Cruelly, Miles said, "Why, yes!"  Thus combining living well and revenge, he supposed, if a petty one.  They repaired to the outer office, where the secretary was already engaged in filling Roic with green tea and almond cookies, and giving him admiring and grateful glances.  The sphinx made plaintive noises from behind the bars of a large . . . sphinx-carrier.

"I'm so glad you're taking her," said the secretary, with a nod at the cage while pouring for Miles and her boss from a delicate porcelain pot.  "She's a very loving creature, and quite tame, but she just doesn't fit our décor."

"Ah!" said Wing, brightening.  "Have you finally found her a home, Yuko?  Good work!  I'll be so glad to get that litter box out of the executive washroom."

Miles stared reproachfully at Roic.  "We're getting a sphinx?"  Why?  Or possibly, Why me, God?

Roic looked uncomfortable.  "I said I knew someone who'd love t' have her."

"Ah."  Miles trusted Roic had received some value in return.  Information, hopefully.  The secretary seemed a little too old for him, but whether her interest in his Barrayaran manliness was romantic or maternal hardly mattered, as long as it was friendly.  And forthcoming.

Miles limited his revenge to one cup, then let himself be gently ushered out.  Two underlings were produced to cart away the sphinx's food, dishes, toys, extra hats, and sanitary arrangements.  Roic lugged the carrier, and oversaw it all stuffed into the back of the consulate's lift van.  The sphinx's voice rose in unholy protest as they drove under the red torii gate once more.  "Aowt!  Aowt!"

"Which way now, m'lord?  Any other stops?"

"Not . . . yet, I think.  My brilliant plan for fixing this mess and getting us all on our way back home just tanked.  Tell you all about it on the way back to town."

"Yes, m'lord."

#

Jin let himself quietly out of the isolation booth, where both his mother and Mina were napping, Mina curled on the foot of the bed like a cat.  His mother looked washed-out and pale, a little scary but nothing like that other woman Miles-san and Raven-sensei had failed to revive.  Jin's joy at finding her alive had crashed through him like a great wave, but now that the first flush of relief was receding, he felt all tumbled and strange.  Everything was uncertain again, with the grownups back in charge.  Where would they go to live now?  What would happen to his creatures?  Would they make him go back to school?  How soon?  Would he have to be stuck in with kids a year younger than him?

Can it all be taken away again . . . ?

Ako, keeping watch in the recovery room, gave him a friendly nod from her chair.  Jin heard voices out in the corridor, and went to see who it was.

He shut the door behind him to find Vorlynkin-san, looking startled, confronting Raven-sensei and two new people.  Jin's mouth, too, fell open as he stared at the couple.