Lois Bujold - Captain Vorpatril's alliance

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.”

He shrugged, unoffended. “Hence Ivan—a third hand, if you like, whom I admit was a last-minute stop-gap, but this all came up rather suddenly. My plan—as there was no indication whatsoever that your strangely elusive maidservant lived in—was that he should take you out frolicking, leaving the cupboard bare for your midnight visitors. Pleasant for you both, frustrating for them, entirely unconnected with me. I still don’t know why they wanted you kidnapped, mind you.” He looked up and batted his eyes invitingly.

“You’re an agent.” Commercial, governmental? Surely not military. “What kind?”

“Now, that is a piece of information worth your name.”

Ivan put in, “Er, Tej, if your enemies know who you really are already, why should your friends be kept in the dark? Does this make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me.”

“You’ve not proved yourselves our friends.”

“What, I have too!” said Vorpatril. He jerked his thumb at the other man, and conceded, “Him, maybe not so much.”

Tej rubbed her mouth. Ivan Xav had a point. “Is he trustworthy?” she asked him straight out.

“No, he’s a damned weasel.” Vorpatril hesitated. “But he won’t betray Barrayar. If what you are poses no threat to the Imperium, you have nothing to fear from him. Probably.”

Byerly cast Vorpatril a look of exasperated disbelief. “Whose side are you on?”

“You’ve been known to make mistakes. I distinctly recall pulling your, and your Countly cousin’s, feet out of the fire on one of ’em, spectacularly. But do I get respect? Do I get gratitude? Do I get—”

Byerly, hunching, said, “You got another job.”

For some reason, this settled him. “Huh.”

Byerly massaged his neck, looked up, and met Tej’s gaze with a mild smile belied by his intent eyes. “Very well. I will now deal for your name.” He inhaled. “I am an Imperial Security surveillance operative. My specialty is normally the high Vor social milieu centering around Vorbarr Sultana. I am out of my usual venue because the people I am following left there and came here in pursuit of their affairs, which are certainly criminal and potentially treasonous.”

Tej shook her head. “The ones who are after us are not Barrayarans.”

“I know. Yours are the people my people are dealing with. Locating you for them was to be a favor, to sweeten a pot presently in process of going sour.”

Vorpatril’s face scrunched. “Hey. Was finding Tej and Rish one of the little ways you made yourself useful, too?”

Byerly shrugged.

“For God’s sake, By! What if those goons had snatched ’em?”

“I thought the experiment might yield much useful information, whatever way it fell out,” said Byerly, sounding pressed. “In no case would their captors have been allowed to carry them out of the Imperium. But if Tej and Rish can tell me even more about their, ah, foes, then this affair has fallen out better than I might have expected. Although there are other consequences…well.” Very reluctantly, he added, “Thank you, Ivan.”

“It’s not just my life at risk,” said Tej slowly. “Rish’s is, too.”