Memory, Chapters 22-24

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Thank you very much to Vicky and Mayken for commissioning this episode! 
These chapters are the ones where I start to get genuinely angry at the fact that nobody seems to be suspicious of Laisa. Like really actually mad. 
Thanks to you all for listening, and I will see you soon with a new episode!
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is an Unspoiled Network podcast. This is spoil Me
covering Vorkosagin Saga Memory chapters twenty two through twenty four.
In these chapters, Dove Gulliny is arrested for treason and

(00:25):
if somebody doesn't start thinking about Lysa as a potential suspect,
I am going to begin to pull my hair out
by the roots. Get it together, everybody. Welcome to spoil Me.

(01:01):
Welcome to the show. Everyone. I am Natasha, Thank you
very much. I'm going to do the same thing I
did last time to either Macon or Vicky, depending on
which episode you consider this to be. For commissioning this episode,
I don't think Macon is here, but Vicky is so making.
Vicky has been here both times, and I'm tempted to

(01:24):
give her the credit for this one just because of
your attendance issues, your tardiness at times, truancy you really,
you know, I'm kidding. I know people have like real
jobs that they have to go to. It's tragic. So
this section is really frustrating for me. And look, this

(01:52):
is really maybe one of the first times that I
feel like Louis McMaster has had Miles not clock a
thing as quickly as I would like him too, So
I'm trying not to let it irritate me too much
because she has built up so much goodwill by having

(02:13):
him be so smart so much of the time. And
maybe this is somewhat on purpose, because there is a
whole theme in this section about how women are simply
dismissed and not taken seriously when it comes to politics
in barry Are, and so it may be that she's

(02:34):
trying to make a point here, But at this time,
there is zero doubt in my mind that it's Lisa
who did this and took advantage of her relationship with
Douglenny to get access to his comm console, and the
fact that it has literally not even occurred to anybody
is making me sick. I'm so irritated by this. Oh

(03:00):
my god, guys, the amount of concern over her being
Comarin without any accompanying suspicion is wild to me. And
I'm at a point where I'm starting to like feel
its beggaring belief a little bit, like my suspension is

(03:21):
beginning to crack, and I'm feeling like, is this even
reasonable to really believe that nobody would be looking at
her a little bit crosssi, you know, like I don't know.
So that's one thing, but can we also talk about
the other thing Miles is being slow a f about,

(03:44):
which is the relationship between Simon Illian and Lady Alice
for petrol. It takes so long for him to realize
what is going on, Miles, wake up, bro. Eventually he
gets there, But it's like the weirdest circumstance that causes

(04:07):
things to fall into place. It wasn't when he's standing
outside Ilian's door, told before he goes in by his
mother to knock because Alice is there, hearing low chuckles
and things shuffling around, and is left waiting a little
longer than he expected, with Lady Alice a bit disheveled

(04:28):
and possibly wearing clothes from the previous evening, and Ilien
coming out in his robe and slippers. Nope, that's not.
When he begins to put it together, he literally thinks
his mother asked him to knock because Lady Alice is
probably reading Ilien for history. Is this a euphemism? Miles?

(04:59):
How are you this fucking dense dude? And you know what,
both of these things that he's being real dense about
are regarding women so maybe this is a point that's
being made. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see,
but I was when she tells him to knock before

(05:25):
going in. I'm thinking, Okay, so Cordelia knows she's mourning. Miles,
he hasn't gotten it yet, but once he knocks and
he hears, it's going to begin to register. When I
read the section, and the whole time, he's just like, oh,

(05:47):
this is weird. Huh, that's also weird. Why do they
both seem so happy? I couldn't believe it. I my good,
my friend. And then he has the nerve to be like,
maybe you should send Lady Alice out. I don't know

(06:08):
if this is appropriate for her to hear the gall,
the unmitigated gall. I can't breathe. I'm so disgusted. Oh

(06:30):
my god. Okay, maybe we're working on a theme. There
is a point to this. I'm seeing it, Okay, It's
just I'm so mad about it. I just, Miles, you

(06:51):
are falling into some Barry Yarn bullshit right now with
your thinking, and I am going to need you to
start seeing that. But even women on Barryer can be
as competent as women in the Dundari because you are
behaving as if every woman here is like a totally
different species. Elena Bothari was born down here. Bruh, what

(07:17):
is the disconnect for you? Lady Alice wouldn't be where
she is if she weren't so crazy competent. She would
still have her title and everything like that's just something
that but she is in a like really trusted position
of power in a way that is so overlooked all

(07:40):
the time by men specifically. This is one of those
things that like, I would love will you guys, asked
me at the Q and A whose POV I would like?
And there were a lot of different people, but at
this point, Lady Alice is one that I'm really interested
in because what you have to be in charge of
when you are organizing these kind of events and social

(08:03):
interactions the extent of the knowledge that you have to
have about every guest and their temperament and the beefs
that they have with certain people, and their bloodline, and
their aspirations and ambitions about who they would like to

(08:25):
be talking to, who they've been attempting to get a
meeting with. Do you want them to get that meeting
or are you trying to keep those people away from
each other. The seating chart alone, there is a reason
that it's a constant joke in so many movies where
people are planning weddings about how long the seating chart takes,
because that sort of shit is a fucking minefield if

(08:52):
you have never done it. I was really lucky where
both my weddings were quite small and I was able
to just it was a piece of cake. I cannot
imagine though, when you have even like one hundred people,
never mind several hundred, and you have all of these
different like war positions. Plus you've got people maybe from

(09:16):
other planets and other governments, and you've got people who
are the guest of a person, and is that going
to influence that? Would you have seated him here, but
now he's bringing so and so and so you have
to change where he's going to be seated. Like, all
of these things require a knowledge that is not unlike
the type of knowledge that Ilien has. I would argue

(09:39):
in some ways because Ilien deals so much. In fact,
she has a harder job in some ways because it's
going to be so much drama and gossip that is
like unsubstantiated and then you have to like sift through
all of that, which I'm sure or Ilian of course

