Diplomatic Immunity Read Online Free PDF Page B

smokescreen, at last.
    " Our understanding was that a two-man security patrol, sent to retrieve an officer who was late reporting in—"
    "That would be Ensign Corbeau?"
    "Yes. Corbeau. As we understood it at the time, the patrol and the ensign were attacked, disarmed, and detained by quaddies. The real story as it emerged later was more complex, but that was what I had to go on as I was trying to clear Graf Station of all our personnel and stand off for any contingency up to immediate evacuation from local space."
    Miles leaned forward. "Did you believe it to be random quaddies who had seized your men, or did you understand it to have been Graf Station Security?"
    Vorpatril didn't quite grind his teeth, but almost. He answered nonetheless, "Yes, we knew it was their security."
    "Did you ask your legal officer to advise you?"
    "No."
    "Did Ensign Deslaurier volunteer advice?"
    "No, my lord," Deslaurier managed to whisper.
    "I see. Go on."
    "I ordered Captain Brun to send a strike patrol in to retrieve, now, three men from a situation that I believed had just proved lethally dangerous to Barrayaran personnel."
    "Armed with rather more than stunners, I understand?"
    "I couldn't ask my men to go up against those numbers with only stunners, my lord," said Brun. "There are a million of those mutants out there!"
    Miles let his brows climb. "On Graf Station? I thought its resident population was around fifty thousand. Civilians."
    Brun made an impatient gesture. "A million to twelve, fifty thousand to twelve—regardless, they needed weapons with authority. My rescue party needed to get in and out as quickly as possible, having to deal with as little argument or resistance as possible. Stunners are useless as weapons of intimidation."
    "I am familiar with the argument." Miles leaned back and rubbed his lips. "Go on."
    "My patrol reached the place our men were being held—"
    "Graf Station Security Post Number Three, was it not?" Miles put in.
    "Yes."
    "Tell me—in all the time since the fleet has been here, hadn't any of your men on leave had close encounters with Station Security? No drunk and disorderlies, no safety violations, nothing?"
    Brun, looking as though the words were being pulled from his mouth with dental pliers, said, "Three men were arrested by Graf Station Security last week for racing float chairs in an unsafe manner while inebriated."
    "And what happened to them? How did your fleet legal advisor handle it?"
    Ensign Deslaurier muttered, "They spent a few hours in lock-up, then I went down and saw that their fines were paid, and pledged to the stationer adjudicator that they would be confined to quarters for the duration of our stay."
    "So you were all by then familiar with standard procedures for retrieving men from contretemps with Station authorities?"
    "These were not drunk and disorderlies this time. These were our own security forces carrying out their duties," said Vorpatril.
    "Go on," sighed Miles. "What happened with your patrol?"
    "I still don't have their own firsthand reports, my lord," said Brun stiffly. "The quaddies have only let one unarmed medical officer visit them in their current place of confinement. Shots were exchanged, both stunner and plasma fire, inside Security Post Three. Quaddies swarmed the place, and our men were overwhelmed and taken prisoner."
    The "swarming" quaddies had included, not unnaturally in Miles's view, most of the Graf Station professional and volunteer fire brigades. Plasma fire. In a civilian space station. Oh, my aching head.  
    "So," said Miles gently, "after we shot up the police station and set the habitat on fire, what did we do for an encore?"
    Admiral Vorpatril's teeth set, briefly. "I am afraid that, when the Komarran ships in dock failed to obey my urgent orders to cast off and instead allowed themselves to be locked down, I lost the initiative in the situation. Too many hostages had passed into quaddie control by then, the Komarran independent captain-owners