[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
for no further investigation being permitted."
"Oh, entirely," snarled Miles.
I see where this is going
. He sat back, and folded his arms mulishly. "Does this mean I'm on my own?"
"Ah..." said Galeni. He drew it out for a rather long time. Eventually, he ran
out of ah and was forced to speak. "Not exactly."
Miles bared his set teeth, and waited for Galeni, who waited for him.
Miles broke first. "Dammit, Duv, am I supposed to just stand here and eat this
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shit raw?"
"Come on, Miles, you've done coverups before. I thought you covert ops fellows
lived and breathed this sort of thing."
"Never in my own sandbox. Never where I had to live in it. My Dendarii
missions were hit and run. We always left the stink far behind."
Galeni's shrug lacked sympathy. "I must also point out, these are first
results. Just because there are no leaks yet doesn't mean none will be...
siphoned out into the open later on."
Miles exhaled slowly. "All right. Tell Allegre he has his goat. Baaah." He
added after a moment, "But I draw the line at pretending to guilt. It was a
breath mask accident. Period."
Galeni waved a hand in acceptance of this. "ImpSec won't complain."
It was good
, Miles reminded himself, that there was no security rupture in the Komarr
case. But this also killed his faint, unvoiced hope that he could leave
Richars and his cronies to the untender mercies of ImpSec to be disposed of.
"As long as this is all gas, so be it. But you can let Allegre know, that if
it goes to a formal murder charge against me in the Council..."
Then what?
Galeni's eyes narrowed. "Do you have reason to think someone will charge you
there? Who?"
"Richars Vorrutyer. I have a sort of... personal promise from him."
"He can't, though. Not unless he gets a member to lay it for him."
"He can if he beats out Lord Dono and is confirmed Count Vorrutyer."
And my colleagues are like to choke on Lord Dono.
"Miles... ImpSec can't release the evidence surrounding Vorsoisson's death.
Not even to the Council of Counts."
By the look on Galeni's face, Miles read that as
Especially not to the Council of Counts. Knowing that erratic body, he
sympathized. "Yes. I know."
Galeni said uneasily, "What are you planning to do?"
Miles had more compelling reasons than the strain on ImpSec's nerves to wish
to sidestep this whole scenario. Two of them, mother and son. If he worked it
right, none of this looming juridical mess need ever touch Ekaterin and her
Nikki. "Nothing more
- nor less - than my job. A little politicking. Barrayaran style."
Galeni eyed him dubiously. "Well... if you really intend to project innocence,
you need to do a more convincing job. You...
twitch
."
Miles... twitched. "There's guilt and there's guilt. I am not guilty of
willful murder. I am guilty of screwing up. Now, I'm not alone - this one took
a full committee. Headed by that fool Vorsoisson himself. If only he'd -
dammit, every time you step off the downside shuttle into a Komarran dome they
sit you down and make you watch that vid on breath mask procedures. He'd been
living there nearly a year. He'd been told
." He fell silent a moment. "Not that I didn't know better than to go out-dome
without informing my contacts."
"As it happens, no one is accusing you of negligence."
Miles's mouth twisted bitterly. "They flatter me, Duv. They flatter me."
"I can't help you with that one," said Galeni. "I have enough unquiet ghosts
of my own."
"Check." Miles sighed.
Galeni regarded him for a long moment, then said abruptly, "About your clone."
"Brother."
"Yes, him. Do you know... do you understand... what the devil does he intend
, with respect to Kareen Koudelka?"
"Is this ImpSec asking, or Duv Galeni?"
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"Duv Galeni." Galeni paused for a rather longer time. "After the... ambiguous
favor he did me when we first encountered each other on Earth, I was content
to see him survive and escape. I wasn't even too shocked when I learned he'd
popped up here, nor -
now I've met your mother - that your family took him in. I'd even reconciled
myself to the likelihood that we would meet, from time to time." His level
voice cracked a trifle. "I wasn't expecting him to mutate into my
brother-in-law!"
