Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (8 page)

“And then what happened?”

“She said no, and I went my way.”

“Just like that?” said Sulmona.

“I can take no for an answer if I have to. Someone else will say yes eventually.”

The pair exchanged another unreadable look. Fano prompted, “And then what? Did you follow Sera Brindis to her flat?”

“No, I thought I’d stroll back to look at that lake, where they rent the boats, you know. Since it seemed I was to have time on my hands.” Wait, was that in the right direction? Well, he could feign to have been turned around. “And I ran into Sera Brindis again, coming the other way. A happy chance, I thought.”

“I thought you took no for an answer,” murmured Sulmona.

“Sure, but sometimes women change their minds. It never hurts to ask again.”

“And if they change their minds in the other direction?”

“Her prerogative. I’m not into that rough stuff, if that’s what you’re thinking.” And Ivan could see it was—well, they were cops, they had to have seen some ugly scenarios. “I prefer my bed-friends friendly, thanks.”

“And?” said Fano. Weariness was beginning to color the patience in his voice.

“So she invited me inside. I thought I’d got lucky, was all.” Ivan cleared his throat. “This is where it gets a trifle embarrassing, I’m afraid.”
Did
they know about the blue roommate? Well, they might, but Ivan decided that he wouldn’t. “I thought we were going to sit down for a drink, some get-to-know-you conversation, maybe dinner after all, all the civilized stuff, when suddenly she pulled out a stunner and shot me.”

“Were you trying to attack her?” said Fano, abruptly cold.

“No, dammit. Look. I know I’ve been a desk pilot for a while, but I did have basic training, once.” And the ImpSec refresher course on personal defense once a year, but that was a non-routine and dubious benefit of his
other
rank. No need to mention it here. “If I’d been trying to attack her, I’d have succeeded. She was only able to zap me because it came as a complete surprise. I’d thought things were going
well
.”

“And then what did you think?” said Sulmona dryly.

“Nothing. I was frigging
unconscious
. For a long time, I guess, because when I woke up, I was tied to a chair and the flat was dark. Seemed empty. I wasn’t sure if it was safe to yell out or not, so I just started working on trying to get loose.”

“Safe?” said Sulmona, in a disbelieving tone.

He didn’t have to play a total fool, Ivan decided. He fixed her with a frown. “If you two have worked at your jobs for any length of time, you have to have cleaned up a couple of cases of Barrayarans, especially in uniform, out in the domes who ran into Komarrans with old grudges. I didn’t know if I’d fallen into the hands of crazy people, or terrorists, or spies, or what. Or if I was about to be tortured or drugged or kidnapped or worse. So getting myself loose seemed a better bet than drawing attention.”

The pair’s return stares were tinged with enough embarrassment that Ivan was pretty sure he’d scored a hit. Develop this theme, then.

“I was just starting to make progress when these two guys showed up at the window—third-story window, mind you—and started cutting through it with a plasma arc. I didn’t figure this was exactly how Komarrans went visiting their friends, y’know? Especially at that hour. For all I knew, they’d come to collect me.”

“The perpetrators,” said Fano, “in their first testimony, stated that they were in process of returning the float pallet to the person they’d borrowed it from, and saw you by chance in passing. That you cried out frantically for help, and that’s why they broke in.”

“Ha,” said Ivan darkly. “Good story, but not true. They cut their way in before they ever saw me.” He hesitated. “First testimony? I hope you fast-penta’d those suckers.”

He’d actually neither hoped nor expected anything of the kind. Surely any kind of serious agent had to have undergone resistance treatment to the truth drug?

“Later,” said Fano. “A soon as we’d collated enough evidence and inconsistencies to legally permit us to conduct a non-voluntary penta-assisted interrogation.”

“What, they weren’t allergic? I mean, they seemed like pros to me. What little I saw of ’em.”

“Professional petty criminals in the domes don’t normally adopt such extreme military techniques,” said Fano. “Instead, they rely on a cell system. They never know who hired them, or why they were set to their task. Low tech, but effective enough, and very annoying. To us, that is.”

“I’ll bet,” Ivan commiserated. “So—
were
they after me?” And thank
God
he’d stuck as tightly to the truth as he could, so far.