(10:01):
also deals with, but it's just going to have a
very different tone when it's being filtered through to the
level of a woman getting to hear it, because she
isn't taken seriously by a lot of people, so she
has got to work harder to get the information that
she needs, Whereas Ilion is respected and in a very
overt position, and people are rapporting to him, giving him

(10:24):
what he needs with no question, and overall, the two
of them being like together makes so much sense. It's
of course they would be. Of course they would be
so And I can just imagine, like I understand, of
course why Ivan doesn't want to get married that he's

(10:47):
just there's a combination probably of not wanting to do
what he's told. I fucking sympathize with that a great deal,
and also just being like, I don't want to decide anything.
Can't I just have a time. But I could see
how from Lady Alice's perspective, you would just be like, kid,
you are fucking killing me. Can you just take a

(11:08):
position on the board please, so that I know what
to do with you? You're this floating random factor and I
can't calculate because you're just you know, like I could
definitely see how he hasn't found the spot to fit
in as a cog in the machine, and it would

(11:28):
be for somebody whose whole concern is the machine really irritating.
So anyway, I know I'm starting at like the end
of this, guys, but I if somebody doesn't begin to
think about Lisa, and I have to assume the person

(11:51):
who is going to consider Lisa is going to be
a woman. I bet Myles doesn't put it together. I
bet it's Cordelia or maybe Lady Alice. But I feel
like if Lady Alice were going to put it together,
she would have done already. I feel like maybe Cordelia
is going to be the one because she hadn't met
Lisa yet, and I just feel she has a very

(12:18):
good read on people pretty quickly, and maybe it's going
to be that she has a certain impression that changes
the tone of things. There's only two more episodes of
recording for this book, which I guys, I was so
relieved to finish reading this today and then know I
was going to record pronto because I need to keep

(12:40):
reading I am dying. When is this all going to
come together? If it's not Lisa, I think I might
actively be mad about it. At this point. I had
been saying before, like, if it's not her, I'm gonna
look like an idiot, you know, blah blah blah, because
I'm so sure, and at this point that is so
far behind my concern. I she is so perfectly positioned

(13:02):
that if it's not her, I'm going to be so angry.
I really will unless there is something set up that
makes it a really, really solid explanation why it wasn't
in it somebody else. But I'm going to feel a
way about it, and so it better fucking be Lisa.
That's all I'm going to say regarding my feelings on

(13:23):
it at this point, with only two more episodes to go,
so let's begin at the actual beginning instead of doing
the thing that I am doing, which I always do,
so we started off. Miles haunted Heroch's office for the
rest of that day, rechecking everything IMPSEC had done since
last night and monitoring the new orders flying out. He

(13:45):
devoured the detailed log of Alien's locations and movements for
the past three months till he was crosssied and beginning
to be afraid he'd miss something so Horoche and there
was a moment I won't lie, guys, we're I was
just like, Horos is so perfectly positioned. He can't be
a trader, right. You know how this is Whenever you're
doing something that there's like an insider that's turned bad,

(14:09):
you start to get paranoid about literally everybody, especially the
way that Haroche went after Galinny so aggressively. Initially, I
was sort of like, is he just trying to throw
Miles off and distract him because he's doing something. Once
we actually see what the evidence is, I understood why
he did it, but it also it's still excuse me.

(14:32):
Still felt premature to me. But Miles and Haroche are
working together so well. I really enjoy that. Later on,
Haroche gives Miles a compliment about the solid work. I
think he just calls it that's good, solid work, and

(14:53):
Miles like tries not to be too pleased, but honestly,
and she says this like very shortly after that, But
it was exactly what I was thinking. When you get
a compliment from somebody that you know is not in
the habit of giving compliments, it means one hundred thousand

(15:15):
percent more to you than somebody who throws compliments out
willing nilly. And I know that that's not a great
attitude to have because it sort of makes it sound
like you shouldn't give out compliments all the time, because
then it's meaningless. And I don't really mean that people
who give out compliments all the time. I sort of
envy people who are able to do that really easily.

(15:35):
I try and compliment, but I am not I have
like I can be. I can have such stupidly high
standards about stuff that sometimes it will feel like I'm
faking it, you know. But there is a difference between

(15:56):
the compliment from somebody who is just a positive, upbeat
person who sees the best in everyone, and a compliment
from somebody that you know is highly critical and really
does have intensive standards. And I just can't help but
light up when I get a compliment from a person

(16:19):
that is like that instead, which results in this weird
thing where other people compliment me and like if I
don't really know them personally and therefore know what they
are like, I will feel like I'm not sure how
seriously I should take this is this real does this matter?

(16:41):
Which again, like what a weird attitude to have. I
have like a grading system on the compliments I get,
but like kind of yeah, so Miles feeling this way
about herosh it's this combination of him being gratified, especially
because Heroche at one point says, I can see why
Illien would come out of the briefing room with you

(17:03):
and be like swearing and then send you back out
on another mission because you are kind of infuriating but
like clearly very good at what you do, and so
you know, and I just enjoy because I am so
much like Miles in having this weird pride and wanting

(17:27):
to prove people wrong, knowing that Haroche thought Miles was
just this nepotism higher and is finally really beginning to
see what Miles is capable of. It is so delicious,
it's so satisfying. Now, all of that said, you both
are missing, Lisa, You're both not seeing it. So how

(17:49):
good can you be at your job really if you
aren't even seeing this very obvious suspect right in front
of you. But we will let it go for now
and just let Miles have that high from that. But
the work that he gets the compliment on takes place
a bit later, so once again I'm going out of order.
So Miles with his fucking auditor's collar. I was about

(18:14):
to say, but Chane. He just starts going into all
of these places, checking in on whatever he can to
see if things are not adding up, And the way
that people are reacting is so funny. He left behind
a trail of disruption and dismay, as every department had

(18:35):
frantically searched his conscience for a reason why the Imperial
Auditor might be visiting him. A guilty every one of them,
Myles thought dryly. Several made a point of explaining their
budgetary expenditures in what Miles felt was excessive detail, though
one blurted out a wholly unasked for defense of his
recent galactic vacation. Watching these normally closed malvic men and

(19:00):
babbel and panic was highly entertaining. Miles had to admit
he led them on with lots of well timed neutral
noises like m and hmmm, but it seemed to bring
him no closer to formulating his right question. Honestly, that
is great, like seeing them sweat. I'm surprised he didn't

(19:23):
uncover anything, Hainky, you know, some low level embezzlement or something.
I am surprised. And maybe it's just that he's not
really looking that hard for things like that right now.
But sometimes people are just very very clumsy about covering
their tracks and you might not even be trying that

(19:43):
hard and you still cut across it. You know. So
Miles is getting used to his mom being at home
and there are all of these people around that are
just sort of interrupting a morning where he's trying to
have coffee and just think, and they keep being like,
is there something I can do for you, sir? What
do you need sir? And he's like, oh my god, please.

