"He said he was a clone," said Galeni. "Of course, at least half of what he said was lies, whoever he was."
"Oh." Stronger exclamations seemed wholly inadequate.
"Yes. It made me rather wonder about you. The original you, that is."
"Ah . . . hem! Yes. I think I know now why I popped out with that . . . that story when the reporter cornered me. I'd seen him once before. In the tubeway, when I was out with Commander Quinn. Eight, ten days ago now. They must have been maneuvering in to make the switch. I thought I was seeing myself in the mirror. But he was wearing the wrong uniform, and they must have aborted."
Galeni glanced down at his own sleeve. "Didn't you notice?"
"I had a lot on my mind."
"You never reported this!"
"I was on some pain meds. I thought it might be a little hallucination. I was a bit stressed out. By the time I'd got back to the embassy I'd forgotten about it. And besides," he smirked weakly, "I didn't think our working relationship would benefit from planting serious doubts about my sanity."
Galeni's lips compressed with exasperation, then softened with something like despair. "Perhaps not."
It alarmed Miles, to see despair in Galeni's face. He babbled on, "Anyway, I was relieved to realize I hadn't suddenly become clairvoyant. I'm afraid my subconscious must be brighter than the rest of my brain. I just didn't get its message." He pointed upward again, "Not Cetagandans?"
"No." Galeni leaned back against the far wall, stone-faced. "Komarrans."
"Ah," Miles choked. "A Komarran plot. How . . . fraught."
Galeni's mouth twisted. "Quite."
"Well," said Miles thinly, "they haven't killed us yet. There must be some reason to keep us alive."
Galeni's lips drew back on a deathly grin, his eyes crinkling. "None whatsoever." The words came out in a wheezing chuckle, abruptly cut off. A private joke between Galeni and the light fixture, apparently. "He imagines he has reason," Galeni explained, "but he's very mistaken." The bitter thrust of those words was also directed upward.
"Well, don't tell them," said Miles through his teeth. He took a deep breath. "Come on, Galeni, spill it. What happened the morning you disappeared from the embassy?"
Galeni sighed, and seemed to compose himself. "I got a call that morning. From an old . . . Komarran acquaintance. Asking me to meet him."
"There was no log of a call. Ivan checked your comconsole."
"I erased it. That was a mistake, though I didn't realize it at the time. But something he'd said led me to think this might be a lead into the mystery of your peculiar orders."
"So I did convince you my orders had to have been screwed up."
"Oh, yes. But it was clear that if that were so, my embassy Security had been penetrated, compromised from the inside. It was probably through the courier. But I dared not lay such a charge without adducing objective evidence."
"The courier, yes," said Miles. "That was my second choice."
Galeni's brows lifted. "What was your first choice?"
"You, I'm afraid."
Galeni's sour smile said it all.
Miles shrugged in embarrassment. "I figured you'd made off with my eighteen million marks. Except if you had, why hadn't you absconded? And then you absconded."
"Oh," said Galeni in turn.
"All the facts fit, then," Miles explained. "I had you pegged as an embezzler, deserter, thief, and all-around Komarran son of a bitch."
"So what kept you from laying charges to that effect?"
"Nothing, unfortunately." Miles cleared his throat. "Sorry."
Galeni's face went faintly green, too dismayed even to get up a convincing glare, though he tried.
"Too right," said Miles. "If we don't get out of here, your name is going to be mud."
"All for nothing …" Galeni braced his back to the wall, his head tilting back against it for support, eyes closing as if in pain.
Miles contemplated the probable political consequences, should he and Galeni disappear now without further trace. Investigators must find his embezzlement theory even more exciting than he had, compounded now by kidnapping, murder, elopement, God knew what. The scandal could be guaranteed to rock the Komarran integration effort to its foundations, perhaps destroy it altogether. Miles glanced across the room at the man his father had chosen to take a chance on. A kind of redemption . . .
That alone could be enough reason for the Komarran underground to murder them both. But the existence of the—oh God, not a clone!—alter-Miles suggested that this slander upon Galeni's character, courtesy of Miles, was merely a happy bonus from the Komarran viewpoint. He wondered if they'd be properly grateful.
"So you went to meet this man," Miles prodded. "Without taking a beeper or a backup."
"Yes."
"And promptly got yourself kidnapped. And you criticize my Security techniques!"
"Yes." Galeni's eyes opened. "Well, no. We had lunch first."
"You sat down to lunch with this guy? Or—was she pretty?" Miles awoke to Galeni's choice of pronoun, back when he'd been addressing edged remarks to the light fixture. No, not a pretty.
"Hardly. But he did attempt to suborn me."
"Did he succeed?"
At Galeni's withering glare, Miles explained, "Making this entire conversation a play for my benefit, y'see."
Galeni grimaced, half irritation, half wry agreement. Forgeries and originals, truth and lies, how were they to be tested here?
"I told him to get stuffed." Galeni said this loudly enough that the light fixture couldn't possibly miss it. "I should have realized, in the course of our argument, that he had told me entirely too much about what was really going on to dare let me go. But we exchanged guarantees, I turned my back on him … let sentiment cloud my judgment. He did not. And so I ended up here." Galeni glanced around their narrow cell, "For a little time yet. Until he gets over his surge of sentiment. As he will, eventually." Defiance, glared at the light fixture.
Miles drew breath cold, cold through his teeth. "Must have been a pretty compelling old acquaintance."
"Oh yes." Galeni closed his eyes again, as if he contemplated escaping Miles, and this whole tangle, by retreating into sleep.
Galeni's stiff, halting movements hinted of torture. . . . "They been urging you to change your mind? Or interrogating you the old hard way?"
Galeni's eyes slitted open; he touched the purple splotch under the left one. "No, they have fast-penta for interrogation. No need to get physical. I've been round on it, three, four times. There's not much they don't know about embassy Security by now."
"Why the contusions, then?"
"I made a break for it … yesterday, I guess. The three fellows who tackled me look worse, I assure you. They must still be hoping I'll change my mind."
"Couldn't you have pretended to cooperate at least long enough to get away?" said Miles in exasperation.
Galeni's eyes snapped truculently. "Never," he hissed. The spasm of rage evaporated with a weary sigh. "I suppose I should have. Too late now."
Had they scrambled the captain's brains with their drugs? If old cold Galeni had let emotion ambush his reason to that extent, well—it must be a bloody strong emotion. The down-deep deadlies that IQ could do nothing about.
"I don't suppose they'd buy an offer to cooperate from me," Miles said glumly.
Galeni's voice returned to its original drawl. "Hardly."
"Right."
A few minutes later Miles remarked, "It can't be a clone, y'know."
"Why not?" said Galeni.