dissonance

[isthisart]

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...

Comments

[isthisart]

"It's not a secret or I'd be considerably more agitated at it having got out, I just don't know where, exactly, it would have been dispensed. How much do you know about me, if the plan was originally to fool me too...?"

[unmarred]

"Not as much as I'd have liked, but enough to get by. I can't really... list things, if that's what you want me to do. My memory doesn't store in conveniently listable formats."

[isthisart]

"Fair enough. I suppose you were going to try to acclimate to the pen while I wasn't looking, although it's very high-quality gesture-learning and I think I would have noticed that you didn't handle it the same... Did you teach yourself to braid hair, too?" she wonders idly. "Or were you planning to 'break your hand' a lot?"

[unmarred]

"Galen stole nine feet of haut hair from a collector and made me practice on it. It's kind of fun. I can see why Miles likes it."

[isthisart]

"Someone sold her -? Wow," snorts Linya. "It must have cost an astronomical amount. And he just stole it for you to braid."

[unmarred]

"He's very, um, single-minded."

[isthisart]

"Yes, I suppose so," she says.

[unmarred]

"Maybe you can help... I want a better way to get myself killed than becoming Emperor of Barrayar."

[isthisart]

"The part where you get yourself killed is essential here?"

[unmarred]

"Well, if I don't get myself killed trying to become Emperor of Barrayar, Ser Galen will be furious."

[isthisart]

"My first idea involves him dying before you do, and the last step is optional."

[unmarred]

"Then I don't think your plan works."

[isthisart]

"Pity." She hmmms. "If you got me fifteen minutes with my pen I could program something that would look like a prearranged deadman switch alerting the authorities that something's happened to me, but it would probably be very tempting for Galen to kill the hostages... I'm assuming he's not here right now or he might burst in at any moment and notice I have one hand untied. We could skip the step in my first plan where he dies and leave in the one where you do, making it: we take out the guards, escape, and throw you at the assassins who are after Naismith. I imagine Miles might have indignant commentary about his cover dying but I much prefer it to assassins actually managing to get him. Ideally I'd like you safe too but you don't seem inclined to participate in such plans, rendering them pointless."

[unmarred]

"I don't think the assassins would come fast enough to save me."

[isthisart]

"I could tip them off. They're Cetagandan and the person they're after," she smiles slightly, "looks exactly like my husband, what if they miss?"

[unmarred]

"Ha," says Mark. "You're right, though, Miles would hate it. He needs Naismith. If he lost that outlet he'd have to invent a new one, and there's only so many clone substitution plots people will believe in succession before it starts to get ridiculous."

[isthisart]

"He'd hate it but he'd be alive. If we stay here I'm not so sure."

[unmarred]

Mark shrugs. "It doesn't matter, anyway... thank you for the suggestion. I think I've learned what I needed to know. Are you going to let me tie your hand again so I can take you back to your cell?" He pauses a beat, then adds, "Miles's suggestion about pretending you like me better has merit. I could probably sell it to Galen if you wanted to try. But - only if I thought you wouldn't try to rescue him after you got out."

[isthisart]

"If you can convince me," Linya says, "that Miles is unsalvageable no matter what I do and I, alone, can get out alive if I play along with that, then I will play along and then take a business trip to Beta Colony or something, possibly with Cordelia in tow if I can talk her into it, and not turn around again when I get there. Can you convince me that those are the circumstances?"

And because she suspects the answer is no, she puts her hand back where it is to be tied to the chair.

[unmarred]

"I don't honestly know," he says. "Back to your cell it is, then, I guess."

He ties her hand to the chair again. He doesn't touch her at all in the process, again.

[isthisart]

"There's only one of you, and you're not fragile, right?" she asks while he's doing that.

[unmarred]

"Yes and yes. I demonstrated the second thing to Miles."

[isthisart]

"Okay. Am I going to be stunned again or are chairs just going to keep accumulating in the cell?"

[unmarred]

"They're going to take the other one out when they put you back," Mark says dryly. "At least, I hope so."

[isthisart]

"That works too."