The Vor Game

by Lois McMaster Bujold

  Footsteps. Half a dozen men emerged from a nearby corridor. Miles stiffened. Uniformed men, with an officer, judging by their posture, but they weren't wearing the garb of either Vervani civil or military security. Unfamiliar short-sleeved tan fatigues with black tabs and trim, and short black boots. They carried stunners, drawn and ready. But if it walks like an arrest squad, and talks like an arrest squad, and quacks like an arrest squad...

  “Miles,” muttered Gregor doubtfully, talking in the same cues, “is this in the script?” The stunners were pointed their way, now.

  “He's pulled this off three times,” Miles offered in unfelt reassurance. “Why not a fourth?"

  The freighter captain smiled thinly, and stepped away from the wall, out of the line of fire. “I pulled it off twice,” he informed them. “The third time, I got caught."

  Miles's hands twitched. He held them carefully away from his sides, biting back swear words. Slowly, Gregor raised his hands as well, face wonderfully blank. Score one for Gregor's self-control, as always, the one virtue his constrained life had surely inculcated.

  Tung had set this up. All by himself. Had Tung known? Sold by Tung? No ... ! “Tung said you were reliable,” Miles grated to the freighter captain.

  “What's Tung to me?” the man snarled back. “I have a family, mister."

  Under the stunners’ aim, two—God, goons again!—soldiers stepped forward to lean Miles and Gregor hands to the wall, and shake them down, relieving them of all their hard-won Oseran weapons, equipment, and multiple IDs. The officer examined the cache. “Yeah, these are Oser's men, all right.” He spoke into his wrist comm.

  “We have them."

  “Carry on,” a thin voice returned. “We'll be right down. Cavilo out."

  Randall's Rangers, evidently, hence the unfamiliar uniforms. But why no Vervani in sight? “Pardon me,” Miles said mildly to the officer, “but are you people acting under the misapprehension we are Aslunder agents?"

  The officer stared down at him and snorted.

  “I wonder if it might not be time to establish our real identity,” Gregor murmured tentatively to Miles.

  “Interesting dilemma,” Miles returned out of the corner of his mouth. “We better find out if they shoot spies."

  A brisk tapping of boots heralded a new arrival. The squad braced as the sound rounded the corner. Gregor came to attention too, in automatic military courtesy, his straightness looking very strange hung about with Arde Mayhew's clothes. Miles no doubt looked least military of all, with his mouth gaping open in shock. He closed it before something flew in, such as his foot.

  Five feet tall and a bit added by black books with higher-than-regulation heels. Cropped blonde hair like a dandelion aureole on that sculptured head. Crisp tan-and-black rank-gilded uniform that fit her body language in perfect complement. Livia Nu. The officer saluted. “Commander Cavilo, ma'am."

  “Very good, Lieutenant.... “her blue eyes, falling on Miles, widened in unfeigned surprise, instantly covered. “Why, Victor, dahling,” her voice went syrupy with exaggerated amusement and delight, “fancy meeting you here. Still selling miracle suits to the unwitting?"

  Miles spread his empty hands. “This is the totality of my luggage, ma'am. You should have bought when you could."

  “I wonder.” Her smile was tight and speculative. Miles found the glitter in her eyes disturbing. Gregor, silent, looked frantically bewildered.

  So, your name wasn't Livia Nu, and you weren't a procurement agent. So why the devil was the commandant of Vervain's mercenary force meeting incognito on Pol Station with a representative of the most powerful House of the Jacksonian Consortium? That was no mere arms deal, darling.

  Cavilo/Livia Nu raised her wrist comm to her lips. “Sickbay, Kurin's Hand. Cavilo here. I'm sending you up a couple of prisoners for questioning. I may sit in on this one myself.” She keyed off.

  The freighter captain stepped forward, half-fearful, half-pugnacious. “My wife and son. Now you prove they're safe."

  Judiciously, she looked him over. “You may be good for another run. All right.” She gestured to a soldier. “Take this man to the Kurin's brig and let him have a look on the monitors. Then bring him back to me. You're a fortunate traitor, captain. I have another job for you by which you may earn them—"

  “Their freedom?” the freighter captain demanded. She frowned slightly at the interruption. “Why should I inflate your salary? Another week of life."

  He trailed off after the soldier, hands clenched angrily, teeth clenched prudently.

