The door opposite the Duke banged open. Thufir Hawat strode through it looking older and more leathery than ever. He paced down the length of the table, stopped at attention facing Leto.
"My Lord," he said, speaking to a point over Leto's head, "I have just learned how I failed you. It becomes necessary that I tender my resig--"
"Oh, sit down and stop acting the fool," the Duke said. He waved to the chair across from Paul. "If you made a mistake, it was in overestimating the Harkonnens. Their simple minds came up with a simple trick. We didn't count on simple tricks. And my son has been at great pains to point out to me that he came through this largely because of your training. You didn't fail there!" He tapped the back of the empty chair. "Sit down, I say!"
Hawat sank into the chair. "But--"
"I'll hear no more of it," the Duke said. "The incident is past. We have more pressing business. Where are the others?"
"I asked them to wait outside while I--"
"Call them in."
Hawat looked into Leto's eyes. "Sire, I--"
"I know who my true friends are, Thufir," the Duke said. "Call in the men."
Hawat swallowed. "At once, my Lord." He swiveled in the chair, called to the open door: "Gurney, bring them in."
Halleck led the file of men into the room, the staff officers looking grimly serious followed by the younger aides and specialists, an air of eagerness among them. Brief scuffing sounds echoed around the room as the men took seats. A faint smell of rachag stimulant wafted down the table.
"There's coffee for those who want it," the Duke said.
He looked over his men, thinking: They're a good crew. A man could do far worse for this kind of war. He waited while coffee was brought in from the adjoining room and served, noting the tiredness in some of the faces.
Presently, he put on his mask of quiet efficiency, stood up and commanded their attention with a knuckle rap against the table.
"Well, gentlemen," he said, "our civilization appears to've fallen so deeply into the habit of invasion that we cannot even obey a simple order of the Imperium without the old ways cropping up."
Dry chuckles sounded around the table, and Paul realized that his father had said the precisely correct thing in precisely the correct tone to lift the mood here. Even the hint of fatigue in his voice was right.
"I think first we'd better learn if Thufir has anything to add to his report on the Fremen," the Duke said. "Thufir?"
Hawat glanced up. "I've some economic matters to go into after my general report, Sire, but I can say now that the Fremen appear more and more to be the allies we need. They're waiting now to see if they can trust us, but they appear to be dealing openly. They've sent us a gift--stillsuits of their own manufacture ... maps of certain desert areas surrounding strongpoints the Harkonnens left behind...." He glanced down at the table."Their intelligence reports have proved completely reliable and have helped us considerably in our dealings with the Judge of the Change. They've also sent some incidental things--jewelry for the Lady Jessica, spice liquor, candy, medicinals. My men are processing the lot right now. There appears to be no trickery."
"You like these people, Thufir?" asked a man down the table.
Hawat turned to face his questioner. "Duncan Idaho says they're to be admired."
Paul glanced at his father, back to Hawat, ventured a question: "Have you any new information on how many Fremen there are?"
Hawat looked at Paul. "From food processing and other evidence, Idaho estimates the cave complex he visited consisted of some ten thousand people, all told. Their leader said he ruled a sietch of two thousand hearths. We've reason to believe there are a great many such sietch communities. All seem to give their allegiance to someone called Liet."
"That's something new," Leto said.
"It could be an error on my part, Sire. There are things to suggest this Liet may be a local diety."
Another man down the table cleared his throat, asked: "Is it certain they deal with the smugglers?"
"A smuggler caravan left this sietch while Idaho was there, carrying a heavy load of spice. They used pack beasts and indicated they faced an eighteen-day journey."
"It appears," the Duke said, "that the smugglers have redoubled their operations during this period of unrest. This deserves some careful thought. We shouldn't worry too much about unlicensed frigates working off our planet--it's always done. But to have them completely outside our observation--that's not good."
"You have a plan, Sire," Hawat asked.
