Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

by Lois McMaster Bujold

  “Well, they’ve no need to be gratuitously nasty, either,” said Ivan Xav uneasily. “That I can see.”

  “What if they decide they need to establish a fresh working relationship with the new House Cordonah, and that Rish and I would make dandy bargaining chips? I have nothing to stop them with—nothing.” She choked down her rising tone, refusing to turn her head toward the balcony. That nothing would stop them, too literally true.

  “Look, I know they’re all weasels over there at ImpSec, but they’re pretty honorable weasels.”

  “I thought they were a security organization,” said Rish. “Their honor has to consist of putting Barrayar’s interests first.”

  Ivan shrugged somewhat helplessly, but did not deny this.

  “We’ll think about it,” said Tej. “Meanwhile . . . do you want first claim on the bath, Captain? You have to get up before us.”

  He glanced at the time and made a face. “I guess I’d better.” He looked as if he’d like to stay and argue more, but swallowed whatever he’d been going to say, and went off.

  When the bedroom door had closed after him, Rish said, “Was that a Maybe yes we’ll think about it, or was that a No, but we won’t confirm it till we make it safely to the exit we’ll think about it?”

  “Have you spotted a safe exit? I haven’t.”

  Rish set her fine jaw. “Tomorrow. I think we should run tomorrow, as soon as he goes off to that HQ of his. The cash in his wallet would get us to another dome, at least.”

  It would have to be one of the domes with its own commercial shuttleport. That cut it down to a couple of dozen choices planet-wide, all larger arcologies, which was a good feature, but none were close. Tej’s heart sank at the thought of another scurrying, fearful journey among strangers, from nowhere to nowhere, in the vague hope that their lost House’s enemies would look for them . . . nowhere.

  “And are you sure we’re not being watched out for?” said Tej. “Are you sure he isn’t watched, for that matter?”

  Rish shook her head. “I think we ran out of good choices a while back. We’re now down to the least-bad.”

  Tej rubbed her aching forehead. “I’ll think about it.”

  Rish flounced in her seat, a maneuver only she could imbue with such stylish censure. “And you have to stop cuddling that Barrayaran. It’s not as if you can keep him, or take him along with us, or whatever.”

  “Oh, so it’s just me?” said Tej. “You liked his weasel friend well enough. Even I could smell it.”

  “Did not!” Rish denied. “I just thought he was . . . interesting. A walking human puzzle who . . . works on human puzzles, I suppose.”

  “Ferreting them out?” Tej snickered.

  “Apparently.” Rish frowned. “He sure found us. Twice.”

  A disturbing observation. Tej was still thinking about the implications when her turn came for the bath.

  * * *

  The door buzzer sounded in the half light of dawn, just as Ivan was finishing dressing for work, all but his shoes. And kept on sounding, continuously.

  Byerly in a toot? Strange hour for it. It was too late for him to have been up since yesterday, and far too early for him to be up for today. Ivan padded to the door, and this time prudently checked the security vid. Yes, By, leaning on the buzzer and shifting from foot to foot. Maybe he really, really had to go to the lav. You wish. Ivan released the lock, the door slid aside, and Byerly tumbled within and hit the pad to close it with his bunched fist. “Ivan. Thank God I caught you,” he said. “We have a problem.”

  “What, a new one? Or just more of the same one we have already?” said Ivan, refusing to be stirred by By’s histrionics at this hour. He gave way as By surged down his short hallway, beginning to rethink that stance already. By never surged; he sauntered. Or strolled. Or sometimes swayed, or even evaporated. But right now, he looked downright condensed, altogether too much here.

  The two women, awakened by this entry, appeared through the door of the bedroom as Ivan followed By in from the hall. Tej looked deliciously bed-rumpled, warm and soft but for her frown. This was a woman who ought to greet each day with a sleepy, seductive smile, which Ivan wished he knew how to supply. Hell, I do know; I just haven’t had a chance to. Rish was her usual sleek self, concerned and fully alert mere seconds after being jerked from a sound sleep. Both women wore the tank tops they slept in and loose Komarran trousers, pulled on hastily; Rish spotted By and tucked her stunner back in her pants pocket. Tej wore no support garment under her top, and the effect as she moved forward was wonderfully distracting. Not now, Ivan told himself. Part of himself, the part with a single mind of its own.

