Memory

'I think . . . not,' sighed Haroche. His eyes surveyed the room, but there were no handy high windows inviting a quick resolution, four floors headfirst to the pavement. 'I'm too old to be that athletic anymore.'

'Good. Me too.' Allegre escorted him out.

Illyan watched them go. He remarked in an undertone to Miles, 'This is a damned sad business. ImpSec really needs to start some new traditions for changing its chiefs. Assassination and retribution is so disruptive to the organization.'

Miles could only shrug agreement. He led the way for a quick survey of nearby briefing rooms, and found the opened vent, missing its filter, in the second they tried. He oversaw the forensics tech's careful bagging and documenting of the last pieces of evidence, and sealed the whole set with his Auditors seal, and sent them down to wait in the Evidence Rooms for whatever aftermaths eventually unfolded.

Everything from here on out was, thank God, beyond his mandate as an acting Imperial Auditor. His responsibilities ended with his report to Gregor, and the turning over of any evidence he'd accumulated to the proper prosecuting authorities, in this case, in all probability, the Service court. I only have to find the truth. I don't have to figure out what to do with it. Though, he supposed, any recommendations he made would bear weight.

Finished in the Office of Domestic Affairs, and unhurried at last, he and Illyan strolled side by side down the corridor after the tech. 'I wonder how Haroche will try to play this?' Miles wondered aloud. 'Hope to be assigned a good defender and try to tough it out? He spent so much time and effort himself doctoring the comconsole evidence—which was, I think, all that distracted him from thinking of those damned filters before I did—I thought he'd cry Plant! first thing. Or will he fall back on the Old Vorish solution? He looked . . . pretty pale, there at the end. He folded quicker than I thought he would.'

'You hit him harder than you thought you had. You don't know your own strength, Miles. But no. I don't think suicide is Lucas's way,' said Illyan. 'And anyway, it's difficult to arrange without cooperation from his jailers.'

'Do you believe … I ought to hint for such cooperation?' Miles asked delicately.

'Dying's easy.' Illyan's drawn features grew distant. How much did he remember of his agonized pleading to Miles for an easy death, so few weeks ago? 'Living's hard. Let the son of a bitch stand his court-martial. Every last eternal minute of it.'

'Ah,' breathed Miles.

The new ImpSec HQ detention area was a lot smaller than the old one, but shared the design of a single entrance and prisoner processing area. At the front comconsole desk they found Captain Galeni, Delia Koudelka by his side, just completing his exit documentation under the eye of General Allegre and the duty officer. Ivan looked on. Haroche, it appeared, had already been processed in; Miles hoped he'd been given Galeni's cell.

Galeni was still in the dress greens he'd worn to Gregor s reception, now very rumpled. He was unshaven, red-eyed, and pale from lack of sleep. A dangerous tension still hung about him, like a fog.

He swung on his heel to face Miles, as he and Illyan entered. 'Goddammit, Vorkosigan, where were you all this time?'

'Ah . . .' Miles ticked his Auditor's chain, to remind Galeni he was still on duty.

Galeni snapped, 'Goddammit, my Lord Auditor, where the hell were you all this time? You said last night you'd follow on. Thought you were going to let me out. Then I didn't know what the hell to think. I'm quitting this frigging paranoid stupid organization just as soon as I get out of this rat-tank. No more.'

Allegre winced. Delia touched Galeni's hand; he grasped hers, and his roiling boil visibly settled to a milder simmer.

Well, I had this seizure, and then I had to sort through Haroche's misdirection with the comconsole report, and then I had to get Weddell from his lab at the Imperial Science Institute, and he took forever, and I didn't dare contact anyone by comconsole from Vorkosigan House, I had to go in person, and . . . 'Yes. I'm sorry. I'm afraid it took me all day to assemble the evidence to clear you.'

'Miles . . .' said Illyan, 'it's only been five days since this was discovered to be sabotage. It's going to take you longer to assemble your Auditor's report than it did for you to solve the case.'

'Reports,' sighed Miles. 'Yech. But Duv, see, it wasn't enough for me to order your release. I'd have been accused of favoritism.'

'That's true,' murmured Ivan.

'At first I thought Haroche was just being clumsy, to have you arrested at the Imperial Residence in front of so many people. Ha. Not him. It was beautifully choreographed to destroy your reputation. After that, neither release nor acquittal for insufficient evidence would have removed suspicion from most men's minds. I had to nail the real culprit. It was the only way.'

'Ah . . .' Galeni's brows drew down. 'Miles, just who was the real culprit?'

'Oh, didn't you tell him yet?' Miles asked Delia.

'You told me not to say anything about it till you were done,' Delia protested. 'We just now got out of that dreadful little cell.'

'They aren't as dreadful as the old cells,' Illyan objected mildly. 'I remember those. Spent a month under arrest in 'em myself, thirteen years ago.' He cast a slightly sour smile at Miles. 'Something about the Lord Regent's son's private army, and a certain treason charge.'

'With all the things you've forgotten, I could wish you'd have forgotten that,' murmured Miles.

'No such luck,' Illyan murmured back. 'I had them converted to evidence storage and the new detention area built right after. Much upgraded. Just in case I ever ended up in them again.'

Galeni stared at Illyan. 'I'd never heard that story.'

'In retrospect—much later—I came to consider it a salutary experience. I fancied afterwards that every senior ImpSec officer ought to undergo something similar, for the same reason every doctor ought just once to be a patient. It sharpens one's perspectives.'

Galeni was silent a moment, obviously processing this. His dangerous air of rage was almost fully dissipated. Ivan covertly let out his breath. Allegre, after directing a grateful half-smile at Illyan, looked on.

'It was Haroche,' Miles added. 'He wanted a promotion.'

Galeni's brows shot up; he wheeled to General Allegre, who nodded confirmation.

'As soon as those bioengineered prokaryotes were discovered,' Miles went on, 'Haroche lost his chance of his sabotage passing undetected, which I'm sure was his first-choice scenario. At that point, he had to have a goat. It didn't have to be a perfect goat, as long as he was able to generate enough fog to justify stopping the search for another. He disliked me, you had the right profile, he hit upon a way to take us both down at once. Sorry I made Delia keep you in the dark, but arresting the acting head of ImpSec in the middle of ImpSec HQ proved to be a bit tricky. I didn't want to make any promises till I was sure how it was going to come out.'

Galeni's eyes were wide. 'Forget . . . what I said.'

'Does that include the part about resigning your commission?' Allegre asked anxiously.

'I … don't know. Why me? I'd never thought Haroche was particularly prejudiced against Komarrans. How much longer am I going to have to wade through this kind of crap, what more do they want from me to prove my loyalty?'

'I expect you'll be wading for the rest of your life,' Illyan answered seriously. 'But every Komarran who follows you will have less crap to deal with, because of you.'

'You've come so far,' Miles pleaded. 'Don't let a cockroach like Haroche waste your sacrifices. The Imperium needs your perspectives. ImpSec particularly desperately needs your perspectives, because it's part of ImpSec's job to give much of the Imperial government its picture of the world. If we get straight truth in, maybe we've got half a chance of getting good judgment out. No damn chance otherwise, that's for sure.'

Allegre seconded this with a nod.

'Besides'—Miles glanced at Delia, who was following all this in deep alarm—'Vorbarr Sultana is a very nice posting for any ambitious officer. Look at the people you meet here, for one thing. And the opportunities.' Ivan nodded vigorously; Miles went on, 'Um . . . not to interfere in ImpSec's internal business or anything, but I think the