Miles in Love - Lois McMaster Bujold [160]
"You were not a prisoner!" said Foscol. "You were one of us. I thought."
Madame Radovas looked across at her. "I supported my husband. If I hadn't—he would still be alive. Lena, I'm tired."
Foscol said tentatively, "Maybe you should rest, before deciding."
The look she got from Madame Radovas in return for that line made her drop her eyes, and look away.
Madame Radovas said to Soudha, "Do you believe him, about the device not working?"
Soudha frowned deeply. "Yes. I'm afraid so. Or I would have voted differently."
"Poor Barto." She stared at Miles for a long time in an almost detached wonder.
Encouraged by her apparent dispassion, he asked curiously, "Why is your vote the tie-breaker?"
"The scheme was my husband's idea, originally. This obsession has dominated my life for seven years. His voting share was always considered the greatest."
How very Komarran. Then Soudha had actually been the second-in-command, forced into the dead man's shoes . . . it was all amazingly irrelevant now. Maybe they'll name it after him. The Radovas Effect. Belike. "We are both heirs, of a sort, then."
"Indeed." The widow's lips twisted. "You know, I will never forget the look on your face when that fool Vorsoisson told you there was no place on his forms for an Imperial order. I almost laughed out loud, despite it all."
Miles smiled briefly, scarcely daring to breathe.
Madame Radovas shook her head in disbelief, but not, he thought, of his promises. "Well, Lord Vorkosigan . . . I'll take your word. And find out what it's worth." She searched the faces of each of her three colleagues, but when she spoke, she looked at him. "I vote to stop now."
Miles waited tensely for signs of dissension, protest, internal revolt. Cappell struck his fist on the booth's glass wall, which reverberated, and turned away, his features working. Foscol buried her face in her hands. After that, silence.
"That's it, then," said Soudha, bleakly exhausted. Miles wondered if the news of the device's inherent defect had sapped his will more than any argument. "We surrender, on your word for our lives. Lord Auditor Vorkosigan." He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them again. "Now what?"
"A lot of sensible slow moves. First I gently detach ImpSec from its vision of a heroic assault. They were getting pretty worked up, out here. Then you inform the rest of your group. Then disarm whatever booby-traps you've set, and pile any weapons you may possess well away from yourselves. Unlock the doors. Then sit down quietly on the loading bay floor with your hands behind your heads. At that point, I'll let the boys in." He added prudently, "Please avoid sudden movements, that sort of thing."
"So be it." Soudha cut his comm; the Komarrans winked out. Miles shuddered in sudden disorientation, alone again in his little sealed room. The screaming man behind the glass wall in his mind was getting out a battering ram, it felt like.
Miles opened the channel on his comconsole and ordered a medical squad to accompany the arresting officers from ImpSec and Station Security, who were to be armed with stunners and stunners only. He repeated that last command a couple of times, to be sure. He felt as if he'd spent a century in his station chair. When he tried to stand up, he nearly fell over. Then he ran.
Miles's only compromise with Vorgier's anxiety for the Imperial Auditor's personal safety was to march down the ramp into the Southport loading bay behind instead of in front of the security team. The ten or so Komarrans, sitting cross-legged on the floor, twisted around to watch as the Barrayarans entered. After Miles came the tech squad, which spread out looking for booby-traps, and behind them the medical team with a float pallet.
The first thing which caught Miles's eye after the live target inventory was the upside-down float cradle in the middle of