  “What’s going on?” asked Rish.

  “Theo Vormercier has blindsided me,” said By bitterly. “When my hired goons didn’t produce you, instead of turning to me for my next solution, he implemented his very own brilliant idea, or so he thinks. He turned your identities and descriptions over to Komarran Immigration Services as illegal entries. He figured to let them do the legwork of locating you, and then snatch you somehow from incarceration after your arrests.”

  Tej’s eyes grew big. Rish just went very, very still.

  “So?” said Ivan. “They’re hidden for now. No way for Immigration to know they’re here . . . is there?”

  “Unfortunately, Immigration shares databases with the dome cops, and your name, which you so thoughtfully supplied them, came up. The Immigration people will be on their way to check you first thing today.”

  “They’ll have to catch me at work again. Nobody home here, right?”

  “What if they break in to search?” asked Tej uneasily. “There’s no place to hide.” Her gaze shifted to the balcony door, where the first faint color in the sky was beginning to mute the city lights, and she swallowed.

  “They have to have some sort of warrant,” said Ivan, beginning to share her unease. “I would think.”

  “Ivan, those people issue warrants,” said By impatiently. “They don’t have the broad powers ImpSec does, but they’ve plenty enough for this. Probably more than they used to have back when Komarr was an independent polity. They don’t even have to break anything—they can make the building manager open the door.”

  “We have to get out,” said Tej. “We can’t let ourselves be trapped in here.”

  Ivan had some sympathy for that sentiment. Even though the flat wasn’t dark, or constricted, or wet. Also, they weren’t alone. . . . Maybe they were overreacting, really.

  “That’s what I came to tell you,” said By.

  “Wait, no,” said Ivan. Once they got away, and lost themselves, how would he ever find Tej again? The women had to be pretty good at hiding, or they wouldn’t have evaded their determined pursuers across four systems for what, seven months? Or maybe By had a plan—he wouldn’t have come boiling in here without one, would he? Some way to keep a string on them—

  “You’ll have to get your things together—” By began, but was interrupted by the door buzzer. Two stern blats. Tej jumped and Rish tensed. By wheeled. “What the hell? They can’t be here already.”

  Ivan nipped out to the short hallway and checked the security viewer. Unfortunately, he recognized his visitors. Detective Fano and Detective-patroller Sulmona, up bright and early, or dark and late, whichever. Fano leaned on the buzzer again, and Sulmona, after another moment, pounded on the door. “Vorpatril?” she shouted through it. “Answer your door.”

  No polite please with that, Ivan noted as By and the women came up to peer anxiously around his shoulders.

  “That’s not Immigration,” said By.

  “No, it’s the dome cops. Same pair I talked to t’other day. Would Immigration have sent them?”

  “No, they have their own uniformed squads for this sort of thing. There are procedures. This must be something else.”

  Another buzz, longer. Sulmona pounded again. “Vorpatril? We know you’re in there. Open up.”

  Ivan hit the com and called, “Why?”
/>
  By winced.

  Fano drew a long breath. “We have a felony warrant for your arrest. That gives us the right to break down this door if you don’t open it.”

  “Arrest! What the hell for? I haven’t done anything!”

  “Kidnapping.”

  “What?” said Ivan, outraged.

  Fano’s jaw jutted. “We know you lied. The security vids from the Crater Lake bubble-car platform finally surfaced. They clearly show you and an unknown person escorting the missing Nanja Brindis into a bubble car. She hasn’t been heard from since. The abduction charge is enough to get us in your door, but the one I’m really after is murder. But you know that, don’t you, Captain?”

  Ivan was struck nearly speechless, except for the wheeze of his hyperventilation.

  “Don’t open it!” whispered Tej. Truly, Ivan didn’t want to. By and Rish dragged him back to the living room for a hissed conference.

  “But I have to let them in,” said Ivan, harried. “In the first place, it’s another felony not to, and in the second place, Tej, you can make the kidnapping charge go away by telling them I didn’t abduct you, I just invited you. Not to mention murder, good God!”

