"Well, if I don't get myself killed trying to become Emperor of Barrayar, Ser Galen will be furious."

"My first idea involves him dying before you do, and the last step is optional."

"Pity." She hmmms. "If you got me fifteen minutes with my pen I could program something that would look like a prearranged deadman switch alerting the authorities that something's happened to me, but it would probably be very tempting for Galen to kill the hostages... I'm assuming he's not here right now or he might burst in at any moment and notice I have one hand untied. We could skip the step in my first plan where he dies and leave in the one where you do, making it: we take out the guards, escape, and throw you at the assassins who are after Naismith. I imagine Miles might have indignant commentary about his cover dying but I much prefer it to assassins actually managing to get him. Ideally I'd like you safe too but you don't seem inclined to participate in such plans, rendering them pointless."

"I don't think the assassins would come fast enough to save me."

"I could tip them off. They're Cetagandan and the person they're after," she smiles slightly, "looks exactly like my husband, what if they miss?"

"Ha," says Mark. "You're right, though, Miles would hate it. He needs Naismith. If he lost that outlet he'd have to invent a new one, and there's only so many clone substitution plots people will believe in succession before it starts to get ridiculous."

"He'd hate it but he'd be alive. If we stay here I'm not so sure."

Mark shrugs. "It doesn't matter, anyway... thank you for the suggestion. I think I've learned what I needed to know. Are you going to let me tie your hand again so I can take you back to your cell?" He pauses a beat, then adds, "Miles's suggestion about pretending you like me better has merit. I could probably sell it to Galen if you wanted to try. But - only if I thought you wouldn't try to rescue him after you got out."

"There's only one of you, and you're not fragile, right?" she asks while he's doing that.

"Yes and yes. I demonstrated the second thing to Miles."

"Okay. Am I going to be stunned again or are chairs just going to keep accumulating in the cell?"

"They're going to take the other one out when they put you back," Mark says dryly. "At least, I hope so."

"That works too."

Linya removes all everything from her facial expression, helpfully.

"Can I solicit untying again?" she asks when she's been shut up with Miles and Galeni yet again.

"Yes," says Miles. He goes to untie her. "How was your conversation with Mark? Was it as unsettling as mine? I felt like my brain was being turned inside-out."

"I didn't have that problem," she says. "Not to say that I was perfectly thrilled with its every particular, especially the part where he quoted you very exactly, but I did not have that problem."

"...that's an application of Mark's... Markness that I had not considered," says Miles. "Like a walking vid recorder that only replays one subject. Spooky."

"It was, a bit, although it didn't surprise me very much in context."