(20:04):
So he goes to work early, he goes to seek
Gregor and they just have like a little back and
forth about how all of this is going and how
Haroche seems to be doing, and he says, are you
any happier with Heroche now? And Miles is like, yeah,

(20:26):
he's learning fast and he doesn't really make the same
mistake over and over again. He's doing what he is
supposed to be doing. You know. There are the problem
is that like I'm looking for a loose end and none.
Everything is all tied up so far, so I don't
know what I'm even looking for right now. And he

(20:48):
then asks Gregor, are you sure you really want me
to stay auditor for this? And was like, do you
not want to do this anymore? Is that why you're asking?
And he says, I thought you should have an opportunity

(21:13):
to change your mind. And Gregor doesn't change his mind,
of course he doesn't. Miles. It's you know what's funny,
you guys, because I get where Miles is coming from
in his intent here, and we all just saw the

(21:33):
way that he was talking about being an auditor as
a pantomime, a joke, you know what I mean. But
imagine if Gregor did take Miles off and hired somebody else.
Can you imagine what a complete pain in the ass

(21:54):
Miles would be to the new auditor Because you take
Miles out of that position, he's not going to stop
inspecting and doing what he can. He can't. I don't
think he's physically capable of stopping himself, like this is
just a compulsion. He needs to find things out, So

(22:16):
all he'd be doing probably is like playing that other
auditor like a puppet and getting that guy to do
all of the things that he wished he could do anyway,
And I get kind of being like, look, we didn't
know it was this serious when you gave me this job.
If you think there's somebody else better for it, But
like I wish Gregor had just asked him. And if

(22:41):
I did replace you, what would you do? Like, how
would you handle that? Would you go home and just
chill with your mom? Yeah? I didn't think so. So
let's see. This is when Lisa comes in, or no, sorry,
Lady Alice comes in. And oh and Lisa does as

(23:04):
well with Lady Alice. That's right, A concerned and quizzical
half smile curved Lisa's lips. Gregor and Lady Alice have
told me about Ilian. I suppose I feel sorry, No,
that's not the right word. Odd, maybe that such an
icon has fallen. He was such a legend on Komar,
and yet when I finally met him, he seemed just

(23:25):
an ordinary fellow. Well not really ordinary, but that's the
impression he seemed to want to give, so quiet. He
was not what I expected. And Miles says, real monsters
often are just ordinary men, only more confused in their thinking.

(23:47):
Ilian was one of the least confused men. I know
Lisa colored faintly because she's the one you will never
can convince me otherwise. I swear, if we get to
the end of this and it's not Lisa, I know
I said I would be angry, but I think I'm

(24:07):
actually gonna say I won't believe it. It's not canon. Okay.
If I don't get what I want, I'm gonna be
one of those fanboys and just be like, ugh, they
ruined it. And you know, I don't get like this
with Lois. I don't mess with that. She very good,

(24:29):
but I just feel away this book. I really do.
So she asks Miles to go to this event that
they're going to be throwing in like a day or two,
and that he can bring a guest, which he winds
up not being able to scrape together a date. I
was sort of expecting that he might call in Ellie,

(24:53):
and I don't really know what she's up to, Like
I was. I keep picturing the and Dari's still like
hanging around in Orbit, and I don't actually know if
that's what's going on with them. So, because he hasn't
actually given her command as far as I know, but

(25:16):
I did think, is it possible that he would like
try and get her to come with him? And it
doesn't even occur to him, So I guess maybe it's
not an option the way that I was imagining it is.
So there is some talk here about how Miles isn't
interested in for women, which Lisa is sort of like

(25:39):
giving him a look like, oh, is he gay? And
he has to be like, no, no, no, it's just
I haven't had the chance to get to know Barry
ar and ladies too well because of all my traveling.
But maybe I'll ask Delia Kudelka, who it turns out
has plans. So Alice led the conversation into later concerns

(26:02):
for the time it took to drink one cup no refills,
then rose to usher Lisa back out again, Lady Alice,
if you think he's up to it, why don't you
bring Simon to the lunch Lisa and Lisa and I
are having with you and Lady Vorkos. Again, I find
I miss his conversation. So Miles goes back to MSEC

(26:28):
HQ and is continuing going over everything that he can,
and he goes to housekeeping and physical plant which proves,
as it says, unexpectedly fascinating, and he starts learning about
the structure and the ways in which everything are designed

(26:50):
to maintain airflow, keep down dust, be bomb proof, be
gas proof, like all of the things, which is pretty fun,
especially because he's going through like the ducks with them
in a way that nobody ever really does. So he's
getting to see details of what they do in a
very upclose way, and he is actually genuinely interested, which

(27:14):
I'm sure is a welcome change. Their combination of competence
and camaraderie put him in mind for a brief and
breathtakingly painful moment of the Dundari, till his mind shied
away from the comparison. His busyness blocked excessive morbid reflection

(27:34):
on the general weirdness of his current situation. He was
an impsect outsider, a civilian for the first time in
his adult life, and yet he was obtaining a better
view of the organization he'd so passionately served than he'd
ever had before. Was this some sort of final goodbye? No,

(27:57):
of course not. I can't with this kid, open your
fucking brains. You've apparently lost the key and they're all
closed up. Get the key, just fucking activate, bro. Fuck,

