"No, but our captors are still awake," Dr. Durona returned in a matching tone.  "They're mostly still down in the dining hall, but some wander back up here at random.  They sleep below us."

"How'd you get out of your room?"

"Surgery on my bathroom window lock."

An exit doubtless aided by the fact that the man was lithe as a snake; Roic's shoulders would not have fit.  "And the chains?"

"Chains?  You had chains?  Special, Roic!"

"Never mind.  How far are we from Northbridge, did you see?  And where t'hell are we?"

"About a hundred, hundred and fifty kilometers, I'd guess.  The one glimpse I had was all forest as far as I could see.  There don't seem to be any roads—everything must come in by lightflyer or lift van.  This place used to be some kind of lake resort for Northbridge weekenders, before the dam blew out in a storm and the lake ran down the river.  The rebuild got tied up in lawsuits, so the resort has been defunct for a couple of years.  One of our kidnappers owns it, turns out.  Which may have been how the Legacy Liberators came up with this crazed scheme in the first place."

"What t'hell are they doing—no, wait.  First, have you seen Lord Vorkosigan?"

Raven shook his dark head.  "I thought I saw them tackle him, back in the lobby when they grabbed me and you were throwing people into the lift tube and bellowing at them to keep climbing—I swear some of those poor delegates were more scared of you than of our attackers—but I haven't seen him since.  There are only six other hostages here, plus me and you.  All locked in for the night.  It seems the N.H.L.L. was setting up to host three times that many.  They're not best pleased with you for that."

"How many bad guys?"

"What a Barrayaran turn of phrase!  About a dozen here, at a guess.  I've not seen them all together.  They take it in shifts to harass us."

"Huh?"

"Lecturing us, mostly.  About the stern and glorious goals of the New Hope Legacy Liberators."

"Oh.  I had a sample."

"Only a sample?  The rest of us have endured hours of it.  They marched us down to the dining hall and harangued us till they were hoarse."

"How come I wasn't invited?"

"You have a reputation as a bold Barrayaran barbarian—say that six times really fast—too dangerous to let loose.  Chains, huh?  You were fortunate to miss class.  I think they might be trying to inculcate some sort of identify-with-one's-captors syndrome in us, but are doing it wrong.  Old Baron Ryoval could have eaten them all for breakfast."