  Tej said, “We can’t let them in, they’ll take us.”

  “Tell them through the intercom,” Ivan suggested. Would that work?

  “How would they know you weren’t holding a weapon to her back?” asked By, unhelpfully.

  “And don’t you believe for a minute that Prestene’s agents can’t whip us out of their custody before you can get back with help, and anyway, your help is worse,” said Tej. “ImpSec! I’d almost rather take my chances with Prestene!”

  “Hey!” Byerly protested.

  Rish turned in a complete circle, gold eyes dilated, reaching as if for some rope that wasn’t there. “We can’t get out. There’s no way out!”

  Tej grabbed her hands, stopping her rotation. “It’ll have to be the balcony after all. Oh, Rish, I’m so sorry I led you into this!”

  “What’s on the balcony,” Ivan began, but was interrupted by a chime from his wristcom. That particular tone wasn’t one he could ignore. He held up a hand, “Wait!” and opened his link. “Sir?” he said brightly.

  “Vorpatril!”

  Ivan rocked back. Desplains never bellowed. “Uh, yes?”

  “What the hell is all this?”

  “Are you at work already, sir?”

  “No, I’m in my quarters. Just received an emergency heads-up from ImpSec Komarr that Dome Security has filed a felony charge on my aide-de-camp, so I finally opened their memo. That was no garden snake!”

  “I can explain, sir.” The door buzzer sounded again, and more pounding. Muffled shouts. “Later. I have a bit of a situation on my hands right now.” Ivan gulped and cut the com. He’d never cut off any admiral, ever, let alone Desplains.

  The pounding stopped. More muffled voices.

  “We’ve got to block the door. Buy time,” said Ivan.

  “Time for what?” said By.

  “Time for me to think of something.”

  “That could take all day.”

  Ivan shot him an irate look, teeth clenching hard.

  “The couches,” said Tej. “They’ll be through the door codes soon enough—we have to make a physical barrier.” The two women leapt to begin dragging furniture into the hall and propping it up against the door. By looked as if he didn’t think this would work, but, carried along by the fog of cold panic that seemed to be permeating the place, fell into helping them nonetheless. Damn but Rish was strong for her size . . .

  Ivan peered into the security vid. The two detectives had been joined by four more people, three men and a woman. One man was the building manager. The other three were in unfamiliar uniforms. They appeared to be debating with each other, comparing official-looking forms displayed by their wrist holos. Unless it was some really arcane style of video arm wrestling? Dueling jurisdictions?

  Ivan shoved By up to look in the vid. “That wouldn’t be Immigration, would it?”

  “Uh, yes?”

  The building manager fumbled with a code key. By opened his jacket and jerked out his stunner.

  “Can you take down all six of them before they get you?” asked Tej uneasily. Picturing her and Rish escaping over a wall of bodies? Possibly including By’s and Ivan’s?

  Still peering, By swore, set his stunner on high, and jammed it up against the electronic lock. It buzzed angrily, and after a long moment, sparks shot out of the mechanism. “At least that’ll hold the building manager,” said By, a glint of strained satisfaction in his eye.

  “You’ve locked us in!” Ivan protested. “And now I can’t open the door.”

  “Good!” said Rish, heaving another heavy armchair atop the pile and wedging it in tight.

  They all retreated temporarily to Ivan’s emptied living room.

  Tej swung around, stared deeply into Ivan’s eyes, gasped, “I’m so sorry it has to end this way, Ivan Xav. I know you tried,” and flung her arms around him. Ivan found himself holding what would, under other circumstances, be an absolutely delightful bundle of warm, soft woman. He opened his mouth to her frantic kiss nonetheless, and his arms wrapped her in turn, snugly and securely. He wasn’t sure what was happening here, but O God don’t let it stop . . .

  She stopped. Pushed him away. He managed not to whimper. “That’s it,” she said simply, and turned to take her blue companion’s hand, with a nod toward the balcony. “It’s time, Rish.”

  Rish nodded back, face very grim. They started for the door. By, uneasy, moved to block the glass.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” By asked.

  “Over the balcony.”

  “But you don’t have grav belts! Or anything!” said Ivan.

