Captain Vorpatril's alliance

Would he go for it? The deal was utterly hollow. The man could pull out his stunner, drop Rish where she sat, and take Tej before she was half launched at him‑though perhaps less easily the other way around. She could wake up tied to a chair like poor Ivan Xav, except with the cool kiss of a hypospray of fast‑penta held to her arm. In minutes, be spilling everything she knew, along with fits of giggles. Why should he buy what he could so easily steal?

Instead, he sat back. There ensued a long, thoughtful, silence.

“All right,” said Byerly at last. “I’ll deal.”

Rish’s brows rose in surprise. So did Vorpatril’s.

“What’s your real name, Sera Brindis?” By began at once.

Tej’s mouth drew down, concealing both elation and terror. His supple adaptation was almost Jacksonian, and yet he was as purely Barrayaran as Vorpatril. Did he understand what he was doing‑what she was doing? Only one way to find out. “That’s a question worth my life. What have you to offer of equal weight?”

His head tilted. “Eh, perhaps we won’t start with that one, then. As for what happened last night, I can get that free from Ivan, so I shan’t waste a trade on it. What did happen last night, Ivan?”

Vorpatril started. “Eh? You want the short version? No thanks to you, these ladies mistook me for a hired goon sent to stalk them, a misunderstanding we didn’t get straightened around till the real goons showed up. You owe me for a lost night’s sleep, a stunner hangover, having to jump tall buildings with a stunner hangover, and, let me add, a major personal disappointment. We bailed, left the goons out cold on the floor, called in the break‑in to the dome cops, and came here with barely time left for me to get to work.”

Byerly ran his hands through his dark hair, disarranging it. “Dear God Ivan, why did you call Dome Security?”

“They were bound to turn up eventually. I didn’t want the goons to get away, sure as hell didn’t want to take ’em with me, and I wasn’t sure if I could trust”‑he hesitated‑“other authorities, given some things you’d said.” He went on, sounding more aggrieved, “And to cap it, the two most unsympathetic dome cops ever tracked me to work just at quitting time and cornered me for forty‑five minutes of grilling. They were just itching to arrest me for stalking, rape, kidnapping, murder, who knows what else‑being Barrayaran, I expect.”

“Ah, shi‑did you mention me?”

“Kept your existence entirely out of it. Had to tap‑dance around their physical evidence like a loon to do it, too, so you can say Thank you, Ivan.”

“That may be premature.”

Vorpatril’s scowl deepened. “Yeah, and to make things worse, this all took place in an Ops conference room, where you just know it was monitored. It’ll all be in my boss’s inbox by tomorrow morning, and I might lie to the dome cops for you, By, but I’m damned well not going to lie to Desplains.”

Byerly pounded his forehead with his fist. “ Ivan. If you knew that, why didn’t you take them out somewhere else for that interview‑coffee shop, park bench, anywhere? You haven’t the instinct for self‑preservation that God gave a canary. How ever have you survived so far?”

“Hey! I do fine, on my own. It’s only when you Im‑you damned weasels show up in my life‑uninvited, generally‑that it gets this complicated.”

“All right, I have a question,” said Tej, interrupting all this‑how long would they keep it up? “Who sent Captain Vorpatril to me, who gave him my picture? Was it you?” She frowned at the other Voralphabet.

He spread a hand over his chest and offered her a sitting bow. “None other. I trust you found him satisfactory?”

“Why?”

“That’s two questions.”

“So keep score.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you know Rish and I were going to be attacked last night? How?”

Vorpatril bit his knuckle.

Byerly’s face set in a faint, empty smile for a moment‑processing? – then relaxed into its ironic default expression once more. “I hired them.”

Tej’s heart plummeted. Were they deceived‑again…?

“What!” cried Vorpatril indignantly. “You might have said!”

“I was not certain to what degree I could rely on your acting abilities.”

Vorpatril crossed his arms and sat back with a snort.

Uh, what…? thought Tej. Rish’s empty hand slipped quietly back out of her trouser pocket, even her guarded face bewildered.

Byerly continued to Tej, “I am presently engaged in studying some people. Frequently, the best way to gain a close view is to make myself useful, which I do‑selectively. While it is not always true that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, in this case I thought it well to give the appearance of cooperation while diverting its result, at least until I could find out more about you.”

So he’d betrayed her with one hand, and his acquaintances with the other? “That’s…pretty ambidextrous.”