(28:18):
this is clearly what you're meant to be doing. Like Jesus,
I'm so mad at everybody this section. Okay, So he
goes home, has dinner with everybody, and then he goes
to analysis the next day. What Miles had been thinking

(28:39):
of as the dessert of his inspection thus fell not
by accident. The last thing that afternoon, the inpsect evidence
rooms and the place that he goes it used to
be a prison and had got turned into he calls
it a dungeon actually, but he finds out that there

(29:05):
is a log saying that he came into the evidence
room on a day that if things had gone the
way this person thought they had gone, he may have
had time to stop by here. But he didn't take
a ground car. He had walked home, So like some

(29:27):
of the timing doesn't really work out, and he goes
and calls for petrol, captain for patrol really quick, and
Ivan winds up getting like looped into this. And it's
so funny because at one point Miles goes home and

(29:48):
like goes to bed, and he forgot that he left
Ivan there holding the bag, not allowed to like go
to bed and is very guilty. The next thing is
just like, oh yeah, you can, you can, you can
take off, man, it's fine, And it's just like, I'm
super glad that he can't see the fact that I
am at home right now. So he explains to Ivan

(30:14):
this says that I visited the evidence room and here's
the part. The entry desk log upstairs has been altered
to match. It lists me as having left the building
half an hour later than I really did. The security
records at Workosgen House still show the actual time of
my arrival, though, just enough time in the gap for

(30:35):
me to have taken a ground car home, except I
walked that day. Furthermore, and this is the cream, the
evidence room's internal VID monitor cartridge for that day was
found to be guess what missing? Got it in one? Why? Why? Indeed?
And he's like it could be unconnected and they're like hmm.

(31:00):
So they are going through all of these inventories to
see if anything has turned up missing, and Ivan winds
up having to go through the inventory physically one by
one to see if there's anything weird. For obvious reasons,

(31:21):
I can't do it myself. Somebody has planted a red
flag here with my name on it. If they wanted
my attention, they've certainly got it. Biologicals too, the cold
room too, all of it. What will I be looking
for if I knew that, we wouldn't have to do
an inventory, now, would we? What if instead of something

(31:43):
taken out, something was added. What if it's not a
lead you've got hold of, but a fuse, then I
trust you will stamp it out. And this is when
he goes to see Herosh and explains the timing of
everything in the way that he is. Obviously somebody is
trying to set him up. Let's see, I passed plenty

(32:08):
of people on the street, and I'm a bit more
memorable than the average man. Scrounging for witnesses ages after
the fact, the sort of thing the municipal Guard has
to do all the time, investigating their civil crimes. But
as we find out later, it's not necessary to do
this because after being frozen, his retinal scan changed, and

(32:30):
so the copy of the retinal scan that this person
used to access this area is actually from before he
was frozen. They didn't realize that it had changed, so
this gives a way that it wasn't Miles. There is
the possibility that Mark is involved. Of course Mark's not involved, Like,

(32:53):
it's just a given. Mark has nothing to do with this,
and if he does, I will never forgive you guys
for putting me through this. But he's not so at
this point, He's like, look, it's somebody on the inside,
and they just assume, of course, it's on the inside
of impsect itself in a very specific way, rather than

(33:15):
the tried and true, legendary method of a beautiful woman
who has winkled her way into pillow talk with somebody
valuable and useful. I mean, just the lack of imagination, okay,

(33:36):
And let's see, this thing is growing uglier all the time.
This is herosh I despise internal investigations. Even if you win,
you lose. But what I confess, I don't understand this
business with the evidence room. What do you make of it?
It looks like it's meant to be a frame, but
most frames come with pictures of them. This one's empty.

(33:59):
It's all very backwards. And later on he realizes the
way that it was supposed to happen is that they
would find the evidence first, and then they would go
back and look at the lugs, and they would find
Miles's name, and all of this would begin to seem
to paint a certain picture. But because it didn't go

(34:21):
in that order, and because of the fact that it's
like clearly Miles finding this stuff and being like somebody
figured this out, it's a combination of like it's all
happening out of order and out of sync. And this
person didn't expect Miles to be an auditor. They didn't

(34:41):
expect him to be in a position where he would
be heading the actual investigation. They thought they were just
framing some little shit who was actually by the time
that they set him up, I think he would have
been discharged that day that he had had his meeting
with Ili in at imsect that day. So either way,

(35:04):
they just weren't prepared for the actual stakes that were happening.
They thought this was going to be something else, and
life comes at you fast. You know, here it is.
I'm beginning to understand why Ilian always came out of
your debriefing swearing under his breath and then promptly turned
around and sent you out again in the stickiest assignments

(35:25):
he had. Thank you, General. So then we go to
chapter twenty three where Ivan finds the thing, and I
wanted to read this part out loud to make sure
that I was getting it, because on the first read
I was a little bit confused. So it says it
was in the fifth aisle of the second room he
tackled weapons for. He placed biologicals, poisons, and the cold

(35:49):
room last on his list for this very contingency and
the hope he might not have to do them at all.
Miles would have chosen to knock off the worst rooms first.
Sometimes he had to admit Ivan was not such an
idiot as he feigned, And honestly, I am so the
person that's like, let me get the worst part over with.
I would do the exact opposite as well. I would

(36:10):
definitely do the same thing as Miles. I would just
I just fucking would, I know. So Yeah, weirdly, good
for you, Ivan. It really is sort of like not
a great approach to life. A lot to do the
worst part first. Sometimes I think it actually helps, but
I think the majority of the time there's like a

(36:31):
sort of compulsion there that it winds up that you
have less energy for the thing that's supposed to give
you joy and that's not a great way to like
distribute your energy and attention. So you gotta stop and
think is doing the worst part first? Always the right call, Like,

(36:51):
you know, So, what's a little box labeled komarin virus
doing on Aisle five? I have shelf nine been twenty seven?
What the hell is it? And shouldn't it be in biologicals?
Did somebody misclassify it? I'm not unceiling the damn thing
till you find out what it is. It might make

