CryoBurn

by Lois McMaster Bujold

  "Kind of legal. I guess. I mean, they're allowed to use it in suspected cases of employee theft and crimes on the premises and so on. You have to sign a release when you're first employed."

  "I see."

  "There are rules about how it has to be conducted to make it admissible in court, later. But I don't think they were paying much attention to those in my case. Because the last thing they'd want is for any of this to get to a court. Because then they locked me up in Security's holding area."

  "Was that also kind-of-legal?"

  "They're allowed to hold suspects till the real police arrive. Except, of course, the police never did. By the time they let me out, two days later, it was all over for Lisa and her people." He bit his lip, clenched his hands. "I was helpless. Although not as helpless as the Gang of Four had figured, thanks to Lisa."

  "How was that?"

  "When I brought her and George the data, she told me to place a copy somewhere secret-lawyer, bank vault, wherever-with instructions to simultaneously release it to a bunch of places-the courts, all the Prefecture departments of justice, the news, the net-in the event of my death, freezing, or disappearance. Which I did."

  "And that bought you protection from your bosses?"

  "No, they had the location out of me in no time. Thing is, Lisa and George also hid copies, and by the time NewEgypt figured this out, they were both . . . ​well, Lisa was frozen and George was dead. The Gang searched, but they never found the other two copies."

  "How do you know?"

  Leiber smiled grimly. "I'm still above room temperature and walking around."

  "Ah. Reasonable inference." Miles rubbed his lips. "Were Suwabi and Tennoji murdered on purpose, then? By Hans and Oki, perhaps?"

  "By Hans and Oki, but I don't think they were told to kill anyone. I think those were attempted snatches that went wrong. They managed to get Kang and Khosla and Lisa, though." Leiber's lips twisted. "Speaking of job security. Both were given bonuses and raises, after, despite the big screw-ups. I wasn't privy to the under-the-table agreements. They can't turn in their bosses without incriminating themselves, and vice versa. And I think the Four kind of liked the idea of owning their own dirty-work squad. In case they needed someone to handle people like me again.

  "Anyway, the impasse bought everyone time to calm down and think, even me. I felt so badly about it all. Especially Lisa. I mean, I'd destroyed everything she'd worked for, even though I was just trying to help. So when I was offered the bribe, I took it, even though I didn't believe it for a minute, because I thought it would pacify them." He brooded. "They'd bribed Rog a lot earlier, I think."

  "What form did this bribe take?"

  "Nothing immediately useful, they knew better than that. It's all unvested stock options that cut in after a certain numbers of years. I always figured they'd fire me just before they had to pay anything out, but I don't know. They did let me do some real work-I developed a noninvasive scanner test for the bad preps, which wasn't a task they could have assigned to anyone else, after all. The first payment option was due to cut in soon, though, and that's what I set my plan on."

  "What plan?"

  "To rescue Lisa." Leiber's eyes brightened, and he met Miles's gaze for almost the first time. "It's what's kept me going for the past year and a half." His voice lowered, beseeching. "I had to keep my job with NewEgypt in order to have access to her cryochamber, do you see? I realized it practically right away. Originally, I figured to save enough money to rescue them all, Kang and Khosla and Lisa, ship all three cryochambers secretly to Escobar for revival there. But it cost a lot more than I thought it would. Time was drawing on, I thought the Four were finally dropping their guard on me a bit, so I revised the plan to take just Lisa, alone. Take her to Escobar, make the charges against NewEgypt and the whole corrupt system from there, where we'd be safe."

  "You've thought about this a lot, I see," said Miles neutrally, and pressed his hand to his lips to prevent the escape of any premature editorials.

  Leiber's expression grew almost exalted. "It would have worked! We could have been safe, together. We wouldn't even have had to come back to Kibou, if we didn't want. With my credentials, I could have found a job, supported us both."

  A slight, indignant disturbance of the curtain, Miles saw out of the corner of his eye. He carefully didn't turn his head that way.

