The Vorkosigan Companion - Lillian Stewart Carl [111]
mind-numbing data analysis and providing escort duty for social events. However, his first task, an afternoon reception, is interrupted by Miles getting an urgent message to save three Dendarii troopers who have busted up a wine shop and are threatening to blow it up, creating a standoff with the local police. Miles heads over and saves his men and the clerk, but not before the shop goes up in flames, earning him a spot on the local news for his bravery in carrying the clerk out through the fire. Taken back to the Dendarii, Miles learns that since the expected payment hasn't arrived from Barrayar yet, the fleet is in real financial trouble, forcing them to take out a short-term loan, using one of their ships as collateral, to cover expenses. Adding to Miles's complications, he gets romantically involved with Elli Quinn, who's had a long-term crush on him. After a dressing-down from Captain Galeni for the wine shop incident, Miles attends another embassy function, where he stumbles on the same reporter that interviewed him earlier, and comes up with the story that Admiral Naismith is his cloned brother. Granted leave to attend to the Dendarii, Miles is nearly killed on the way by hired assassins. After a mutually satisfying liaison with Elli—despite the fact that she turns down his marriage proposal—and coming up with the idea to hire out the Dendarii for any job that needs doing, dangerous or not, Miles returns to the embassy to find that Duv Galeni has disappeared, strengthening his theory that the captain has stolen the Dendarii payment and vanished. While searching Galeni's private personnel file, Miles learns that his father and mother were involved in Komarr's government when Barrayar took over, during Miles's father's time in the military, when he acquired the sobriquet "The Butcher of Komarr." Galeni's aunt was killed in the Solstice Massacre, and his father, who had joined the resistance, was blown up by a homemade bomb. Against Simon Illyan's wishes, Aral had let Duv join ImpSec, which was how he came to be at the embassy on Earth. Meanwhile, Elli has scared up some work—a mysterious party wants the Dendarii to kidnap Lieutenant Vorkosigan from the embassy. Going to a preliminary meeting, Miles is stunned and replaced with an exact duplicate of himself—his wild story to the press has come nightmarishly true. Held prisoner along with Duv, Miles discovers that Duv's father, Ser Galen, is very much alive, and has hatched a plot to insert Miles's double back into Barrayar to kill Aral and sow political chaos. The clone believes he is going to take the throne, but Miles, who views him as his flesh-and-blood brother, dubbing him Mark, tries to convince him that it will never happen, and that he should be his own man, not Galeni's puppet. Just before he can convince Mark, Galen bursts in and separates them. Miles tries to overpower the guards, but is stunned, and has a terrible dream combining the events of the Dagoola prison break with what's currently happening. About to be stunned and killed by Galen's guards, Miles and Galeni are rescued by Elli, who has been staking out the building they've been held in, searching for Galeni. They all go back to the Barrayaran Embassy, where they find that Mark has been arrested on suspicion of putting out the hit on Admiral Naismith. Going to the police, they find that Galen has beaten them there and sprung Mark first. Back at the embassy, Galeni investigates the suspected corrupt courier officer who had not been passing along the messages to and from Barrayar as he was supposed to, and finds he has been subverted. The officer in charge of the investigation, Commodore Destang, has brought a clean-up squad to eliminate Mark and the Komarran rebel cell if possible, and also gets Miles the payment the Dendarii have been sorely missing. Through a loophole in procedure, Galeni gives Miles tacit permission to use the Dendarii to find Mark and Galen. Heading back to his fleet, Miles sets his intelligence department on it, planning to buy Mark from Galen. While he's setting up his plan,