Dune_ House Atreides - Brian Herbert [224]
“CHOAM won’t like that,” Rabban said with surprising insight.
De Vries suggested, “Then we will have to get this information to the Spacing Guild. We must reveal to them what the Emperor was doing, and see to it that Shaddam ceases all such investigations. CHOAM and the Guild won’t want to lose their investment in spice production either.”
“But what if the new Emperor makes a treaty with them first, Piter?” the Baron asked. “CHOAM is partially owned by House Corrino. Shaddam will be out to make his mark as he begins his reign. What if CHOAM presses him into giving them access to the synthetic spice at an extraordinary discount, as the price of their cooperation? The Guild would love to have a cheaper, reliable supply. They might abandon Arrakis altogether if it’s too difficult.”
“Then we’ll be the only ones left out in the cold,” Rabban growled. “House Harkonnen gets stepped on by everybody.”
The Mentat’s eyes fell half-closed as he droned on. “We can’t even file a formal complaint with the Houses of the Landsraad. Knowledge of a spice substitute would create a feeding frenzy among the Federated families. Political alliances have shifted recently, and a number of Houses wouldn’t mind if our monopoly were broken. They couldn’t care less if the price of melange plummets. The only ones to lose would be those who had invested heavily in secret and illegal spice stockpiles, or those who invested heavily in the expensive spice-harvesting operations on Arrakis.”
“In other words, us again—and a few of our closest allies,” the Baron said.
“The Bene Gesserit, and your little sweetheart among the witches, would probably like an inexpensive supply, too.”
The Baron glowered at his nephew. Rabban merely chuckled. “So what can we do about it?”
De Vries answered without consulting the Baron. “House Harkonnen will have to take care of this by itself. We can expect no outside assistance.”
“Remember that we’re only a quasi-fief on Arrakis,” the Baron said. “It was given to us on sufferance from CHOAM and the Emperor. And now it’s like a hook on which they’ve hung us out to dry. We must be extremely careful.”
“We don’t have enough military strength to fight all those enemies,” Rabban said.
“We’ll have to be subtle,” de Vries said.
“Subtlety?” The Baron raised his eyebrows. “All right, I’m willing to try new things.”
“We must disrupt this Tleilaxu research on Ix,” de Vries said, “preferably destroy it. I suggest that House Harkonnen also liquidate various assets, build up a reserve of cash, and milk our current spice production for as much hard profit as possible, because it may disappear at any moment.”
The Baron looked over at Rabban. “We need to squeeze. Oh, and I’ll have your idiot father step up whale-fur harvesting on Lankiveil. We need to stuff our coffers. The upcoming battles may be quite taxing to our resources.”
The Mentat wiped a red drop from his lips. “We must do this in utmost secrecy. CHOAM watches our financial activity carefully and would detect if we suddenly started doing something unusual. For now it’s best we don’t tip our hand about the Tleilaxu research. We don’t want CHOAM or the Guild joining forces with our new Emperor against House Harkonnen.”
“We’ve got to keep the Imperium properly dependent upon us,” the Baron said.
Rabban scowled, trying to wrestle his way through the implications by brute force. “But if the Tleilaxu are entrenched on Ix, how do we destroy this research without exposing it for what it is? Without giving away our own involvement and bringing all of our enemies against us?”
De Vries sat back to stare at the sexual designs on the walls. The rotting corpses hung in their display cases like hideous eavesdroppers. His mind churned through Mentat calculations until finally he said, “We must have someone else fight for us. Preferably without their knowledge.”
“Who?” Rabban asked.
“That’s why we brought Piter here,” the Baron said. “We