Espionage and Mysticism (c. 10,125)

[Lilith Piacevole]

Watching Yalara fill up a glass of water, Lilith realized she was becoming infected by the inescapable pervasiveness of Dune's water culture. Remembering the soggy rags fought over by crowds of Carthag's poorest at the Governor's mansion gates, and her former landlord's entire family forced to survive for a week on as much water as Yalara was about to offer her alone, Lilith recognized the distilled wealth contained in that one glass. She wondered whether Turgenova provided such luxuries out of more than just concern for his gang, and was in fact playing on their subconscious link between water and power to keep them in line.

“Drink up!” the Fremen girl told Lilith as she handed her the glass, which Lilith did. It was warm and not entirely tasteless, but after days upon days of living off her own body's reclaimed moisture, she savoured each drop. Thanks to her Bene Gesserit training, Lilith was able to adjust her inner processes for minimum water loss in order to cope with Arrakis' harsh dryness, but even such precautions were becoming inadequate. There was no escaping the thirst; she could only keep it at bay, for a time. The trace of sarcasm in Yalara's voice hadn't escaped her either; it made an interesting contrast with the reverence Lilith had observed everywhere else among the natives when it came to water. If the “tame” Fremen of the sinks and graben clung to water protocol so ritualistically, then those living in the Deep Desert must be all the more fanatic about it, and what she had seen of them seemed to confirm it: ascetic and leathery-skinned, always clad in stillsuits from head to toe, and only removed their mask to speak. Was then Yalara an outcast in more ways than one?

“You know, if the Emperor weren't so stingy with his solaris and installed a few weather satellites, this place wouldn't be so bad,” Lilith commented, remembering the reports on the supposedly outrageous prices the Guild demanded for it, “Ahhh, Kaitain, man! That's one place I'd like to see at least once in my lifetime – Roody's little lap of luxury. Wouldn't you?”

Though she had made it sound perfectly casual and flowing naturally from the previous remark, Lilith's words had been carefully chosen for a specific purpose: she aimed to goad Yalara ever so gently into giving up a hint of Turgenova's involvement on Kaitain, a direct confirmation the two were undeniably related.

[Yalara Ishaq]

The red-haired newcomer put the glass to her lips and drank. Anoia hid it well, but Yalara could see the hints of pleasure creep across her features as she did so; one could not remain long on Arrakis without developing a certain love for the feeling of a cooling mouthful of clean water. It was deeply ingrained in the natives, to the point where she had not forgotten it even during off-world trips to planets where water was plentiful. Could off-worlders themselves be affected so profoundly, or did they rapidly come to forget the simple pleasure of a glass of water once they were away from the baking heat and choking dust of this hellhole of a world? Would she ever forget it, even when she achieved her dream of leaving Arrakis?

“You know, if the Emperor weren't so stingy with his solaris and installed a few weather satellites, this place wouldn't be so bad” remarked Anoia.

Yalara for her part retained a perfect poker face even as she smiled inwardly at the new girl’s words. Anoia would come to know in time about the gang’s arrangement with the Fremen, and the reasons for the Guild’s continued protestations to the Emperor and the Landsraad that the planet was unsuitable for weather control, but it would be for Mobius to tell her that when she was considered trustworthy enough.

“Ahhh, Kaitain, man!" she continued, "That's one place I'd like to see at least once in my lifetime – Roody's little lap of luxury. Wouldn't you?”

And then the conversation took an unexpected turn. Yalara herself had not thought back too much to the episode on Kaitain the previous year, but she knew that it still weighed heavily on Mobius and that he continued to be quite preoccupied with it. To Yalara, raised in the harshness of the Arrakis desert, failure was a fact of life. There were times when the dew harvest was not as rich as you would like, when the wind was against you and you couldn’t leave your Sietch, or even when you had to accept that your best friend had been taken by Shai-Hulud , and all you could do was accept it and wait for the good times to come again. For a leader of men though she knew that failure mattered. Mobius had taken a considerable battering in smuggling circles when word got out about their botched attempt to abduct a Reverend Mother on Kaitain and how they had been taken for a ride by that slig Utoshski. Reputation mattered when you needed to command the loyalty of your gang and make it attractive to both potential clients and new recruits. Other groups were always jostling for position, seeking any advantage they could to bring down the leader of the pack and take on the top dog’s position for themselves. That was why they had just risked so much by harvesting in the deep desert. Yalara did not appreciate the position Mobius had put her in out there, but she understood his reasons.

