And Idaho sat in shocked silence, his mentat awareness whirling. Assassinate 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 knew he was 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 same time, he knew that precise thinking contained undigested absolutes. Nature was not precise. The universe was not precise when reduced to his scale; it was vague and fuzzy, full of unexpected movements and changes. 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 remove from the ongoing current of the universe. He had to get at that current, see it in motion.
'We were right to focus on CHOAM and the Landsraad,' Irulan drawled. 'And Duncan's suggestion offers a first line of inquiry for -'
'Money as a translation of energy can't be separated from the energy it expresses,' Alia said. 'We all know this. But we have to answer three specific questions: When? Using what weapons? Where?'
The twins... the twins, Idaho thought. It's the twins who're in danger, not Alia.
'You'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 them before they act. Knowing when they'll act and where gives us a bigger leverage on those odds. How? That's just asking what weapons?'
Why can'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 attempt.'
'Wrong place,' Alia said.
What is she doing? Idaho wondered.
'Where, then?' Irulan asked.
'Right here in the Keep,' Alia said. 'It's the place where I'd feel most secure and least on my guard.'
'What weapons?' Irulan asked.
'Conventional - something a Fremen might have on his person: poisoned crysknife, maula pistol, a -'
'They've not tried a hunter-seeker in a long while,' Irulan said.
'Wouldn't work in a crowd,' Alia said. 'There'll have to be a crowd.'
'Biological weapon?' Irulan asked.
'An infectious agent?' Alia asked, not masking her incredulity. How could Irulan think an infectious agent would succeed against the immunological barriers which protected an Atreides?
'I was thinking more in the line of some animal,' Irulan said. 'A small pet, say, trained to bite a specific victim, inflicting a poison with its bite.'
'The House ferrets will prevent that,' Alia said.
'One of them, then?' Irulan asked.
'Couldn'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'll alert my guards,' Alia said.
As Alia said guards, Idaho put a hand over his Tleilaxu eyes, trying to prevent the demanding 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 them.
'No,' he whispered.
'What?' Alia looked at him as though surprised to find him still there. He took his hand from his eyes.
'The garments that House Corrino sent?' he asked. 'Have they been sent on to the twins?'
'Of course,' Irulan said. 'They're perfectly safe.'
'No one's going to try for the twins at Sietch Tabr,' Alia said. 'Not with all of those Stilgar-trained guards around.'
Idaho stared at her. He had no particular datum to reinforce an argument based on mentat computation, but he knew. He knew. This thing he'd experienced came very close to the visionary power which Paul had known. Neither Irulan nor Alia would believe it, coming from him.
'I'd like to alert the port authorities against allowing the importation of any outside animals,' he said.
'You're not taking Irulan's suggestion seriously,' Alia protested.
'Why take any chances?' he asked.
'Tell that to the smugglers,' Alia said. 'I'll put my dependence on the House ferrets.'
Idaho shook his head. What could House ferrets do against claws the size of those he envisioned? But Alia was right. Bribes in the right places, one acquiescent Guild navigator, and anyplace in the Empty Quarter became a landing port. The Guild would resist a front position in any attack on House Atreides, but if the price were high enough... Well, the Guild could only be thought of as something like a geological barrier which made attacks difficult, but not impossible. They could always protest that they were just 'a transportation agency.' How could they know to what use a particular cargo would be put?
Alia broke the silence with a purely Fremen gesture, a raised fist with thumb horizontal. She accompanied the gesture with a traditional expletive which meant, 'I give Typhoon Conflict.' She obviously saw herself as the only logical target for assassins, and the gesture protested a universe full of undigested threats. She was saying she would hurl the death wind at anyone who attacked her.
Idaho felt the hopelessness of any protest. He saw that she no longer suspected him. He was going back to Tabr and she expected a perfectly executed abduction of the Lady Jessica. He lifted himself from the divan in an adrenaline surge of anger, thinking: If only Alia were the target! If only assassins could get to her! For an instant, he rested his hand on his own knife, but it was not in him to do this. Far better, though, that she die a martyr than live to be discredited and bounded into a sandy grave.
'Yes,' Alia said, misinterpreting his expression as concern for her. 'You'd best hurry back to Tabr.' And she thought: How foolish of me to suspect Duncan! He's mine, not Jessica's! It had been the demand from the tribes that'd upset her, Alia thought. She waved an airy goodbye to Idaho as he left.
Idaho left the Council Chamber feeling hopeless. Not only was Alia blind with her alien possession, but she became more insane with each crisis. She'd already passed her danger point and was doomed. But what could be done for the twins? Whom could he convince? Stilgar? And what could Stilgar do that he wasn't already doing?
The Lady Jessica, then?
Yes, he'd explore that possibility - but she, too, might be far gone in plotting with her Sisterhood. He carried few illusions about that Atreides concubine. She might do anything at the command of the Bene Gesserits - even turn against her own grandchildren.
= = = = = =
Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. The most important element of government, therefore, is the method of choosing leaders. -Law and Governance, The Spacing Guild Manual
Why does Alia wish me to share the morning audience? Jessica wondered. They've not voted me back into the Council.
Jessica stood in the anteroom to the Keep's Great Hall. The anteroom itself would have been a great hall anywhere other than Arrakis. Following the Atreides lead, buildings in Arrakeen had become ever more gigantic as wealth and power concentrated, and this room epitomized her misgivings. She did not like this anteroom with its tiled floor depicting her son's victory over Shaddam IV.
She caught a reflection of her own face in the polished plasteel door which led into the Great Hall. Returning to