  Tej wheeled back and raised her chin at him. “That’s right.”

  “But we’re twenty stories up!”

  “Yes, that ought to be enough.”

  “You’ll be killed!”

  Rish stared at him in disbelief. “Are you slow, Captain?”

  “But the dome cops will think I flung you off, or worse!”

  Tej was plainly moved by this, but steeled herself and said sternly, “If you haven’t got a better plan, right now, we’re going. Because later will be too late.”

  “No, yes, what—” Ivan’s wristcom chimed, insistently. He opened the link, yelled, “Not now, sir!” into it, and closed it again. After a moment, it chimed once more. Louder. No override for this code.

  “By, don’t let them get out!” said Ivan, ran to the kitchenette, ripped off his wristcom, opened the refrigerator door, tossed it in, and slammed the door shut again. The wristcom still whimpered, but very faint and plaintive.

  He turned back to the women, and By, who stood with his back tight against the glass. Both he and Rish had their stunners out, pointed at each other. Rish’s was shaking in her death-grip. The new pounding from the hall was growing louder, more disturbingly mechanical. Not just fists anymore. The flat’s doors were designed to keep air from getting out, in a dome-pressurization emergency. Not determined policemen, backed up by building maintenance personnel, from getting in.

  What else had he just seen sitting out on that kitchen counter . . . “Don’t shoot!” Ivan cried. “And don’t jump! I have an idea!”

  This held the tableau, if only in morbid curiosity, long enough for him to run back into the kitchenette and grab the instant groats from the countertop, the large economy-size box that he’d purchased yesterday evening. He ran back into his living room and brandished it. “This’ll do the job!”

  “You’re going to throw cereal at them?” asked Rish, perplexed.

  “Or shall we all sit down and have a hearty Barrayaran breakfast together while the police break in?” asked By, in an all-too-similar tone. But both stunners drooped.

  Shrugging off the sarcasms, and dear God hadn’t he had enough practice at that in his life, Ivan drew a long breath. “Tej. Will you marr
y me?”

  “What?” she said. It wasn’t a thrilled sort of what? either, that ought to greet such a proposal, more of a have-you-lost-your-mind? what. Ivan cringed.

  “No, this’ll work! A woman who marries a Barrayaran subject automatically becomes a Barrayaran subject. It’s one of those fundamental oaths that underlie all other oaths, biology before politics, so to speak. From the moment we finish speaking, Immigration won’t be able to arrest you. And the dome cops won’t be able to arrest me, either.” What he was going to do about Desplains, Ivan was less sure. His wristcom was still thinly chiming in its exile, cold and lonely and far off. Ivan ripped open the box and began dancing sock-foot through the living room, dribbling out a circle of cereal on the carpet.

  “Don’t we have to go somewhere and register it, even for a simple civil match?” asked Tej. “We’d never make it to wherever! They’ll seize us as soon as we go out the door!”

  “But not,” said Rish blackly, “the other door.” By braced his back harder against the latch, though he still stared, confounded, at the growing circle. His eyes were as wide as Ivan had ever seen them.

  “No, that’s the beauty of it!” Ivan explained. “In Barrayaran law, the couple marry themselves. It’s a Time-of-Isolation thing, you wouldn’t understand. Your breath is your bond. You each prop up your Second—your witness—on the edge, you step into the circle, you speak your oaths, you step out, it’s done. The core oaths are really simple, though people gussy them up with all kinds of additions to stretch the ceremony out, God knows why, it’s usually racking enough.” He appealed for support. “Tell them I’m right, Byerly!”

  “Actually”—By coughed, swallowed, found his voice—“he is. About the legalities, anyway.”

  “I can use my military dependent travel chits to get you back to Barrayar,” Ivan went on. “Five jumps farther away from your pursuers, and besides, once you’re married to me, you’ll have ImpSec totally on your side because, um, because. This’ll buy time. And as soon as you’ve figured out what you really want to do, we can go get a divorce in the Count’s Court. Not quite as easy as getting married—my Betan aunt thinks it should be t’other way around—but Count Falco’s an old friend of Mamere’s. Ten minutes, in and out, I swear! And you’ll both be on your way.”