The question now became whether Anoia was bringing up Kaitain in purely innocent conversation, or because she had heard the rumours and wanted to hear more about them from someone closer to the source. Either way Yalara was determined to get a handle on this early; Mobius had not forbidden her to speak about what had happened, and here was a chance to put her side of the story and his too before the new girl heard a less flattering version from anyone else.

“I’ve been to Kaitain. Business took us there late last year" she replied in a level tone, while casting the tiniest of sidelong glances to the group of smugglers at the far table, "Didn’t go so well though. Look, I’m not sure what you may have heard about that while you were with Alban’s group, but it’s more complicated than the gossip-mongers would have you believe”.

[Lilith Piacevole]

There were not many wild Fremen to be found in the streets of Carthag, Arrakeen, or any of Dune's scattered settlements, but those who did visit stood apart. Not only did they carry themselves with a kind of intimidating aloofness that distinguished them from the furtive, downtrodden inhabitants of sinks and graben, but they were given a wide berth wherever they went. Most of those familiar with their famously short tempers and reputation for swift and bloody retribution preferred to stay out of their way rather than risk a confrontation. Stories abounded of how a handful of desert Fremen had been known to take on a fully-staffed crawler or elite Harkonnen patrol using nothing but those worm-tooth knives of theirs.

Even accounting for exaggeration, Lilith could see why people feared them. During the few times she'd had the chance to observe them, she was able to learn much just from the way they moved: poised and confident, showing a certain disdain of their surroundings in the way they barely acknowledged them. Though they were never seen without their stillsuits and traveling cloaks, Lilith could tell they were all in excellent physical condition and their apparent lack of interest in what went on around them disguised a keen alertness. Only once had she seen a pair of them up-close and gazed into those bottomless indigo pools that were their eyes, nearly completely black in the shadow of their cowls, feeling the weight of their gaze as it flicked over her: sharp, intelligent, probing. Bizarrely, the young Bene Gesserit was reminded of the Reverend Mothers from Wallach IX and one in particular: Miral Alechem.

Some of these characteristics Lilith also recognized in Yalara, though attenuated. That sense of pride was there, as was the instinctive suspicion and all of her movements were deft, precise. As someone for whom battle-stance had become second nature long ago, Lilith could well believe she was more than able to defend herself. Likewise, the Fremen girl immediately picked up on her casual remark and seemed to be weighing it in her mind, deciding how to answer. A wild desert-girl from the backwoods of the Empire, Lilith thought, realizing how tempting it was to underestimate her; she was starting to think that perhaps the whole of the Known Universe had also underestimated these Fremen. What she'd glimpsed in them contained hints of cunning and sophistication beyond what one might expect from a few isolated tribes living on a primitive world.

Lilith watched Yalara, wondering how she'd react. The girl's hesitation was revealing, but not exactly proof - Kaitain was the capital of the Empire and thus a prize destination for any stolen goods. She needed more than that, and readied herself for memory-trance so that Yalara's words would be recorded precisely, down to the intonation, to be recited along with the rest of her report by Lilith when she returned to Chapterhouse. She proved to be more forthcoming than expected.

“I’ve been to Kaitain.” the Fremen woman confessed, keeping her voice low while aiming a brief glance at the remaining smugglers huddled around the table on the other end of the mess hall. Lilith listened but the lack of any appreciable change in the noise surrounding them assured her they hadn't overheard anything “Business took us there late last year. Didn’t go so well though. Look, I’m not sure what you may have heard about that while you were with Alban’s group, but it’s more complicated than the gossip-mongers would have you believe”.

As a matter of fact, Lilith had not heard much at all from the other smugglers, but Yalara didn't need to know that. She'd tried broaching the issue a few times with those she thought would be receptive, but they either didn't know or didn't want to risk telling her anything; snitches were not tolerated in those circles. If only she could use her Voice!...but that posed an even greater risk. No, Lilith had made that mistake once, and paid dearly for it. She would play by the book this time.

