Komarr

The customers had always picked up the finished devices from the plant themselves, not had them delivered anywhere. Miles made a note to find out if Waste Heat had owned their own large transport, and if not, to have ImpSec check out recent lift-van rentals of anything big enough to have hauled those last two generators.

Nosing around the plant while the Professor went off to speak High Engineering to the bilingual, Miles felt himself increasingly drawn to the hypothesis that the chief designer had gone missing voluntarily. Upon closer examination it had been found that many of the man's personal notes had apparently gone with him. Bollan's plant security was not military grade, but it would be a stretch to imagine Soudha's hurried Komarrans first murdering the man, then smoothly and surgically removing quite so many comconsole records from quite so many locations without inside help. Anyway, Miles didn't wish the man dead in a ditch. He wished him very much alive, at the business end of Tuomonen's hypospray. That was the trouble, people anticipated fast- penta now. Modern conspirators were a lot more tight-lipped than back in the bad old days of mere physical torture. Three days ago, if someone had told Miles that Gibbs was going to hand him what amounted to complete design specs of Soudha's secret weapon on a platter, he would have been delighted to imagine his case nearly solved. Ha.

Miles and Vorthys arrived back at Ekaterin's apartment that light too late for dinner, but in time for a hand-made dessert obviously tailored to the Professor's tastes, involving chocolate, cream, and quantities of hydroponic pecans. They all sat around Ekaterin's kitchen table to devour it. Whatever Nikki had encountered from his playmates today, it hadn't been unpleasant enough to affect his appetite, Miles noted with approval.

'How was school today?' Miles asked him, ashamed to let such a deadly boring triteness fall from his lips, but how else was he supposed to find out?

'All right,' Nikki said around a mouthful of cream.

'Think you'll have any trouble tomorrow?'

'Naw.' The tone of his monosyllables had returned to its normal preadolescent adult-wary indifference; no more the breathy panicked edge of this morning.

'Good,' Miles said affably. Ekaterin's eyes were smiling, Miles noted out of the corner of his own. Good.

When Nikki finished bolting his dessert and galloped off, she added wryly, 'And how was work today? I wasn't sure if the extra hours represented progress, or the reverse.'

How was work today. Her tone seemed to apologize for the prosaic quality of the question. Miles wondered how to explain to her that he found it altogether delightful, and wished she'd do it again. And again and . . . Her perfume was making his reptile-brain want to roll over and do tricks, and he wasn't even sure she was wearing any. This mind-melting mixture of lust and domesticity was entirely novel to him. Well, half novel; he knew how to handle lust. It was the domesticity that had ambushed his guard. 'We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement,' Miles told her.

The Professor opened his mouth, closed it, then said, 'That about sums it up. Lord Vorkosigan's hypothesis has proved correct; the embezzlement scheme was got up to support the production of a, um, novel device.'

'Secret weapon,' Miles corrected. 'I said secret weapon.'

The Professor's eyes glinted in amusement. 'Define your terms. If it's a weapon, then what's the target?'

'It's so secret,' Miles explained to Ekaterin, 'we can't even figure out what it does. So I'm at least half right.' He glanced after Nikki. 'I take it once Nikki got into his usual routine, things smoothed out?'

'Yes. I'd been almost certain they would,' said Ekaterin. 'Thank you so much for your help this morning, Lord Vorkosigan. I'm very grateful that—'

Miles was saved from certain embarrassment by the chime of the hall door. Ekaterin rose and went to answer it and the Professor followed, blocking Miles from his planned counterbid,

How did things go with the estate law counselor? I was sure you could get on top of it. The ImpSec guard was now on post in the hallway, Miles reminded himself; he didn't need to make a parade out of this. Tucking the line away in his head for the next conversation-opener, he tapped open the airseal door and wandered out onto the balcony.

Both sun and soletta had set hours ago. Only the city itself gave a glow to the night. A few pedestrians still crossed the park below, moving in and out of the shadows, hurrying on their way to or from the bubble-car platform, or strolling more slowly in pairs. Miles leaned on the railing and studied one sauntering couple, his arm draped across her shoulders, her arm circling his waist. In zero gee, a height difference like that would cancel out, by God. And how did the space-dwelling four-armed quaddies manage these moments? He'd met a quaddie musician once. He was certain there must be a quaddie equivalent to a grip so humanly universal . . .

His idle envious speculations were derailed by the sound of voices within the apartment. Ekaterin was welcoming a guest. A man's voice, Komarran accented: Miles stiffened as he recognized the rabbity Venier's quick speech.

'—ImpSec didn't take as long to release his personal effects as I would have imagined. So Colonel Gibbs said I might bring them to you.'

'Thank you, Venier,' Ekaterin's voice replied, in the soft tone Miles had come to associate with wariness in her. 'Just put the box down on the table, why don't you? Now, where did he go . . . ?'

A clunk. 'Most of it is nothing, styluses and the like, but I figured you would want the vidclipper with all the holos of you and your son.'

'Yes, indeed.'

'Actually, there is more to my visit than just cleaning out Administrator Vorsoisson's office.' Venier took a deep breath. 'I wanted to speak to you privately.'

Miles, who had been about to reenter the kitchen from the balcony, froze. Dammit, ImpSec had questioned and cleared Venier, hadn't they? What new secret could he be about to offer, and to Ekaterin of all people? If Miles entered, would he clam up?

'Well . . . well, all right. Um, why don't you sit down?'

'Thank you.' The scrape of chairs.

Venier began again, 'I've been thinking about how awkward your situation here has become since the Administrator's death. I'm so very sorry, but I couldn't help being aware, watching you over the months, that things were not what they should have been between you and your late husband.'

'Tien . . . was difficult. I didn't realize it showed.'

'Tien was an ass,' Venier stated flatly. 'That showed. Sorry, sorry. But it's true, and we both know it.'

'It's moot now.' Her tone was not encouraging.

Venier forged on. 'I heard about how he played fast and loose with your pension. His death has plunged you into a monstrous situation. I understand you are being forced to return to Barrayar.'

Ekaterin said slowly, 'I plan to return to Barrayar, yes.'

He ought to clear his throat, Miles thought. Trip over a balcony chair. Pop back through the door and cry, Vennie, fancy meeting you here! He began breathing through his mouth, for silence, instead.

'I realize this is a bad time to bring this up, much too soon,' Venier went on. 'But I've been watching you for months. The way you were treated. Practically a prisoner, in a traditional Barrayaran marriage. I could not tell how willing a prisoner you were, but now—have you considered staying on Komarr? Not going back into your cell? You have this chance, you see, to escape.'

Miles could feel his heart begin to beat, in a free-form panic. Where was Venier going with this?

'I … the economics . . . our return passage is a death benefit, you see.' That same wary softness.

'I have an alternative to offer you.' Venier swallowed; Miles swore he could hear the slight gurgle in his narrow neck. 'Marry me. It would give you the legal protection you need to stay here. No one could force you back, then. I could support you, while you train up to your full strength, botany or chemistry or anything you choose. You could be so much. I can't tell you how it's turned my stomach, to see so much human potential wasted on that clown of a Barrayaran. I realize that for you it would have to start as a marriage of convenience, but as a Vor, that's