(37:12):
me break out in green fungus or blowed up like
those poor suckers with the sergyarn worm plague, which is
so gross sounding. Ugh. And this is when he looks
through it and he realizes, oh, yeah, this isn't a virus.
This is a poptic prokaryote apoptotic. My god, I can't

(37:39):
say this words, guides. It's the thing, you know, it's
the thing. It was hidden in plain sight, buried in
an inventory of tens of thousands of other items. It
had been sitting here gmurely in bin twenty seven Shelf nine,
collecting dust for nearly five years, ever since the day

(38:00):
it was delivered to the IPSECT evidence room by an
officer from Comarin affairs. It had been picked up at
that time by Imperial counter Intelligence right here in Vorbosotana
on an arrest sweep of Comarin terrorist cells associated with
the late Sir Galen killed on Earth while trying to
launch his last complicated, dramatic and futile plot for bringing

(38:24):
down the Barry Iron Imperium and freeing comar the plot
for which Galen had created Myles's clone brother, Mark, Hi,
can we talk about lie up? Please? Oh my god?

(38:44):
How are you not seeing this? You guys? It's like
she's not a clone of anybody, but it's like the
same type of approach you know, of coming in and
trying to scoop in at the top like this. It's okay, okay, okay.

(39:07):
So the chip eating Procariot had indeed been made to
order and Jackson's Hole for the Kmaran terrorists by one
of the House's mine or more usually known for its
tailored drugs. Now, look, I'm gonna say it's certainly possible
the Comarans aren't behind this at all. It's a whole
other group of people. Yeah, well it's not. It's a Comarens, right, Okay,

(39:38):
Like it could be. It could be. It could be.
It could be. Yes, it could be, but I'm not
pursuing that. There's just you know, okay, So I came
at it in the wrong order. My ersatz visit here
was meant to be found inevitably, but wasn't meant to
be found first, and it if it can went the other way,

(40:02):
it would have been a much more convincing frame. The
machine blocked him and tried to take a message. Wettle
didn't care to have his beauty sleep interrupted, so Miles
has to send guys in and be like, pick him up,
buy the hair, and drag him in. I need to
talk to this man. And he is not shy about
just being like it is so early, dude, what are
you doing, but is essentially being set on this. He's

(40:26):
super mad that he just uh spent a week pouring
over what was going on with alien's chip just to
find out that there was a sample of the exact
thing right in evidence, which does make sense. They have
to use like a uh forensics guy to see whether

(40:47):
or not it's been open before, are there any things missing?
And there are two capsules missing, which really does concern
me a little bit, just like I'm wondering if there
is somebody else that I haven't thought of that the
capsules would the second one could be used on or

(41:09):
was it administered via a drink or something and they
had to use two capsules to get the higher dosage
like the doctor was talking about in the last section. Anyway,
let's see I and I want you to go with
this box to forensics. Don't let those wheels up there

(41:30):
try to sneak it out of your sight. What'll you
take one of those samples for a molecular analysis. I
want you to confirm it is the same crap you
fleshed out of alien's chip, and I want to know
anything else you can figure out about it. Don't leave
the building. You can have the same lab in the
clinic again, any supplies you care a requisition, but no one,
no one but you, is to touch the sample. And

(41:53):
then he goes back and reports to Herosh and they
start talking about who could possibly have access to all
of this. It narrows things down so much, and Miles
keeps talking about it as if it's one person, and
at one point Heroes's like, what makes you think it's
only one guy? And Miles is just like fu because

(42:14):
uh yeah, I mean I keep saying that it's Lisa,
and it may be that there's more than one person involved,
and it's Lisa and somebody, but she's the only one
that for me seems very obvious and isn't really being
looked at if there's another person involved, I can't imagine,
you know. The thing is, whenever you write a mystery,

(42:38):
there's always a kind of tricky thing that has to
happen where you need there to be somebody who winds
up part of things, either the actual killer or a
very important side player who isn't really garnering all that
much attention throughout the narrative, so that when it's finally

(42:59):
revealed they're the person, it feels like a real shock.
The problem with this kind of thing is that if
you have read enough mysteries or watched enough mystery shows,
you know they play it that way, and so half
the time you can clock who the killer is going
to be just by the way they're written in the scene,
even if you haven't put together their motives or their

(43:20):
method or anything. And I'm trying to think of a
suitably in the mix but side character person that could
be at all related and Douve Glenny would work, but
I just don't believe it's him. The other person that
keeps coming up who I really I want to preface

(43:42):
this by saying I do not believe this either, But
if a different writer we're handling this, Martin might be
the guy. You know, he is somebody who is around
a lot. He knows Miles's movement, season charge of his transportation,
and really is like the main Before his mom came

(44:04):
home and brought all of that Personnelt with her, he
was like the one guy keeping an eye on things,
and potentially he could have been in the you know,
like doing something. But I just it's certainly not Martin,
like bless him. I'm trying to think of anybody else,
and I'm like, it just gets wilder and wilder, like

(44:24):
Lady Alice herself, which I don't believe for a moment either.
I already mentioned how I had a second of suspecting Heroche,
and it could be. It could be like if Heroche
were working with Lisa. I wouldn't hate it, but I
would be disappointed, just because I have grown to sort

(44:47):
of like him. Now, Yeah, there's not really another person
that I can think of that would work for this
and feel like it made sense at least nobody that
I can think of right now. Maybe doctor Wettell himself,
but he doesn't. I don't see him wanting any more
drama in his life. Weddle wants to rest on his

(45:09):
laurels and have his lab and do his science things
and just get to enjoy his work. And I don't
feel like he'd be involved in some shit like this
right now, at this stage in his life, after finally
getting out of Jackson's hole. Yeah, no, I can't think
of anybody, so we'll see. Okay, this is when Mark

(45:33):
is brought up as a possibility, But like, I am
just out of hand dismissing Mark. And then why are
you assuming it's only one man? Oh Miles deflated? Right,
thank you? Not that I wouldn't prefer it that way.
I'd much rather find myself dealing with one than a conspiracy,
but one man or a group. The motivation is growing complex.