"No kiddin'!" she quipped, then folded her arms on top of the chair's backrest as she leaned in slightly closer. "So, what did happen?" Let her think she'd guessed correctly that some rumors had reached Lilith's ears, but say nothing and let her to tell the story without knowing what they were.

[Yalara Ishaq]

"No kiddin'!" replied Anoia airily, before leaning in slightly closer in conspiratorial fashion, "So, what did happen?"

Yalara paused for a moment, feeling torn between her sudden urge to try and defend her leader's good name and the thought that by even talking about it with the new girl she would be helping to perpetuate it as a topic for gossip. In the end her initial instinct won out: they would not shake off the legacy of Kaitain by pretending that it never happened.

“Well” she began in not exactly a whisper but a low voice nonetheless, “I wasn't there for all of it, but I saw enough to tell you that Mobius is no coward”.

This much was true, for she had not been present at the initial meeting at which the contract was agreed. The feeling of being on Kaitain, of seeing the opulent heart of the Imperium beating right before her eyes, of all that water; it had just been too much and she had not wanted to spoil it by visiting a seedy drinking den which was likely not that far removed from similar establishments in Arakeen. Mobius had assured her that she would not be needed and so she had spent that day sight-seeing, especially around the grand fountains in the Landsraad plaza. If she could she would have dived right in and lost herself in the pure ecstasy of all that fresh clean water, but the watchful eyes of the nearby guardsmen convinced her that this was a bad idea.

“They met a contact there” she continued, “Tek says they were odd to say the least: dark glasses, black cloak, black gloves, black lipstick even. And this is coming from a man who isn't exactly averse to wearing the colour black himself. This person – they never even figured out of it was a man or a woman thanks to the outfit and the fact they employed a voice modulator – was offering a contract to kill a Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother”.

Yalara watched the other woman's eyes for signs of surprise, of shock or incredulity even. That was what usually happened when this part of the story came out.

“Now I know what you're thinking” she went on, “Nobody tangles with the witches, right? And I'd be inclined to agree with you. They remind me of the priestesses among my... among the Fremen, and they scared me well enough. This was different though. The stranger in black had a landing manifest, an honest to God landing manifest from the Imperial Palace with the Corrino watermark and everything. It told us exactly when the witch's shuttle would be in orbit. We would have the element of perfect surprise, and you should have seen the amount of spice being offered in payment. It was practically an Emperor's ransom, fully refined and ready for market. It was just too good to turn down”.

Pausing for a moment Yalara thought back to what came next, the betrayal and the need to flee for their lives as the Bene Gesserit came down on the compound like an avalanche of sand.

“We did it too” she continued, determined to make Anoia see that it had not been their leader's fault, “Whatever the word on the street might be about Mobius choking and running through fear, we did it. Boarded the shuttle, in and out in less than 45 minutes, all those witchy powers aren't going to help when you've been knocked out by a well-aimed stun grenade. Where it went wrong was in our choice of hired help: Vladimir Utoshski. Ever heard of him? He was the only one who would take the deal, and yes maybe we should have expected that he'd try to screw us over, but damn it if he hadn't gotten greedy... We had the witch bound and gagged and all ready to put her head on a platter, but then Utoshski muscled in on the operation. He thought he could demand a random from the Bene Gesserit, see if they would beat the original client's offer, hoping she was worth even more alive than dead. Mobius warned him that the witches wouldn't negotiate, that they'd just track him down and mount a rescue attempt, but he wouldn't listen and with far more of his men on Kaitain then ours we had no choice but to go along. So if Mobius is guilty of anything it's making a bad judgement about bringing Utoshski into the operation, but he is absolutely not a coward or a fool. After all we got away while the witches and the Sardaukar razed the place to the ground, Utoshski didn't”.

Yalara hoped that Anoia would understand. Mobius had taken her on as part of his team when every other gang leader she had approached had either laughed in her face and called her a “desert bitch” or demanded that she sleep with them to seal the deal. Mobius had done neither and she had acquired a fierce respect for the man and what he had done to build up his operation. She did not want to see that all brought down by gossip and tale-telling, and if by getting in early with the new girl she could in a small way work to prevent that then it was worth opening herself up this one time.