Chapter 19 Chapter Nineteen

"I am very embarrassed to ask you to do this." Alia said, "But... I must ensure that Paul's children have an empire to inherit. This is the only reason for my existence as a regency." Alia sat in front of the mirror and turned around when she finished dressing.She looked at her husband and wondered how far he had accepted what she had said.Such moments require careful observation of Duncan Idaho.There was no doubt that he was far more sensitive and dangerous than the Atreides master swordsman of old.His appearance remains the same—black curls atop a angular head—but he's been training mentat since he awoke from his death state many years ago.

As many times before, she couldn't help but wonder if he was so mysterious and lonely, if it was because the dead and resurrected ghost still lurked in him.Before the Trealax did their best to him, Duncan's words and deeds carried the most obvious signs of the Atreides family - loyal, fanatical adherence to the moral code of countless generations of professional soldiers, quick to anger Also go fast.He had a sworn feud with the Harkonnen family, and died in battle to save Paul.But the Trealax bought his body from Saduka and fashioned a monster in their regeneration box: Duncan Idaho's body, but completely without his consciousness and memory .He was trained as a Mentat and given to Paul as a gift, a human computer, a fancy tool implanted with a hypnotic program to assassinate its master.Duncan Idaho's physical body resisted the hypnotic procedure, and under unbearable pressure, struggled with all his strength, and finally had his past come back to him.

Arya had decided early on that it would be dangerous to think of him as Duncan.It's best to think of him as Haight, his new name after the dead.Also, he must not let him see that there is half a shadow of old Baron Harkonnen in her. Seeing Alia watching him, Duncan turned away.Love cannot conceal the changes that have taken place in her, nor can it hide her apparent intentions.The metal compound eyes the Trealax had given him grimly saw through all disguises.In his eyes, she is now a smug, even masculine image.He couldn't bear to see her like this. "Why did you turn around?" Alia asked.

"I have to think about it," he said. "Lady Jessica is . . . Atreides." "Your loyalty belongs to the Atreides, not to me," Alia said with a straight face. "Your views are too shallow," he said. Alia pursed her lips.She pushed too fast? Duncan walked to the balcony, from which he could see a corner of Temple Square.He saw pilgrims begin to gather there, and the merchants of Arakan surrounded them like a herd of predators that had seen food.He noticed a small group of merchants in particular, carrying spice fiber baskets on their arms, followed by a few Freemen mercenaries, walking quietly through the crowd.

"They sell etched blocks of marble," he said, pointing at them. "You know what? They put the blocks in the desert and let the sandstorm eat them away. Sometimes they can find interesting patterns on the blocks. They claim it's A new artistic device, very popular: storm-etched marble from the dunes. I bought one last week—a golden tree with five spikes, lovely but not much value." "Don't change the subject," Alia said. "I didn't change the subject," he said. "It's beautiful, but it's not art. Man makes art with his own power, with his own will." He rested his right hand on the window. "Those twins loathe the city, and I know what they're thinking."

"I don't see any connection between the two," Alia said. "The abduction of my mother was not really an abduction. She will be safe as your captive." "This city was built by blind men," he said. "Did you know that Leto and Stilgar left Tebu Cave for the desert last week, and they stayed in the desert all night." "I've got a report," she said, "those baubles from the desert—do you want me to ban them?" "Not good for businessmen," he said, turning around. "You know what Stilgar said when I asked why they were going to the desert? He said Leto wanted to communicate with Muad'di's mind. "

Alia felt a sudden surge of fear.She looked into the mirror for a while, trying to calm down.There was no way Leto would go into the desert at night for such nonsense reasons.Is this a conspiracy? Idaho raised his hand to cover his eyes, keeping her out of sight, and said, "Stilgar told me that he went with Leto because he still believed in Muadhi." "Of course he has such beliefs!" Idaho sneered, his voice hollow. "He said he kept that belief because Muadhi was always thinking of the little guy." "How did you answer?" Alia asked, her voice betraying her fear.

Idaho took his hands away from his eyes. "I said, 'Then you're one of the little ones too.'" "Duncan! It's a dangerous game. Lure that Fremeneb, and you may wake a beast that will destroy us all." "He still believes in Muad'di," said Idaho, "and that belief alone will protect us." "How did he answer?" "He said he knew what he was thinking." "I see." "No... I don't believe you get it. The thing that actually bites, it's teeth are much longer than Stilgar's." "I don't understand what's wrong with you today, Duncan. I've asked you to do something very important, and what's all this nonsense you mean?"

How bad-tempered she sounded.He turned again to look at the balcony window. "When I was training with Mentat... learning how to think with your own mind, Alia, it was very hard. You first had to learn to let the mind think for itself. It was a weird feeling. You could move your mind Muscles, train them, make them strong, but the mind can only act by itself. When you learn it, sometimes it makes you see things you don't want to see." "That's why you want to insult Stilgar?" "Stilgar doesn't know his own mind; he doesn't set it free." "Except during a spice binge."

