Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

sure as hell didn’t want to take ’em with me, and I wasn’t sure if I could trust”—he hesitated—“other authorities, given some things you’d said.” He went on, sounding more aggrieved, “And to cap it, the two most unsympathetic dome cops ever tracked me to work just at quitting time and cornered me for forty-five minutes of grilling. They were just itching to arrest me for stalking, rape, kidnapping, murder, who knows what else—being Barrayaran, I expect.”
    “Ah, shi—did you mention me?”
    “Kept your existence entirely out of it. Had to tap-dance around their physical evidence like a loon to do it, too, so you can say Thank you, Ivan .”
    “That may be premature.”
    Vorpatril’s scowl deepened. “Yeah, and to make things worse, this all took place in an Ops conference room, where you just know it was monitored. It’ll all be in my boss’s inbox by tomorrow morning, and I might lie to the dome cops for you, By, but I’m damned well not going to lie to Desplains.”
    Byerly pounded his forehead with his fist. “ Ivan . If you knew that, why didn’t you take them out somewhere else for that interview—coffee shop, park bench, anywhere ? You haven’t the instinct for self-preservation that God gave a canary. How ever have you survived so far?”
    “Hey! I do fine, on my own. It’s only when you Im—you damned weasels show up in my life—uninvited, generally—that it gets this complicated.”
    “All right, I have a question,” said Tej, interrupting all this—how long would they keep it up? “Who sent Captain Vorpatril to me, who gave him my picture? Was it you?” She frowned at the other Voralphabet.
    He spread a hand over his chest and offered her a sitting bow. “None other. I trust you found him satisfactory?”
    “Why?”
    “That’s two questions.”
    “So keep score.” Her eyes narrowed. “Did you know Rish and I were going to be attacked last night? How?”
    Vorpatril bit his knuckle.
    Byerly’s face set in a faint, empty smile for a moment—processing?—then relaxed into its ironic default expression once more. “I hired them.”
    Tej’s heart plummeted. Were they deceived—again…?
    “What!” cried Vorpatril indignantly. “You might have said!”
    “I was not certain to what degree I could rely on your acting abilities.”
    Vorpatril crossed his arms and sat back with a snort.
    Uh, what…? thought Tej. Rish’s empty hand slipped quietly back out of her trouser pocket, even her guarded face bewildered.
    Byerly continued to Tej, “I am presently engaged in studying some people. Frequently, the best way to gain a close view is to make myself useful, which I do—selectively. While it is not always true that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, in this case I thought it well to give the appearance of cooperation while diverting its result, at least until I could find out more about you.”
    So he’d betrayed her with one hand, and his acquaintances with the other? “That’s…pretty ambidextrous.”
    He shrugged, unoffended. “Hence Ivan—a third hand, if you like, whom I admit was a last-minute stop-gap, but this all came up rather suddenly. My plan—as there was no indication whatsoever that your strangely elusive maidservant lived in—was that he should take you out frolicking, leaving the cupboard bare for your midnight visitors. Pleasant for you both, frustrating for them, entirely unconnected with me. I still don’t know why they wanted you kidnapped, mind you.” He looked up and batted his eyes invitingly.
    “You’re an agent.” Commercial, governmental? Surely not military. “What kind?”
    “Now, that is a piece of information worth your name.”
    Ivan put in, “Er, Tej, if your enemies know who you really are already, why should your friends be kept in the dark? Does this make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me.”
    “You’ve not proved yourselves our friends.”
    “What, I have too!” said Vorpatril. He jerked his thumb at