"Duncan! Down!"
Duncan dropped flat on the grass, his attention riveted to the Teg-figure emerging from the Weapons Wing. There was a field-model lasgun in the man's hands.
Face Dancer! Lucilla thought. Only hyperalertness revealed him to her. One of the new ones!
"Face Dancer!" Lucilla shouted.
Duncan kicked himself sideways and leaped up, twisting flat in the air at least a meter off the ground. The speed of his reaction shocked Lucilla. She had not known any human could move that fast! The lasgun's first bolt cut beneath Duncan as he seemed to float in the air.
Lucilla jumped to the parapet and dropped to a handhold on the window ledge of the next lower level. Before she was stopped, her right hand shot out and found the protruding rainspout that memory told her was there. Her body arched sideways and she dropped to a window ledge at the next level. Desperation drove her even though she knew she would be too late.
Something crackled on the wall above her. She saw a molten line cut toward her as she flung herself to the left, twisting and dropping onto the lawn. Her gaze captured the scene around her in a flashing deit-grasp as she landed.
Duncan moved toward the attacker, dodging and twisting in a terrifying replay of his practice session. The speed of his movements!
Lucilla saw indecision in the face of the false Teg.
She darted toward the Face Dancer, feeling the creature's thoughts: Two of them after me!
Failure was inevitable, though, and Lucilla knew it even as she ran. The Face Dancer had only to shift his weapon into full burn at close range. He could lace the air in front of him. Nothing could penetrate such a defense. As she cast about in her mind, desperately seeking some way to defeat the attacker, she saw red smoke appear on the false Teg's breast. A line of red darted upward at an oblique angle through the muscles of the arm holding the lasgun. The arm fell away like a piece dropping from a statue. The shoulder tipped away from the torso in a spout of blood. The figure toppled, dissolving into more red smoke and blood spray, crumbling into pieces on the steps, all dark tans and blue-tinged reds.
Lucilla smelled the distinctive Face Dancer pheromones as she stopped. Duncan came up beside her. He peered past the dead Face Dancer at movement in the hallway.
Another Teg emerged behind the dead one. Lucilla identified the reality: Teg himself.
"That's the Bashar," Duncan said.
Lucilla experienced a small surge of pleasure that Duncan had learned this identity-lesson so well: how to recognize your friends even if you only saw bits of them. She pointed to the dead Face Dancer. "Smell him."
Duncan inhaled. "Yes, I have it. But he wasn't a very good copy. I saw what he was as soon as you did."
Teg emerged into the courtyard carrying a heavy lasgun cradled across his left arm. His right hand held a firm grip on the stock and trigger. He swept his gaze around the courtyard, then focused on Duncan and finally on Lucilla.
"Bring Duncan inside," Teg said.
It was the order of a battlefield commander, depending only on superior knowledge of what should be done in the emergency. Lucilla obeyed without question.
Duncan did not speak as she led him by the hand past the bloody meat that had been the Face Dancer, then into the Weapons Wing. Once inside, he glanced back at the sodden heap and asked: "Who let him in?"
Not: "How did he get in?" she observed. Duncan already had seen past the inconsequentials to the heart of their problem.
Teg strode ahead of them toward his own quarters. He stopped at the door, glanced inside and motioned for Lucilla and Duncan to follow.
In Teg's bedroom there was the thick smell of burned flesh and wisps of smoke dominated by the charred barbecue odor that Lucilla so detested: cooked human meat! A figure in one of Teg's uniforms lay face down on the floor where it had fallen off his bed.
Teg rolled the figure over with one boot toe, exposing the face: staring eyes, a rictus grin. Lucilla recognized one of the perimeter guards, one of those who had come to the Keep with Schwangyu, so the Keep's records said.
"Their point man," Teg said. "Patrin took care of him and we put one of my uniforms on him. It was enough to fool the Face Dancers because we didn't let them see the face before we attacked. They didn't have time to make a memory print."
"You know about that?" Lucilla was startled.