"Even if he didn't have that on that occasion, that's what allows him to be a Nab. To be a leader of people, he has to control and limit his reactions. He does what people expect him to do. Once you get that clear, You know Stilgar, and you can measure the length of his teeth." "That's the Freemen way," she said. "Well, Duncan, are you going to do it or not? She's got to be kidnapped, and the kidnapping has to look like the Corinos did it." He fell silent, studying her tone and assertion in Mentat fashion.This kidnapping scheme showed her ruthlessness, and he was shocked to find her in this way.Risking her mother's life just for the reasons she said?Alia is lying.Maybe the rumors about Alia and Javid are true.The thought made him feel a block of ice in his stomach.

"I only trust you to do this," Alia said. "I know," he said. She took the words as a promise from him and smiled at herself in the mirror. "You know," said Idaho, "the way Mentat sees people is as a series of relationships." Alia didn't answer.Sitting there, she suddenly fell into some kind of memory in her body, and her face went blank. Idaho turned his head to look at her and felt a shudder when he saw her expression.She seemed to be speaking to others in a voice that only she could hear. "Relationship." He whispered. He thought: One must shed old pain, like a snake shedding its skin.But new pain will still arise, you just have to bear it as hard as you can.So is the government, and even the church.I had to carry out the plan, but not in the way Alia ordered. Arya puffed out her chest and said, "Leto shouldn't be going out like that during this time. I'm going to reprimand him." "It's not okay to be with Shidi?" "It doesn't work with Shidi either." She got up from the mirror, went to the window where Idaho was standing, and grabbed his arm with one hand. He controlled himself, kept his body from trembling, and used Mentat's calculation ability to study his own physiological reactions.There was something in her that repelled him. something inside her. Disgust kept him from looking at her.He smelled the spices from her makeup and couldn't help clearing his throat. "I'm busy today, checking Farrakon's presents," she said. "Those clothes?" "Yes. What he really wants to do is completely different from what he shows. In addition, we must not forget his Pascha Takanic, who is a veteran of all court assassination methods such as poisoning and assassination." "Power has its price," he said, pulling his arm out of her grasp, "but we still have mobility, and Farrakn doesn't." She studied his angular face.Sometimes it's hard to see through his mind.Does he mean only military freedom of movement by mobility?Not necessarily, Arrakis's life has been easy for too long.The keen sense honed by pervasive danger may rust and deteriorate due to long-term disuse. "Yes," she said, "but we still have the Fremen." "Mobility," he repeated, "we can't degenerate into an infantry regiment. That would be foolish." His tone annoyed her, and she said, "Falakon will do anything to destroy us." "Ah, you're right," he said. "It's also a kind of mobility that we didn't have in the past. We have a code of ethics, the Atreides code of ethics. For that, we always pay the road money, and the enemy is the Zed Marauders. Of course, that restriction no longer exists. Our two families are equally flexible, House Atreides and House Corino." “The reason we kidnapped our mother was to keep her from harm,” Alia said. “We still have our own moral code.” He looked down at her.She knew the dangers of prodding a Mentat into calculations.He had calculated her just now, of course she realized it.Yet...he still loves her.He flicked his hand over his eyes.How young she looks.Mrs. Jessica was right: Alia hasn't aged a day over the years.Her facial features were still very soft like her Bee Geist mother's, but she had Atreides eyes--suspicious, hard, eagle-like.There is a cold calculation behind those eyes. Idaho has served House Atreides for many years, and understands the house's strengths and weaknesses.But this thing inside Alia, it was something new he hadn't seen before.House Atreides may use cunning against enemies, but never against friends and allies, let alone family.The behavior of the Atreides family has strict rules: do your best to support your people, let them realize how good it is to live under the rule of the Atreides family; show your love for your friends with honest behavior.However, Alia's present request was not Atreides'.All the cells and neural structures of his body felt it, sensed that Alia was different from Atreides. Suddenly, his Mentat sensory center activated, and his mind entered a state of mind-wandering calculation.Time no longer exists, only continuous computation.Alia could see what he was up to, but it was too late.He was absorbed in calculations. Calculations: He sees Lady Jessica living within Alia's consciousness as a false life form.It was as if he could feel the Duncan Idaho before his death forever within his own consciousness.Alia is a person who has memories before birth, so she has this consciousness, and he is because of the regeneration box of the Trealax people.However, Alia has no contact with Jessica in the body, and Alia is completely controlled by another false life in the body, which rejects other life. Fall into magic! alienation! Distorted evil spirits! He accepts calculations, Mentat's way.He turned to other aspects of the problem. All of the Atreides are concentrated on this planet.Will the Corino family risk an attack from space?In his mind flashed the agreements accepted by all that had ended the primordial war: 1. All planets are vulnerable to attack from space.Therefore, each great family has set up retaliatory weapons outside its own planet.Falcon knew, of course, that the Atreides would not neglect this most basic precaution. Second, the shielding field can completely block the impact and explosion of non-atomic weapons, which is why hand-to-hand combat has returned.But infantry regiments have their limits.Even if the Corino family restores their Saduka to the level before the Battle of Araken, they are still no match for the violent Fremen. 