Captain Vorpatril's alliance

Tej lurched across to the other sofa and shook its occupant by the shoulder, saying in an urgent undervoice, “Captain Vorpatril! Wake up! There’s someone at your door!”

He mumbled and hunched in on himself, like an animal trying hide in a hole too small for it. The buzzer blatted again.

Tej shook him again. “Ivan Xav!”

Rish stepped across, grabbed his sock feet, and ruthlessly yanked them to the floor. The rest of him followed with a thud. “Hey, ah, wazzit?” he mumbled indignantly, rolling over and sitting up at last, then clapping a hand over his eyes. “Ah, too bright!”

The door buzzer sounded and did not stop, now, as if someone held it down with a thumb and leaned in.

“Who the hell’d be out there at this time of night?” Vorpatril blinked in a blurry attempt to focus on his wristcom. “What is this time of night?”

“You’ve been asleep almost three hours,” said Rish.

“Not ’nough.” He tried to lie back down on the floor. “God, what’s that noise in my head? Swear I didn’t drink that much…”

“Answer your door,” Tej hissed, hauling on his arm. To the buzzing was now added a thumping, as if someone was hitting the door with a bunched hand. Surely kidnappers wouldn’t be this noisy…?

He lumbered up at last, visibly pulling himself into focus. “Right. Right. ’L go find out.” He waved them off as he started for the short hallway leading to the door on the corridor. “You two go hide.”

Tej stared wildly around. The place had only the living room, kitchenette, bedroom, and bath, spacious as they were, plus two closets and the balcony; any search for cowering women would be short and foregone. Should she allow herself to be cut off from access to that balcony? Rish darted into the open bedroom doorway and frantically motioned her to follow; instead, Tej nipped to the other corner and peeked around into the entry hall.

The door slid aside. From a shadowy shape occluded by Vorpatril’s broad shoulders came a terse voice, male, Barrayaran accent: “Ivan, you idiot! What the hell happened with you last night?”

“You‑!”

To Tej’s considerable surprise, the captain reached out, grabbed his visitor by the jacket, and swung him inside and up against the hall wall. The outer door hissed closed. She caught a bare glimpse of the man before shrinking back out of sight: neither old nor young, shorter than Ivan Xav, not in any recognizable uniform.

“Ivan, Ivan!” the voice protested, shifting its register from irate to placating. “Easy on the jacket! The last time anyone greeted me with that much passion, I at least won a big, sloppy kiss out of it.” A slight pause. “Granted, that was my cousin Dono’s dog. Thing’s the size of a pony, and no manners‑it will jump all over‑”

“Byerly, you, you‑ImpWeasel! What the hell did you set me up for?”

“Just what I wanted to ask you, Ivan, my love. What went wrong? I thought you would bring the woman back here!”

“Not on a first date, you twit! You always end up at her place, first time. Or some neutral third location, but only if you’re both insanely hot.”

What…?

“I stand enlightened,” said the other voice, dryly. “Or would, if you would let me down. Thank you. That’s better.” Tej fancied she could almost hear him shooting his cuffs and adjusting his garb.

Ivan Xav’s voice, surly: “You may as well come on in.”

“That was what I’d had in mind, yes. I’d have thought the five minutes I spent leaning on your door buzzer would have been a clue, but oh well.”

Tej retreated on hasty tiptoes across the living room and around the bedroom doorframe. Rish stood plastered against the wall on the far side, listening intently. She raised a warning finger to her lips. Tej nodded and breathed through her open mouth.

The light, exasperated voice continued, “The latest updates from Solstice Dome Security on the break‑in remain very unenlightening, but‑tied to a chair, Ivan? However did you manage that?”

“I haven’t seen the latest‑oh, God, they didn’t give my name, did they?”

“Do they know your name?”

“They do now.”

“Ivan! You should know better!” A hesitation. “The next begged question being, of course, how did you get untied?”

The captain heaved a sigh. “Before you say anything more, Byerly‑ladies, you’d better come out, now.”

Whoever this man was, he seemed to know Ivan Xav, and far too much about Tej’s affairs. Should she trust in her host’s cavalier disclosure of them? Do we have a choice? Tej let out her breath, nodded across to Rish, and stepped out of the bedroom doorway. The new man swung around to take her in, his eyebrows climbing.

“The hell! Do you mean to tell me I’ve been running mad since midmorning trying to trace the woman, and she was here all the‑”

Rish stepped out from behind Tej and regarded the newcomer coolly.