Fano frowned, and admitted, “No. It seems they were hired to pick up Sera Brindis and her maidservant, and deliver them to a location where they would be handed off to yet another cell for transport. We haven’t been able to find out anything about this maidservant. Sera Brindis was the only resident listed in the flat. Did you see a second woman?”

Ivan shook his head. “Not before I got stunned.” He gave it a beat. “Nor after, for obvious reasons.”

“Did you stun the two men?” asked Fano.

“I was still tied to the damned chair, unfortunately. And blinded by the lights. I tried to con them into untying me. The shots seemed to come out of nowhere. I did hear footsteps behind me, running out the front door, but by the time I finally got free and was able to look around, nobody was there.”

“How many pairs of footsteps?”

“One, I thought, but I couldn’t swear to it. The whole night was like a damned farce, except I was the only one without a script. By then I was mainly interested in getting out of there before someone else came back and started in on any fun let’s-torture-the-Barrayaran games.”

Sulmona leaned forward and fiddled with her recorder. “We received an anonymous tip about the break-in, which led back to a data wall that none of our programs could penetrate. Happily, it seems, we now have a positive voice match.” Ivan’s own slurred voice began to sound: “…yeah, you should see, I’m down on the street watchin’ this right now…” Remorselessly, she let the call play all the way to its abrupt end. She added, “We also found a charge to your credit chit for a bubble-car ride from Crater Lake Platform to downtown Solstice, just a few minutes after the time-stamp on this call.” Because it never hurt a case to add a little redundancy, Ivan glumly supposed.

“
Did
you hear a woman scream?” asked Fano.

“Uh, well, no, not really. I just figured it would hurry up the response. I wasn’t sure how fast those two goons were going to wake up. And I didn’t think they should be let to go wandering off on their ownsome. Better the whole mess should be turned over to the proper authorities. That would be you. Which I did.”

“You know, Captain Vorpatril, both leaving the scene of a crime and making falsified emergency calls are against the law,” said Fano.

“Maybe I should’ve hung around, but I was going to be late for work. And I was still pretty shaken up.”

Fano gestured to the recorder. “Were you drunk?”

“I won’t deny I might have had a drink or two earlier.” He could, but he wasn’t going to—better if they thought he’d been a trifle alcohol-impaired, which they might well buy. He could see it played to their prejudices. “But have you ever had a heavy-stun hangover?”

Fano shook his head; Sulmona’s brows drew down, possibly in unwilling sympathy, about the first he’d got from her.

“Let me tell you, they’re downright
ugly
. Your head buzzes for hours, and your vision is messed up. Balance, too. It’s no wonder I sounded drunk.” And that for Admiral Desplains, and whoever else on Ivan’s own side that was going to be listening to this. Because there were limits to self-sacrifice, and this was all bad enough,
damn
Byerly.

Fano’s lips twisted. “And what at your work was more important than leaving a crime scene in which, to hear you tell it, you were a victim?”

Ivan drew himself up, letting the admiral’s high Vor aide-de-camp out for the first time. He, too, could deliver unpleasantness in a chilly tone. “A great deal of my work is highly classified, Ser Fano. I won’t be discussing it with you.”

Both Komarrans blinked.

Sulmona riposted, “Would you be willing to repeat your testimony under fast-penta, Captain?”

Ivan leaned back, folding his hands, sure of his ground on this one. “It’s not up to me,” he replied easily. “You would have to apply to my commanding officer, Admiral Desplains, Chief of Operations, and then after that the request would have to be approved by ImpSec HQ in Vorbarr Sultana. By General Allegre personally, I believe.” Damned well knew, actually. “An ImpSec operative would have to sit in, administer the drug and the antagonist, and record everything. You would both have to be personally investigated and cleared by ImpSec first.” Ivan added kindly, “You’re welcome to apply, of course. I expect you could get an answer in about two weeks.” And he would be on his way back to Barrayar before then.

The detectives shot him twin looks of dislike. That was all right. Ivan didn’t exactly like them, either.

“Yes, but didn’t you even report this incident to your own security, Captain?” asked Fano.

