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full-blown and exceptionally brilliant mercenary commander, claiming the quite
legal Betan name of Miles Naismith, in his maternal line. He has shown himself
no friend to the Cetagandans, so the theory that he is a Cetagandan renegade
has a certain compelling logic. No one knows his age, though obviously he can
be no more than twenty-eight." She took a sip of her tea. "It is our belief
that you are one of those two clones."
"Shipped to you like a crate of frozen meat? With my chest blown out?"
"Yes."
"So what? Clones - even frozen ones - can t be a novelty here." He glanced at
Rowan.
"Let me go on. About three months ago, Bharaputra s manufactured clone
returned home - with a crew of mercenary soldiers at his back that he had
apparently stolen from the Dendarii Fleet by the simple expedient of
pretending to be his clone-twin, Admiral Naismith. He attacked Bharaputra s
clone-creche in an attempt to either steal, or possibly free, a group of
clones slated to be the bodies for brain transplants, a business which I
personally loathe."
He touched his chest. "He... failed?"
"No. But Admiral Naismith followed in hot pursuit of his stolen ship and
troops. In the melee that ensued downside at
Bharaputra s main surgical facilities, one of the two was killed. The other
escaped, along with the mercenaries and most of
Bharaputra s very valuable clone-cattle. They made a fool of Vasa Luigi - I
laughed myself sick when I first heard about it." She sipped tea demurely.
He could actually almost picture her doing so, though it made his eyes cross
slightly.
"Before they jumped, the Dendarii Mercenaries posted a reward for the return
of a cryo-chamber containing the remains of a man they claim to have been the
Bharaputran-made clone."
His eyes widened. "Me?"
She held up a hand. "Vasa Luigi, Baron Bharaputra, is absolutely convinced
that they were lying, and that the man in the box was really their Admiral
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Naismith."
"Me?" he said less certainly.
"Georish Stauber, Baron Fell, refuses to even guess. And Baron Ryoval would
tear a town apart for even a fifty percent chance of laying hands on Admiral
Naismith, who injured him four years ago as no one has in a century." Her lips
curved in a scalpel-
smile.
It all made sense, which made no sense at all. It was like a story heard long
ago, in childhood, and re-encountered.
In another lifetime
. Familiarity under glass. He touched his head, which ached. Rowan matched the
gesture with concern.
"Don t you have medical records? Something?"
"At some risk, we obtained the developmental records of Bharaputra s clone.
Unfortunately, they only go up to age fourteen.
We have nothing on Admiral Naismith. Alas, one cannot run a triangulation on
one data point."
He turned toward Rowan. "You know me, inside and out. Can t you tell?"
"You re strange.
" Rowan shook her head. "Half your bones are plastic replacement parts, do you
know? The real ones that are left show old breaks, old traumas.... I d guess
you not only older than Bharaputra s clone ought to be, I d guess you older
than the original Lord Vorkosigan, and that makes no sense. If we could just
get one solid, certain clue. The memories you ve reported so far are terribly
ambiguous. You know weapons, as the Admiral might - but Bharaputra s clone was
trained as an assassin. You remember Ser Galen, and only Bharaputra s clone
should do that. I found out about those sugar trees. They re called maple
trees, and they originate on Earth - where Bharaputra s clone was taken for
training. And so on." She flung up her hands in frustration.
"If you re not getting the right answer," he said slowly, "maybe you re not
asking the right question."
"So what is the right question?"
He shook his head, mutely. "Why..." His hands spread. "Why not turn my frozen
body over to the Dendarii and collect the reward? Why not sell me to Baron
Ryoval, if he wants me so much? Why revive me?"
"I wouldn t sell a laboratory rat to Baron Ryoval," Lilly stated flatly. She
twitched a brief smile. "Old business, between us."
How old? Older than he, whoever he was.
"As for the Dendarii - we may deal with them yet. Depending on who you are."
They were approaching the heart of the matter; he could sense it. "Yes?"
"Four years ago, Admiral Naismith visited Jackson s Whole, and besides
counting a most spectacular coup on Ry Ryoval, left with a certain Dr. Hugh
Canaba, one of Bharaputra s top genetics people. Now, I knew Canaba. More to
the point, I know what
Vasa Luigi and Lotus paid to get him here, and how many House secrets he was
privy to. They would never have let him go alive.
Yet he s gone, and no one on Jackson s Whole has ever been able to trace him."
She leaned forward intently. "Assuming Canaba was not just disposed of out an
airlock - Admiral Naismith has shown he can get people out. In fact, it s a
speciality he s famous for.
That is our interest in him."
"You want off-planet?" He glanced around at Lilly Durona s comfortable,
self-contained little empire. "Why?"
"I have a Deal with Georish Stauber - Baron Fell. It s a very old Deal, as we
are very old dealers. My time is surely running out, and Georish is growing,"
she grimaced, "unreliable. If I die - or if he dies - or if he succeeds in
having his brain transplanted to a younger body, as he has attempted at least
once to arrange - our old Deal will be broken. The Durona Group might be
offered less admirable deals than the one we have enjoyed so long with House
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