  Leiber cast a speculative look at Raven. "Maybe even a place like the Durona Group." His gaze grew more urgent. "Maybe, if you people could help me, it still could still work out-"

  Leiber's heroic visions were abruptly interrupted by the curtain being yanked back, and Madame Sato pounding on the glass and yelling something, alas made unintelligible by the barrier. Miles pointed helpfully to his wristcom.

  Leiber nearly fell off his chair. "Lisa!" he cried, whether gladly or in terror Miles wasn't sure.

  Madame Sato apparently didn't get the message about the wristcom, because she clenched her fists and whirled to dodge out her booth door, instead. Raven lurched up to intercept her, although only to hastily make her don a filtering mask before their own booth door slammed open-Roic had prudently moved out of the way.

  "Seiichiro Leiber, you moron!" cried Madame Sato, which was approximately what Miles had guessed she'd been trying to say, since he'd been hard-pressed not to say it himself. "What were you thinking? You were going to kidnap me, take me off-planet, and abandon my children? And trap me there, with no money to get home?"

  "No, no!" said Leiber, rising hastily and turning his hands out in pleading. "It wasn't like that! Wasn't going to be like that!"

  It had been going to be exactly like that, in Leiber's mind, Miles guessed. A princely rescue, with Leiber in the starring role, and the happily-ever-after, if not planned, at least much wished upon. Had Snow White in her glass coffin ever had a vote? Or a voice?

  "Lisa, I know this was all my fault! I was going to make it right, I swear!"

  Behind her mask, Miles thought Madame Sato was sputtering, almost beyond words. He could see her point. She snarled, "Make it right? Make it worse!"

  Raven put in, "You know, upsetting and stressing a new revive is not good for their immune system. Or any other system."

  Some milder exercise than towering rage was indicated, certainly. Strokes were another real possibility in the more fragile revives, Miles dimly recalled. Interested as he was in what more might be squeezed out of Leiber, it was time to intervene.

  "Well, his plan is certainly thwarted now," Miles soothed her. "We'll have to see if we can't come up with something rather better." He jumped up and dragged Raven's chair around. "Please, Madame Sato, do sit down. I should be extremely glad of your input, at this point."

  Out of breath, Madame Sato sank into the seat, her brown eyes still glaring at Leiber over the top of her filtering mask. Leiber, too, sank down, or maybe his knees gave way.

  Madame Sato rubbed her furrowed forehead, a gesture that made Raven frown medically. Her voice drooped in exhaustion along with her body. "If the corps have grown so corrupt and above the law that they can get away not just with theft, but with murder, what hope is there left for Kibou?"

  "Escape?" Leiber offered.

  Her eyes shot sparks of scorn, over her mask. "Leaving my children to be chewed up in this maw?" She drew breath. "Everyone's children?"

  Miles said mildly, "NewEgypt hasn't got away with murder yet. In fact, their very secrecy suggests they're still vulnerable on that point. A big enough stink bomb, suitably aimed, might still land on the target."

  Madame Sato shook her head. Miles wasn't sure if her spasm of despair was the result of post-revival exhaustion, perfectly understandable under the circumstances, or of an acquaintance with Kibou-daini's troubles much deeper than his own. Raven's glower at him suggested the former, though.

  "Roic," he said over his shoulder, "I want you to run a fast-penta interrogation on both those goons we have downstairs. Focus on the murders, but get as much else as you can, especial
ly about their bosses. Shoot the recordings over to the consulate, secured link."

  "Will such confessions be admissible to the local courts?"

  "Mm, I need to think about that. The fact that we're not the local authorities may put a wrinkle in it. Vorlynkin can ask the consulate lawyer." Miles wondered what that as-yet-unmet woman was making of the recent stream of bizarre legal questions from her client. Well, it was doubtless time she earned her retainer. "In any case, I want to secure the evidence for my own purposes. Birds in the hand and all that."

  "Do we still want to release them, after? If they're murderers?"

  "It sounds as if they were amateurs, not contract killers. And bungling amateurs at that. Eh. Depends on what turns up in the interrogations. Raven can assist, but don't let them see him. No point in letting them know any more than they do already."

  "And if either or both of them are allergic?"

