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"He made very good time." Miles followed her into the hallway.
Professor Vorthys, his broad face wrinkled with concern, gave his valise over
to the guard and folded his niece in his arms, murmuring condolences. Miles
watched in exquisite envy. Her uncle s warm sympathy almost broke her down, as
all of ImpSec s cool professionalism had not; Miles made a mental note. Cool
and practical, that was the ticket. She dashed tears from her eyes, dispatched
the guard with his case to Tien s old office as before, and led her uncle to
the living room.
After a very brief conference, it was decided the Professor would accompany
her to go collect Nikolai. Miles seconded this despite what he ironically
recognized as his present lovesick mania for volunteerism. Vorthys had a
family right, and Miles himself was too close to Tien s death. He was also
swaying on his feet as the set of painkillers and stimulants he d taken before
lunch wore off. Taking a third dose today would be a bad mistake. Instead he
saw the Professor and Ekaterin out, then checked in with ImpSec HQ in Solstice
on the secured comconsole.
No new news. He wandered back toward the living room. Ekaterin s uncle was
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here; Miles should go, now. Collect his things and decamp to that mythical
hotel he d been gassing about for the last week. There was no room for him in
this little apartment, with Vorthys reinstalled in the guest room. Nikki would
need his own bed back, and he was damned if he was going to trouble
Ekaterin to rustle up another grav-bed, or worse, for his Vor lordly use. What
had she been expecting, when she d ordered in that thing? He should definitely
go. He was obviously not being as civilly neutral toward his hostess as he d
imagined, if that blasted guard could make whatever comment it had been that
had set off Tuomonen on that list of embarrassing questions about the
suitcases.
"Do you need anything, my lord?" The door guard s voice at Miles s elbow
startled him awake.
"Um... yeah. Next time one of your boys comes over from Solstice HQ, have him
bring me a standard military-issue bedroll."
In the meanwhile, Miles staggered over and curled up on the couch after all.
He was asleep in minutes.
Miles awoke when the little party returned with Nikki. He sat up and managed
to be reasonably composed by the time he had to face the boy. Nikki looked
subdued and scared, but was not weeping or hysterical; he evidently turned his
reactions inward rather than outward. Like his mother.
In the absence of female friends of Ekaterin s bearing casseroles and cakes in
the Barrayaran manner, Miles caused ImpSec to supply dinner. The three adults
kept the conversation neutral in front of Nikki, after which he went off to
play by himself in his room, and Miles and the Professor retired to the study
for a data-exchange. The new equipment found topside was indeed peculiar,
including some power-transfer equipment heavy-duty enough for a small
jumpship, parts of which had ripped apart, melted, and apparently exploded in
a shower of plasma. The Professor called it, "Truly interesting," an
engineering code-phrase that caught Miles s full attention.
In the middle of this, Colonel Gibbs reported in via comconsole. He smiled
dryly at both Imperial Auditors, an expression which Miles was beginning to
recognize as Gibbs s version of ecstasy.
"My Lord Vorkosigan. I have the first documented connection you were looking
for. We ve traced the serial numbers of a pair of hastings converters my Lord
Vorthys s people found topside back through the chain to a Waste Heat purchase
eight months ago. The converters were originally delivered to their experiment
station."
"Right," breathed Miles. "Finally, more of a link than just Radovas s body. We
have hold of the real string, all right, thank you, Colonel. Carry on."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ekaterin slept better than she d expected to, but woke to the realization that
she d got through most of yesterday on adrenaline.
Today, with its enforced wait for action, was going to be harder.
I ve been waiting nine years. I can manage nineteen more hours
.
Lying in bed allowed a kind of numb, foggy grief to descend, despite her
release from the late chaos of Tien s life. So she rose, dressed carefully,
ducked around the guard in her living room, made breakfast, and waited.
The Auditors stirred soon thereafter and came out gratefully for food, but
carried off their coffee to the secured comconsole.
She ran out of things to clean up, and went out to her balcony, but found the
presence of another guard on post inhibited her from resting there. So she
gave the guards coffee, and retreated to her kitchen, and waited some more.
Lord Vorkosigan emerged again. He fended off her offers of more coffee, and
instead seated himself at her table. "ImpSec sent me the autopsy report on
Tien this morning. How much do you want to know about it?"
The vision of Tien s congealed body, hanging in the frost, flashed in her
memory. "Was there anything unexpected?"
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"Not with respect to cause of death. They found his Vorzohn s Dystrophy, of
course."
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