Memory

give him a straight answer. But there was this; anyone could go scope out Jackson's Whole. Only an Imperial Auditor could get inside ImpSec HQ. Solving this puzzle was not going to be a one-man job, but it was all too apparent what his part in it must be.

ImpSec it is, then.

The crack of noon found Miles up, fully uniformed in his House brown-and-silver and his Auditor's chain. He was sipping the last of his coffee, sitting on the padded bench in the black-and-white paved front vestibule and waiting for Martin to bring the Counts groundcar around, when a commotion arose out in the porte cochere too great to be Martin—at least, Miles hadn't heard a crunch, as of a groundcar hitting a pillar. But there were several groundcars, and canopies opening, and voices, and scuffling footsteps. He set down his coffee and stood up to answer the door, but it swung open on its own. Oh. Of course. Countess Vorkosigan and her retinue had evidently made orbit this morning, while he still slept.

Two brown-and-silver uniformed Armsmen preceded her into the vestibule, bowing her inside before turning to salute Miles. She sailed through the mob of guards, secretaries, maids, servitors, drivers, porters, dependents, and more guards like a fine yacht cutting through choppy water, and they parted around her like a bow wave, spinning aside in little eddies to their various appointed directions. She was a tall, red-haired woman of quiet presence, dressed in something cream-colored and sweeping, enhancing the nautical effect. Well preserved did not do her idiosyncratic beauty justice; she was, after all, Betan, and in her mid-sixties had barely reached middle-age by that planet's standards. A secretary, tugging at her elbow, was waved aside as Countess Vorkosigan saw her son.

'Miles, love!'

He abandoned his coffee cup and bowed over her hand, trying to short-circuit a maternal embrace. She took the hint, saying only, 'My, how formal for this hour of the morning.'

'I'm on my way to work,' Miles explained. 'More or less.'

'You'll enlarge upon that, of course. …' She took him by the arm, and towed him out of the traffic pattern of arriving luggage that reminded Miles of a column of army ants. They ducked into the next room, the antechamber to the great library; her minions carried on competently without her.

She stood him at arm's length, and looked him over. 'How are you?' Her smile did not quite conceal an anxious edge.

Coming from her, that was a question of potentially dangerous depth; he floated a 'Fine, thanks.'

'Really?' she asked quietly.

'Really.'

'You actually look . . . better than I'd expected. Not so zombie-like as in some of your, ahem, exceedingly brief communiques.'

'I … had a few bad days, right after, you know. I got over it.'

'Your father and I almost came home. Several times.'

'I'm glad you didn't. Not that I'm not glad to see you now,' he added hastily.

'Hm. I thought that might be how the wind lay.'

'I might still have had my head up my ass,' he admitted ruefully, 'but events intervened. You've heard about Simon.'

'Yes, but not all about Simon. Though Alys has been more helpful than either you or Gregor. How is he?'

'He's fine. He's here. Sleeping in. We had a late night last night. I think . . . I'd better let him tell you about it. As much as he can.' He added cautiously, 'He's physically recovered, but he's a little . . . well, he's a lot vaguer than the Simon you're used to, I'm afraid. You'll figure it out pretty quickly when you talk to him.'

'I see.' She frowned faintly. 'As soon as possible. I have a brunch meeting with Alys in an hour. I'm extremely anxious to meet Laisa.'

'So did you succeed in soothing her parents, where Lady Alys says she could not?'

'Oh, Alys did a good job of laying the groundwork. Laisa's parents' feelings are naturally mixed, of course. As those Toscanes, they are understandably excited by the prospect of gaining more influence, both for themselves and their company, and, to their credit, for Komarr generally.'

'They're mistaken there, if that's what they think. Gregor's too conscious of the need to appear even- handed to do too many open favors for his wife's relations.'

'So I gently let them know. They're not without wit, I am happy to say. Their excitement was dampened by a genuine concern for their daughters safety and personal happiness, though they are certainly as puzzled how this is to be achieved as any other set of parents.' She smiled dryly at him.

Was that to his address? Unquestionably. 'So . . . how is Father? How did he take … all this?' A shrug of Miles s shoulder in no particular direction indicated his new civilian life.

She cleared her throat. 'Mixed feelings, mixed reactions. He gave me all sorts of logically conflicting assurances for you, which I think I shall simply boil down to: you have his support. Always.'

'I knew that. That wasn't the question, exactly. Was he … very disappointed?'

She shrugged in turn. 'We all know how hard you worked for what you had achieved, and in the face of what odds.'

She evades the answer, dammit.

She added, 'He was more worried about what would happen to you afterwards, left at loose ends.' One long finger tapped his chain of office. 'This was very clever of Gregor, I must say. The boy's growing quite gratifyingly subtle, in his maturity.'

'Wait'll Simon explains to you what load I'm expected to tow with this damned chain.'

Her brow rose, but she did not press him. He reflected for a moment upon Countess Vorkosigan's cool maternal style, in contrast to the hands-on attempted arrangements of Lady Alys versus—and it was versus—

Ivan. On the whole, he found the Countess's quiet respect a hell of a lot more daunting than any overt interference could possibly have been. One found oneself wishing to be worthy of it. The Countess played the disinterested observer almost convincingly, a style Gregor had no doubt learned from her.

Martin stuck his face around the door frame, his expression awed as he took in the Countess. 'My lord? Um, your car's ready and all. . . .'

The Countess waved Miles away. 'If you need to go, go along. I'll tackle Simon next.'

'It's going to be my job to prod his former'—he disliked the taste of that former—'department, it seems. Haroche has been slow to get into gear on this problem. Though I don't suppose I can fault ImpSec for refusing to reason in advance of its data.'

'Why not? They have before, often enough.'

'Now, now: Don't be snide. Milady Mother.' Miles bowed himself out, very Vorishly.

She called after him, 'I'm glad to find you here, anyway.'

'Where else?'

She hesitated, then admitted wryly, 'I bet Aral that you would choose the little Admiral.'

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Miles haunted Haroche's office for the rest of that day, rechecking everything ImpSec had done since last night, and monitoring the new orders flying out. He devoured the detailed log of Illyan's locations and movements for the past three months, till he was cross-eyed and beginning to be afraid he'd miss something. Haroche patiently endured his nervous kibitzing. It would be weeks before anything could come back from the galactic inquiries. Haroche was concentrating mainly on the Jackson's Whole connection, their one physical lead, which exactly suited Miles's theories, or prejudices.