Komarr

'Thank you.'

Tuomonen cleared his throat. 'Due to the mysterious circumstances of Dr. Radovas's death, ImpSec Komarr has also been asked to take an interest in the matter. I wonder if we might have your permission to examine your comconsole and personal records, to see if they suggest anything.'

Madame Radovas touched her lips. 'Barto took all his personal files. There's not much left but my own.'

'Sometimes a technical examination can uncover more.'

She shook her head, but said, 'Well … I suppose so.' She added more tartly, 'Though I didn't think ImpSec had to bother with my permission.'

Tuomonen did not deny this, but said, 'I like to salvage what courtesies I can, Madame, from our crude necessities.'

Professor Vorthys added in a distant tone from the far wall, his hands full of disks, 'Get the library, too.'

With a flash of bewildered anger, Madame Radovas said, 'Why do you want to take away my poor husband's library!?'

Vorthys looked up and gave her a kindly, disarming smile. 'A man's library gives information about the shape of his mind the way his clothing gives information about the shape of his body. The cross-connections between apparently unrelated subjects may exist only in his thoughts. There is a sad disconnectedness that overcomes a library when its owner is gone. I think I should have liked to meet your husband when he was alive. In this ghostly way, perhaps I can, a little.'

'I don't see why …' Her lips tightened in dismay.

'We can arrange for it to be returned to you in a day or two,' Tuomonen said soothingly. 'Is there anything you need out of it right away?'

'No, but … oh … I don't know. Take it. Take whatever you want, I don't care any more.' Her eyes began to spill over at last. Group-Patroller Rigby handed her a tissue from one of her many uniform pockets and frowned at the Barrayarans.

Tien shifted uncomfortably; Tuomonen remained blandly professional. Taking her outburst for his cue, the ImpSec captain rose and carried his case over to the comconsole in the corner by the dining ell, opened it, and plugged an ImpSec standard black box into the side of the machine. At Vorthys's gesture, Rigby and Miles went to assist him in removing the library case intact from the wall, and sealing it for transport. Tuomonen, after sucking dry the comconsole, ran a scanner over the library, which Miles estimated contained close to a thousand disks, and generated a vid-receipt for Madame Radovas. She crumpled the plastic flimsy into the pocket of her gray trousers without looking at it, and stood with her arms crossed till the invaders assembled to depart.

At the last moment, she bit her lip and blurted, 'Administrator Vorsoisson. There won't be … will I get . . . will there be any of the normal survivor's benefits coming from Barto's death?'

Was she in financial need? Her two youngest children were still in university, according to Tuomonen's files, and financially dependent on their parents; of course she was. But Vorsoisson shook his head sadly.

'I'm afraid not, Madame Radovas. The medical examiner seems to be quite clear that his death took place after his resignation.'

If it had been the other way around, this would be a much more interesting problem for ImpSec. 'She gets nothing, then?' asked Miles. 'Through no fault of her own, she's stripped of all normal widow's benefits just because of her,' he deleted a few pejorative adjectives, 'late husband's recklessness?'

Vorsoisson shrugged helplessly, and turned away.

'Wait,' said Miles. He'd been of damned little use to anyone today so far. 'Gregor does not approve of widows being left destitute. Trust me on this one. Vorsoisson, go ahead and run the benefits through for her anyway.'

'I can't—how—do you want me to alter the date of his resignation?'

Thus creating the curious legal spectacle of a man resigning the day after his own death? By what method, spirit writing? 'No, of course not. Simply make it by an Imperial order.'

'There are no places on the forms for an Imperial order!' said Vorsoisson, taken aback.

Miles digested this. Tuomonen, looking faintly suffused, watched with wide-eyed fascination. Even Madame Radovas's eyebrows crimped with bemusement. She looked directly at Miles as if seeing him for the first time. At last, Miles said gently, 'A design defect you shall have to correct, Administrator Vorsoisson.'

Tien's mouth opened on some other protest, but then, intelligently, closed. Professor Vorthys looked relieved. Madame Radovas, her hand pressed to her cheek in something like wonder, said, 'Thank you . . . Lord Vorkosigan.'

After the usual If-you-think-of-anything-more-call-this-number farewells, the herd of investigators moved off down the hallway. Vorthys handed Tien the library case to lug. Back at the building's entrance lobby, the Group- Patroller prepared to go her own way.

'What, if anything, does ImpSec want us to do now?' she asked Tuomonen. 'Dr. Radovas's death seems out of Serifosa's jurisdiction. Close relatives are automatically suspects in a mysterious death, but she's been here the whole time. I don't see any causal chain to that body in space.'

'Neither do I, at present,' Tuomonen admitted. 'For now, continue with your normal procedures, and send my office copies of all your reports and evidence files.'

'I don't suppose you'd care to return the favor?' Judging by the twist of her lips, Rigby thought she knew the answer.

'I'll see what I can do, if anything pertinent to Dome security turns up,' Tuomonen promised guardedly. Rigby's brows rose at even this limited concession from ImpSec.

'I'm going to have to go back topside tomorrow morning,' said Vorthys to Tuomonen. 'I am not going to have time to do a thorough examination of this library myself. I shall have to trouble ImpSec for it, I'm afraid.'

Tuomonen, his eye taking in the thousand-disk case, looked momentarily appalled. Miles added quickly, 'On my authority, requisition a high-level analyst from HQ for that job. One of the basement boffins, with engineering and math certification, I think—right, Professor?'

'Yes, indeed, the best man you can get,' said Vorthys.

Tuomonen looked very relieved. 'What do you want him to look for, my Lord Auditor?'

'I don't quite know,' said the Professor. 'That's why I want an ImpSec analyst, eh? Essentially, I want him to generate an independent picture of Radovas from this data, which we may compare with impressions from other sources later.'

'A candid view of the shape of the mind inside this library,' mused Miles. 'I see.'

'I'm sure you do. Talk to the man, Miles, you know the kinds of things they do. And the kinds of things we want.'

'Certainly, Professor.'

They turned the library case over to Tuomonen, and Group-Patroller Rigby took her leave. It was approaching Komarran midnight.

'I'll take all this lot back to my office, then,' said Tuomonen, looking at his assorted burdens, 'and call HQ with the news. How much longer do you expect to be staying in Serifosa, Lord Vorkosigan?'

'I'm not sure. I'll stay on and have a talk with Soudha, and Radovas's other colleagues, at least, before I go up again. I, ah, think I'll move my things to a hotel tomorrow, after the Professor goes up.'

'You are welcome to the hospitality of my home, Lord Vorkosigan,' said Tien formally, and very unpressingly.

'Thank you anyway, Administrator Vorsoisson. Who knows, I may be ready to follow on topside as early as tomorrow night. We'll see what turns up.'

'I'd appreciate it if you'd keep my office apprised of your movements,' said Tuomonen. 'It was of course your privilege to order no close security upon your person, Lord Vorkosigan, but now that your case seems to have acquired a local connection, I'd strongly request you reconsider that.'

'ImpSec guards are generally charming fellows, but I really like not tripping over them every time I turn