"Bellonda briefed me thoroughly!"
Abruptly, Lucilla saw the further significance of what Teg said. She suppressed a swift flare of anger. "How did you let one of them get into the courtyard?"
His voice mild, Teg said: "There was rather urgent activity in here. I had to make a choice, which turned out to be the right one."
She did not try to hide her anger. "The choice to let Duncan fend for himself?"
"To leave him in your care or let other attackers get themselves firmly entrenched inside. Patrin and I had a bad time clearing this wing. We had our hands full." Teg glanced at Duncan. "He came through very well, thanks to our training."
"That... that thing almost got him!"
"Lucilla!" Teg shook his head. "I had it timed. You two could last at least a minute out there. I knew you would throw yourself in that thing's path and sacrifice yourself to save Duncan. Another twenty seconds."
At Teg's words, Duncan turned a shiny-eyed look on Lucilla. "Would you have done that?"
When Lucilla did not respond, Teg said: "She would have done that. "
Lucilla did not deny it. She remembered now, though, the incredible speed with which Duncan had moved, the dazzling shifts of his attack.
"Battle decisions," Teg said, looking at Lucilla.
She accepted this. As usual, Teg had made the correct choice. She knew, though, that she would have to communicate with Taraza. The prana-bindu accelerations in this ghola went beyond anything she had expected. She stiffened as Teg straightened to full alert, his gaze on the doorway behind her. Lucilla whirled.
Schwangyu stood there, Patrin behind her, another heavy lasgun over his arm. Its muzzle, Lucilla noted, was aimed at Schwangyu.
"She insisted," Patrin said. There was an angry set to the old aide's face. The deep lines beside his mouth pointed downward.
"There's a trail of bodies clear out to the south pillbox," Schwangyu said. "Your people won't let me out there to inspect. I command you to countermand those orders immediately."
"Not until my clean-up crews are finished," Teg said.
"They're still killing people out there! I can hear it!" A venomous edge had entered Schwangyu's voice. She glared at Lucilla.
"We're also questioning people out there," Teg said.
Schwangyu shifted her glare to Teg. "If it's too dangerous here then we will take the... the child to my quarters. Now!"
"We will not do that," Teg said. His tone was low-key but positive.
Schwangyu stiffened with displeasure. Patrin's knuckles went white on the stock of his lasgun. Schwangyu swung her gaze past the gun and up to Lucilla's appraising stare. The two women looked into each other's eyes.
Teg allowed the moment to hold for a beat, then said: "Lucilla, take Duncan into my sitting room." He nodded toward a door behind him.
Lucilla obeyed, pointedly keeping her body between Schwangyu and Duncan the whole time.
Once behind the closed door, Duncan said: "She almost called me 'the ghola.' She's really upset."
"Schwangyu has let several things slip past her guard," Lucilla said.
She glanced around Teg's sitting room, her first view of this part of his quarters: the Bashar's inner sanctum. It reminded her of her own quarters - that same mixture of orderliness and casual disarray. Reading spools lay in a clutter on a small table beside an old-fashioned chair upholstered in soft gray. The spool reader had been swung aside as though its user had just stepped out for a moment, intending to return soon. A Bashar's black uniform jacket lay across a nearby hard chair with sewing material in a small open box atop it. The jacket's cuff showed a carefully patched hole.
So he does his own mending.
This was an aspect of the famous Miles Teg she had not expected. If she had thought about it, she would have said Patrin would absorb such chores.
"Schwangyu let the attackers in, didn't she?" Duncan asked.
"Her people did." Lucilla did not hide her anger. "She has gone too far. A pact with the Tleilaxu!"
"Will Patrin kill her?"
"I don't know nor do I care!"
Outside the door, Schwangyu spoke with anger, her voice loud and quite clear: "Are we just going to wait here, Bashar?"
"You can leave anytime you wish." That was Teg.
"But I can't enter the south tunnel!"
