“As can I,” Leto said. “We will take that tour of your operations now, Hylie. I want to see this body, whatever remains of it.”
Down in the shallow holding ponds, wading through the muck, the workers used nets to catch moonfish fingerlings and move them into growth pools. Other suited workers stood thigh-deep in wide canals, counting and marking larger fish that bumped and jostled one another until workers flung them out into harvesting bins, where the fish flopped and struggled.
Hylie stammered as he tried to give them the tour. “At night, we activate sonic membranes. The resonance frequency calms the fish, helps them to breed. We’ve greatly increased output in the past five years, as I’m sure you know, my Lord.”
“I do,” Leto said. “But I was not aware that people were dying.”
The fishery workers paused to stare at them. As the sun moved toward twilight, the glowglobes drifted along like ghosts over the water. Hylie led the visitors over raised metal walkways. The crew chief pointed down into the murky water, more a slurry of mud than an actual canal. Contented moonfish swam there, crowded together. “Shedai is … she is here in this trench, my Lord. We placed her there this morning, and the fish have been busy for hours. She will not be a pleasant sight to see.”
“Death rarely is,” Yueh said. “But there may be enough left for analysis. I only need a tissue sample.”
Leto stood on the raised metal walkway with Paul beside him, both of them looking down into the rich-smelling water. Gurney barked orders, and Hylie called his workers closer. A group of suited men and women waded back into the canal, looking up to the walkway, uneasy with the instructions.
“Do as he says. Find Shedai down there,” said the crew chief. “These men want to see her body.”
“She’s dead,” said one of the workers. “Why would they want to see her?”
Another man sneered up at the visitors, said nothing.
Hylie reddened. “Follow my orders! Duke Leto is an important man.”
“But why do they want to see Shedai? What did she do?”
“Do as you’re told or I’ll reduce your wages,” Hylie said.
That proved to be an adequate threat. The workers stirred the shallow water, groping with gloved hands, moving along through the slurry until they found the corpse. “Here she is!” They pulled up the dripping body and flopped it onto the metal grid so that the water and mud dribbled through.
Paul was fascinated, though the corpse’s expression was horrific. Shedai’s eyes were gone, her nose and ears nibbled away, her skin bloated.
Yueh picked up the woman’s limp hands, rubbed at her fingernails, and looked at the cuticles. He bent close to study her face, undeterred by the grotesqueness. “If the eyes were intact, I could inspect the scleras for hemorrhages.” He glanced up at Leto. “I know what you suspect, my Lord. I do have the chemical analysis kit aboard the flyer. It will not take long to detect traces of ailar, if that is what killed her.”
Paul had already put the clues together, but Yueh’s blatant statement alarmed Gurney. The troubadour warrior whispered to Leto, “Shall we call in reinforcements, my Lord?” He looked around, as if expecting an attack. “We can have Atreides forces here in a couple of hours.”
Leto shook his head. “This is just an expedition, and we hope to discover the answers to our questions. Hylie here can help us.” The Duke’s politeness held an undertone of razors. “If necessary, I can call in Thufir Hawat and a security team from Cala City.”
Yueh extracted a tissue sample from the corpse while the uneasy crew boss looked on in fascination and disgust. Other workers waded in from side canals.
Throughout the intense activity, dusk faded into a curtain of twilight. The tall hills around the narrow cove made the shadows lengthen farther. Hylie grew more agitated as Yueh worked. “My Lord, let us take you to quarters for the night, where you can be comfortable. We will prepare a meal. There are obligations that—”
“I am quite content here, out in the open,” Leto said. “We stay until we have answers.”
“Yes, my Lord.” Hylie stood without moving, yet appeared to be squirming.
* * *
YUEH’S TESTS QUICKLY revealed that the dead woman had succumbed to the toxic substance in the ferns. “Her muscles are permeated with ailar,” he said. “She must have used the drug for a substantial time, but if she ingested the new strain without knowing, it would have been far too much even for one who had built up a tolerance.”
Now Hylie began to make excuses. “Why, yes, those ferns are known around here, especially in the deep forests. Some of our workers use them occasionally, to relax and find a bit of peace. It is harmless.”
“Harmless?” Leto growled.
“Looks like she found more peace than she was seeking,” Gurney said.
The Duke became a thundercloud of command. “I want each dwelling searched, every one of these workers questioned. We will lock down this fishery and keep everyone in place until I am satisfied we’ve found all of the ailar and uncovered any connection to the smuggling operations. Gurney, call in Hawat and all the security and investigative troops he needs.”
Hearing this, the fishery workers reacted with alarm. Some rushed back to their raised dwellings, and Gurney bounded after them, seizing one man and tossing him into the muddy canal. “You will do as your Duke commands.”
Leto and his companions spread out, now armed with weapons from the flyer while they waited for the larger crackdown team.
Paul could smell the fish and mud all around. On their automatic schedule, the underwater sonic membranes began to thrum, and countless moonfish rose to the surface, adding their pulsing music in response, filling the air with vibrations that both calmed and rattled the observers.
The fishery workers were agitated for their own reasons. Gurney’s adept search uncovered five more people who possessed dried ferns, a handful for personal use, but two with large sacks of the mottled potent strain—obviously to be delivered somehow to black-market dealers.
Leto spoke into the flyer’s comm as his Atreides troops arrived to lock down and occupy the fishery. They swiftly seized all of the ailar in their crackdown. The search and inspection continued long into the full dark, and glowglobes drifted around the fishery site, illuminating the place with an eerie glow.
The workers were terrified, and Paul detected a deep uneasiness among them. “Chaen Marek will not like this,” one muttered.
Paul heard the name repeated.
Duke Leto shouted to the gathered workers who had remained standing aimless and nervous outside. “These are my Atreides fisheries, and Caladan is my world.” When he looked at his son, his implacable expression was angry and terrible, then Paul watched it shift to become his father’s softer side. “I won’t let this spoil our time together, Paul. Tomorrow, we will go farther north and do what we intend to do. Thufir can handle the rest here.”
Politics and war make for strange bedfellows.
—Ancient Terran philosopher
Though his position as siridar-governor of Arrakis conveyed great political influence, not to mention wealth, Baron Harkonnen was pleased to be back in his comfortable, industrial, civilized home on Giedi Prime. Despite all the business he conducted for the strategic plots of House Harkonnen, he would not stay here long. Arrakis demanded his full attention, especially now.