  An induced, and fatal, allergy to fast-penta was not uncommon among galactic covert operatives; Miles wasn't sure about these civilians. "Have Raven check first. The test patches are in my kit along with the fast-penta. If so, call me."

  Roic nodded. Miles was confident in Roic's interrogation skills on criminal matters; this was one task he might safely delegate.

  "The larger issues . . ." Miles's voice slowed. "I don't have a handle on yet. It's hard to see how this technology, widely adopted and combined with human nature, wouldn't run into the same traps everywhere, in due course. In a broader sense, this is Barrayar's problem, too, or will be." Good, he had an all-purpose defense for his expense reports for this case. That had been a minor but growing concern.

  Roic scratched his head. "Thing is-everyone here's headed for the same end. If the higher-ups allow the whole system to get too corrupt, how do they expect to assure their own future revivals?"

  "Never underestimate the human capacity for wishful thinking and willful blindness," said Miles. Such as a whole society of people who became so wrapped up in avoiding death, they forgot to be alive?

  Roic tapped his fingers on his trouser seam. "Yeah, belike."

  A motion caught Miles's eye-the outer door of the recovery room opening. Vorlynkin appeared, being anxiously towed by Jin and Mina.

  Miles pointed. "Madame Sato, I believe you have some visitors."

  Her head turned. She gasped, under her mask, and her eyes widened. She scrambled from her chair, Raven springing to the alert in case the sudden motion made her dangerously dizzy, but she was already banging out of the booth.

  "Jin! Mina!"

  "Mommy!"

  The pair raced forward, but, since they did not let go of Vorlynkin, the man was pulled into a few long, unbalanced strides that brought him face to face with Madame Sato. She fell to one knee to clutch her children to her, first one, then the other, then both together, as hard as she could hug. Miles thought she might be crying. He made his way to the booth door and leaned on the jamb, watching. Even Jin, with all the austerity of his almost-twelve, didn't reject the huggy-kissy stuff now.

  "Mina!" Madame Sato held her daughter a little away from herself, and stared over her mask. Her voice shook. "You've grown!"

  For the first time, Miles thought, those eighteen missing months and what they'd stolen from her was brought home. Proof she could touch, not just words and more words.

  She looked up at last, in some bewilderment, at Vorlynkin. "And who's this?"

  Mina answered eagerly, "It's Vorlynkin-san, Mommy. He took care of us at his house. It has a great garden! All Jin's creatures like it, too." She grabbed Vorlynkin's hand and swung on it, without the least dismay on his part.

  Vorlynkin smiled and offered Madame Sato his other hand up, which, after her first wobbling attempt to rise, she realized she needed, and took. He was tall enough that she actually had to look up-she'd been eye-to-eye with Leiber.

  "Stefin Vorlynkin, Madame Sato. I'm the Barrayaran Consul to Kibou-daini. I'm very pleased to meet you at last."

  She made an abortive motion for her daughter to stop using the consul as a swing-set, but Mina had already abandoned the hand and was running around the pair in excited circles. Jin hopped up and down in a burst of explanations, most of which seemed to turn on the continued health and well-being of his creatures, with special reference to Lucky.

  "You've been looking after my children?" she said uncertainly.

  "Only for the past few days, ma'am. You have a couple of really good kids, there. Very bright."

  Miles thought a flicker of a smile might have turned her mouth, under the mask. It was certainly the first time he'd seen her dark eyes crinkle with pleasure.

  Raven intervened at this point to run his still-new revive back to her bed, but he indulgently allowed the family reunion to go along. Miles watched through the glass, the children waving their arms and explaining their lives for the last eighteen months, Madame Sato looking dismayed as she struggled to keep up.

  Vorlynkin came to watch over his shoulder. "So glad to see her awake and cognizant. It solves several legal conundrums for me. Now I can actually protect those kids."

  "Just so." Miles smiled.

  Roic collected Raven and padded off about their next task. Leiber, looking confused, waved inarticulately through the glass at the Sato family and said, "But now what do I do?"

  Miles turned to him, folding his arms and leaning against the wall. "Well, you're certainly not a prisoner. The only people on this planet I have the legal authority to actually arrest are other Barrayarans."