3. The planetary fiefdom system is always under the threat of technology, but the influence of the Butlan Jihad has continued to this day, and it has played a restraining role, preventing the unfettered development of technology.Exon, Trealax, and a few other fringe world planets are the only source of this threat, but the power of these technological worlds is vulnerable compared to the combined power of other planets within the Empire.The influence of the Butlan Jihad will not be interrupted, so the Houses will not develop the large technical class required for mechanized warfare.In the Atreides Empire, the technocracy is tightly controlled.The entire empire maintains a stable feudal system, and to expand to new frontiers—new planets—the fiefdom system is the best social structure. Duncan's Mentat consciousness is constantly receiving impacts from memory data, completely unaffected by the passage of time.He calculated that the Corino family would not dare carry out an illegal atomic bomb attack.Through the main analysis method of physical calculation, he came to this conclusion. The key argument of the conclusion is: the atomic weapons possessed by the Empire are equivalent to the sum of the atomic weapons of other major families.Once the Corino family violated the agreement, at least half of the big families would immediately fight back without thinking.Their extraplanetary retaliatory weapon systems will be backed by the Houses' overwhelming strike force without the Atreides opening their mouths to ask. Fear will hold the Houses together.The planet Salusa Secundus and its allies would be wiped out in a fiery cloud of dust.The Corino family would not take the risk of such an extermination.They will no doubt stick to the agreement: atomic weapons exist for only one reason, and that is to defend humans against attacks by other intelligent life forms. The calculated ideas are extremely clear and convincing, without any ambiguity.Arya chose to kidnap her mother because she was alienated and no longer an Atreides.The Corinos were indeed a threat, but not the one that Alia had preached in the Council of State.Alia wanted to get rid of Lady Jessica because Bee Geist's intelligence had seen what he was seeing now. Idaho shook his head, out of Mentat consciousness.Only then did he see Alia standing in front of him, with a cold expression on his face, looking at him. "Don't you want to just kill Mrs. Jessica?" he asked. His piercing eyes caught a flicker of joy on the other's face, but Alia immediately covered it up with an angry voice, "Duncan!" Yes, this alienated Alia would prefer to kill her mother directly. "You are afraid of your mother, not for her," he said. The way she stared at him remained unchanged. "Of course I was scared. She reported me to the sorority." "What's the meaning?" "Don't you know what the biggest temptation for Bee Geist is?" She approached him, looking at him temptingly through her eyelashes, "For the sake of the twins, I need to maintain my strength and be on guard at all times." "You spoke of the temptation of the Bee Geist Sisterhood," he said, maintaining Mentat's calm tone. "It's the deepest secret the sorority keeps, the secret they fear the most. That's why they call me a ghost. They know their bans don't bind me. Temptation—they always say it with More emphatic statement: Great temptation. Did you know that those of us who are trained in bee gist can affect the enzyme balance in our body. It can maintain youth - much more powerful than spice. If a lot more than · Gist at the same time, can you imagine the consequences? Others will find out. I trust you can calculate the truth in my words. Spice made us the target of so many intrigues because we controlled a species that can prolong The matter of life. What if everyone knew that Bee Gist controlled a more potent secret? Of course you do! No Virgin is safe. Kidnapping and torturing Bee Gist would become the most common thing." "And you've achieved enzyme balance." That's a statement, not a question. "So I defy the sorority! My mother's report to the sorority will make Bee Gist an unshakable ally of the Corino family." Sweet words, he thought. He retorted: "However, she is your mother, and she will never turn against you." "She was a Bee Geist long before she was my mother, Duncan. She allowed her son, my brother, to be tested for the Gormthorn! She arranged for the test! And knew he might die in it! Bee Gist has always valued utility over everything else. Whenever she thinks it's in the Sisterhood's best interest, she'll turn it on me." He nodded.She is very convincing.It was a thought that made him sad. "We have to take the initiative," she said. "The initiative is our sharpest weapon." "Gurney Halleck is a problem," he said. "Do I have to kill my old friend?" "Gurney went to the desert to do some espionage," she said, knowing he knew about the situation. "He stayed away from the incident, he was safe." "How strange," he said, "that the regent of Caladan spies in Arrakis." "Why not?" asked Alia. "She was his lover—in his dreams, if not in reality." "Yes, of course." He wondered if she caught his insincerity. "When did you kidnap her?" Alia asked. "You better not know." "Yes... yes, I understand. Where will you keep her?" "Keep it where you can't find it. Believe me, she's not here to threaten you." The joy in Alia's eyes could never be mistaken for any other expression. "But where..." "If you don't know, you can answer honestly before the Truthsayer if you have to, that you don't know where she is kept." "Oh, very clever, Duncan." Now she trusts me, trusts me to kill Lady Jessica, he thought.Then he said, "Goodbye, dear." She didn't catch the farewell in his words, and even kissed him when he left. Idaho kept rubbing his eyes as he walked through the cavernous corridors of the temple.Tears also flow from Trealax's eyes.