Regardless, they must still return to the embassy - Miles to change back out of his Naismith gear, Galeni to commence an official investigation into the Earth-Tau Ceti military courier, now that Galeni himself is pretty thoroughly ruled out as a suspect in the case of the missing eighteen million marks. The fact that the courier just happened to show up with orders for Lieutenant Vorkosigan to return to Barrayar right when that was exactly what Mark needed to be doing is also a clue. Miles, when prompted, recalls blurrily from his fast-penta interrogation that Galen might have mentioned something about the courier being compromised.
And then... well, then there is the matter of what to do with Galen and Mark.
As Miles sees it, there are three possibilities if Ser Galen is caught. One, turn him over to the local authorities for crimes committed on Earth, plus or minus Mark. Miles is unenthusiastic about this one; it seems too likely to end in the dissolution of Naismith's cover, which would be a loss for both Barrayar and Miles.
Two, secretly kidnap Galen (again plus or minus Mark) and ship him back to Barrayar in violation of Earth's non-extradition status to be tried there for whatever charges apply. Mark would probably come through that just fine, assuming he survived the trip; Galen would almost inevitably be executed, which Miles judges would screw Duv Galeni's emotional stability straight to hell.
And three - skip the trial and go straight to secret assassination. Likely to be a favourite with the higher-ups, if anyone is so foolish as to send an interim report and thereby allow them a vote. Miles, for Mark's sake, is against it; for Galeni's sake, as per point two, he is doubly so. Arranging his father's capture for trial would be bad enough, patricide by proxy given the near-certainty of the outcome; how much worse to actually order him killed?
But the silent fourth option of just letting them go has minimal, indeed negative, appeal. Ser Galen hardly seems the type to give up at this point, and Miles has no desire to go through his life being medically scanned for old bone breaks once a week just to make sure he still isn't his clone-brother.
Alas, time travel is not a viable answer - to go back and arrange for Ser Galen's original supposed death to have been an actual one. That would solve all their problems quite nicely, and Mark, never having been born, would have debatable grounds for complaint.
Lacking the means to apply such an elegant fix, Miles instead convinces Galeni to focus all Barrayaran internal resources on the Barrayaran internal problem of the courier, and hire the Dendarii to locate, track, and monitor Ser Galen. Not pick him up, just watch him. This at least ensures that while they are figuring out what they want to do with Mark and Galen, Galen will not have a chance to prematurely remove the choice from their hands by escaping.
He delivers this new gig to Elli with a reasonably full explanation, observes that it is night-time by this point, and goes the hell to bed.
no subject
And then... well, then there is the matter of what to do with Galen and Mark.
As Miles sees it, there are three possibilities if Ser Galen is caught. One, turn him over to the local authorities for crimes committed on Earth, plus or minus Mark. Miles is unenthusiastic about this one; it seems too likely to end in the dissolution of Naismith's cover, which would be a loss for both Barrayar and Miles.
Two, secretly kidnap Galen (again plus or minus Mark) and ship him back to Barrayar in violation of Earth's non-extradition status to be tried there for whatever charges apply. Mark would probably come through that just fine, assuming he survived the trip; Galen would almost inevitably be executed, which Miles judges would screw Duv Galeni's emotional stability straight to hell.
And three - skip the trial and go straight to secret assassination. Likely to be a favourite with the higher-ups, if anyone is so foolish as to send an interim report and thereby allow them a vote. Miles, for Mark's sake, is against it; for Galeni's sake, as per point two, he is doubly so. Arranging his father's capture for trial would be bad enough, patricide by proxy given the near-certainty of the outcome; how much worse to actually order him killed?
But the silent fourth option of just letting them go has minimal, indeed negative, appeal. Ser Galen hardly seems the type to give up at this point, and Miles has no desire to go through his life being medically scanned for old bone breaks once a week just to make sure he still isn't his clone-brother.
Alas, time travel is not a viable answer - to go back and arrange for Ser Galen's original supposed death to have been an actual one. That would solve all their problems quite nicely, and Mark, never having been born, would have debatable grounds for complaint.
Lacking the means to apply such an elegant fix, Miles instead convinces Galeni to focus all Barrayaran internal resources on the Barrayaran internal problem of the courier, and hire the Dendarii to locate, track, and monitor Ser Galen. Not pick him up, just watch him. This at least ensures that while they are figuring out what they want to do with Mark and Galen, Galen will not have a chance to prematurely remove the choice from their hands by escaping.
He delivers this new gig to Elli with a reasonably full explanation, observes that it is night-time by this point, and goes the hell to bed.