Free Shards of Honor (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold Page A

is he?"
    "Smug as a cat. I'd have taken great pleasure in wiping his face at the board, if only you'd had the good grace to meet with an accident on your hike."
    Vorkosigan grimaced wryly. "It seems to me you haven't quite made up your mind what you really want to do. May I suggest it is not too late, even now, to change course?"
    "You could never overlook this," stated Gottyan uncertainly.
    "In my younger and more stiff-necked days, perhaps not. But to tell you the truth, I'm getting a little tired of slaying my enemies to teach them a lesson." Vorkosigan raised his chin and held Gottyan's eyes. "If you like, you can have my word. You know the worth of it."
    The disruptor trembled slightly in Gottyan's hand, as he wavered on the edge of his decision. Cordelia, barely breathing, saw water standing in his eyes. One does not weep for the living , she thought, but for the dead ; in that moment, while Vorkosigan still doubted, she knew he intended to fire.
    She brought her stunner up, took careful aim, and squeezed off a burst. It buzzed weakly, but it was enough to bring Gottyan, head turning at the sudden movement, to his knees. Vorkosigan pounced on the disruptor, then relieved him of his plasma arc and knocked him to the ground.
    "Damn you," croaked Gottyan, half-paralyzed. "Haven't you ever been outmaneuvered?"
    "If I had I wouldn't be here," shrugged Vorkosigan. He subjected Gottyan to a rapid search, confiscating his knife and a number of other objects. "Who do you have posted as pickets?"
    "Sens to the north, Koudelka to the south."
    Vorkosigan removed Gottyan's belt and bound his hands behind his back. "You really did have trouble making up your mind, didn't you?" In an aside to Cordelia he explained, "Sens is one of Radnov's. Koudelka's mine. Rather like flipping a coin."
    "And this was your friend?" Cordelia raised her eyebrows. "Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long they stand around chatting before they shoot you."
    "Yes," Vorkosigan agreed, "I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction. Since your pants will stay up without it, Commander Naismith, may I please borrow your belt?" He finished securing Gottyan's legs with it, gagged him, then stood a moment looking up, then down the path.
    "All Cretans are liars," murmured Cordelia, then more loudly, "North or south?"
    "An interesting question. How would you answer it?"
    "I had a teacher who used to reflect back my questions that way. I thought it was the Socratic method, and it impressed me immensely, until I found out he used it whenever he didn't know the answer." Cordelia stared at Gottyan, whom they had placed in the spot that had so effectively concealed her, wondering whether his directions marked a return to loyalty or a last-ditch effort to complete Vorkosigan's botched assassination. He stared back in puzzlement and hostility.
    "North," she said reluctantly at last. She and Vorkosigan exchanged a look of understanding, and he nodded briefly.
    "Come on then."
    They started quietly up the path, over a rise and through a hollow dense with gray-green thickets. "Have you known Gottyan long?"
    "We served together for the last four years, since my demotion. He was a good career officer, I thought. Apolitical, thorough. He has a family."
    "Do you think you could—get him back, later?"
    "Forgive and forget? I gave him a chance at that. He turned me down. Twice, if you're right in your choice of directions." They were climbing another slope. "The sentry post is at the top. Whoever's there will be able to scope us in a moment. Drop back here and cover me. If you hear firing”—he paused—"use your initiative."
    Cordelia smothered a short laugh. Vorkosigan loosened his disruptor in its holster and walked openly up the path, making plenty of noise.
    "Sentry, report," she heard his voice call firmly.
    "Nothing new since—good God, it's the Captain !"