—somebody—might have gotten a short circuit in his head about requiring it of you as proof of loyalty or some damn thing."

  "Commodore Destang is neither a sadist nor a fool." Galeni paused. "He's careful, however. I'm confined to quarters."

  "You have no direct access to the operation, then. Like where they are, and how close, and when they plan to … make a move."

  Galeni's voice was carefully neutral, neither offering nor denying help. "Not readily."

  "Hm. He just ordered me confined to quarters too. I think he's had some sort of break, and things are coming to a head."

  There was a brief silence. Galeni's words drifted out on a sigh. "Sorry to hear that …" His voice cracked. "It's so damned useless! The dead hand of the past goes on jerking the strings by galvanic reflex, and we poor puppets dance—nothing is served, not us, not him, not Komarr …"

  "If I could make contact with your father," began Miles.

  "It would be useless. He'll fight, and keep on fighting."

  "But he has nothing, now. He blew his last chance. He's an old man, he's tired—he could be ready to change, to quit at last," Miles argued.

  "I wish . . . no. He can't quit. Above life itself, he has to prove himself right. To be right redeems his every crime. To have done all that he's done, and be wrong—unbearable!"

  "I … see. Well, I'll contact you again if I … have anything useful to say. There's, ah, no point in turning in the comm link till you have both halves, eh?"

  "As you wish." Galeni's tone was not exactly fired with hope.

  Miles shut down the comm link.

  He called Thorne, who reported no visible progress.

  "In the meantime," said Miles, "here's another lead for you. An unfortunate one. The team from the Barrayarans has evidently spotted our target within the last hour or so."

  "Ha! Maybe we can follow them, and let
them lead us to Galen."

  "Afraid not. We have to get ahead of them, without treading on their toes. Their hunt is a lethal one."

  "Armed and dangerous, eh? I'll pass the word." Thorne whistled thoughtfully. "Your creche-mate sure is popular."

  Miles washed, dressed, ate, made ready: boot knife, scanners, stunners both hip-holstered and concealed, comm links, a wide assortment of tools and toys one might carry through London's shuttleport security checks. It was a far cry from combat gear, alas, though his jacket nearly clanked when he walked. He called the duty officer, made sure a personnel shuttle was fueled, pilot at the ready. He waited without patience.

  What was Galen up to? If he wasn't just running—and the fact that the Barrayaran security team had nearly caught up with him suggested he was still hanging around for some reason—why? Mere revenge? Something more arcane? Was Miles's analysis of him too simple, too subtle—what was he missing? What was left in life for the man who had to be right?

  His cabin comconsole chimed. Miles sent up a short inarticulate prayer—let it be some break, some chink, some handle—

  The comm officer's face appeared. "Sir, I have a call originating from the downside commercial comconsole net. A man who refuses to identify himself says you want to talk to him."

  Miles jerked electrically upright. "Trace the call and cut a copy to Captain Thorne in Intelligence. Put it through here."

  "Do you want your visual to go out, or just audio?"

  "Both."

  The comm officer's face faded as another man's appeared, giving an unsettling illusion of transmutation.

  "Vorkosigan?" said Galen.

  "So?" said Miles.

  "I will not repeat myself." Galen spoke low and fast. "I don't give a damn if you're recording or tracing. It's irrelevant. You will meet me in seventy minutes exactly. You will come to the Thames Tidal Barrier, halfway between Towers Six and Seven. You will walk out on the seaward side to the lower lookout. Alone. Then we'll talk. If any condition is not met, we will simply not be there when you arrive. And Ivan Vorpatril will die at 0207."

  "You are two. I must be two," Miles began. Ivan?

  "Your pretty bodyguard? Very well. Two." The vid blinked blank.

  "No—"

  Silence.

  Miles keyed to Thorne. "Did you get that, Bel?"

  "Sure did. Sounded threatening. Who's Ivan?"

  "A very important person. Where'd this originate?"

  "A tubeway nexus, public comconsole. I have a man on the way who can make it in six minutes. Unfortunately—"

  "I know. Six minutes gives a search radius of several million people. I think we'll play it his way. Up to a point. Put a patrol in the air over the Tidal Barrier, file a flight plan for my shuttle downside, have an aircar and Dendarii driver and guard meet it. Tell Bone I want that credit chit now. Tell Quinn to meet me in the shuttle hatch corridor, and bring a couple of med scanners. And stand by. I want to check something."

  He took a deep breath, and keyed open the comm link. "Galeni?" A pause. "Yes?"

  "You still confined to quarters?"

  "Yes."

  "I have an urgent request for information. Where's Ivan, really?"

  "As far as I know, he's still at—"

  "Check it. Check it fast."

  There was a long, long pause, which Miles utilized to recheck his gear, find Lieutenant Bone, and walk to the shuttle hatch corridor. Quinn was waiting, intensely curious.

  "What's up now?"

  "We have our break. Of sorts. Galen wants a meeting, but—"

  "Miles?" Galeni's voice came back at last. It sounded rather strained.

  "Yo."

  "The private we'd sent to be driver/guard called in about ten minutes ago. He'd spelled Ivan, attending on Milady, while Ivan went to piss. When Ivan didn't come back in twenty minutes, the driver went to look for him. Spent thirty minutes hunting—the Horticulture Hall is huge, and mobbed tonight—before he reported back to us. How did you know?"

  "I think I've got hold of the other end. Do you recognize whose style of doing business this is?"