Miles sat back, his brows rising in partial sympathy. He refrained from doing
anything so rude as, say, cackling. "I would point out, that in an exceedingly
weird sense, you are related already. He's your foster brother. Your father
had him made; by some interpretations of the galactic laws on clones, that
makes him Mark's father too."
"This concept makes my head spin. Painfully." He stared at Miles in sudden
consternation. "Mark doesn't think of himself as my foster brother, does he?"
"I have not so far directed his attention to that legal wrinkle. But think,
Duv, how much easier it will be if you only have to explain him as your
brother-in-law. I mean, lots of people have embarrassing in-laws; it's one of
life's lotteries. You'll have all their sympathy."
Galeni gave him a look of Very Limited Amusement.
"He'll be Uncle Mark," Miles pointed out with a slow, unholy smile. "You'll be
Uncle Duv. I suppose, by some loose extension, I'll be Uncle Miles. And here I
never thought I'd be anybody's uncle - an only child and all that."
Come to think of it... if Ekaterin ever accepted him, Miles would become an
instant uncle, acquiring three brothers-in-law simultaneously, all with
attached wives, and a pack of nieces and nephews already in place. Not to
mention the father-in-law and the stepmother-in-law. He wondered if any of
them would be embarrassing. Or - a new and unnerving thought - if was going
to he be the appalling brother-in-law...
"
Do you think they'll marry?" asked Galeni seriously.
"I... am not certain what cultural format their bonding will ultimately take.
I am certain you could not pry Mark away from
Kareen with a crowbar. And while Kareen has good reasons to take it slowly, I
don't think any of the Koudelkas know how to betray a trust."
That won a little eyebrow-flick from Galeni, and the slight mellowing that any
reminder of Delia invariably produced in him.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to resign yourself to Mark as a permanent
fixture," Miles concluded.
"Eh," said Galeni. It was hard to tell if this sound represented resignation,
or stomach cramp. In any case, he climbed to his feet and took his leave.
* * *
Mark, entering the black-and-white tiled entry foyer from the back hallway to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl aikidobyd.xlx.pl
for no further investigation being permitted."
"Oh, entirely," snarled Miles.
I see where this is going
. He sat back, and folded his arms mulishly. "Does this mean I'm on my own?"
"Ah..." said Galeni. He drew it out for a rather long time. Eventually, he ran
out of ah and was forced to speak. "Not exactly."
Miles bared his set teeth, and waited for Galeni, who waited for him.
Miles broke first. "Dammit, Duv, am I supposed to just stand here and eat this
Page 186
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
shit raw?"
"Come on, Miles, you've done coverups before. I thought you covert ops fellows
lived and breathed this sort of thing."
"Never in my own sandbox. Never where I had to live in it. My Dendarii
missions were hit and run. We always left the stink far behind."
Galeni's shrug lacked sympathy. "I must also point out, these are first
results. Just because there are no leaks yet doesn't mean none will be...
siphoned out into the open later on."
Miles exhaled slowly. "All right. Tell Allegre he has his goat. Baaah." He
added after a moment, "But I draw the line at pretending to guilt. It was a
breath mask accident. Period."
Galeni waved a hand in acceptance of this. "ImpSec won't complain."
It was good
, Miles reminded himself, that there was no security rupture in the Komarr
case. But this also killed his faint, unvoiced hope that he could leave
Richars and his cronies to the untender mercies of ImpSec to be disposed of.
"As long as this is all gas, so be it. But you can let Allegre know, that if
it goes to a formal murder charge against me in the Council..."
Then what?
Galeni's eyes narrowed. "Do you have reason to think someone will charge you
there? Who?"
"Richars Vorrutyer. I have a sort of... personal promise from him."
"He can't, though. Not unless he gets a member to lay it for him."
"He can if he beats out Lord Dono and is confirmed Count Vorrutyer."
And my colleagues are like to choke on Lord Dono.
"Miles... ImpSec can't release the evidence surrounding Vorsoisson's death.
Not even to the Council of Counts."
By the look on Galeni's face, Miles read that as
Especially not to the Council of Counts. Knowing that erratic body, he
sympathized. "Yes. I know."