Schwangyu sounded petulant. Lucilla knew it for something the old woman did deliberately. What was she planning? Teg must be very cautious now. He had been clever out there, revealing for Lucilla the gaps in Schwangyu's control, but they had not plumbed Schwangyu's resources. Lucilla wondered if she should leave Duncan here and return to Teg's side.
Teg said: "You can go now but I advise you not to return to your quarters."
"And why not?" Schwangyu sounded surprised, really surprised and not covering it well.
"One moment," Teg said.
Lucilla became aware of shouting at a distance. A heavy thumping explosion sounded from nearby and then another one more distant. Dust sifted from the cornice above the door to Teg's sitting room.
"What was that?" Schwangyu again, her voice overly loud.
Lucilla moved to place herself between Duncan and the wall to the hallway.
Duncan stared at the door, his body poised for defense.
"That first blast was what I expected them to do." Teg again. "The second, I fear, was what they did not expect."
A whistle piped nearby loud enough to cover something Schwangyu said.
"That's it Bashar!" Patrin.
"What is happening?" Schwangyu demanded.
"The first explosion, dear Reverend Mother, was your quarters being destroyed by our attackers. The second explosion was us destroying the attackers."
"I just got the signal, Bashar!" Patrin again. "We got them all. They came down by floater from the no-ship just as you expected."
"The ship?" Teg's voice was full of angry demand.
"Destroyed the instant it came through the space fold. No survivors."
"You fools!" Schwangyu screamed. "Do you know what you've done?"
"I carried out my orders to protect that boy from any attack," Teg said. "By the way, weren't you supposed to be in your quarters at this hour?"
"What?"
"They were after you when they blasted your quarters. The Tleilaxu are very dangerous, Reverend Mother."
"I don't believe you!"
"I suggest you go look. Patrin, let her pass."
As she listened, Lucilla heard the unspoken argument. The Mentat Bashar had been trusted here more than a Reverend Mother and Schwangyu knew it. She would be desperate. That was clever, suggesting her quarters had been destroyed. She might not believe it, though. Foremost in Schwangyu's mind now would be the realization that both Teg and Lucilla recognized her complicity in the attack. There was no telling how many others were aware of this. Patrin knew, of course.
Duncan stared at the closed door, his head tipped slightly to the right. There was a curious expression on his face, as though he saw through the door and actually watched the people out there.
Schwangyu spoke, the most careful control in her voice. "I don't believe my quarters were destroyed." She knew Lucilla was listening.
"There is only one way to make sure," Teg said.
Clever! Lucilla thought. Schwangyu could not make a decision until she was certain whether the Tleilaxu had acted treacherously.
"You will wait here for me, then! That's an order!" Lucilla heard the swish of Schwangyu's robes as the Reverend Mother departed.
Very bad emotional control, Lucilla thought. What this revealed about Teg, though, was equally disturbing. He did it to her! Teg had kept a Reverend Mother off balance.
The door in front of Duncan swung open. Teg stood there, one hand on the latch. "Quick!" Teg said. "We must be out of the Keep before she returns."
"Out of the Keep?" Lucilla did not hide her shock.
"Quick, I say! Patrin has prepared a way for us."
"But I must -"
"You must nothing! Come as you are. Follow me or we will be forced to take you."
"Do you really think you could take a..." Lucilla broke off. This was a new Teg in front of her and she knew he would not have made such a threat unless he was prepared to carry it out.
"Very well," she said. She took Duncan's hand and followed Teg out of his quarters.
Patrin stood in the hallway looking to his right. "She's gone," the old man said. He looked at Teg. "You know what to do, Bashar?"
"Pat!"
Lucilla had never before heard Teg use the batman's diminutive name.
Patrin grinned, a gleaming full-toothed smile. "Sorry, Bashar. The excitement, you know. I'll leave you to it, then. I have my part to play."
Teg waved Lucilla and Duncan down the hallway to the right. She obeyed and heard Teg close on her heels. Duncan's hand was sweaty in her hand. He pulled free and strode beside her without looking back.