The Duke looked at Halleck. "Gurney, I want you to head a delegation, an embassy if you will, to contact these romantic businessmen. Tell them I'll ignore their operations as long as they give me a ducal tithe. Hawat here estimates that graft and extra fighting men heretofore required in their operations have been costing them four times that amount."
"What if the Emperor gets wind of this?" Halleck asked. "He's very jealous of his CHOAM profits, m'Lord."
Leto smiled. "We'll bank the entire tithe openly in the name of Shaddam IV and deduct it legally from our levy support costs. Let the Harkonnens fight that! And we'll be ruining a few more of the locals who grew fat under the Harkonnen system. No more graft!"
A grin twisted Halleck's face. "Ahh, m'Lord, a beautiful low blow. Would that I could see the Baron's face when he learns of this."
The Duke turned to Hawat. "Thufir, did you get those account books you said you could buy?"
"Yes, my Lord. They're being examined in detail even now. I've skimmed them, though, and can give a first approximation."
"Give it, then."
"The Harkonnens took ten billion solaris out of here every three hundred and thirty Standard days."
A muted gasp ran around the table. Even the younger aides, who had been betraying some boredom, sat up straighter and exchanged wide-eyed looks.
Halleck murmured: "'For they shall suck of the abundance of the seas and of the treasure hid in the sand.' "
"You see, gentlemen," Leto said. "Is there anyone here so naive he believes the Harkonnens have quietly packed up and walked away from all this merely because the Emperor ordered it?"
There was a general shaking of heads, murmurous agreement.
"We will have to take it at the point of the sword," Leto said. He turned to Hawat. "This'd be a good point to report on equipment. How many sandcrawlers, harvesters, spice factories, and supporting equipment have they left us?"
"A full complement, as it says in the Imperial inventory audited by the Judge of the Change, my Lord," Hawat said. He gestured for an aide to pass him a folder, opened the folder on the table in front of him. "They neglect to mention that less than half the crawlers are operable, that only about a third have carryalls to fly them to spice sands--that everything the Harkonnens left us is ready to break down and fall apart. We'll be lucky to get half the equipment into operation and luckier yet if a fourth of it's still working six months from now."
"Pretty much as we expected," Leto said. "What's the firm estimate on basic equipment?"
Hawat glanced at his folder. "About nine hundred and thirty harvester-factories that can be sent out in a few days. About sixty-two hundred and fifty ornithopters for survey, scouting, and weather observation ... carryalls, a little under a thousand."
Halleck said: "Wouldn't it be cheaper to reopen negotiations with the Guild for permission to orbit a frigate as a weather satellite?"
The Duke looked at Hawat. "Nothing new there, eh, Thufir?"
"We must pursue other avenues for now," Hawat said. "The Guild agent wasn't really negotiating with us. He was merely making it plain--one Mentat to another--that the price was out of our reach and would remain so no matter how long a reach we develop. Our task is to find out why before we approach him again."
One of Halleck's aides down the table swiveled in his chair, snapped: "There's no justice in this!"
"Justice?" The Duke looked at the man. "Who asks for justice? We make our own justice. We make it here on Ar
rakis--win or die. Do you regret casting your lot with us, sir?"
The man stared at the Duke, then: "No, Sire. You couldn't turn and I could do nought but follow you. Forgive the outburst, but...." He shrugged. "... we must all feel bitter at times."
"Bitterness I understand," the Duke said. "But let us not rail about justice as long as we have arms and the freedom to use them. Do any of the rest of you harbor bitterness? If so, let it out. This is friendly council where any man may speak his mind."
Halleck stirred, said: "I think what rankles, Sire, is that we've had no volunteers from the other Great Houses. They address you as 'Leto the Just' and promise eternal friendship, but only as long as it doesn't cost them anything."
"They don't know yet who's going to win this exchange," the Duke said. "Most of the Houses have grown fat by taking few risks. One cannot truly blame them for this; one can only despise them." He looked at Hawat. "We were discussing equipment. Would you care to project a few examples to familiarize the men with this machinery?"
Hawat nodded, gestured to an aide at the projector.
