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"All right!" Idaho barked "Out with it What&039;re you withholding? You know better than to deny the data and still expect nificant increase in trade for people with four specific specialties," Alia said And she wondered if this would be truly new information for this pair "Which specialties?" Irulan asked
"Swordmasters, twisted mentats from Tleilax, conditioned medics from the Suk school, and fincap accountants,be in deht now?" She directed the question at Idaho
Function as aon what Alia had beco them in his mindonce Swordhters They could repair force shields, plan n military support facilities, improvise weapons Twisted mentats? The Tleilaxu persisted in this hoax, obviously As a ile insecurity of Tleilaxu twisting Great Houses which bought such mentats hoped to control them absolutely Impossible! Even Piter de Vries, who&039;d served the Harkonnens in their assault on House Atreides, haddeath rather than surrender his inner core of selfdouaranteed theainst disloyalty to their owner-patients Suk doctors came very expensive Increased purchase of Suks would involve substantial exchanges of funds
Idaho weighed these facts against an increase in fincap accountants
"Prihted assurance that he spoke of inductive fact "There&039;s been a recent increase in wealth a quietly toward Great House status Such wealth could only conments"
"We co her own belief
"The next Landsraad session is almost two standard years away," Irulan re never ceases," Alia said "And I&039;ll warrant soestured at the paper beside Irulan "- are anment"
"Perhaps," Irulan said
"The Landsraad," Alia said "What better front for the Bene Gesserits? And what better agent for the Sisterhood than my own mother?" Alia planted herself directly in front of Idaho "Well, Duncan?"
Why not function as a mentat? Idaho asked himself He saw the tenor of Alia&039;s suspicions now After all, Duncan Idaho had been personal house guard to the Lady Jessica for many years
"Duncan?" Alia pressed
"You should inquire closely after any advisory legislation which may be under preparation for the next session of the Landsraad," Idaho said "They ency can&039;t veto certain kinds of legislation - specifically, adjust of cartels There are others, but"
"Not a very good pragmatic bet on their part if they take that position," Irulan said
"I agree," Alia said "The Sardaukar have no teeth and we still have our Freions"
"Careful, Alia," Idaho said "Our ene better than to ions you command, power ultimately rides on popular sufferance in an empire as scattered as this one"
"Popular sufferance?" Irulan asked
"You mean Great House sufferance," Alia said
"And how many Great Houses e face under this new alliance?" Idaho asked "Money is collecting in strange places!"
"The fringes?" Irulan asked
Idaho shrugged It was an unanswerable question All of theical tinkerers on the Ies would nullify the Holtzmann Effect On that day, shields would be useless The whole precarious balance which maintained planetary feudatories would collapse
Alia refused to consider that possibility "We&039;ll ride e have," she said "And e have is a certain knowledge throughout the CHOAM directorate that we can destroy the spice if they force us to it They won&039;t risk that"
"Back to CHOAM again," Irulan said
"Unless soed to duplicate the sandtrout-sandworm cycle on another planet," Idaho said He looked speculatively at Irulan, excited by this question "Salusa Secundus?"
"My contacts there remain reliable," Irulan said "Not Salusa"
"Thenat Idaho "We ride e have"
Myme away from important work? You could&039;ve worked this out yourself"
"Don&039;t take that tone with me!" Alia snapped
Idaho&039;s eyes ide For an instant, he&039;d seen the alien on Alia&039;s face, and it was a disconcerting sight He turned his attention to Irulan, but she had not seen - or gave that appearance
"I don&039;t need an eleed with alien anger
Idaho et far from wealth and all of its masks e deal with power," Irulan drawled "Paul was a social mutation and, as such, we have to remember that he shifted the old balance of wealth"
"Suchaway froh she&039;d not exposed her terrible difference "Wherever there&039;s wealth in this empire, they know this"
"They also know," Irulan said, "that there are three people who could perpetuate that mutation: the twins and" She pointed at Alia
Are they insane, this pair? Idaho wondered
"They will try to assassinate me!" Alia rasped
And Idaho sat in shocked silence, hisAssassinate Alia? Why? They could discredit her too easily They could cut her out of the Fremen pack and hunt her down at will But the twins, now He kneas not in the proper mentat calm for such an assessment, but he had to try He had to be as precise as possible At the saested absolutes Nature was not precise The universe was not precise when reduced to his scale; it was vague and fuzzy, full of unexpected es Humankind as a whole had to be entered into this computation as a natural phenomenon And the whole process of precise analysis represented a chopping off, a reet at that current, see it in ht to focus on CHOAM and the Landsraad," Irulan drawled "And Duncan&039;s suggestion offers a first line of inquiry for -"
"Money as a translation of energy can&039;t be separated froy it expresses," Alia said "We all know this But we have to answer three specific questions: When? Using eapons? Where?"
The twins the twins, Idaho thought It&039;s the tho&039;re in danger, not Alia
"You&039;re not interested in who or how?" Irulan asked
"If House Corrino or CHOAM or any other group employs human instruments on this planet," Alia said, "we stand a better than sixty percent chance of finding theives us a bigger leverage on those odds How? That&039;s just asking eapons?"
Why can&039;t they see it as I see it? Idaho wondered
"All right," Irulan said "When?"
"When attention is focused on someone else," Alia said
"Attention was focused on your mother at the Convocation," Irulan said "There was no atte? Idaho wondered
"Where, then?" Irulan asked
"Right here in the Keep," Alia said "It&039;s the place where I&039;d feel uard"
"What weapons?" Irulan asked
"Conventional - soht have on his person: poisoned crysknife, maula pistol, a -"
"They&039;ve not tried a hunter-seeker in a long while," Irulan said
"Wouldn&039;t work in a crowd," Alia said "There&039;ll have to be a crowd"
"Biological weapon?" Irulan asked
"An infectious agent?" Alia asked, nother incredulity How could Irulan think an infectious agent would succeed against the iical barriers which protected an Atreides?
"I was thinking more in the line of some animal," Irulan said "A s a poison with its bite"
"The House ferrets will prevent that," Alia said
"One of them, then?" Irulan asked
"Couldn&039;t be done The House ferrets would reject an outsider, kill it You know that"
"I was just exploring possibilities in the hope that -"
"I&039;ll alert uards, Idaho put a hand over his Tleilaxu eyes, trying to prevent the de involvement which swept over him It was Rhajia, the movement of Infinity as expressed by Life, the latent cup of total immersion in mentat awareness which lay in wait for every mentat It threw his awareness onto the universe like a net, falling, defining the shapes within it He saw the twins crouching in darkness while giant claws raked the air about theh surprised to find him still there He took his hand from his eyes