Dune_ House Atreides - Brian Herbert [115]
In the railcar, a safety harness snapped into place over Leto as soon as he situated himself, and the car continued to accelerate with a smooth hum, traveling at high speed upward into caverns hidden in the rock ceiling. Captain Zhaz worked a comboard at the front of the compartment, his fingers dancing over the communication keys. A blue glow surrounded his hands. At his side, Rhombur watched the guard captain intently, as if knowing he might be expected to take charge.
“We’re in an escape pod,” one of the secondary guards explained to Leto. “You two are safe, for now. The suboids won’t be able to penetrate our upper defenses, once we have them activated.”
“But what about my parents?” Rhombur asked. “And Kailea?”
“We’ve got a plan for this, an option. You and your family should all meet at a rendezvous point. By all the saints and sinners, I hope my people remember what to do. For the first time, it isn’t a drill.”
The car made several track changes, clicking and humming along with increased speed, and then ascended steeply into darkness. Presently the track leveled off and the vehicle was bathed in light as it sped past an immense window wall of one-way armor-plaz. They caught just a glimpse of the riots down below: flares of spontaneous fires and swirling demonstrations going on beneath the city. Another explosion, and one of the transparent upper walkway tubes shattered, tumbling in shards to the floor of the cavern far below; tiny puppetlike figures of pedestrians flailed and fell to their doom.
“Stop here, Captain!” Rhombur cried. “I need to see what’s happening out there.”
“Please, sir, keep it to a few seconds,” the captain said. “The rebels could breach that wall.”
Leto found it hard to comprehend what he was hearing. Rebels? Explosions? Emergency evacuations? Ix had seemed so sophisticated, so peaceful, so . . . protected from discord. Even dissatisfied with their lot, how could the suboids have orchestrated such a massive and coordinated assault? Where could they have gotten the resources?
Through the one-way panel, Leto saw uniformed Vernius soldiers fighting a losing battle against swarms of the pale, smooth-skinned opponents down on the grotto floor. The suboids hurled crudely made explosive or incendiary devices, while Ixians cut the mobs down with purple beams of lasgun fire.
“Comcommand says the suboids are rebelling on all levels,” Zhaz said in a tone of disbelief. “They’re screaming ‘Jihad’ as they attack.”
“Vermilion hells!” Rhombur said. “What does the Jihad have to do with anything? What could it have to do with us?”
“We need to leave the window, sir,” Zhaz insisted, tugging at Rhombur’s sleeve. “We have to make it to the rendezvous point.”
Rhombur lurched back from the window as part of a tiled street collapsed behind it, and wave upon wave of the pale suboids scrambled out of the dark tunnels beneath.
The railcar picked up speed along the track and curved left into darkness, then ascended again. Rhombur nodded to himself, his face pinched and distressed. “We’ve got secret command centers on the upper levels. Precautions have been taken for this sort of thing, and by now our military units will have surrounded the most vital manufacturing facilities. It shouldn’t take long to subdue this.” The Earl’s son sounded as if he were trying to convince himself.
At the front of the car, Zhaz leaned intently over the comboard, which cast his face in pale light. “Look out—trouble ahead, sir!” He wrenched the controls. The railcar rocked, and Zhaz took a side track. The other two guards brought their weapons to bear, squinting into the rocky darkness all around them, ready to fire.
“Unit Four has been overrun,” Captain Zhaz said. “Suboids broke through the sidewalls. I’m trying for Three instead!”
“Overrun?” Rhombur said, and his face flushed with either embarrassment or fear. “How in the hells could suboids do that?”
“Comcommand