A solido tri-D projection appeared on the table surface about a third of the way down from the Duke. Some of the men farther along the table stood up to get a better look at it.
Paul leaned forward, staring at the machine.
Scaled against the tiny projected human figures around it, the thing was about one hundred and twenty meters long and about forty meters wide. It was basically a long, buglike body moving on independent sets of wide tracks.
"This is a harvester factory," Hawat said. "We chose one in good repair for this projection. There's one dragline outfit that came in with the first team of Imperial ecologists, though, and it's still running ... although I don't know how ... or why."
"If that's the one they call 'Old Maria,' it belongs in a museum," an aide said. "I think the Harkonnens kept it as a punishment job, a threat hanging over their workers' heads. Be good or you'll be assigned to Old Maria."
Chuckles sounded around the table.
Paul held himself apart from the humor, his attention focused on the projection and the question that filled his mind. He pointed to the image on the table, said: "Thufir, are there sandworms big enough to swallow that whole?"
Quick silence settled on the table. The Duke cursed under his breath, then thought: No--they have tofacethe realities here.
"There're worms in the deep desert could take this entire factory in one gulp," Hawat said. "Up here closer to the Shield Wall where most of the spicing's done there are plenty of worms that could cripple this factory and devour it at their leisure."
"Why don't we shield them?" Paul asked.
"According to Idaho's report," Hawat said, "shields are dangerous in the desert. A body-size shield will call every worm for hundreds of meters around. It appears to drive them into a killing frenzy. We've the Fremen word on this and no reason to doubt it. Idaho saw no evidence of shield equipment at the sietch."
"None at all?" Paul asked.
"It'd be pretty hard to conceal that kind of thing among several thousand people," Hawat said. "Idaho had free access to every part of the sietch. He saw no shields or any indication of their use."
"It's a puzzle," the Duke said.
"The Harkonnens certainly used plenty of shields here," Hawat said. "They had repair depots in every garrison village, and their accounts show a heavy expenditure for shield replacements and parts."
"Could the Fremen have a way of nullifying shields?" Paul asked.
"It doesn't seem likely," Hawat said. "It's theoretically possible, of course--a shire-sized static counter charge is supposed to do the trick, but no one's ever been able to put it to the test."
"We'd have heard about it before now," Halleck said. "The smugglers have close contact with the Fremen and would've acquired such a device if it were available. And they'd have had no inhibitions against marketing it off planet."
"I don't like an unanswered question of this importance," Leto said. "Thufir, I want you to give top priority to solution of this problem."
"We're already working on it, my Lord." He cleared his throat. "Ah-h, Idaho did say one thing: he said you couldn't mistake the Fremen attitude toward shields. He said they were mostly amused by them."
The Duke frowned, then: "The subject under discussion is spicing equipment."
Hawat gestured to his aide at the projector.
The solido-image of the harvester-factory was replaced by a projection of a winged device that dwarfed the images of human figures around it. "This is a carryall," Hawat said. "It's essentially a large 'thopter, whose sole function is to deliver a factory to spice-rich sands, then to rescue the factory when a sandworm appears. They always appear. Harvesting the spice is a process of getting in and getting out with as much as possible."
"Admirably suited to Harkonnen morality," the Duke said.
Laughter was abrupt and too loud.
An ornithopter replaced the carryall in the projection focus.
"These 'thopters are fairly conventional," Hawat said. "Major modifications give them extended range. Extra care has been used in sealing essential areas against sand and dust. Only about one in thirty is shielded--possibly discarding the shield generator's weight for greater range."
"I don't like this de-emphasis on shields," the Duke muttered. And he thought: Is this the Harkonnen secret? Does it mean we won't even be able to escape on shielded frigates if all goes against us? He shook his head sharply to drive out such thoughts, said: "Let's get to the working estimate. What'll our profit figure be?"
