And Vorreedi's, and Miles's. And with this assurance, he permits them to depart. Miles guesses from the colour of the sky that it's maybe two hours till dawn.

Vorreedi waits until halfway through the ride to ask Miles coldly, "What did you think you were doing, Vorkosigan?"

"I stopped the Cetagandan Empire from breaking up into eight aggressively expanding units. I derailed plans for a war by some of them with Barrayar. I survived an assassination attempt, and helped catch three high-ranking traitors. Admittedly, they weren't our traitors, but still. Oh. And I solved a murder. What more d'you bloody want?"

Vorreedi looks like he is just barely restraining himself from throwing up his hands. "Are you a special agent or not?"

"Well," Miles says pleasantly, "if not... I sure succeeded like one, didn't I?"