Her face reflected mixed amusement and horror. "Miles, you
lunatic! If you fall off that, you'll break every bone in your body—"
He slid away from her, picking up speed rapidly. She cantered
down the stairs after him, laughing; he lost her around the curvature.
His grin died as he saw what awaited him at the bottom. "Oh, hell . . ."
He was going too fast to brake . . .
"What the—"
"Watch out!"
He tumbled off the railing at the bottom of the staircase into the
frantic clutch of a stocky, grey-haired man in officer's dress greens.
They both scrambled to their feet as Elena arrived, out of breath, on the tessellated pavement of the front hall. Miles could feel the
anguished heat in his face, and knew it was scarlet. The stocky man looked bemused. A second officer, a tall man with captain's tabs on the collar of his uniform, leaned on a walking stick and gave a brief surprised laugh.
Miles collected himself, coming more-or-less to attention. "Good afternoon, Father," he said coolly. He gave a little aggressive lift to his chin, defying anyone to comment on his unorthodox entrance.
Admiral Lord Aral Vorkosigan, Prime Minister of Barrayar in the
service of Emperor Gregor Vorbarra, formerly Lord Regent of same,
straightened his uniform jacket and cleared his throat. "Good
afternoon, son." Only his eyes laughed. "I'm, ah—glad to see your injuries were not too serious."
Miles shrugged, secretly relieved to be spared more sardonic
comments in public. "The usual."
"Excuse me a moment. Ah, good afternoon, Elena. Koudelka—what
did you think of those ship cost figures of Admiral Hessman's?"
"I thought they went by awfully fast," replied the Captain.
"You thought so too, eh?"
PDF Transform
PDF Transform
Y
Y
Y
er
Y
er
B
2
B
2
B
.0
B
.0
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
w
w
w .
w
A B B YY.com
.A B BYY.com
"Do you think he's hiding something in them?"
"Perhaps. But what? His party budget? Is the contractor his
brother-in-law? Or sheer slop? Peculation, or merely inefficiency? I'll put Illyan on the first possibility—I want you on the second. Put the squeeze on those numbers."
"They'll scream. They were screaming today."
"Don't believe it. I used to do those proposals myself when I was on the General Staff. I know how much garbage goes into them. They're
not really hurting until their voices go up at least two octaves."
Captain Koudelka grinned, and bowed himself out with a brief nod
at Miles and Elena, and a very sketchy salute.
Miles and his father were left looking at each other, neither
wishing to be the first to open the issue that lay between them. As if by mutual agreement, Lord Vorkosigan said only, "Well, am I late for lunch?"
"Just been called, I think, sir."
"Let us go in, then . . ." He made a little abortive lift of his arm, as if to offer his injured son assistance, but then clasped his hands