  "Uh, but what about Hans and Oki?"

  "I didn't arrest them, I kidnapped them. According to Roic. I see I shall have to explain to you the difference between permission and forgiveness, sometime."

  "And what is the difference?" inquired Vorlynkin, brows rising.

  "Success, usually. In any case, Dr. Leiber, you are free to leave at any time. I just don't recommend it, not unless you have a better plan for hiding out than your last one. Presuming Hans and Oki are not your bosses' only resource for legwork."

  "No, they're not," sighed Leiber.

  "You are also free to stay. Camping here overnight would make a better hiding place than any commercial venue, to be sure. We could all use a little time to digest all this, I suspect. Although I'd also suggest you re-think any attempt to make your orbital shuttle tomorrow afternoon. You'd certainly not make it past the shuttleport."

  "No," Leiber agreed unhappily. "Not now."

  "And what are you going to do next, my Lord Auditor?" asked Vorlynkin.

  Miles rubbed his jaw and scowled in thought. "What any commander does when he's outnumbered, I suppose. Look for allies."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Roic's interrogations of their inadvertent prisoners ran as smoothly as Miles expected, though Hans and Oki's anxious self-justifications leaked through even their slap-happy fast-penta hazes. As Leiber had guessed, the two deaths had been more the result of clumsiness than malice, although the verbal picture of the pair of goons chasing the frightened old lady Tennoji around her apartment and over her balcony was sickening enough. Their attempt to force down George Suwabi's lightflyer might actually have worked, if he'd crash landed on dry ground instead of deep water. They could have pulled him out of the safety cage and whisked him off to the freezer openly feigning a quick-thinking rescue of an otherwise fatally injured man. As it was, his drowned corpse had been fished from the waters far too late for even Kibou-daini's medics to help.

  Whether the strict legal definition of their acts was murder or just manslaughter, Miles was still left with the dilemma of how, now, to be rid of his unwanted guests. Catch and release was off the table. They, and their confessions, needed to be turned over to a local police authority, but not one that could be bought by their NewEgypt bosses. Not that it would play out that way, Miles guessed. Roped together by their shared guilt, Hans and Oki would be instant sacrifices, and their bosses would purchase their own freedom through a screen of expensive lawyers. Yet Miles wanted to bring
down the whole NewEgypt crew, if he could.

  The meticulous Roic did get to escort his captives, individually, to the loo, and give them water. For the moment, Miles had Raven put them back into a light medicated doze, although that wasn't going to be a long-term answer either. Freezing was looking better all the time. Miles damn well wasn't packing that pair home with him. Barrayar isn't suffering a goon shortage, and anyway, ours are more competent. On the bright side, the Gang of Four must be thoroughly alarmed by now at the disappearance of their minions and Leiber, hours after they should have reported in. Yeah, it might be time to start rattling a few chains.

  The recordings dispatched to the consulate, Miles was at last clear to tackle WhiteChrys, where all this had started what was beginning to seem a rather long time ago. Happily, he had no trouble bulling through to an immediate appointment with Ron Wing. Miles spent the drive out to the west end mentally rehearsing his role, so as not to crack his cover while still accomplishing his aim.

  They were met in Wing's outer office by a smiling executive secretary, who rose to greet them. Also rising from a comfortable-looking chair in the corner, though with a yawn not a smile, was a startling catlike creature, with the tawny body of a miniature lion and wings not unlike Gyre's, but a disturbingly human-looking face. A colorful little striped head-cloth in the style of Egyptian statuary was tied under its feminine chin. It trotted to Roic, who froze, appalled, as it wound around his legs. It butted his knees-it must have weighed ten kilos-looked up, and opened its mouth not to say, What goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs at night? but a mere breathy half-meow.

  "Stop that, Nefertiti," scolded the secretary, and hoisted the beast to deposit it on her desk. The creature switched its tufted tail and looked offended.

  Miles held out a hand for it to sniff as the secretary went on, "It's all right, she doesn't bite or scratch. She does shed, though." She added in cheerful explanation to the still stunned-looking Roic, "They were this year's promotional give-away by our competitor and neighbor, NewEgypt."