"Burzmali wants to see you," someone off to Teg's left said.
"Not now," Teg said.
Burzmali could wait. He would have his day of command soon enough. Meanwhile, he was a distraction. There would be time later for him to skirt dangerously near the role of scapegoat.
How easy it was to produce scapegoats and how readily they were accepted! This was especially true when the alternative was to find yourself either guilty or stupid or both. Teg wanted to say for all of those around him:
"Look to the hoodwinking! Then you'll know our true intentions!"
The communications officer on Teg's left said: "That Reverend Mother is with Burzmali now. She insists they be allowed in to see you."
"Tell Burzmali I want him to go back and stay with Duncan," Teg said. "And have him look in on Murbella, make sure she's secured. Lucilla can come in."
It had to be, Teg thought.
Lucilla was increasingly suspicious about the changes in him. Trust a Reverend Mother to see the difference.
Lucilla swept in, her robes swishing to accent her vehemence. She was angry but concealing it well.
"I demand an explanation, Miles!"
That was a good opening line, he thought. "Of what?" he said.
"Why didn't we just go in at the -"
"Because the Honored Matres and their Tleilaxu companions from the Scattering hold most of the Rakian centers."
"How... how do you..."
"They've killed Taraza, you know," he said.
That stopped her, but not for long. "Miles, I insist that you tell me -"
"We don't have much time," he said. "The next satellite passage will show us on the surface here."
"But the defenses of Rakis -"
"Are as vulnerable as any other defenses when they become static," he said. "The families of the defenders are down here. Take the families and you have effective control of the defenders."
"But why are we out here in -"
"To pick up Odrade and that girl with her. Oh, and their worm, too."
"What will we do with a -"
"Odrade will know what to do with the worm. She's your Mother Superior now, you know."
"So you're going to whisk us off into -"
"You'll whisk yourselves! My people and I will remain to create a diversion."
That brought a shocked silence throughout the command station.
Diversion, Teg thought. What an inadequate word.
The resistance he had in mind would create hysteria among the Honored Matres, especially when they were made to believe the ghola was here. Not only would they counterattack, they eventually would resort to sterilization procedures. Most of Rakis would become a charred ruin. There was little likelihood that any humans, worms, or sandtrout would survive.
"The Honored Matres have been trying to locate and capture a worm without success," he said. "I really don't understand how they could be so blind in their concept of how you transplant one of them."
"Transplant?" Lucilla was floundering. Teg had seldom seen a Reverend Mother at such a loss. She was trying to assemble the things he had said. The Sisterhood had some of the Mentats' capabilities, he had observed. A Mentat could come to a qualified conviction without sufficient data. He thought that he would be long out of her reach (or the reach of any other Reverend Mother) before she assembled this data. Then there would be a scrambling for his offspring! They would pick up Dimela for their Breeding Mistresses, of course. And Odrade. She would not escape.
They had the key to the Tleilaxu axlotl tanks, too. It would be only a matter of time now until the Bene Gesserit overcame its scruples and mastered that source of the spice. A human body produced it!
"We're in danger here, then," Lucilla said.
"Some danger, yes. The trouble with the Honored Matres is that they're too wealthy. They make the mistakes of the wealthy."
"Depraved whores!" she said.
"I suggest you get to the entry port," he said. "Odrade will be here soon."
She left him without another word.
"Armor is all out and deployed," the communications officer said.
"Alert Burzmali to be ready for command here," Teg said. "The rest of us will be going out soon."
"You expect all of us to join you?" That was the one who looked for a scapegoat.
"I am going out," Teg said. "I will go alone if necessary. Only those who wish need join me."
After that, all of them would come, he thought. Peer pressure was little understood by anyone except those trained by the Bene Gesserit.
It grew silent in the command station except for the faint hummings and clicks of instruments. Teg fell to thinking about the "depraved whores."
It was not correct to call them depraved, he thought. Sometimes, the supremely rich did become depraved. That came from believing that money (power) could buy anything and everything. And why shouldn't they believe this? They saw it happening every day. It was easy to believe in absolutes.
Hope springs eternal and all of that gornaw!
It was like another faith. Money would buy the impossible.
Then came depravity.
It was not the same for the Honored Matres. They were, somehow, beyond depravity. They had come through it; he could see that. But now they were into something else so far beyond depravity that Teg wondered if he really wanted to know about it.
The knowledge was there, though, inescapable in his new awareness. Not one of those people would hesitate an instant before consigning an entire planet to torture if that meant personal gain. Or if the payoff were some imagined pleasure. Or if the torture produced even a few more days or hours of living.