Lois Bujold - Komarr

“The hell it’s not. We’re going to have frigging ImpSec all over the department tomorrow. The real thing, not just a VIP tour we can run around in circles and feed dinner and wave good-bye to. I could see Tuomonen getting this shitty-eyed look just thinking about it.”

“We’ll handle them. Go back to bed, Vorsoisson.”

Lord Auditor Vorkosigan told you point-blank he wanted to make a surprise inspection, Tien. He speaks with the Emperor’s Voice. What are you doing? She began to breathe through her mouth, soundlessly, starting to feel sick to her stomach.

“They’re going to find out all about your sweet little scheme, and then we’ll all be in it to our eyebrows,” said Tien.

“No, they won’t. We’re tight in town. Just keep them away from the experiment station, and we’ll grease them in and out without a squeak.”

“The experiment station is a hollow shell. You haven’t got a department, except in the files. What if they want to interview one of your ghost employees?”

“Such as yourself?” Soudha’s mouth twisted in a thin smile. “Relax.”

“I am not going down with you.”

“You think you have a choice?” Soudha snorted. “Look. It’ll be all right. They can audit all day long, and all they’ll find is a lot of columns that add perfectly. Lena Foscol in Accounting is the most meticulous thief I’ve ever met. We’re so far ahead of them they’ll never catch up.”

“Soudha, they’re going to ask to interview people who don’t exist. Then what?”

“Gone on vacation. Out on field work. We can stall.”

“For how long? And then what?”

“Go to bed, Vorsoisson, and stop twitching.”

“Goddammit, I’ve had two Imperial Auditors in my house for the last three days.” He stopped and took a gulping breath; Soudha offered him a sympathetic shrug. Tien went on again in a lowered tone. “That’s… another thing. I need an advance on my stipend. I need another twenty thousand marks. And I need it now.”

“Now? Oh, sure, with ImpSec looking on, no doubt. Vorsoisson, you are gibbering.”

“Dammit, I have to have the money. Or else.”

“Or else what? Or else you’re going to ImpSec and turn yourself in? Look, Tien.” Soudha ran his hands through his hair in a harried swipe. “Lie low. Keep your mouth shut. Be sweet like sugar to the nice ImpSec lads, give them to me, and we’ll handle them. Let’s just take this one day at a time, all right?”

“Soudha, I know you can produce the twenty thousand. There has to be at least fifty thousand marks a month flowing out of your department’s budget and into your pockets from the dummy employees alone, and God knows how much from the rest of it-though I’m sure your pet accountant does— what if they decide to fast-penta her?”

Ekaterin stepped backward, her bare feet seeking silence from the floor near the wall. Dear God. What has Tien done now? It was all too easy to fill in the blanks. Embezzlement and bribery at the very least, and on a grand scale. How long has this been going on?

The muffled voices from the kitchen exchanged a few more curt words, and the blue reflection from the holovid winked out, leaving the hallway obliquely lit only by the amber lights in the park outside. Heart pounding, Ekaterin slipped back down the hall into her bathroom and locked its door. She quickly flushed the commode and stood trembling at the sink, staring at her dim reflection in the glass. The faint nightlight made drowned sparks in her dilated eyes. After another minute, the bed creaked as Tien made his way back into it.

She waited a long time, but when she crept out, he was still awake.

“Hm?” he said muzzily as she slid under the covers again.

“Not feeling too well,” she muttered. Truthfully.

“Poor Kat. Something you ate, you think?”

“Not sure.” She curled up away from him, not having to pretend the sick ache in her belly.

“Take something, eh? If you’re batting around all night, neither of us will get any sleep.”

“I’ll see.” I must know. After a time she added, “Did you get anything arranged about our galactic trip today?”

“God, no. Much too busy.”

Not too busy to complete the transfer of her funds to his own account, she’d noticed. “Would you… like me to take over making all the arrangements? There’s no reason you should carry all that burden, I have plenty of time. I’ve already researched off-world medical facilities.”

“Not now, Kat! We can deal with this later. Next week, after your uncle goes.”

She let it drop, staring into the darkness. Whatever it is he needs twenty thousand marks for, it’s not to fulfill his word to me.

Eventually, he slept, about two hours; Ekaterin watched the time ooze by, black and slow as tar. I must know.

And after you know, then what? Will you deal with it later, too? She lay waiting for the dawn’s light.

The light is broken, remember?

The routine of dealing with Nikolai’s needs steadied her in the morning. Uncle Vorthys left very early, to catch his orbital flight.

“Will you be coming back down?” she asked him a little wanly, helping him on with his jacket in the vestibule.

“I hope I might, but I can’t promise. This investigation has already gone on longer than I expected, and has taken some peculiar turns. I really have no idea how long it will take to finish up.” He hesitated. “If it drags on beyond the end of the term at the District University, perhaps the Professora might come out to join me for a time. Would you like that?” Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded. “Good. Good.” He seemed about to say more, but then just shrugged and smiled, and hugged her good-bye.

She managed to evade almost all contact with Tien and Vorkosigan by accompanying Nikki to school in the bubble-car, an escort he scorned, and taking the long route home. As she had hoped, the apartment was empty on her return. She washed down more painkillers with more coffee, then, with reluctant steps, entered Tien’s office and sat before his comconsole. I wish I’d taken Lord Vorkosigan up on his offer to teach me how to do this. Her outrage at the mutie lord yesterday in the bubble-car now seemed to her all out of proportion. Misplaced. How much could her intimate knowledge of Tien make up for her lack of training in this sort of snooping? Not enough, she suspected, but she had to try. Get started. You are deliberately delaying. No. I am desperately delaying. She keyed on the comconsole.

Tien’s financial accounts, on this his personal machine, were not locked under a code seal. Income matched his salary; outgo… when all the routine outgo was accounted for, the amount left over should have been a modest respectable savings. Tien did not indulge himself with unshared luxuries. But the account was almost empty. Several thousand marks had disappeared without trace, including the transfer she had made to him yesterday morning. No, wait-that transfer was still on the list, hastily entered, not erased or hidden yet. And it was a transfer, not an expenditure, to a file that had appeared nowhere else.

She followed its transfer marker to a hidden account. The comconsole produced a palm-lock form above the vid-plate. When she and Tien had first set up their accounts on Komarr, less than a year ago, they had taken prudent thought or one or the other parent being temporarily disabled; each had emergency access to the other’s accounts. Had Tien set this up entirely separately, or as a daughter-cell of his larger financial program, letting the machine do the work for him? Maybe ImpSec covert ops doesn’t have all the advantages, she thought grimly, and placed her right hand in the light box. If only you were willing to betray a trust, why, the most amazing range of possible actions opened up to you. So did the file. She took a deep breath, and started reading.