The Vor Game

was?' This inquiry was in the same encouraging tone one might use on a six-year-old just learning to tie his shoes. Trying to out-irony Illyan was as dangerous as trying to out-bland him.

'Obey Captain Ungari's orders,' Miles recalled reluctantly.

'Just so.' Illyan leaned back. 'Ungari was a good, reliable operative. If you'd botched it, you'd have taken him down with you. The man is now half-ruined.'

Miles made little negative motions with his hands. 'He made the correct decisions, for his level. You can't fault him. It's just . . . things got too important for me to go on playing ensign when the man who was needed was Lord Vorkosigan.' Or Admiral Naismith.

'Hm,' Illyan said. 'And yet . . . who shall I assign you to now? Which loyal officer gets his career destroyed next?'

Miles thought this over. 'Why don't you assign me directly to yourself, sir?'

'Thanks,' said Illyan dryly.

'I didn't mean—' Miles began to sputter protest, stopped, detecting the oblique gleam of humor in Illyan's brown eyes. Roasting me for your sport, are you?

'In fact, just that proposal has been floated. Not, needless to say, by me. But a galactic operative must function with a high degree of independence. We're considering making a virtue of necessity—' a light on Illyan's comconsole distracted him. He checked something, and touched a control. The door on the wall to the right of his desk slid open, and Gregor stepped through. The emperor shed one guard who stayed in the passageway, the other trod silently through the office to take up station beyond the antechamber. All doors slid shut. Illyan rose to pull up a chair for the emperor, and gave him a nod, a sort of vestigial bow, before reseating himself. Miles, who had also risen, sketched a salute and sat too.

'Did you tell him about the Dendarii yet?' Gregor asked Illyan.

'I was working around to it,' said Illyan.

Gradually. 'What about the Dendarii?' Miles asked, unable to keep the eagerness out of his voice, try though he might for a junior version of Illyan's impassive surface.

'We've decided to put them on a permanent retainer,' said Illyan. 'You, in your cover identity as Admiral Naismith, will be our liaison officer.'

'Consulting mercenaries?' Miles blinked. Naismith lives!

Gregor grinned. 'The Emperor's Own. We owe them, I think something more than just their base pay for their services to us—and to Us—in the Hegen Hub. And they have certainly demonstrated the, er, utility of being able to reach places cut off to our regular forces by political barriers.'

Miles interpreted the expression on Illyan's face as deep mourning for his Section budget, rather than disapproval as such.

'Simon shall be alert for, and pursue, opportunities to use them actively,' Gregor went on. 'We'll need to justify that retainer, after all.'

'I see them as more use in espionage than covert ops,' Illyan put in hastily. 'This isn't a license to go adventuring, or worse, some kind of letter of marque and reprisal. In fact, the first thing I want you to do is beef up your intelligence department. I know you're in funds for it. I'll lend you a couple of my experts.'

'Not bodyguard-puppeteers again, sir?' Miles asked nervously.

'Shall I ask Captain Ungari if he wants to volunteer?' inquired Illyan with a repressed ripple of his lips. 'No. You will operate independently. God help us. After all, if I don't send you someplace else, you'll be right here. So the scheme has that much merit even if the Dendarii never do anything.'

'I fear it is primarily your youth, which is the cause of Simon's lack of confidence,' murmured twenty-five- year-old Gregor. 'We feel it is time he gave up that prejudice.'

Yes, that had been an Imperial We, Miles's Barrayaran-tuned ears did not deceive him. Illyan had heard it as clearly. The chief leaner, leaned upon. Illyan's irony this time was tinged with underlying . . . approval?

'Aral and I have labored twenty years to put ourselves out of work. We may live long enough to retire after all.' He paused. 'That's called 'success' in my business, boys. I wouldn't object.' And under his breath '. . . get this hellish chip taken out of my head at last. . . .'

'Mm, don't go scouting surfside retirement cottages just yet,' said Gregor. Not caving or backpedaling or submission, merely an expression of confidence in Illyan. No more, no less. Gregor glanced at Miles's . . . neck? The deep bruises from Metzov's grip were almost gone by now, surely. 'Were you still working around to the other thing, too?' he asked Illyan.

Illyan opened a hand. 'Be my guest.' He rummaged in a drawer underneath his comconsole.

'We—and We—thought we owed you something more, too, Miles,' said Gregor.

Miles hesitated between a shucks-t'weren't-nothin' speech and a what-did-you-bring-me?! and settled on an expression of alert inquiry.

Illyan reemerged, and tossed Miles something small that flashed red in the air. 'Here. You're a lieutenant. Whatever that means to you.'

Miles caught them between his hands, the plastic collar rectangles of his new rank. He was so surprised he said the first thing that came into his head, which was, 'Well, that's a start on the subordination problem.'

Illyan favored him with a driven glower. 'Don't get carried away. About ten percent of ensigns are promoted after their first year of service. Your Vorish social circle will think it's all nepotism anyway.'

'I know,' said Miles bleakly. But he opened his collar and began switching tabs on the spot.

Illyan softened slightly. 'Your father will know better, though. And Gregor. And, er . . . myself.'

Miles looked up, to catch his eye direct for almost the first time this interview. 'Thank you.'

'You earned it. You won't get anything from me you don't earn. That includes the dressing-downs.'

'I'll look forward to them, sir.'