Komarr

observe the first ImpSec contact on this matter.' He could pack his bag and take it along tonight, and not have to come back.

'Yes, my lord. That's why I'm here. Your mysterious body turns out to be a local fellow, from Serifosa. He is, or was, listed as an employee of the Terraforming Project here.'

Miles blinked. 'Not an engineer named Dr. Radovas, is it?'

Tuomonen stared at him, startled. 'How did you know?'

'Wild-ass guess, because he went missing a few weeks ago. Oh, hell, I'll bet Vorsoisson could have identified him at a glance. Or … maybe not. He was pretty battered. Hm. Radovas's boss thought he'd eloped with his tech, a young lady named Marie Trogir. Her body hasn't turned up topside, has it?'

'No, my lord. But it sounds as though we ought to start looking for it.'

'Yes. A full ImpSec search and background check, I think. Don't assume she's dead—if she's alive, we surely want to question her. Do you need a special order from me?'

'Not necessarily, but I'll bet it would expedite things.' A faint enthusiastic gleam lit Tuomonen's eye.

'You have it, then.'

'Thank you, my lord. I thought you'd want this.' He handed Miles the secured case. 'I pulled the complete dossier on Radovas before I left the office.'

'Does ImpSec keep files on every Komarran citizen, or was he special?'

'No, we don't keep universal files. But we have a search program that can pull records of good depth from the information net very quickly. The first part of this is his public biography, school records, medical records, financial and travel documents, all the usual. I only had time to glance over it. But Radovas also does have a small ImpSec file, dating back to his student days during the Komarr Revolt. It was closed at the amnesty.'

'Is it interesting?'

'I would not draw too many inferences from it alone. Half the population of Komarr of that age group was part of some student protest or would-be revolutionary group back then, including my mother-in-law.' Tuomonen waited stiffly to see what response Miles would make to this tidbit.

'Ah, you married a local girl, did you?'

'Five years ago.'

'How long have you been posted to Serifosa?'

'About six years.'

'Good for you.' Yes! That leaves one more Barrayaran woman for the rest of us. 'You get along well with the locals, I take it.'

Tuomonen's stiffness eased. 'Mostly. Except for my mother-in-law. But I don't think that's entirely political.' Tuomonen suppressed a small grin. 'But our little daughter has her under complete control, now.'

'I see.' Miles smiled back at him. With a more thoughtful frown, he turned the case over, dug his Auditor's seal out of his pocket, and keyed it open. 'Has your Analysis section red-flagged anything in this for me?'

'I am Serifosa's Analysis section,' Tuomonen admitted ruefully. His glance at Miles sharpened. 'I understand you're former ImpSec yourself, my lord. I think I'd rather let you read it over first, before I comment.'

Miles's brows twitched up. Did Tuomonen not trust his own judgment, had the arrival of two Imperial Auditors in his sector unnerved him, or was he merely seizing the opportunity for some mutual brainstorming? 'And what sort of dossier did you pull off the net on one Miles Vorkosigan, and speed-read before you left the office just now?'

'I did that day before yesterday, actually, my lord, when I was notified you would be arriving in Serifosa.'

'And what was your analysis of it?'

'About two-thirds of your career is locked under a need-to-know seal that requires clearance from ImpSec HQ in Vorbarr Sultana to access. But your publicly recorded awards and decorations appear in a statistically significant pattern following supposedly routine courier missions assigned to you by the Galactic Affairs office. At approximately five times the density of the next most decorated courier in ImpSec history.'

'And your conclusion, Captain Tuomonen?'

Tuomonen smiled faintly. 'You were never a bloody courier, Captain Vorkosigan.'

'Do you know, Tuomonen, I believe I am going to enjoy working with you.'

'I hope so, sir.' He glanced up as the Professor entered the living room, flanked by Tien Vorsoisson.

Vorthys finished wiping his mouth with his dinner napkin, stuffed it absently into his pocket, and greeted Tuomonen with a handshake, then introduced his nephew-in-law. As they all sat again, Miles said, 'Tuomonen has brought us the identification of our extra body.'

'Oh, good,' said Vorthys. 'Who was the poor fellow?'

Miles watched Tuomonen watch Tien and say, 'Strangely enough, Administrator Vorsoisson, one of your employees. Dr. Barto Radovas.'

Tien's grayness became a shade paler. 'Radovas! What the hell was he doing up there?' The shock and horror on Tien's face was genuine, Miles would have sworn, the surprise in his voice unfeigned.

'I was hoping you might have some ideas, sir,' said Tuomonen.

'My God. Well . . . was he aboard the station, or the ship?'

'We haven't determined that yet.'

'I really can't tell you that much about the man. He was in Soudha's department. Soudha never made any complaints about his work to me. He got all his merit raises right to schedule.' Tien shook his head. 'But what the hell was he doing . . .'He glanced worriedly at Tuomonen. 'He's not actually my employee, you know. He resigned several weeks ago.'

'Five days before his death, according to our calculations,' said Tuomonen.

Tien's brows wrinkled. 'Well … he couldn't have been aboard that ore ship, then, could he? How could he have gotten all the way out to the second asteroid belt and boarded it before he even left Komarr?'

'He might have joined the ore ship en route,' said Tuomonen.

'Oh. I suppose that's possible. My God. He's married. Was married. Is his wife still here in town?'

'Yes,' said Tuomonen. 'I'll be meeting shortly with the dome civil security officer who's taking the official notification of death to her.'

'She's waited three weeks with no word from him,' said Miles. 'Another hour can't matter much at this point. I think I'd like to review your report before we leave, Captain.'

'Please do, my lord.'

'Professor, will you join me?'

They all ended up trooping into Vorsoisson's study. Miles privately felt he could do without Tien, but Tuomonen made no move to exclude him.

The report was not yet an in-depth analysis, but rather a wad of raw data bundled logically, with hasty preliminary notes and summations supplied by Tuomonen. A full analysis would doubtless arrive eventually from ImpSec-Komarr HQ. They all pulled up chairs and crowded around the vid display. After the initial overview, Miles let the Professor follow the thread of Radovas's career.

'He lost two years out of the middle of his undergraduate schooling to the Revolt,' Vorthys noted. 'Solstice University was shut down entirely, for a time then.'

'But it looks like he made up some points with that two-year postgraduate stint on Escobar,' Miles said.

'Anything could have happened to him there,' opined Tien.

'But not much did, according to this,' said Vorthys a bit dryly. 'Commercial work in their orbital shipyards … he didn't even get a good research topic out of it. Solstice University did not renew his contract. Not a man with a gift for teaching, one feels.'

'He was refused a job in the Imperial Science Institute because of his associations in the Revolt,' Tuomonen pointed out, 'despite the amnesty.'

'All the amnesty promised was that he'd never be taken out and shot,' said Miles a shade impatiently.