“About your missions,” said Illyan firmly.

Ah. So this visit wasn’t just an expression of personal concern, if Illyan had ever owned any personal concern. It was sometimes hard to tell. “You have my reports,” said Miles warily.

“Your reports, as usual, are masterpieces of understatement and misdirection,” said Illyan. He sounded perfectly serene about it.

“Well . . . anybody might read ’em. You can’t tell.”

“Hardly ‘anyone,’ ” said Illyan. “But just so.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“Money. Specifically, accountability for same.”

Maybe it was the drugs he was stuffed with, but Miles could make no sense of this. “Don’t you like my work?” he said rather plaintively.

“Apart from your injuries, the results of your latest mission are highly satisfactory,” began Illyan.

“They’d by-God better be,” Miles muttered grimly.

“—and your late, er, adventures on Earth, just prior to it, are still fully classified. We will discuss them later.”

“I’ve got to report to a couple of higher authorities first,” Miles put in urgently.

Illyan waved this aside. “So I understand. No. These charges date to the Dagoola affair, and before.”

“Charges?” Miles muttered in bewilderment.

Illyan studied him thoughtfully. “I consider what the emperor spends to keep up your connection to the Dendarii Free Mercenaries to be worth it purely from an internal security standpoint. Were you to be permanently posted at, say, Imperial HQ here at the capital, you’d be a damned plot-magnet all the time. Not just for favor- and office-seekers, but for anyone who wants to touch your father through you. As now.”

Miles squinted, as though focusing his eyes could focus his thoughts. “Ah?”

“In brief, certain parties in Imperial Accounting are going over your reports from your mercenary fleet’s covert ops with a microscope. They would like to know in more detail where certain large packets of cash have gone. Some of your equipment-replacement chits have been outrageous. More than once. Even from my point of view. They would very much like to prove an on-going pattern of peculation. A court-martial charging you with lining your own pockets at the emperor’s expense would be gloriously embarrassing just now, for your father and his whole Centrist coalition.”

Miles exhaled, stunned. “Has it gone so far—?”

“Not yet. I fully intend to quash it before it gets off the ground. But to do so I need more details. So as not to get blindsided, as I have sometimes been in your more tangled affairs—I still remember, if you do not, spending a month in my own prison because of you . . .” Illyan glowered into the past.

“That was part of a plot against Dad,” Miles protested.

“So is this, if I’m picking up the early signals correctly. But Count Vorvolk in Accounting is their front-man, and he is depressingly loyal, in addition to having the emperor’s personal, er, support. Untouchable. But manipulatable, I fear. He’s been primed. He thinks he’s being a watch-dog. The more he’s given a run-around the more tenacious he’ll become. He must be handled with utmost care, whether he’s mistaken or not.”