The suspensor-drop at the end of the hallway was guarded by two of Teg's own people. He nodded to them. "Nobody follows."
They spoke in unison: "Right, Bashar."
Lucilla realized as she entered the drop with Duncan and Teg that she had chosen sides in a dispute whose workings she did not fully understand. She could feel the movements of the Sisterhood's politics like a swift current of water pouring all around her. Usually, the movement remained mostly a gentle wave washing the strand, but now she sensed a great destructive surge preparing to thunder its surf upon her.
Duncan spoke as they emerged into the sorting chamber for the south pillbox.
"We should all be armed," he said.
"We will be very soon," Teg said. "And I hope you're prepared to kill anyone who tries to stop us."
***
The significant fact is this: No Bene Tleilax female has ever been seen away from the protection of their core planets. (Face Dancer mules who simulate females do not count in this analysis. They cannot be breeders.) The Tleilaxu sequester their females to keep them from our hands. This is our primary deduction. It must also be in the eggs that the Tleilaxu Masters conceal their most essential secrets.
- Bene Gesserit Analysis - Archives #XOXTM99.... 041
"So we meet at last," Taraza said.
She stared across the two meters of open space between their chairs at Tylwyth Waff. Her analysts assured her that this man was Tleilaxu Master of Masters. What an elfin little figure he was to hold so much power. The prejudices of appearance must be discarded here, she warned herself.
"Some would not believe this possible," Waff said.
He had a piping little voice, Taraza noted; something else to be measured by different standards.
They sat in the neutrality of a Guild no-ship with Bene Gesserit and Tleilaxu monitors clinging to the Guildship's hull like predatory birds on a carcass. (The Guild had been cravenly anxious to placate the Bene Gesserit. "You will pay." The Guild knew. Payment had been exacted from them before.) The small oval room in which they met was conventionally copper-walled and "spy-proof." Taraza did not believe this for an instant. She presumed also that the bonds between Guild and Tleilaxu, forged of melange, still existed in full force.
Waff did not try to delude himself about Taraza. This woman was far more dangerous than any Honored Matre. If he killed Taraza, she would be replaced immediately by someone just as dangerous, someone with every essential piece of information possessed by the present Mother Superior.
"We find your new Face Dancers very interesting," Taraza said.
Waff grimaced involuntarily. Yes, far more dangerous than the Honored Matres, who were not yet even blaming the Tleilaxu for
the loss of an entire no-ship.
Taraza glanced at the small double-faced digital clock on the low side table at her right, a position where the clock could be read easily by either of them. The Waff-side face had been matched to his internal clock. She noted that the two internal-time readings stood within ten seconds of synchronization at an arbitrary midafternoon. It was one of the niceties of this confrontation where even the positioning and spacing between their chairs had been specified in the arrangements.
The two of them were alone in the room. The oval space around them was about six meters in its long dimension, half that in width. They occupied identical sling chairs of peg-fastened wood, which supported orange fabric; not a bit of metal or other foreign material in either of them. The only other furnishing of the room was the side table with its clock. The table was a thin black surface of plaz on three spindly wooden legs. Each of the principals in this meeting had been snooped with care. Each had three personal guards outside the room's one hatch. Taraza did not think the Tleilaxu would try a Face Dancer exchange, not under the present circumstances!
"You will pay."
The Tleilaxu, too, were extremely aware of their vulnerability, especially now that they knew a Reverend Mother could expose the new Face Dancers.
Waff cleared his throat. "I do not expect us to reach an agreement," he said.
"Then why did you come?"
"I seek an explanation of this odd message we have received from your Keep on Rakis. For what are we supposed to pay?"
"I beg of you, Ser Waff, drop these foolish pretenses in this room. There are facts known to both of us that cannot be avoided."
"Such as?"
"No female of the Bene Tleilax has ever been provided to us for breeding." And she thought: Let him sweat that one! It was damnably frustrating not to have a line of Tleilaxu Other Memories for Bene Gesserit investigation and Waff would know it.
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