Miles Errant - Lois McMaster Bujold [159]
"Have you, ah, run into a guy wearing blue face paint yet?" Miles inquired.
"Oh yes," said Galeni in a tone of some satisfaction.
"What the hell happened to you? Sir."
Galeni spoke in a rapid whisper. "I couldn't find an entrance in the Barrier near where I'd left you. I spotted that utilities access over there," he jerked his head toward the kiosk, "and thought there might be some power optic or water line tunnels back to the Barrier. I was half-right. There are utility tunnels all under this park. But I got turned around underground, and instead of coming out in the Barrier, I ended up coming out a port in the pedestrian crossing under the Channel Highway. Where I found guess who?"
Miles shook his head. "Police? Cetagandans? Barrayarans?"
"Close. It was my old friend and opposite number from the Cetagandan Embassy, Ghem-lieutenant Tabor. It actually took me a couple of minutes to realize what he was doing there. Playing outer-perimeter backup to the experts from HQ. Same as I would have been doing if I hadn't been," Galeni snickered, "confined to quarters.
"He was not happy to see me," Galeni went on. "He couldn't figure what the hell I was doing there either. We both pretended to be out viewing the moon, while I got a look at the equipment he had packed in his groundcar. He may have actually believed me; I think he thought I was drunk or drugged."
Miles politely refrained from remarking, I can see why.
"But then he started getting signals from his team, and had to get rid of me in a hurry. He pulled a stunner on me—I ducked—he didn't hit me square on, but I lay low pretending to be more disabled than I was, listening to his half of the conversation with the squad in the tower and hoping for a chance to reverse the situation.
"The feeling was just coming back to the left half of my body when your blue friend showed up. His arrival distracted Tabor, and I jumped them both."
Miles's brows rose. "How the devil did you manage that?"
Galeni's hands were flexing as he spoke. "I don't . . . quite know," he admitted. "I remember hitting them. . . ." He glanced at Mark. "It was nice to have a clearly defined enemy for a change."
Upon whom, Miles guessed, Galeni had just unloaded all the accumulated tensions of the last impossible week and this mad night. Miles had witnessed berserkers before. "Are they still alive?"
"Oh yes."
Miles decided he would believe that when he'd had a chance to check for himself. Galeni's smile was alarming, all those long teeth gleaming in the darkness.
"Their car," said Ivan urgently.
"Their car," agreed Miles. "Is it still there? Can we get to it?"
"Maybe," said Galeni. "There is at least one police squad in the tunnels now. I could hear them."
"We'll have to chance it."
"Easy for you to say," muttered Mark truculently. "You have diplomatic immunity."
Miles stared at him, seized by berserker inspiration. His finger traced over an inner pocket in his gray jacket. "Mark," he breathed, "how would you like to earn that hundred-thousand Betan dollar credit chit?"
"There isn't any credit chit."
"That's what Ser Galen said. You might reflect on what else he was wrong about tonight." Miles glanced up to check what effect mention of his father's name had on Galeni. A cooling one, apparently; some of the drawn and inward look returned to his eyes even as Miles watched. "Captain Galeni. Are those two Cetagandans conscious, or can they be brought to consciousness?"
"At least one is. They may both be by now. Why?"
"Witnesses. Two witnesses, ideal."
"I thought the whole point of sneaking off instead of surrendering was to avoid witnesses?" said Ivan plaintively.
"I think," Miles overrode him, "I had better be Admiral Naismith. No offense, Mark, but you don't have your Betan accent quite right. You don't hit your terminal R's quite hard enough or something. Besides, you've practiced Lord Vorkosigan more."
Galeni's eyebrows