Hawat turned two pages in his notebook. "After assessing the repairs and operable equipment, we've worked out a first estimate on operating costs. It's based naturally on a depreciated figure for a clear safety margin." He closed his eyes in Mentat semitrance, said: "Under the Harkonnens, maintenance and salaries were held to fourteen per cent. We'll be lucky to make it at thirty per cent at first. With reinvestment and growth factors accounted for, including the CHOAM percentage and military costs, our profit margin will be reduced to a very narrow six or seven per cent until we can replace worn-out equipment. We then should be able to boost it up to twelve or fifteen per cent where it belongs." He opened his eyes. "Unless my Lord wishes to adopt Harkonnen methods."
"We're working for a solid and permanent planetary base," the Duke said. "We have to keep a large percentage of the people happy--especially the Fremen."
"Most especially the Fremen," Hawat agreed.
"Our supremacy on Caladan," the Duke said, "depended on sea and air power. Here, we must develop something I choose to call desert power. This may include air power, but it's possible it may not. I call your attention to the lack of 'thopter shields." He shook his head. "The Harkonnens relied on turnover from off planet for some of their key personnel. We don't dare. Each new lot would have its quota of provocateurs."
"Then we'll have to be content with far less profit and a reduced harvest," Hawat said. "Our output the first two seasons should be down a third from the Harkonnen average."
"There it is," the Duke said, "exactly as we expected. "We'll have to move fast with the Fremen. I'd like five full battalions of Fremen troops before the first CHOAM audit."
"That's not much time, Sire," Hawat said.
"We don't have much time, as you well know. They'll be here with Sardaukar disguised as Harkonnens at the first opportunity. How many do you think they'll ship in, Thufir?"
"Four or five battalions all told, Sire. No more, Guild troop-transport costs being what they are."
"Then five battalions of Fremen plus our own forces ought to do it. Let us have a few captive Sardaukar to parade in front of the Landsraad Council and matters will be much different--profits or no profits."
"We'll do our best, Sire."
Paul looked at his father, back to Hawat, suddenly conscious of the Mentat's great age, aware that the old man had served three generations of Atreides. Aged. It showed in the rheumy shine of the brow
n eyes, in the cheeks cracked and burned by exotic weathers, in the rounded curve of the shoulders and the thin set of his lips with the cranberry-colored stain of sapho juice.
So much depends on one aged man, Paul thought.
"We're presently in a war of assassins," the Duke said, "but it has not achieved full scale. Thufir, what's the condition of the Harkonnen machine here?"
"We've eliminated two hundred and fifty-nine of their key people, my Lord. No more than three Harkonnen cells remain--perhaps a hundred people in all."
"These Harkonnen creatures you eliminated," the Duke said, "were they propertied?"
"Most were well situated, my Lord--in the entrepreneur class."
"I want you to forge certificates of allegiance over the signatures of each of them," the Duke said. "File copies with the Judge of the Change. We'll take the legal position that they stayed under false allegiance. Confiscate their property, take everything, turn out their families, strip them. And make sure the Crown gets its ten per cent. It must be entirely legal."
Thufir smiled, revealing red-stained teeth beneath the carmine lips. "A move worthy of your grandsire, my Lord. It shames me I didn't think of it first."
Halleck frowned across the table, noticing a deep scowl on Paul's face. The others were smiling and nodding.
It's wrong, Paul thought. This'll only make the others fight all the harder. They've nothing to gain by surrendering.
He knew the actual no-holds-barred convention that ruled in kanly, but this was the sort of move that could destroy them even as it gave them victory.
" 'I have been a stranger in a strange land,' " Halleck quoted.
Paul stared at him, recognizing the quotation from the O.C. Bible, wondering: Does Gurney, too, wish an end to devious plots?
The Duke glanced at the darkness out the windows, looked back at Halleck. "Gurney, how many of those sandworkers did you persuade to stay with us?"
"Two hundred eighty-six in all, Sire. I think we should take them and consider ourselves lucky. They're all in useful categories."
"No more?" The Duke pursed his lips, then: "Well, pass the word along to--"
A disturbance at the door interrupted him. Duncan Idaho came through the guard there, hurried down the length of the table and bent over the Duke's ear.
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