"It's creepy," says Ivan. "Stalas is bad enough, at least he's taller."

"Which I'm sure caused no end of amusement."

"Yes. It was hilarious. Are you here purely to annoy me?"

"Annoying you is a bonus. I wanted to see the dwarf. And I missed Ivan, of course."

"Dwarf's in there, knock yourself out," says Ivan, pointing.

He laughs. "Yes, of course, I'll just go get lost in the mysterious cave, never to be seen again."

"It'd fox ImpSec good."

"True. Then again, so would loitering in the bar and following you all out when you leave."

"Oh my God."

"Think I can get off-planet without anyone noticing? You did all come from Barrayar, did you not?"

"We came from my girlfriend's parents' house. Maybe you could get off planet without anyone noticing if we didn't warn anybody and nobody at the party saw count 'em one two three of Miles leaving when only one came in."

"Stalas is coming too, then?"

"Well, he'd have to emerge from the cave instead of never being seen again, first, but it's an idea."

"Hmm. And how likely is that, Miles?"

"We will see him again. He will be seen."

"Unless it turns out the space warps so that the cave opens into the lake on the other end, and the giant squid eats him."

"I think Bar would have warned us if the giant squid were prone to eating people."

"Seemed friendly enough when it waved at me."

"That's how they get you."

Mark giggles.

"So if you held the door for us where would we be teleporting to?"

"Why, did you want a vacation?"

"Not especially."

"Well, then I'm not telling you, because ImpSec is off my back for once and I'd like to keep it that way as long as possible."

"I'm not ImpSec. I'm Ops."