(45:55):
Why me? Why was I picked to be the goat?
Is there some special hatred at the bottom of this
or was it chance? Was I simply the only IMPSECT
officer to be cashiered in the right time window. And
this is the thing, is there is the possibility that
this then could have killed Ilien, But I really don't

(46:16):
think that was what was intended, And I could see
it being somebody targeting Miles specifically. He even thinks about
if it's Vorburg. Has Vorburg figured out I'm the guy
who cut his legs off and so he is deciding
to get back at me. But he's just like, this
is so intricate, like no, and there is something so

(46:38):
personal about going after Ilien and framing Miles. And like
I said, the timing, as I understand it, is that
Miles had just been discharged. So if that's true, it
would be a perfect little motive of just petty revenge,

(46:59):
which anybody who knows Miles would know that's not how
he would handle things. But if you don't or if
you don't like him, you'll think the worst of him.
So it could very potentially be And I don't know, man,
I'm trying to think, is it possible that Lisa is

(47:22):
somebody else that we've met and we're just not recognizing her?
But there really is no flicker of that from Miles.
There's even like, could it be that no, I was
going to say, could it be that somebody destroyed Ilien's

(47:44):
chip just because there is a memory in there and
they need to infiltrate this place and be sure he
won't remember their face, and so they are destroying his
chip to give themselves access to place. Is with the
confidence that he doesn't have his little database of memories

(48:06):
to look at. But he had already met Lisa. So
I don't feel like that timing works if it's her
trying to hide who she is from him and there's
no other like, as far as we know, there's no
other servant or anybody that she's brought with her to
the palace that is starting to like weasel their way

(48:29):
and meddle or anything like that, you know, so they
that's probably not it. So let's see, h three days.
You went through all of IMPSEC in just three days,
not all just the headquarters building, and it was more
like four days. Still, somebody must be squirming, I hope

(48:53):
if they meant to hook ex Lieutenant Vurkos again and
instead got Lord Auditor Vorkos again, it must have felt
like putting in your line for trout and pulling up
a shark. And yeah, the idea that they were hoping
maybe this could have taken as long as like six
weeks for them to start to piece together, and that
they have done it this quickly is kind of delightful
that they just the rapidity of the investigation, plus Miles

(49:17):
now being an auditor, oh boy, a lot of things
that just took a turn. And this is when he says,
you've made extraordinary progress. I have cracked cases which started
with far less data than what you've uncovered. It's good,
solid work. Miles tried not to be too pleased with
Horochio's measured praise, though he felt his face warm anyway.

(49:41):
Haroche was such a contained man. His brief words were
clearly the meaningful sort men might strive to win. Surely
it was not disloyal to alien to hope his successor
might yet grow to fill his place. Not the same,
but as well, it's a shame, Haroche sighed this. So
many men and impsec are fast pentaproofed, and I had

(50:04):
forgotten all about fast penta at this point. But yeah,
that allergy thing that they've installed it, as we find
out later in Dove Glenny as well, so we can't
use it on him either, which is kind of hilarious.
So Miles goes home and sees his mom, and this

(50:26):
is when she tells him to knock on the door
that explained the book Lady Alice had delivered it. He
wondered what piece of Warish history she was making poor
Ilien read herself. That's what she's making him read. And
it takes a minute. He comes in. He does the

(50:47):
whole like, oh, I don't know if I should say this,
Oh my god, And so Miles reports finally, and Miles says,
do you remember anything about the time that sample was
brought into during the thwarting of the last Komarin Fling?
And Ilian is just able to piece together like Sir

(51:08):
Galen's plot, and then Lord Mark turning up, I remember
your report from Earth, a masterpiece of its literary genre.
That sector for adventure where you smash both your arms
was right after that, right, yes, But surely someone must
have reported on the PROCARYO to you. I can see

(51:29):
why you might not have risked inspecting it in person.
I'm sure someone did. They doubtless gave me all the details,
and I doubtless put them where I always put the details.
But there's nothing left now Lady Alice frowned in irritation
at Miles, as if it were somehow all his fault. Again,

(51:49):
the fact that he's not clocking it. She's protective of him, like,
come on, dude, catch up. He thinks General Diamant should
have given him the report died just two years after
he retired. Hmm, wonder about that. Might be nothing, might
be a coincidence, might be something. Who knows. And this

(52:15):
is when Ilian brings up Douve Glenny, and basically Miles
is like, it's not him, and Alien has to be like, bro,
I know that you like this guy, but you've got
to come at this objectively, look at what it looks like.
And Miles is like, yeah, okay, I not only have

(52:39):
to be impartial, I have to appear. So you taught
me that one, he added, rather nastily, in a way
I'm not likely to forget I did when Ilien the

(53:00):
way that he Oh my god, all of these men
are so smart and so fucking dumb. Oh Jesus God,
so two capsules missing. He hasn't taken any men's except
what's been given to him by his doctor with his
own hands, which is possible that he did a thing,
but like again unlikely, and he winds up going to bed,

(53:28):
and he wakes up to get ready uh, and is
interrupted by doctor Chenko telling him like, oh, hey, we
have a thing ready for you to install in your
brain to help with your seizures. Can you get here tomorrow?
We could just get it done. And of course it's
really not a good time. And he says something at

(53:51):
one point about like avoid stress, which any doctor who
tells people to avoid stress, I instantly want to bitch slap, like, uh,
thank you, yes, great, I'll do that. Oh my god,
shut up, and let's see. Uh. He calls Delia for

(54:15):
a date, and let's see, what are you doing tonight?
I'm rather busy? Why do you ask? Oh? I As
soon as she says I'm busy, I'm like somebody already
asked her. And I was surprised that he didn't kind
of ask, oh, what are you up to? You know,
I like that he doesn't ask what you're up to?

