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Dr. Cheung's at a funeral all day, so Linya decides to go up to London and see if Miles is out of his Mood.
Security has decided to be deeply unhelpful today. She is currently showing them various forms of ID and repeating in a slow, patient voice that she has been here before, there is not more than one of her, and she promises she is not there to assassinate her husband or whatever fool thing has them skittish today. Perhaps she shouldn't drop in while the captain's missing; it seems to make them worse. But she got in before while he was missing...
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isthisart
thisvorlunatic
Miles contemplates this.
"I could punch a wall," he says. "Whatever heinous treatments they've put him through can't possibly have screwed his bones to exactly the right degree and kind of fragility, and if I were them I'd save the expense and not bother trying - not to mention the fact that it would make him a hell of a lot less functional as an assassin, which they pretty clearly mean him to be."
"I could punch a wall," he says. "Whatever heinous treatments they've put him through can't possibly have screwed his bones to exactly the right degree and kind of fragility, and if I were them I'd save the expense and not bother trying - not to mention the fact that it would make him a hell of a lot less functional as an assassin, which they pretty clearly mean him to be."
isthisart
"I don't know off the top of my head how they'd wreck a clone's bones like that, but that doesn't mean there's no way to do it," she points out. "They were not restraining themselves to any ordinary standard of medical ethics. If this were the first time this had happened, I'm sure I'd buy it, but I have made two major errors about my husband's identity over the last several days."
isthisart
"And one of those errors involved believing - what was admittedly probably you - when he told me something. How did the business with the Ariel happen? I didn't think you'd draw attention to your cover like that."
thisvorlunatic
"The Dendarii know me only as Admiral Naismith. They wouldn't have had any reason to look twice at the name Vorkosigan, and I wasn't personally overseeing every single job offer they took."
thisvorlunatic
"I'm sorry," he says after a moment. "For - ugh. If I'd known there was an actual clone running around, I wouldn't have confused the issue."
isthisart
Linya sighs. "Well, if we get out of this alive and the light fixture stops staring at us I can, I don't know, elaborately quiz you and then see what the consumer market for programmable subcutaneous ID chips is like or something."
thisvorlunatic
"...While I admire your ingenuity, I'm not sure I'm comfortable being - chipped. It would be a rather awkward feature in a covert operative."
isthisart
"Or something," she repeats, shrugging. "I am definitely not picking up any more short people until I am certain I can tell which ones they are."
isthisart
Linya shifts position, gets up and sits on Galeni's bench since he's not using it, shuts her eyes.
She starts humming the melody to the song she wrote for Miles absently.
She starts humming the melody to the song she wrote for Miles absently.
thisvorlunatic
Well, now he's crying again. And he's not even on any drugs he can blame it on.
thisvorlunatic
Miles continues weeping very quietly into her repurposed clothing item.
thisvorlunatic
"Mark. And that comment I tossed off as Naismith about a sister-in-law... actually applies to him. By Betan law he's my brother - or my son if I choose to adopt him as such, which I don't. Mother, though... I can just hear her. 'Miles, what have you done with your little brother?'" He sighs and rubs his face with both hands. "Somehow I feel like 'I never knew he existed' is an inadequate excuse."
isthisart
"That's why I asked, I don't want to keep labeling him 'the one who stunned me' in my head." She pauses. "I don't think he can fool Cordelia. Does whatever the plan is call for doing so?"
thisvorlunatic
"Oh, yes. It also calls for becoming Emperor of Barrayar, which I don't think he can do either, at least not for very long."
isthisart
"But he could do dramatic amounts of damage on his way down." She sighs. "How'd you get nabbed?"
thisvorlunatic
"Ah." He shifts on his bench. "An unknown party hired Admiral Naismith to kidnap Lord Vorkosigan. I decided the best way to find out who and why was to take the job. I was... technically right."
thisvorlunatic
After a moment, he adds, "What worries me in hindsight is that from what I can tell, Mark came up with that ploy. It shows an uncomfortably close reading of my psychology."
isthisart
"He does a very good you. He probably could have salvaged things after the flinch, he just - didn't, or maybe expected to go on flinching and not be able to recover after a few of those, I'm not sure which."
thisvorlunatic
"For the sake of my sanity, I cherish the hope that maybe he didn't especially want to fool you. I am not sure I can bear to think of him as my brother, if..." He lets the sentence trail off into an unhappy silence.