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
his voice fell to a whisper, "Grandfather. Somehow, I don't know how
. . ."
He took another turn around his chamber, collapsing back into
himself, cold and desperately sleepy. A mess of crumbs, an empty
wine bottle, an open full one. Silence.
"Talking to yourself in an empty room again, I see," he whispered.
"A very bad sign, you know."
His legs hurt. He cradled the second bottle, and took it with him to lie down.
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
CHAPTER FIVE
"Well, well, well," said the sleek Betan customs agent, in sarcastic simulation of good cheer. "If it isn't Sergeant Bothari of Barrayar.
And what did you bring me this time, Sergeant? A few nuclear
antipersonnel mines, overlooked in your back pocket? A maser
cannon or two, accidentally mixed up with your shaving kit? A gravitic imploder, slipped somehow into your boot?"
The Sergeant answered this sally with something between a growl
and a grunt.
Miles grinned, and dredged his memory for the agent's name.
"Good afternoon, Officer Timmons. Still working the line, are you? I thought for sure you'd be in administration by now."
The agent gave Miles a somewhat more courteous nod of greeting.
"Good afternoon, Lord Vorkosigan. Well, civil service, you know." He sorted through their documents and plugged a data disc into his
viewer. "Your stunner permits are in order. Now if you will please step, one at a time, through this scanner?"
Sergeant Bothari frowned at the machine glumly, and sniffed
disdain. Miles tried to catch his eye, but he was studiously finding something of interest in midair somewhere. On the suspicion, Miles
said, "Elena and I first, I think."
Elena passed through with a stiff uncertain smile like a person
holding still too long for a photograph, then continued to look eagerly around. Even if it was only a rather bleak underground customs entry port, it was another planet. Miles hoped Beta Colony would make up
for the disappointing fizzle of the Escobar layover.
Two days of records searches and trudging through neglected
military cemeteries in the rain, pretending to Bothari a passion for historical detail, had produced no maternal grave or cenotaph after all. Elena had seemed more relieved than disappointed by the failure of their covert search.
"You see?" she had whispered to Miles. "Father didn't lie to me.
You have a hyper imagination."
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