  What the hell? Miles thought. He didn't know much about Vervain, but he was pretty sure not even their martial law made provisions for holding innocent relatives hostage against the good behavior of unconvicted traitors.

  The freighter captain gone, Cavilo keyed her wristcom again. "Kurin's Hand Security? Ah, good. I'm sending you my pet double agent. Run the recording we made last week of Cell Six for his motivation, aye? Don't let him know it's not real-time ... right. Cavilo out."

  So, was the man's family free? Already dead? Being held elsewhere? What were they getting into here?

  More boots rounded the corner, a heavy regulation tread. Cavilo smiled sourly, but smoothed the expression into something sweeter as she turned to greet the newcomer.

  “Stanis, darling. Look what we netted this time. It's that little renegade Betan who was trying to deal stolen arms on Pol Station. It appears he isn't an independent after all."

  The tan and black Rangers’ uniform looked just fine on General Metzov, too, Miles noted crazily. Now would be a wonderful time to roll up his eyes and pass out, if only he had the trick of it. General Metzov stood equally riveted, his iron-grey eyes ablaze sudden unholy joy. “He's no Betan, Cavie."

  * * *

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  “He's a Barrayaran. And not just any Barrayaran. We've got to get him out of sight, quickly,” Metzov went on.

  “Who sent him, then?” Cavilo stared anew at Miles, her lip in a dubious curl.

  “God,” Metzov avowed fervently. “God has delivered him into my hand.” Metzov, that cheerful, was an unusual and alarming sight. Even Cavilo raised her brow.

  Metzov glanced at Gregor for the first time. “We'll take him and his—bodyguard, I suppose...” Metzov slowed.

  The pictures on the mark-notes didn't look much like Gregor, being several years out of date, but the emperor had appeared in enough vid-casts—not dressed like this, of course.... Miles could almost see Metzov thinking. The face is familiar, I just can't place the name.... Maybe he wouldn't recognize Gregor. Maybe he wouldn't believe it.

  Gregor, drawn up in a dignity concealing dismay, spoke for the first time. “Is this yet another of your old friends, Miles?"

  It was the measured, cultured voice that triggered the connection. Metzov's face, reddened with excitement, drained white. He looked around involuntarily—for Illyan, Miles guessed.

  “Uh, this is General Stanis Metzov,” Miles explained.

  “The Kyril Island Metzov?"

  “Yeah."

  “Oh.” Gregor maintained his closed reserve, nearly expressionless.

  “Where is your security, sir?” Metzov demanded of Gregor, his voice harsh with unacknowledged fear.

  You're looking at it, Miles mourned.

  “Not far behind, I imagine,” Gregor essayed, cool. “Let Us go Our way, and they will not trouble you."

  “Who is this fellow?” Cavilo tapped a boot impatiently.

  “What,” Miles couldn't help asking Metzov, “what are you doing here?"

  Metzov went grim. “How shall a man my age, stripped of his Imperial Pension—his life savings—live? Did you hope I would sit down and quietly starve? Not I."

  Inopportune, to remind Metzov of his grudge, Miles realized. “This ... looks like an improvement over Kyril Island,” Miles suggested hopefully. His mind still boggled. Metzov, working under a woman? The internal dynamics of this command chain must be fascinating. Stanis darling?


  Metzov did not look amused.

  "Who are they?" Cavilo demanded again.

  “Power. Money. Strategic leverage. More than you can imagine,” Metzov answered.

  “Trouble,” Miles put in. “More than you can imagine."

  “You are a separate matter, mutant,” Metzov said.

  “I beg to differ, General,” said Gregor in his best Imperial tones. Feeling for footing in this floating conversation, though concealing his confusion well.

  “We must take them to the Kurin's Hand at once. Out of sight,” said Metzov to Cavilo. He glanced at the arrest squad. “Out of hearing. We'll continue this in private."

  They marched off, escorted by the patrol. Metzov's gaze felt like a knife blade in Miles's back, prodding and probing. They passed through several deserted docking bays till they arrived at a major one actively servicing a ship. The command ship, judging by the number and formality of duty guards.

  “Take them to Medical for questioning,” Cavilo ordered the squad as they were saluted through a personnel hatch by the officer in charge.

  “Hold on that,” said Metzov. He stared around the cross-corridors, almost jittering. “Do you have a guard who's deaf and mute?"

  “Hardly!” Cavilo stared indignantly at her mysteriously agitated subordinate. “To the brig, then."

