Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold [84]
Miles-san gave Mina a big There, see? sort of smile, which faltered at her blank stare. Vorlynkin and Johannes were gazing at him in horrified fascination.
Miles drew himself up. "I'm going to go talk to this Dr. Leiber. In person. Not at his work, I think," he added, his voice slowing in thought.
Roic's mouth set in a grim line. "You will have a proper security perimeter."
"Certainly. We'll even take Johannes, so you won't have to be the perimeter all by yourself."
"It's a start."
Miles-san studied Mina, who was still shifting fretfully. "The connection between Dr. Leiber and your mother exists nowhere in the records I've seen so far-only in your witness, Miss Mina. If anything comes of it, it will be entirely due to the valuable intelligence you supplied."
She cheered a little at this, or at least her lip stopped quivering. "Really?"
"Really. And valuable ImpSec informants get paid, you know. So do couriers, I am reminded," he added with a glance at Jin.
"But I didn't finish the job," said Jin.
"Capture by the enemy rates hazard pay, actually."
"How much?" asked Mina, brightening a lot more.
"Ah, I like the way you think, kid. There's actually an official pay schedule. In Barrayaran marks, of course. It has codes for various services. I'll have Roic check it, and do the conversions to Kibou-daini money."
"You propose to pay them adult rates?" asked Vorlynkin. Jin thought he sounded more startled than disapproving, and hoped he wouldn't try to talk Miles-san out of this wonderful idea.
"Damn straight." Miles-san added, "My case budget allows for a lot of discretion, you know."
"Then I wish you'd buy some," snapped Vorlynkin. He shut his mouth abruptly, as if startled at what had fallen out of it.
Miles-san merely grinned at him. His stiff consul-face back in place, Vorlynkin shepherded Jin and Mina back up to the kitchen to feed them again. Jin glanced back over his shoulder at the four men turning intently back to their comconsoles, as that heavy door swung shut. He hoped the consulate had good spy stuff.
Chapter Thirteen
Dr. Seiichiro Leiber proved to live in a rented row-house in a residential district on the west side of Northbridge, not far from his work. Miles had Johannes, driving the lift van, circle the block to give him a feel for the neighborhood. On this pleasant weekend morning, not a few folks were out tending their tiny plots of greenery; a gang of children raced noisily across the lawns, got yelled at by a gardener, and vanished, giggling, around the corner. Jin and Mina might well have grown up in a place much like this.
Miles's more focused researches last night had mainly turned up Leiber's school records, with police records drawing a bland and virtuous blank. He wasn't listed on any of Lisa Sato's rosters of supporters or contributors, nor did his name appear among the arrestees at the rally riot, most of whom had been released without being charged. Charges had been made but later dropped against the two dead and the three, including Sato, who'd been suspiciously frozen. All tidy and quiet now.
This Dr. Leiber had acquired his Ph.D. at the unprecocious age of twenty-eight, and gone directly into employment with NewEgypt for the four years subsequently. His thesis, which Miles had read-well, skimmed-had focused on improvements in cryonics fluids, which, given that a consortium of cryocorps had funded his scholarship, seemed perfectly reasonable. Several of the larger cryocorps maintained research departments that, in addition to overseeing quality control, worked on proprietary advances in their procedures designed to lure customers from their competition. Nothing odd about that, either.
Miles had Johannes pull up at the corner. "I think our biggest problem here is going to be nosy neighbors, not electronic surveillance. You aren't going to be able to sit or stand around without people coming out to see what you're up to. So I'll run an open comlink to you, Johannes"-Miles set his to record while he was at it-"and