  Galeni swore.

  "Quite. Look. I don't care how you do it, but I want you to meet me in fifty minutes at the Thames Tidal Barrier, Section Six. Pack at least a stunner, and get away preferably without alerting Destang. We have an appointment with your father and my brother."

  "If he has Ivan—"

  "He had to bring some card to the table, or he wouldn't come play. We've got one last chance to make it come out right. Not a good chance, just the last one. Are you with me?"

  A slight pause. "Yes." The tone was decisive.

  "See you there."

  Pocketing the link, Miles turned to Elli. "Now we move."

  They swung through the shuttle hatch. For once, Miles had no objection to Ptarmigan's habit of taking all downside flights at combat-drop speed.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The Thames Tidal Barrier, know to local wags as the King Canute Memorial, was a vastly more impressive structure seen from a hundred meters up than it had seemed from the kilometers-high view from the shuttle. The aircar banked, circling. The synthacrete mountain ran away in both directions farther than Miles's eye could follow, whitened into an illusion of marble by the spotlights that knifed through the faintly misty midnight blackness.

  Watchtowers every kilometer housed not soldiers guarding the wall but the night shift of engineers and technicians watching over the sluices and pumping stations. To be sure, if the sea ever broke through, it would raze the city more mercilessly than any army.

  But the sea was calm this summer night, dotted with colored navigation lights, red, green, white, and the distant moving twinkle of ships' running lights. The eastern horizon glowed faintly, false dawn from the radiant cities of Europe beyond the waters.

  On the other side of the white barrier toward ancient London, all the dirt and grime and broken places were swallowed by the night, leaving only the jewelled illusion of something magic, unmarred and immortal.

  Miles pressed his face to the aircar's bubble canopy for a last strategic view of the arena they were about to enter before the car dropped toward the near-empty parking area behind the Barrier. Section Six was peripheral to the main channel sections with their enormous navigation locks busy around the clock; it was just dyke and auxiliary pumping stations, nearly deserted at this hour. That suited Miles. If the situation devolved into some sort of shooting war, the fewer civilian bystanders wandering through the better. Catwalks and ladders ran to access ports in the structure, geometric black accents on the whiteness; spidery railings marked walkways, some broad and public, some narrow, reserved no doubt to Authorized Personnel. At present they all appeared deserted, no sign of Galen or Mark. No sign of Ivan.

  "What's significant about 0207?" Miles wondered aloud. "I have the feeling it should be obvious. It's such an exact time."

  Elli the space-born shook her head, but the Dendarii soldier piloting the aircar volunteered, "It's high tide, sir."

  "Ah!" said Miles. He sat back, thinking furiously. "How interesting. It suggests two things. They've concealed Ivan around here someplace—and we might do best to concentrate our search below the high waterline. Could they have chained him to a railing down by the rocks or some damn thing?"

  "The air patrol could make a pass and check," said Quinn.

  "Yes, have them do that."

  The aircar settled into a painted circle on the pavement.

  Quinn and the second soldier exited first, cautiously, and ran a fast perimeter scan around the area. "There's somebody approaching on foot," the soldier reported.

  "Pray it's Captain Galeni," Miles muttered, with a glance at his chrono. Seven minutes remained of his time limit.

  It was a man jogging with his dog. The pair stared at the four uniformed Dendarii, and arced nervously around them to the far side of the parking lot before disappearing through the bushes softening the north end. Everybody took their hands off their stunner
s. Civilized town, thought Miles. You wouldn't do that at this hour in some parts of Vorbarr Sultana, unless you had a much bigger dog.

  The soldier checked his infra-red. "Here comes another one."

  Not the soft pad of running shoes this time, but the quick ring of boots. Miles recognized the sound of the boots before he could make out the face in the splash of light and shadow. Galeni's uniform turned from dark grey to green as he entered the lot's zone of brighter illumination, walking fast.

  "All right," said Miles to Elli, "this is where we split off. Stay back and out of sight at all costs, but if you can find a vantage, good. Wrist comm open?"

  Elli keyed her wrist comm. Miles pulled his boot knife and used the point to disengage and extinguish the tiny transmit-indicator light in his own wrist comm, then blew into it; the hiss of it whispered from Elli's wrist. "Sending fine," she confirmed.

  "Got your med scanner?"

  She displayed it.

  "Take a baseline."

  She pointed it at him, waved it up and down. "Recorded and ready for auto-comparison."

  "Can you think of anything else?" .

  She shook her head, but still didn't look happy. "What do I do if he comes walking back and you don't?"

  "Grab him, fast-penta him—got your interrogation kit?"

  She flashed open her jacket; a small brown case peeped from an inner pocket.

  "Rescue Ivan if you can. Then," Miles took a deep breath, "you can blow the clone's head off or whatever you choose."

  "What happened to 'my brother right or wrong'?" said Elli.

  Galeni, coming up in the middle of this, cocked his head with interest to hear the answer to that one, but Miles only shook his head. He couldn't think of a simple answer.

  "Three minutes left," said Miles to Galeni. "We better move."

  They headed up a walk that led to a set of stairs, stepping over the chain that marked them as closed for the night to law-abiding citizens. The stairs climbed the back side of the tidal barrier to a public promenade that ran along the top to allow sightseers a view of the ocean in the daytime. Galeni, who had evidently been moving at speed, was breathing deeply even as they began their climb.

  "Have any trouble getting out of the embassy?" asked Miles.