  “No,” said Metzov sharply. Hesitating to throw the Emperor into a cell, Miles realized. Metzov turned to Gregor and said with perfect seriousness, “May I have your parole, sire—sir?"

  “What?” cried Cavilo. “Have you stripped a gear, Stanis?"

  “A parole,” Gregor noted gravely, “is a promise given between honorable enemies. Your honor I am willing to assume. But are you thus declaring yourself Our enemy?” Excellent bit of weaseling, Miles approved.

  Metzov's eye fell on Miles. His lips thinned. “Perhaps not yours. But you have a poor choice of favorites. Not to mention advisors."

  Gregor was now very hard to read. “Some acquaintances are imposed on me. Also some advisors."

  “To my cabin,” Metzov held up his hand as Cavilo opened her mouth to object, “for now. For our initial conversation. Without witnesses, or Security recordings. After that, we decide, Cavie."

  Cavilo, eyes narrowing, closed her mouth. “All right, Stanis. Lead off.” Her hand curved open ironically, and gestured them onward.

  Metzov posted two guards outside his cabin door, and dismissed the rest. When the door had sealed behind them, he tied Miles with a tangle-cord and sat him on the floor. With helplessly ingrained deference, he then seated Gregor in the padded station chair at his com-console desk, the best the spartan chamber had to offer.

  Cavilo, seated cross-legged on the bed watching the play, objected to the logic of this. “Why tie up the little one and leave the big one loose?"

  “Keep your stunner drawn, then, if he worries you,” Metzov advised. Breathing heavily, he stood hands on hips and studied Gregor. He shook his head, as if still not believing his eyes.

  “Why not your stunner?"

  “I have not yet decided whether to draw a weapon in his presence."

  “We're alone now, Stanis,” Cavilo said in a sarcastic lilt. “Would you kindly explain this insanity? And it had better be good."

  “Oh yes. That—” he pointed to Miles, “is Lord Miles Vorkosigan, the son of the Prime Minister of Barrayar. Admiral Aral Vorkosigan—I trust you've heard of him."

  Cavilo's brows lowered. “What was he doing on Pol Six in the guise of a Betan gunrunner, then?"

  “I'm not sure. The last I'd heard he was under arrest by Imperial Security, though of course no one believed they were serious about it."

  “Detainment,” Miles corrected. “Technically."

  “And he—” Metzov swung to point to Gregor, “is the Emperor of Barrayar. Gregor Vorbarra. What he's doing here, I cannot imagine."

  “Are you sure?” Even Cavilo was taken aback. At Metzov's stern nod, her eye lit with speculation. She looked at Gregor as if for the first time. “Really. How interesting."

  “But where is his security? We must tread very cautiously, Cavie."

  “What's he worth to them? Or for that matter, to the highest bidder?"

  Gregor smiled at her. “I'm Vor, ma'am. In a sense, the Vor. Risk in service is the Vorish trade. I wouldn't assume my value was infinite, if I were you."

  Gregor's complaint had some truth to it, Miles thought; when he wasn't being emperor he seemed hardly anyone at all. But he sure did the role well.

  “An opportunity, yes,” said Metzov, “but if we create an enemy we can't handle—"

  “If we hold him hostage, we ought to be able to handle them with ease,” Cavilo commented thoughtfully.

  “An alternate and more prudent course,” Miles interjected, “would be to help us swiftly and safely on our way, and collect a lucrative and honorable thank-you. A, as it were, win-win strategy."

  “Honorable?” Metzov's eyes burned. He fell into a brooding silence, then muttered. “But what are they doing here? And where's the snake Illyan? I want the mutant, in any case. Damn! It must be played boldly, or not at all.” He stared malignantly at Miles. “Vorkosigan ... so. And what is Barrayar to me now, a Service that stabbed me in the back after thirty-five years.... “He straightened decisively, but still did not, Miles noticed, draw a weapon in the emperor's presence. “Yes, take them to the brig, Cavie."

  “Not so fast,” said Cavilo, looking newly pensive. “Send the little one to the brig, if you like. He's nothing, you say?"

  The only son of the most powerful military leader on Barrayar kept his mouth shut for a change. If, if, if...

  “By comparison,” Metzov temporized, looking suddenly fearful of being cheated of his prey.

