Free Ethan of Athos by Lois McMaster Bujold Page A

me in on what I missed. I've been trying to plant a bug in Millisor's quarters for three weeks, but his counter-intelligence equipment is, unfortunately, superb.”
    “You mainly missed a lot of screaming,” said Ethan morosely.
    She looked rather embarrassed. “Ah -- yes. I'm afraid I didn't think they'd need to use anything but fast-penta.”
    “Stalking-goat,” Ethan grumbled.
    She cleared her throat, and sat cross-legged beside him with the control lead in her hand. The pallet rose into the air like a magic carpet.
    “Not -- not too high,” Ethan choked, scrambling for a non-existent hand-hold. She brought it back down to a demure ten centimeters altitude, and they started off at a walking pace.
    She spoke slowly, seeming to choose her words with great care. “Ghem-colonel Luyst Millisor is a Cetagandan counter-intelligence officer. Captain Rau, and Okita, and another brawn by the name of Setti, are his team.”
    “Cetagandan! Isn't that planet pretty far from here to be interested in, urn,” he glanced at the Stationer woman, “us? This nexus, I mean.”
    “Not far enough, evidently.”
    “But why, in God the Father's name, should they want to destroy Athos? Is Cetaganda -- controlled by women or something?”
    A laugh escaped her. “Hardly. I'd call it a typical male-dominated totalitarian state, only slightly mitigated by their rather artistic cultural peculiarities. No. Millisor is not, per se, interested in either Athos or the Kline Station nexus. He's chasing -- something else. The big secret. The one I was hired to find out.”
    She paused to maneuver the float pallet around a tricky ascending corner. “Apparently there was, on Cetaganda, a long-range, military-sponsored genetics project. Until about three years ago, Millisor was the security chief for that project. And the security was tight. In 25 years, no one had been able to find out what they were up to, beyond the fact that it seemed to be the one-man show of a certain Dr. Faz Jahar, a moderately bright Cetagandan geneticist who vanished from view about the time it started. Do you have any idea how incredibly long that is to keep a secret in this business? The thing has really been Millisor's life work, as well as Jahar's.
    “In any event, something went wrong. The project went up in smoke -- literally. The laboratory blew up one night, taking Jahar with it. And Millisor and his merry men have been chasing something around the galaxy ever since, blowing people away with the careless abandon of either homicidal lunatics, or -- men scared out of their wits. And, ah, while I'm not sure I'd vouch for Captain Rau, Ghem-colonel Millisor does not strike me as a madman.”
    “You couldn't prove it by me,” said Ethan glumly. There was still something not quite right with his vision, and tremula came and went in his muscles.
    They came to a large hatch in the corridor wall.
    RENOVATION, said a bright sign. DO NOT ENTER. AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
    Commander Quinn did something Ethan could not quite see to the control box, and the hatch slid open. She floated the pallet through. There came a voice, and a laugh, from the corridor they had just vacated. She closed the hatch quickly, leaving them in total darkness.
    “There,” she muttered, switching on a hand light. “Nobody saw us. Undeserved luck. Bloody time for it to start averaging out.”
    Ethan blinked at his surroundings. An empty rectangular basin was the centerpiece for a large airy chamber full of columns, pierced lattices, mosaics, and elaborate arches.
    “It's supposed to be an exact replica of some famous palace on Earth, “ Commander Quinn explained. “The Elhamburger or something. A very wealthy shipper was having it done -- all finished, in fact -- when his assets were suddenly tied up in litigation. The suits have been going on for four months now, and the place is still padlocked. You can babysit our friend here till I get back.” She rapped on the lid of the canister.
    Ethan