Miles Errant - Lois McMaster Bujold [300]
"Is this an emergency, my lord?" the corporal asked.
"It is to me," growled Mark.
Whatever the corporal thought of that, he patched Mark on through. Mark insisted his way past two more layers of subordinates before the ImpSec chief's tired face materialized.
Mark swallowed. "Captain Illyan."
"Yes, Lord Mark, what is it?" Illyan said wearily. It had been a long night for ImpSec, too.
"I had an interesting conversation with a certain Captain Vorventa, earlier this evening."
"I am aware. You offered him some not-too-oblique threats."
And Mark had assumed that ImpSec guard/servant had been sent to protect him . . . ah, well.
"So I have a question for you, sir. Is Captain Vorventa on the list of people who are supposed to know about Miles?"
Illyan's eyes narrowed. "No."
"Well, he does."
"That's . . . very interesting."
"Is that helpful for you to know?"
Illyan sighed. "It gives me a new problem to worry about. Where is the internal leak? Now I'll have to find out."
"But—better to know than not."
"Oh, yes."
"Can I ask a favor in return?"
"Maybe." Illyan looked extremely non-committal. "What kind of favor?"
"I want in."
"What?"
"I want in. On ImpSec's search for Miles. I want to start by reviewing your reports, I suppose. After that, I don't know. But I can't stand being kept alone in the dark any more."
Illyan regarded him suspiciously. "No," he said at last. "I'm not turning you loose to romp through my top-secret files, thank you. Good night, Lord Mark."
"Wait, sir! You complained you were understaffed. You can't turn down a volunteer."
"What do you imagine you can do that ImpSec hasn't?" Illyan snapped.
"The point is, sir—ImpSec hasn't. You haven't found Miles. I can hardly do less."
He hadn't put that quite as diplomatically as he should have, Mark realized, as Illyan's face darkened with anger. "Good night, Lord Mark," Illyan repeated through his teeth, and cut the link with a swipe of his hand.
Mark sat frozen in Miles's station chair. The house was so quiet the loudest sound he could hear was his own blood in his ears. He should have pointed out to Illyan how clever he'd been, how quick on the uptake; Vorventa had revealed what he knew, but in no way had Mark cross-revealed that he knew Vorventa knew. Illyan's investigation must now take the leak, whatever it was, by surprise. Isn't that worth something? I'm not as stupid as you think I am.
You're not as smart as I thought you were, either, Illyan. You are not . . . perfect. That was disturbing. He had expected ImpSec to be perfect, somehow; it had anchored his world to think so. And Miles, perfect. And the Count and Countess. All perfect, all unkillable. All made out of rubber. The only real pain, his own.
He thought of Ivan, crying in the shadows. Of the Count, dying in the woods. The Countess had kept her mask up better than any of them. She had to. She had more to hide. Miles himself, the man who had created a whole other personality just to escape into. . . .
The trouble, Mark decided, was that he had been trying to be Miles Vorkosigan all by himself. Even Miles didn't do Miles that way. He had co-opted an entire supporting cast. A cast of thousands. No wonder I can never catch up with him.
Slowly, curiously, Mark opened his tunic and removed Gregor's comm card from his inner breast pocket, and set it on the comconsole desk. He stared hard at the anonymous plastic chip, as if it bore some coded message for his eyes only. He rather fancied it did.
You knew. You knew, didn't you, Gregor you bastard. You've just been waiting for me to figure it out for myself.
With spasmodic decision, Mark jammed the card into the comconsole's read-slot.
No machines this time. A man in ordinary civilian clothing answered immediately, though without identifying himself. "Yes?"
"I'm Lord Mark Vorkosigan.