• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 446 0

quietly out of the isolation booth, where both his mother and Mina were napping, Mina curled on the foot of the bed like a cat. His mother looked washed-out and pale, a little scary but nothing like that other woman Miles-san and Raven-sensei had failed to revive. Jin's joy at finding her alive had crashed through him like a great wave, but now that the first flush of relief was receding, he felt all tumbled and strange. Everything was uncertain again, with the grownups back in charge. Where would they go to live now? What would happen to his creatures? Would they make him go back to school? How soon? Would he have to be stuck in with kids a year younger than him?

Could it all be taken away again . . . ?

Ako, keeping watch in the recovery room, gave him a friendly nod from her chair. Jin heard voices out in the corridor, and went to see who it was.

He shut the door behind him to find Vorlynkin-san, looking startled, confronting Raven-sensei and two new people. Jin's mouth, too, fell open as he stared at the couple.

The man was almost another Miles-san-same height, same looks-except twice as wide, and with no gray in his hair. He wore a sharply-cut suit in black on black with more black that somehow made his girth look trim. The woman was even taller than Jin's mother, with bright blond hair swept back in a cool knot, and eyes almost as blue as Consul Vorlynkin's. Her suit was more flowing, in soft gray, with a silky white top and a glint of gold at her throat and ears. Her outfit reminded Jin of Miles-san's shirt, simple yet somehow extra . . . extra-looking. Her smile down at him made him feel warm all over.

"Jin," said Consul Vorlynkin. "I was just coming to find you. I was about to run back to the consulate for a bit, but . . ." He stared at the new not-Miles.

"Mom and Mina fell asleep," said Jin.

"Ah, good," said Raven-sensei. "I'll just go check on them, and have a word with Ako, and be right with you all." He slipped into the recovery room.

The blond lady's eyes glinted merrily at Jin, like sunlight off a lake in summer. "And who's this, Consul?"

Vorlynkin seemed to pull himself together, though why the arrival of this pair should have scattered his wits Jin was not quite sure, well, except for the short man's surprising looks. "This is Jin Sato. He's the son of the woman the Lord Auditor and Dr. Durona have just revived here. Lord Vorkosigan met him, well, I'll let him tell it when he gets back. Jin, this is Lord Mark Vorkosigan and his partner, Miss Kareen Koudelka. From Barrayar."

Miss Koudelka held out a slim hand for Jin to shake, just as if he were a grownup, and the man, after a beat, followed suit. Jin wondered if partner meant girlfriend or, like, coworker. The pretty woman seemed like she ought to be a corp executive, the expensive-looking bag slung over her shoulder sized for business gear, not cosmetics.

"Are you Miles-san's brother?" Jin asked. Like Tetsu and Ken? Jin stood, he realized, eye-to-eye with the man just as he did with Miles-san, but somehow the extra bulk made Lord Mark seem taller. And his smile didn't lurk in his eyes the way Miles-san's did.

"Twins, born six years apart," the man said, sounding bored and rehearsed. "It's a long story." Clearly, not one he was about to tell Jin.

"You don't look, um . . . exactly alike," said Jin. Lord Mark also lacked Miles-san's cane, and he seemed to move more fluidly. Maybe he was the younger brother.

"A distinction I go to some trouble to maintain," said Lord Mark.

Raven-sensei let himself back out of the recovery room. "I think you should meet Madame Suzuki first, Lord Mark."

"Must we deal with her? This Ted Fuwa fellow is the sole owner-of-record."

"Only of the physical plant. For our purposes, the physical plant is-well, not nothing, but interchangeable. It's the human liabilities-and opportunities-it contains that made it worth dragging you here for a closer look. And Madame Suze is unquestionably the mistress of that particular court of chaos."

Lord Mark gave a short nod-listening, not arguing.

"Did your brother know you were