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"It was wise to think of her as bait, Dama!"
"She's still bait. That witch we found on Gammu did not go to those people by accident."
"Yes, Dama."
Yes, Dama! But the subservient sound in Logno's voice was enjoyable. "Well, get on with it!"
Logno scurried away.
There were always those little cells of potential violence meeting secretly somewhere. Building up their mutual charges of hate, swarming out to disrupt the orderly lives around them. Someone always had to clean up after those disruptions. Dama sighed. Terror tactics were so ... so temporary!
Success, that was the danger. It had cost them an empire. If you waved your success around like a banner someone always wanted to cut you down. Envy!
We will hold our success more cautiously this time.
She fell into a semi-reverie, still alert to the sounds behind her, but relishing the evidence of new victories that had been displayed to her this morning. She liked to roll the names of captive planets silently on her tongue.
Wallach, Kronin, Reenol, Ecaz, Bela Tegeuse, Gammu, Gamont, Niushe ...
Humans are born with a susceptibility to that most persistent and debilitating disease of intellect: self-deception. The best of all possible worlds and the worst get their dramatic coloration from it. As nearly as we can determine, there is no natural immunity. Constant alertness is required.
--The Coda
With Odrade away from Central (and probably only for a short time) Bellonda knew swift action was required. That damned Mentat-ghola is too dangerous to live!
Mother Superior's party was barely out of sight into the lowering afternoon before Bellonda was on her way to the no-ship.
Not for Bellonda a thoughtful approach through ring orchards. She ordered space on a tube, windowless, automatic, and fast. Odrade, too, had observers who might send unwanted messages.
En route, Bellonda reviewed her assessment of Idaho's many lives. A record she had kept in Archives ready for quick retrieval. In the original and early gholas, his character had been dominated by impulsiveness. Quick to hate, quick to give loyalty. Later Idaho-gholas tempered this with cynicism but the underlying impulsiveness remained. The Tyrant had called it to action many times. Bellonda recognized a pattern.
He can be goaded by pride.
His long service to the Tyrant fascinated her. Not only had he been a Mentat several times but there was evidence he had been a Truthsayer in more than one incarnation.
Idaho's appearance reflected what she saw in her records. Interesting character lines, a look around the eyes and a set to his mouth that went with complex inner development.
Why would Odrade not accept the danger of this man? Bellonda had felt frequent misgivings when Odrade spoke of Idaho with such flaunting of her emotions.
"He thinks clearly and directly. There's a fastidious cleanliness about his mind. It's restorative. I like him and I know that's a trivial thing to influence my decisions."
She admits his influence!
Bellonda found Idaho alone and seated at his console. His attention was fixed on a linear display she recognized: the no-ship's operational schematics. He washed the projection when he saw her.
"Hello, Bell. Been expecting you."
He touched his console field and a door opened behind him. Young Teg entered and took up a position near Idaho, staring silently at Bellonda.
Idaho did not invite her to sit or find a chair for her, forcing her to bring one from his sleeping chamber and place it facing him. When she was seated, he turned a look of wary amusement to her.
Bellonda remained taken aback by his greeting. Why did he expect me?
He answered her unspoken question. "Dar projected earlier, told me she was off to see Sheeana. I knew you'd waste no time getting to me when she was gone."
Simple Mentat projection or... "She warned you!"
"Wrong."
"What secrets do you and Sheeana share?" Demanding.
"She uses me the way you want her to use me."
"The Missionaria!"
"Bell! Two Mentats together. Must we play these stupid games?"
Bellonda took a deep breath and sought Mentat mode. Not easy under these circumstances, that child staring at her, the amusement on Idaho's face. Was Odrade displaying an unsuspected slyness? Working against a Sister with this ghola?
Idaho relaxed when he saw Bene Gesserit intensity become that doubled focus of the Mentat. "I've known for a long time that you want me dead, Bell."
Yes ... I have been readable in my fears.
It had been very close there, he thought. Bellonda had come to him with death in mind, a little drama to create "the necessity" all prepared. He entertained few illusions about his ability to match her in violence. But Bellonda-Mentat would observe before acting.
"It's disrespectful the way you use our first names," she said, goading.
"Different recognition, Bell. You're no longer Reverend Mother and I'm not 'the ghola.' Two human beings with common problems. Don't tell me you're unaware of this."
She glanced around his workroom. "If you expected me why didn't you have Murbella here?"
"Force her to kill you while protecting me?"
Bellonda assessed this. The damned Honored Matre probably could kill me, but then ... "You sent her away to protect her."
"I've a better protector." He gestured at the child.
Teg? A protector? There were those stories from Gammu about him. Does Idaho know something?
She wanted to ask but did she dare risk diversion? Watchdogs must receive a clear scenario of danger.
"Him?"
"Would he serve the Bene Gesserit if he saw you kill me?"
When she did not answer, he said: "Put yourself in my place, Bell. I'm a Mentat caught not only in your trap but in that of the Honored Matres."
"Is that all you are, a Mentat?"
"No. I'm a Tleilaxu experiment but I don't see the future. I'm not a Kwisatz Haderach. I'm a Mentat with memories of many lives. You, with your Other Memories--think about the leverage that gives me."
While he was speaking, Teg came to lean against the console at Idaho's elbow. The boy's expression was one of curiosity but she saw no fear of her.
Idaho gestured at the projection focus over his head, silver motes dancing there ready to create their images. "A Mentat sees his relays producing discrepancies--winter scenes in summer, sunshine when his visitors have come through rain ... Didn't you expect me to discount your little playlets?"
She heard Mentat summation. To that extent, they shared common teaching. She said: "You naturally told yourself not to minimize the Tao."
"I asked different questions. Things that happen together can have underground links. What is cause and effect when confronted with simultaneity?"
"You had good teachers."
"And not just in one life."
Teg leaned toward her. "Did you really come here to kill him?"
No sense lying. "I still think he is too dangerous." Let watchdogs argue that!
"But he's going to give me back my memories!"
"Dancers on a common floor, Bell," Idaho said. "Tao. We may not appear to dance together, may not use the same steps or rhythms but we are seen together."
She began to suspect where he might be leading and wondered if there might be another way to destroy him.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Teg said.
"Interesting coincidences," Idaho said.
Teg turned to Bellonda. "Maybe you would explain, please?"
"He's trying to tell me we need each other."
"Then why doesn't he say so?"
"It's more subtle than that, boy." And she thought: The record must show me warning Idaho. "The nose of the donkey doesn't cause the tail, Duncan, no matter how often you see the beast pass that thin vertical space limiting your view of it."
Idaho met Bellonda's fixed gaze. "Dar came here once with a sprig of apple blossoms, but my projection showed h
arvest time."
"It's riddles, isn't it?" Teg said, clapping his hands.
Bellonda recalled the record of that visit. Precise movements by Mother Superior. "You didn't suspect a hothouse?"
"Or that she just wanted to please me?"
"Am I supposed to guess?" Teg asked.
After a long silence, Mentat gaze locked to Mentat gaze, Idaho said: "There's anarchy behind my confinement, Bell. Disagreement in your highest councils."
