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Ivan has just recently been assigned to Earth. It's very cultural. He has already explained Vor to groups of natives four separate times. Some of them seem to find it really hilarious to call him Lord Vorpatril. He doesn't mind; some of those people are girls who giggle it and bat their eyelashes. He likes it here just fine.
After he finishes with his day-job duties (separate from attending diplomatic functions to stand around and look handsome) he attempts to let himself out of the room with the comconsole and all its data to sift through, only to find that the hallway has turned into a bar.
He looks over his shoulder. The office is still normal. Which is to say there are no other exits.
Ivan goes into the bar, squinting.
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middlingalong
middlingalong
Welp. Not a whole lot Ivan can do about that while stunned. He can't even collapse particularly gracefully; look, there he goes, completely without poise. How embarrassing.
When he wakes up, he is in the back of a parked lift van, tied to a chair, with David Galen glaring at him from close range.
Ser Galen sneers, and jabs him with a hypospray. Almost certainly fast-penta.
middlingalong
Yep, that would be fast-penta, because there goes Ivan's urge to pass out, the physical complaints associated with being tied to a chair, and his verbal filter. Blink, blink.
"How did you find out about the clone?"
He has to take a deep breath and remind himself to be patient. There is no point in losing your temper during a fast-penta interrogation.
"How did you find out that he existed?"
"How did you find out that he existed?"
"When did you meet him?"
...What.
"Explain how the two of you met."
"Explain how the two of you met."
middlingalong
"I walked out of my office and there he was. Titchy little thing. Very growly."
"How did he come to be outside your office?"
...Perhaps Vorpatril is just crazy. That would be inconvenient.
"Explain how you accomplished your... 'rescue'," he says, to get a baseline.
"Explain how you accomplished your... 'rescue'," he says, to get a baseline.
middlingalong
"Had your cover name and location down to as detailed as 'London' from Mark, dug up suspicious things like buying outfits in Miles's size and affiliation with other Komarran expats and -" Ivan goes into quite a bit of detail about how he came up with sufficient evidence to locate and accuse - "brought it all to th'captain, he recused himself because he'd look a bit suspicious if anything'd gone wrong on account of your being his father, I took a few men and we surprised you all and stunned you, Veli found the keys and I unlocked Mark and brought him home while the others fetched all you arrestees back to the embassy in the other car."
Hmm...
"What exactly did the clone tell you when you first met him?"
"What exactly did the clone tell you when you first met him?"
middlingalong
Fast-penta is a memory aid!
"He said, 'You Barrayaran? What's your name? You can't be Ivan Vorpatril, he's twelve.'"
"He said, 'You Barrayaran? What's your name? You can't be Ivan Vorpatril, he's twelve.'"
"What did you say to each other next?"
middlingalong
"After that he said, 'Are you a clone too?', and I said, 'Nnnnno. I haven't been twelve for a while but I assure you I'm Ivan Vorpatril. Are you a clone? Did somebody clone Miles? Shouldn't you be taller?' and he said, 'I'm exactly the right size. I wouldn't be much good if I couldn't pass. Ser Galen'd want his money back,' and I said, 'Are you meant to be his stunt double? What the hell?'..."
"...Go on. What next?"
middlingalong
"And he said, 'The bio didn't mention you were an idiot.' But I'm not, actually, anyone would have been thrown."
"Thrown by what?"
middlingalong
"By a tiny growly clone of Miles popping out from under a table unexpectedly. I was very surprised. I have never been that surprised before or since."