Galeni said uneasily, "What are you planning to do?"
Miles had more compelling reasons than the strain on ImpSec's nerves to wish
to sidestep this whole scenario. Two of them, mother and son. If he worked it
right, none of this looming juridical mess need ever touch Ekaterin and her
Nikki. "Nothing more
- nor less - than my job. A little politicking. Barrayaran style."
Galeni eyed him dubiously. "Well... if you really intend to project innocence,
you need to do a more convincing job. You...
twitch
."
Miles... twitched. "There's guilt and there's guilt. I am not guilty of
willful murder. I am guilty of screwing up. Now, I'm not alone - this one took
a full committee. Headed by that fool Vorsoisson himself. If only he'd -
dammit, every time you step off the downside shuttle into a Komarran dome they
sit you down and make you watch that vid on breath mask procedures. He'd been
living there nearly a year. He'd been told
." He fell silent a moment. "Not that I didn't know better than to go out-dome
without informing my contacts."
"As it happens, no one is accusing you of negligence."
Miles's mouth twisted bitterly. "They flatter me, Duv. They flatter me."
"I can't help you with that one," said Galeni. "I have enough unquiet ghosts
of my own."
"Check." Miles sighed.
Galeni regarded him for a long moment, then said abruptly, "About your clone."
"Brother."
"Yes, him. Do you know... do you understand... what the devil does he intend
, with respect to Kareen Koudelka?"
"Is this ImpSec asking, or Duv Galeni?"
Page 187
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Duv Galeni." Galeni paused for a rather longer time. "After the... ambiguous
favor he did me when we first encountered each other on Earth, I was content
to see him survive and escape. I wasn't even too shocked when I learned he'd
popped up here, nor -
now I've met your mother - that your family took him in. I'd even reconciled
myself to the likelihood that we would meet, from time to time." His level
voice cracked a trifle. "I wasn't expecting him to mutate into my
brother-in-law!"
Miles sat back, his brows rising in partial sympathy. He refrained from doing
anything so rude as, say, cackling. "I would point out, that in an exceedingly
weird sense, you are related already. He's your foster brother. Your father
had him made; by some interpretations of the galactic laws on clones, that
makes him Mark's father too."
"This concept makes my head spin. Painfully." He stared at Miles in sudden
consternation. "Mark doesn't think of himself as my foster brother, does he?"
"I have not so far directed his attention to that legal wrinkle. But think,
Duv, how much easier it will be if you only have to explain him as your
brother-in-law. I mean, lots of people have embarrassing in-laws; it's one of
life's lotteries. You'll have all their sympathy."
Galeni gave him a look of Very Limited Amusement.
"He'll be Uncle Mark," Miles pointed out with a slow, unholy smile. "You'll be
Uncle Duv. I suppose, by some loose extension, I'll be Uncle Miles. And here I
never thought I'd be anybody's uncle - an only child and all that."
Come to think of it... if Ekaterin ever accepted him, Miles would become an
instant uncle, acquiring three brothers-in-law simultaneously, all with
attached wives, and a pack of nieces and nephews already in place. Not to
mention the father-in-law and the stepmother-in-law. He wondered if any of
them would be embarrassing. Or - a new and unnerving thought - if was going
to he be the appalling brother-in-law...
"
Do you think they'll marry?" asked Galeni seriously.
"I... am not certain what cultural format their bonding will ultimately take.
I am certain you could not pry Mark away from
Kareen with a crowbar. And while Kareen has good reasons to take it slowly, I
don't think any of the Koudelkas know how to betray a trust."
That won a little eyebrow-flick from Galeni, and the slight mellowing that any
reminder of Delia invariably produced in him.
"I'm afraid you're going to have to resign yourself to Mark as a permanent
fixture," Miles concluded.
"Eh," said Galeni. It was hard to tell if this sound represented resignation,
or stomach cramp. In any case, he climbed to his feet and took his leave.
* * *
Mark, entering the black-and-white tiled entry foyer from the back hallway to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]