Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold [116]
And NewEgypt now knew the location of Suze's facility, and they had to be pretty sure Leiber, their original target, had come here, though they couldn't be sure if he was still here. Had NewEgypt figured out yet that their employee-former employee, by now, no doubt-had absconded with Sato's cryo-corpse? And if so, would they imagine she'd been revived already, or would they still picture Leiber carting her about in a cryochamber like some especially awkward souvenir? Could they track back to whatever security vids they maintained from the day Miles and his strike force had liberated her unfortunate substitute Chen? And what would they make of it if they did? And . . . "Damn," Miles muttered. "I have to talk to that idiot Leiber again." If he was to second-guess their thinking, he wanted more details on those key NewEgypt execs. He sighed and raised his voice. "And hello, Mark. Why are you here? And so unexpectedly, too."
Mark tilted his head in un-apology, smirking a bit.
Miles eyed Raven. "I thought we'd had an understanding about such surprises."
Looking faintly guilty, Raven shrugged and mumbled, "Earlier ship."
Miles abandoned the unfruitful point. "Hi, Kareen."
She glinted back at him, reassuring in a way. Sort of. "Hi, Miles. How's it going?"
"Not as well as I thought, evidently." He peered one last time into the drab little office-still empty-and turned away. Tenbury, bless him, was soothing Yani and ushering him off to visit Medtech Tanaka.
A penetrating yowl rose from the back of the consulate van. "Aowt! Aowt!"
Vorlynkin's brows rose. "Have you kidnapped someone else?" His tone seemed more resigned than disapproving. Miles thought of those tales about water wearing away stone; the consul's edges were growing more rounded, at least.
"Not this time. Jin, Armsman Roic has a present for you. Live cargo."
"Really?" Jin was instantly diverted; Miles jerked his head at Roic, who led the boy out of earshot to meet his new pet. Good with kids, Wing's secretary had promised.
And you trust those people, why? Kareen, curious, followed Roic.
Miles lowered his voice to Vorlynkin and Raven. "Raven, how soon could Madame Sato be moved out of medical isolation?"
"To the consulate?" said Vorlynkin.
Miles nodded. "If secrecy, which was our first defense, has failed, then the consulate would be a better location for fending off legal attacks. Granted it hasn't much advantage for illegal, physical attacks. I have some help on the way for that, but they're not here yet."
Raven's lips pressed together in medical reluctance. "Tomorrow? Not that her bio-isolation isn't compromised already, with those kids in and out. Little vectors that they are."
"Well, load her up with every immune system booster in your arsenal-"
"I already have."
Miles made a thumbs-up gesture. "Then plan to decamp as early as possible tomorrow. In fact, Vorlynkin, if you could stay here tonight, and be ready to move her and her kids out at a moment's notice, that might be, um, prudent." He added reluctantly, "Leiber, too."
"Do you think NewEgypt will react that quickly?" asked Vorlynkin.
"I truly do not know. My impression of all these cryocorp chiefs so far is that they'd rather hunker down behind a wall of lawyers than, say, hire mercs, but this crew has already shown it can move fast at need. And, despite the lethal screw-ups, their actions eighteen months ago must have seemed successful at the time. I wish them a distraught and sleepless night figuring it all out, anyway."
Vorlynkin frowned, taking this in.
Miles turned to his clone-brother. "And you?"
"Kareen and I jumped over from Escobar to look into a real estate deal Raven spotted," said Mark, unperturbed by the foregoing. "The short version is, Madame Suze's set-up could be the perfect venue for large-scale human trials of the Durona Group's latest life-extension treatment. If so, I mean to buy the place from the unhappy current owner-of-record,