Really
disliked them. “I reported it in brief to my commanding officer.” True in a
sense
, but oh God, wasn’t Desplains ever going to fry him in the morning over that. “As I didn’t end up in the hospital or the morgue, and I wasn’t questioned, tortured, bugged, or even robbed, I have to classify it as a misadventure encountered on my own time. Bit of a mystery, true, but mysteries get turned over to ImpSec”—
or originate from ImpSec
—“which is, thank God, not my department. I’m Ops, and happy to be so. Every ImpSec officer I ever had to do with was twisty as hell, y’know?”
Especially my relatives
. “But when ImpSec decides what I’m supposed to think, I’m sure they’ll tell me.”

Fano said, unhopefully, “And would ImpSec be willing to share any findings with Solstice Dome Security?”

“You can apply,” said Ivan. He bit his lower lip to stop himself from baring his teeth.

Sulmona drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “We still have a missing woman on our hands. Or not on our hands. I don’t like it. If whoever was trying to kidnap her missed her, where is she?”

“At a guess, she probably pulled up stakes and went to hide somewhere else,” said Ivan. “It would seem the sensible thing, if someone was after you.”

“The
sensible
thing would be to go to Dome Security for help,” said Sulmona, mouth pinching in frustration. “Why didn’t she?”

Ivan scratched his head. “Dunno. She didn’t exactly confide in me, y’know? But if she’s only lately moved here, it would make sense that her mysteries probably have their roots back where she came from. Where was that, again?”

“Olbia Dome,” said Fano, automatically.

“Then shouldn’t you folks be directing your attention to Olbia Dome?”
Instead of to, say, my flat, argh?

“That will be our next task,” sighed Fano. He pressed his palms to the table and levered himself upright, and Ivan wondered how much of his night’s sleep he’d missed over this.
Not as much as me
. Reluctantly, he opened his hand in dismissal of Ivan. “Captain Vorpatril, thank you for your cooperation.” He didn’t add
such as it was
out loud, but Ivan thought it was implied.

“My personal embarrassment doesn’t seem the most important issue, here. Doesn’t mean I enjoy it. But you’re welcome. I really do hope no harm has come to Sera Brindis.”

Ivan rather pointedly escorted his visitors to the security desk to sign out. The harrowing interview over, he fled the building.

Chapter Four

Captain Vorpatril returned nerve-wrackingly late after dark, when both sun and soletta had set. Tej forgave him almost immediately for the sake of the several large, heavy, handled bags he bore, from which delectable odors issued.

“We have to talk,” he wheezed, but the two famished women overbore him without much resistance on his part.

“We have to
eat
. Do you realize you left us nothing but those awful ration bars?” Tej demanded. “That was all we had for lunch. Well, and the wine,” she added fairly. “That was pretty good.”

“
I
had rat bars for breakfast
and
lunch, and no wine at all,” he one-upped this.

Rish, whose metabolism was permanently set on high, sped to lay out plates and eating tools on the round glass table across from the kitchenette. The bags disgorged three kinds of pasta, grilled vegetables, a sauté of spinach, garlic, and pine nuts, sliced vat beef, roasted vat chicken with rosemary, salads both leafy and fruit, cheeses, cheesecake, three flavors of ice cream and two of sorbets, and more wine. Tej could only think
I do like a man who keeps his promises.

“I wasn’t sure if you had any special dietary things, customs, needs,” Vorpatril explained. “So I tried to get a range. All Komarran-style; there’s a good place just up the street.”

“I’ll eat anything that wasn’t ever a live animal,” Rish avowed, setting-to in demonstration.

“I was beginning to think about compromising on that live animal part,” Tej added.

Vorpatril, she was pleased to see, was a man who appreciated his food. Given the rat bars, she’d begun to picture him concealing a level of Barrayaran barbarism that even the holovids hadn’t hinted at. But the selection demonstrated an unexpected level of discernment and balance. The attunement of his senses couldn’t match her or Rish’s innate aptitude and formal training, of course, but it was far from hopeless. And he seemed unwilling to damage the dining ambiance with upsetting discourse, which suited Tej just fine.

He was still working up to whatever he’d wanted to disclose when he went off to the lav and to shed his jacket and shoes, returned via the couch, sat, and more or less fell over. “Just need to close my eyes f’r a minute…”

The eyes stayed closed; after a while, the mouth opened. He didn’t snore, exactly; it was more of a soothing purring sound, muffled by the cushion he clutched.