  “Very well.” Cavilo slid her stunner, which she had stopped aiming and started playing with some time back, soundlessly into her holster. She moved to unseal the door and beckon to the guards. “Put him,” she gestured to Gregor, “in Cabin Nine, G Deck. Cut the outgoing comm, lock the door, and post a guard with a stunner. But supply him with any reasonable comfort he may request.” She added aside to Gregor, “It's the most comfortable visiting officer's quarters the Kurin's Hand can supply, ah—"

  “Call me Greg,” Gregor sighed.

  “Greg. Nice name. Cabin Nine is next to my own. We will continue this conversation shortly, after you, ah, freshen up. Perhaps over dinner. Oversee his arrival there, will you, Stanis?” She favored both men with an impartial, glittering smile, and wafted out, a neat trick in boots. She stuck her head back in and indicated Miles. “Bring him along to the brig."

  Miles was removed by the second guard with a wave of a stunner and the prod of a blessedly inactivated shock-stick, to follow in her wake.

  The Kurin's Hand, judging from his passing glimpses, was a much larger command ship than the Triumph, able to field bigger and punchier combat drop or boarding forces, but correspondingly sluggish in maneuver. Its brig was larger too, Miles discovered shortly, and more formidably secured. A single entrance opened onto an elaborate guard monitor station, from which led two dead-end cell bays.

  The freighter captain was just leaving the guard station, under the watchful eye of the squadman detailed to escort him. He exchanged a hostile look with Cavilo.

  “As you see, they remain in good health,” Cavilo said to him. “My half of the bargain, Captain. See that you continue to complete your own part."

  Let's see what happens ... “You saw a recording,” Miles piped up. “Demand to see ‘em in the flesh."

  Cavilo's white teeth clenched rigidly, but her annoyed grimace melted seamlessly into a vulpine smile as the freighter captain jerked around. “What? You...” he planted himself mulishly. “All right which of you is lying?"

  “Captain, that's all the guarantee you get,” said Cavilo, gesturing to the monitors. “You chose to gamble, gamble you shall."

  “Then that—” he pointed to Miles, “is the last result you get.” A subtle hand mot
ion down by her trouser seam brought the guards to the alert, stunners drawn. “Take him out,” she ordered.

  “No!"

  “Very well,” her eyes widened in exasperation, “take him to Cell Six. And lock him in."

  As the freighter captain turned, torn between resistance and eagerness, Cavilo motioned the guard to open distance from his prisoner. He fell away, brows rising in question. Cavilo glanced at Miles and smiled very sourly, as if to say, All right, Smartass, watch me. In a cold smooth motion Cavilo flipped open her left side holster seal, brought up a nerve disrupter, took careful aim, and fried the back of the captain's head. He convulsed once and dropped, dead before he hit the deck.

  She walked over and pensively prodded the body with the pointed toe of her boot, then glanced up at Miles, whose jaw was gaping open. “You will keep your mouth shut next time, won't you, little man?"

  Miles's mouth shut with a snap. You had to experiment. ... At least now he knew who'd killed Liga. The rabbity Polian's reported death seemed suddenly real and vivid. The exalted look flashing over Cavilo's face as she blew the freighter captain away fascinated even as it horrified Miles. Who did you really see in your gunsights, darling? “Yes, ma'am,” he choked, trying to conceal his shakes, delayed reaction to this shocking turn. Damn his tongue....

  She stepped down to the security monitoring station and spoke to the tech at—frozen at—her post. “Unload the recording of General Metzov's cabin that includes the last half-hour, and give it to me. Start a fresh one. No, don't play it back!” She placed the disk in a breast pocket and carefully sealed the flap. “Put this one in Cell Fourteen,” she nodded toward Miles. “Or, ah—if it's empty, make that Cell Thirteen.” Her teeth bared briefly.

  The guards re-searched Miles, and took ID scans. Cavilo blandly informed them that his name should be entered as Victor Rotha.

  As he was pulled to his feet, two men with medical insignia arrived with a float-pallet to remove the body. Cavilo, watching without expression now, remarked tiredly to Miles, “You chose to damage my double-agent's utility. A vandal's prank. He had better uses than as an object-lesson for a fool. I do not warehouse non-useful items. I suggest you start thinking of how you can make yourself more useful to me than as merely General Metzov's catnip toy.” She smiled faintly into some invisible distance. “Though he does jump for you, doesn't he? I shall have to explore that motivation."