“Worm,” Kynes said. “Big one.” He leaned back, grabbed the microphone from the panel, punched out a new frequency selection. Glancing at the grid chart on rollers over their heads, he spoke into the microphone: “Calling crawler at Delta Ajax niner. Wormsign warning. Crawler at Delta Ajax niner. Wormsign warning. Acknowledge, please.” He waited.
The panel speaker emitted static crackles, then a voice: “Who calls Delta Ajax niner? Over.”
“They seem pretty calm about it,” Halleck said.
Kynes spoke into the microphone: “Unlisted flight—north and east of you about three kilometers. Wormsign is on intercept course, your position, estimated contact twenty-five minutes.”
Another voice rumbled from the speaker: “This is Spotter Control. Sighting confirmed. Stand by for contact fix.” There was a pause, then: “Contact in twenty-six minutes minus. That was a sharp estimate. Who’s on that unlisted flight? Over.”
Halleck had his harness off and surged forward between Kynes and the Duke. “Is this the regular working frequency, Kynes?”
“Yes. Why?”
“Who’d be listening?”
“Just the work crews in this area. Cuts down interference.”
Again, the speaker crackled, then: “This is Delta Ajax niner. Who gets bonus credit for that spot? Over.”
Halleck glanced at the Duke.
Kynes said: “There’s a bonus based on spice load for whoever gives first worm warning. They want to know—”
“Tell them who had first sight of that worm,” Halleck said.
The Duke nodded.
Kynes hesitated, then lifted the microphone: “Spotter credit to the Duke Leto Atreides. The Duke Leto Atreides. Over.”
The voice from the speaker was flat and partly distorted by a burst of static: “We read and thank you.”
“Now, tell them to divide the bonus among themselves,” Halleck ordered. “Tell them it’s the Duke’s wish.”
Kynes took a deep breath, then: “It’s the Duke’s wish that you divide the bonus among your crew. Do you read? Over.”
“Acknowledged and thank you,” the speaker said.
The Duke said: “I forgot to mention that Gurney is also very talented in public relations.”
Kynes turned a puzzled frown on Halleck.
“This lets the men know their Duke is concerned for their safety,” Halleck said. “Word will get around. It was on an area working frequency—not likely Harkonnen agents heard.” He glanced out at their air cover. “And we’re a pretty strong force. It was a good risk.”
The Duke banked their craft toward the sandcloud erupting from the factory crawler. “What happens now?”
“There’s a carryall wing somewhere close,” Kynes said. “It’ll come in and lift off the crawler.”
“What if the carryall’s wrecked?” Halleck asked.
“Some equipment is lost,” Kynes said. “Get in close over the crawler, my Lord; you’ll find this interesting.”
The Duke scowled, busied himself with the controls as they came into turbulent air over the crawler.
Paul looked down, saw sand still spewing out of the metal and plastic monster beneath them. It looked like a great tan and blue beetle with many wide tracks extending on arms around it. He saw a giant inverted funnel snout poked into dark sand in front of it.
“Rich spice bed by the color,” Kynes said. “They’ll continue working until the last minute.”
The Duke fed more power to the wings, stiffened them for a steeper descent as he settled lower in a circling glide above the crawler. A glance left and right showed his cover holding altitude and circling overhead.
Paul studied the yellow cloud belching from the crawler’s pipe vents, looked out over the desert at the approaching worm track.
“Shouldn’t we be hearing them call in the carryall?” Halleck asked.
“They usually have the wing on a different frequency,” Kynes said.
“Shouldn’t they have two carryalls standing by for every crawler?” the Duke asked. “There should be twenty-six men on that machine down there, not to mention cost of equipment.”
Kynes said: “You don’t have enough ex—”
He broke off as the speaker erupted with an angry voice: “Any of you see the wing? He isn’t answering.”
A garble of noise crackled from the speaker, drowned in an abrupt override signal, then silence and the first voice: “Report by the numbers! Over.”
“This is Spotter Control. Last I saw, the wing was pretty high and circling off northwest. I don’t see him now. Over.”
“Spotter one: negative. Over.”
“Spotter two: negative. Over.”
“Spotter three: negative. Over.”
Silence.
The Duke looked down. His own craft’s shadow was just passing over the crawler. “Only four spotters, is that right?”
“Correct,” Kynes said.
“There are five in our party,” the Duke said. “Our ships are larger. We can crowd in three extra each. Their spotters ought to be able to lift off two each.”
Paul did the mental arithmetic, said: “That’s three short.”
“Why don’t they have two carryalls to each crawler?” barked the Duke.
“You don’t have enough extra equipment,” Kynes said.
“All the more reason we should protect what we have!”
“Where could that carryall go?” Halleck asked.
“Could’ve been forced down somewhere out of sight,” Kynes said.
The Duke grabbed the microphone, hesitated with thumb poised over its switch. “How could they lose sight of a carryall?”
“They keep their attention on the ground looking for wormsign,” Kynes said.
The Duke thumbed the switch, spoke into the microphone. “This is your Duke. We are coming down to take off Delta Ajax niner’s crew. All spotters are ordered to comply. Spotters will land on the east side. We will take the west. Over.” He reached down, punched out his own command frequency, repeated the order for his own air cover, handed the microphone back to Kynes.
Kynes returned to the working frequency and a voice blasted from the speaker: “… almost a full load of spice! We have almost a full load! We can’t leave that for a damned worm! Over.”
“Damn the spice!” the Duke barked. He grabbed back the microphone, said: “We can always get more spice. There are seats in our ships for all but three of you. Draw straws or decide any way you like who’s to go. But you’re going, and that’s an order!” He slammed the microphone back into Kynes’ hands, muttered: “Sorry,” as Kynes shook an injured finger.
“How much time?” Paul asked.
“Nine minutes,” Kynes said.
The Duke said: “This ship has more power than the others. If we took off under jet with three-quarter wings, we could crowd in an additional man.”
“That sand’s soft,” Kynes said.
“With four extra men aboard on a jet takeoff, we could snap the wings, Sire,” Halleck said.
“Not on this ship,” the Duke said. He hauled back on the controls as the ’thopter glided in beside the crawler. The wings tipped up, braked the ’thopter to a skidding stop within twenty meters of the factory.