(54:36):
Because personally, if somebody says I have plans, that should
be the end of it and they shouldn't need to
explain themselves. I think that, like, it's understandable that some
people just show interest but it can come across as
like give me your excuse so that I can try
and poke holes in it or find a time that
would work. And I don't respect your boundaries, but I

(55:00):
was thinking that he would get it, and he says
is Marchia in she's busy tonight too, and Olivia hurt too.
Ah well, thanks anyway, whatever for she cut the calm
that honestly cracked me up a little bit. That she
was just like, Okay, it's hard to get used to

(55:22):
not having alien at my backside. Gregor the Lortala's doing
a fine job, he added hastily. Try not to look
so grim even without your auditor's chain. It will make
people curious what we've been up to, and then we'll
both have to spend the rest of the evening trying
to squelch gossip. And let's see. The Countess shows up

(55:44):
and she says, Alice, now that her proper escort is here,
why don't you let me play baba for a while.
You ought to relax and enjoy yourself at one of
these things for a change. A slight inclination of her head.
Myles followed the nod to notice Ilien quite sharp in
dark and unusually well cut civilian style tunic and trousers,

(56:06):
and this is fine. I was like, oh my god, Miles,
if you don't clock this at this point, I am
absolutely giving up on you. And he finally starts to
He first notices, hey, Aliens clothes are nicer, and his
mom is like, yeah, she got him to go to

(56:26):
a tailor. She's been killing herself over how bad his
clothes are for a while. And let's see. It takes
a minute here, Oh, this is what I forgot. Even here,
it's not quite when when he puts it together. It's
a little bit later. Ivan has Marcia Kudelka, who is

(56:48):
highly aware that Ivan keeps looking over at Delia and
is like, can you you asked me? And he's like,
but I asked her first. Bro Oh my god. It's
just so insensitive. I know that, Like we've talked about
Ivan being smarter than he acts, but then he does

(57:12):
shit like this, and I'm like, are you? Every man
is being dense as fuck in this book. I'm going
to be so glad when Delia finally picks someone and
moves out. I'm getting as tired of handing me down
men as I am of hand me down clothes, and

(57:34):
Myles bows over her hand and kisses it. And this
is the only thing that gets Ivan to like pay
any attention. Sorry, he apologized, but his eyes shifted left
for one more surreptitious glance. Myles looked too, and spotted
the bright blonde head at once. Delia Kudelka was seated
on one of the little sofas next to dub Glenny.

(57:54):
They were apparently sharing the plate of orders balanced on
Gilenny's knee. The dark head and the blue bent together
for a moment. Then Delia laughed. Glenny's long teeth flashed
and one of his more saturnine smiles. Glenny's knee was
touching Delia's. Miles noted with unexpectedly keen interest. I really

(58:17):
noted that he had said earlier, how yes, Elisa smiles
around him, but isn't actually laughing. Ever, there isn't a
sense of play, and so we're definitely getting that here.

(58:39):
Let's see, how long has this been going on, Miles
asked Marcia. Delia told our Dah a month ago that
Dove was going to be the one she likes doves style.
She says, I think he's all right for an old fellow.
I have style, two, Miles pointed out, one all your own.
Marcia agreed blandly. When did old Dove find out Delia's

(59:05):
working on it? Some fellows you have to hit with
a brick to get their attention. Some you have to
hit with a big brick. You think everybody here. So
Ivan comes back, he's got drinks. Miles gazed. Miles grazed

(59:25):
for a time on the orders and became keenly aware
his failure to pack along his own partner left him
odd man out and not the only one. And this
is when he notices Ilian dancing, and Ivan is like, god, damn,
I didn't even know he could dance. And Miles is like, yeah,
at least not that well. I've never seen him do

(59:47):
anything like this. I guess he's always, you know, been
working before. A wisp of hair escaped Lady Alice's elaborate
beflowered coiffure, and she brushed it back for her forehead.
The image of her En de Cheville at breakfast burst
in Miles memory, and he had the sudden sensation of

(01:00:09):
being hit with a big brick. Good God, Alien sleeping
with my aunt. Fucking Finally, and then he thinks I
will let Ivan figure this one out for himself, which, honestly,
I'm kind of amazed that Ilien hasn't figured or that
Ivan hasn't figured it out, because Ivan has just got

(01:00:32):
so much experience. I would think he would see the signs.
But I guess it's just Ivan has been a non
I say, keep mixing their names up. Sorry, Ilien has
been so like sexless for so long that they just
don't see him in that light at all, you know. So,

(01:00:54):
Miles this is when he goes to speak to Dove
and is like, yeah, I started to come tonight, and
she said she was already busy. Are you trying to
get back at me? I couldn't believe the nerve. I
really couldn't, guys. It was just so like and I
was really pleased. I don't pretend I'm above a little revenge,

(01:01:19):
but I'm an honorable man. I asked her first if
she thought you were serious about her. She said no,
And that's exactly it. I never felt Miles was at
all serious about her. He found her lovely and fun
to be around, but there was no interest, not really.
She was just sort of there as his backup whenever

(01:01:42):
he needed a body, and this being sort of thrown
in his face in a way that it's thrown in
Glenny's face. Rightfully, It's kind of fun to see these
dudes who just seemed very complacent about women, thinking that
they've got a thing all sewn up when they haven't
really put the effort in finding out. These bitches have

(01:02:07):
options other than you, actually, and they have their own
thoughts on the matter, and they're drawing their own conclusions
based on your behavior, and you're slow and unexciting, and
they don't like you. I just I just kind of
enjoy this Glenny smile. Let's see, he says, are you

(01:02:30):
serious about her? Deathly? Glenny breathed his smile for a moment,
utterly gone from his eyes. Miles almost recoiled. G Lenny
blinked and continued more lightly. With her background and connection,
she'd make a superb political hostess. Don't you think the
slow smile widened the brains and beauty don't hurt either,

(01:02:53):
No fortune, Miles pointed out. Glenny shrugged. I can do
something about that myself if I put my mind to it.
And this moment when he says deathly, I think it's
like meant to be a little bit of a moment
to make us feel more suspicious of him, and the
fact that his smile is gone from his eyes. I

(01:03:17):
don't know how I'm supposed to take that as like,
is it threatening? The way I interpreted it was more
this is Miles asking are you serious, and Gilenny remembering
what happened when he wasn't serious enough and being like, yeah,
I fucking am in a sort of back off. You

