thousand kids between the ages of eighteen and twenty together on an island and tell 'em to go play war? I admit, this one seems to have discovered a completely new method of slabbing himself. I guess you never see it all.'
'You think he did it to himself, then?' True, it would be real tricky to kill a man and
The surgeon wandered over to the culvert and squatted, and stared into it. 'So it would seem. Ah, would you take one more look in there, ensign, just in case?'
'Very well, sir.' Miles hoped it was the last trip. He'd never have guessed drain cleaning would turn out to be so … thrilling. He slithered all the way under the road to the leaky board, checking every centimeter, but found only the dead man's dropped hand light. So. The private had evidently entered the pipe on purpose. With intent. What intent? Why go culvert-crawling in the middle of the night in the middle of a heavy rainstorm? Miles skinned back out and turned the light over to the surgeon.
Miles helped the corpsman and surgeon bag and load the body, then had Olney and Pattas raise the blocking board and return it to its original location. Brown water gushed, roaring, from the bottom end of the culvert and roiled away down the ditch. The surgeon Paused with Miles, leaning on the road railing and watching the water level drop in the little lake.
'Think there might be another one at the bottom?' Miles inquired Morbidly.
'This guy was the only one listed as missing on the morning report,' the surgeon replied, 'so probably not.' He didn't look like he was willing to bet on it, though.
The only thing that did turn up, as the water level fell, was the private's soggy parka. He'd clearly tossed it over the railing before entering the culvert, from which it had fallen or blown into the water. The surgeon took it away with him.
'You're pretty cool about that,' Pattas noted, as Miles turned away from the back of the medical transport and the surgeon and corps-man drove off.
Pattas was not that much older than Miles himself. 'Haven't you ever had to handle a corpse?'
'No. You?'
'Yes.'
'Where?'
Miles hesitated. Events of three years ago flickered through his memory. The brief months he'd been caught in desperate combat far from home, having accidently fallen in with a space mercenary force, was not a secret to be mentioned or even hinted at here. Regular Imperial troops despised mercenaries anyway, alive or dead. But the Tau Verde campaign had surely taught him the difference between 'practice' and 'real,' between war and war games, and that death had subtler vectors than direct touch. 'Before,' said Miles dampingly. 'Couple of times.'
Pattas shrugged, veering off. 'Well,' he allowed grudgingly over his shoulder, 'at least you're not afraid to get your hands dirty. Sir.'
Miles's brows crooked, bemused.
Miles marked the drain 'cleared' on his report panel, turned the scat-cat, their equipment, and a very subdued Olney and Pattas back in to Sergeant Neuve in Maintenance, and headed for the officers' barracks. He'd never wanted a hot shower more in his entire life.
He was squelching down the corridor toward his quarters when; another officer stuck his head out a door. 'Ah, Ensign Vorkosigan?' I
'Yes?'
'You got a vid call a while ago. I encoded the return for you.'
'Call?' Miles stopped. 'Where from?'
'Vorbarr Sultana.'
Miles felt a chill in his belly. Some emergency at home? 'Thanks.'
He reversed direction, and beelined for the end of the corridor and the vidconsole booth that the officers on this level shared.
He slid damply into the seat and punched up the message, number was not one he recognized. He entered it, and his chancode, and waited. It chimed several times, then the vidplate hissed to life. His cousin Ivan's handsome face materialized over it, and grinned at him.
'Ah, Miles. There you are.'
'Ivan! Where the devil are you? What is this?'
'Oh, I'm at home. And that doesn't mean my mother's. I thought you might like to see my new flat.'
Miles had the vague, disoriented sensation that he'd somehow tapped a line into some parallel universe, or alternate astral plane. Vorbarr Sultana, yes. He'd lived in the capital himself, in a previous incarnation. Eons ago.
Ivan lifted his vid pick-up, and aimed it around, dizzyingly. 'It's fully furnished. I took over the lease from an Ops captain who was being transferred to Komarr. A real bargain. I just got moved in yesterday. Can you see the balcony?'
Miles could see the balcony, drenched in late afternoon sunlight the color of warm honey. The Vorbarr Sultana skyline rose like a fairytale city, swimming in the summer haze beyond. Scarlet flowers swarmed over the railing, so red in the level light they almost hurt his eyes. Miles felt like drooling into his shirtpocket, or bursting into tears. 'Nice flowers,' he choked.
'Yeah, m'girlfriend brought 'em.'
'Girlfriend?' Ah yes, human beings had come in two sexes, once upon a time. One smelled much better than the other. Much. 'Which one?'
'Tatya.'
'Have I met her?' Miles struggled to remember.
'Naw, she's new.'
Ivan stopped waving the vid pick-up around, and reappeared over the vid-plate. Miles's exacerbated senses settled slightly. 'So how's the weather up there?' Ivan peered at him more closely. 'Are you wet? What have you been doing?'
'Forensic . . . plumbing,' Miles offered after a pause.
'What?' Ivan's brow wrinkled.
'Never mind.' Miles sneezed. 'Look, I'm glad to see a familiar face and all that,' he was, actually—a painful strange gladness, 'but I'm in the middle of my duty day, here.'
'I got off-shift a couple of hours ago,' Ivan remarked. 'I'm taking Tatya out for dinner in a bit. You just caught me. So just tell me quick, how's life in the infantry?'
'Oh, great. Lazkowski Base is the real thing, y'know.' Miles did not define what real thing. 'Not a … warehouse for excess Vor lordlings like Imperial Headquarters.'
'I do my job!' said Ivan, sounding slightly stung. 'Actually, you'd like my job. We process information. It's amazing, all the stuff Ops accesses in a day's time. It's like being on top of the world. It would be just your speed.'
'Funny. I've thought that Lazkowski Base would be just yours, Ivan. Suppose they could have got our orders reversed?'
Ivan tapped the side of his nose and sniggered. 'I wouldn't tell.' His humor sobered in a glint of real concern. 'You, ah, take care of yourself up there, eh? You really don't look so good.'
'I've had an unusual morning. If you'd sod off, I could go get a shower.'
'Oh, right. Well, take care.'
'Enjoy your dinner.'
'Right-oh. 'Bye.'
Voices from another universe. At that, Vorbarr Sultana was only a couple of hours away by sub-orbital flight. In theory. Miles was obscurely comforted, to be reminded that the whole planet hadn't shrunk to the lead- grey horizons of Kyril Island, even if his part of it seemed to have.
Miles found it difficult to concentrate on the weather, the rest of that day. Fortunately his superior didn't much notice. Since the scat-cat sinking Ahn had tended to maintain a guilty, nervous silence around Miles except when directly prodded for specific information. When his duty-day ended Miles headed straight for the infirmary.