(01:03:38):
know what I'm saying. That was the way I interpreted it,
but I'm not sure if that was the way I
was meant to see it. And then Myles asks, I
can put in a good word for you, and Dov
is like, no offense, but don't fucking involve yourself in
my love life ever again, which is completely fair. So

(01:04:00):
let's see. Uh, Miles goes into the back room and
he's looking, you know, he's just there's nobody to distract
him from what's been going on. So he keeps thinking
through all of the data that he has come up
with in this investigation. He eventually dances with Lisa a
little bit. Uh. He caught a glimpse of Glenny through
the arch doors into the reception room, an insect colonel

(01:04:23):
and two enlisted guards and ordinary undressed greens had accost
at him and they're clearly trying to grip him up,
and Miles runs over and is like, hey, what's going
on here? And they want to see him. They want
to bring him to see herosh right away, and Miles
is basically like, can we take it out of the

(01:04:44):
fucking dancing room please, But as soon as they get
out of that space, they start to treat him with
even more violence and really like go at him, trying
to jam him against the wall, and Miles has to
be like, yo, better, it is unnecessary. What are you doing?
And Glenny had been a millisecond from laying into one

(01:05:05):
of them and really would have fucked himself if he
had started to attack these guys. So it's a blessing
that Myles is here. And they tell him that Haroche
is on his way and that this is a charge
of treason. So Miles is like, Okay, I hate this, dude,
but you really should probably just go quietly and I

(01:05:29):
will figure out what the fuck is going on. And
Countess Forekostigin just watched one arm crossed over her Torso
the other hand to her mouth, what's going on? Miles?
Do something? I don't know when I bloody should know.
Glenny's just been arrested by IMPSEC on some big charge.

(01:05:50):
He stole a glance at Lisa, softening this for her sake,
that it's so disrespectful, it's so it's so infantilizing. Oh
my god, you think she can't handle hearing what it
really is. She's gonna have to deal with a lot
as Empress Bro if this were to happen, which I

(01:06:12):
hope it doesn't because she's a liar. I just so,
here comes Horoshe and Gregor, along with Myles Is Like,
I am going to need a really good explanation. Why
you just arrested Bro at my fucking party. Dude, this

(01:06:33):
doesn't look good. He's clearly fuming, even though he's keeping
it very strictly under control. And here is the moment.
My first priority had to be the physical removal of
Captain Glinny. Everything else, including explanations, could wait. He glanced
at the women and meaningfully away, So they're sent off, Cordelia.

(01:07:00):
I'll explain the system to you, Lisa. It's really stupid,
but it can be made to work, which, come to
think of it could also sum up a great many
other board customs. And she says, we have to repair damage,
and she's like how, and Cordelia says, lie dear. So
they go into this side room and Haroche says, look,

(01:07:28):
we found out you are definitely cleared because your cryo
revival caused a change in your retina scan. My team says,
the evidence room com console record had to have been
altered by a mole program Glenny physically inserted via its
red slot. That machine is one of the isolated ones.
There was no other way, Glenny or someone. Miles corrected,

(01:07:53):
Haroche shrugged, That's not how we tagged Glenny. The other
point of attack I turned them loose on was, of course,
the building's own admittance log. And this is when it's
really narrowed down to his actual com console and Miles
keeps trying to insist he would never He isn't like,

(01:08:14):
he doesn't have anything against anybody, And it turns out
that they monitor the com console in Miles's house and
he wasn't aware of this. So they have the whole
conversation where Dove called him a smarmy goddamn little pimp
and started like shitting all over vore culture and basically

(01:08:37):
shitting on Barrier in general. And Miles is like, yeah,
but he didn't say any of that behind my back.
If he was going to betray us, he wouldn't let
me know that he was feeling like this. Also, this
is the first that Gregor is hearing Glenny had any
interest in Lisa and is feeling a little guilty about that.

(01:08:59):
And you know, I'm over here just like Lisa. It's
all she had access because she was seeing him. You know,
this is just keeps coming up for me. But there
is a lot circumstantially that makes it look bad for Gillinny.
And Miles says, I want to review this, and Hero says,

(01:09:20):
please do sleep on it, and if you can find
anything in it that I haven't, let me know. And
I just really liked Haroche not taking any offense at
the fact that Miles wants to double check his work.
It's fully like, yes, I want that, do it. And
it's just such a turnaround from the attitude that he

(01:09:40):
had had toward Miles before. It's really really great to see.
And Miles is deciding what to do if he went
back to the party, he'd be jumped by women demanding
explanations and action, neither of which he could offer right now. Yeah,
but here's the thing. If you guys involved women in
the fucking conversation, you wouldn't have to be the mouthpiece

(01:10:05):
later on. So I don't feel fucking sorry for you, dude. Anyway,
he decides to head home and has a seizure on
the way, and when he comes to, he's got plund
in his mouth, and Martin is freaking the fuck out
because he didn't know whether he had been shot, like

(01:10:26):
there was some other injury that he didn't know about,
and he wanted desperately to go on to MSEC HQ.
He'd promised Glenny, but he hadn't properly reviewed the new
data and the team of men he'd want to question
about it when he had were undoubtedly gone home to
a well earned night's rest. The military medical people were

(01:10:48):
all too write the stress triggered aspect of the damn
caesars virtually guaranteed they would always occur at the most
inconvenient possible moment. Unfit for duty, indeed, any duty unfit.
I hate this home, Martin, he sighed, and that is

(01:11:09):
the end of the chapter. And if you don't think
I am going to hang up on you all and
immediately put my AirPods back in, you are mistaken. I
know I'm not going to be at the end of
the book yet. There's two more episodes for Memory, but
I need to know, I need to know. I gotta
got something, I gotta know more, so I'm gonna wrap

(01:11:33):
this up. I went over time, but I also had
to go chase my dog in the middle of this.
So if you're if you weren't here for the live,
you missed that excitement. But uh, you know, if you know,
you know. So thank you to either Macan or Vicky.
Appreciate you both very much, and thank you everybody who
came today. Until next time to the Loom motherfuckers. That

(01:12:26):
was an Unspoiled Network podcast.