Dune_ House Atreides - Brian Herbert [77]
But at that moment, one of the scouts stepped in front of Rabban to give a report. The beam scored through his armor, burning and smoking. The man flung out his arms and gave a wild shriek.
Reacting with lightning speed for his burly body, Rabban hurled himself to one side as the beam melted all the way through the hunter’s padded chest and sizzled into the snowdrift. Duncan cut loose another blast, shooting a second tracker who stood outlined against the glowing snow. Then the remaining guards began firing wildly into the trees, into the darkness.
Duncan next targeted the drifting glowglobes. Bursting one after another, he left his hapless pursuers alone in flame-haunted darkness. He picked off two more men, while the rest of the party scrambled for cover.
With the charge in his lasgun running low, the boy scrabbled back behind the ridge where he had set up his attack, and then he headed out at top speed toward the blinking signal light he had seen. Whatever the beacon might be, it was his best chance.
The Harkonnens would be startled and disorganized for a few moments, and overly suspicious for much longer than that. Knowing he had one last opportunity, Duncan threw caution to the wind. He ran, slipping, down the hillside, smashing against rocks, but taking no time to feel the pain of scrapes or bruises. He could not cover his tracks in time, did not attempt to hide.
Somewhere behind him, as he increased the distance, he heard muffled growls and snarls, and shouts from the hunters. A pack of the wild gaze hounds had converged on them, seeking wounded prey. Duncan hid a smile and continued toward the intermittently blinking light. He saw it now, up ahead near the edge of the forest preserve.
He finally approached, treading lightly toward a shallow clearing. He came upon a silent flitter ’thopter, a high-speed aircraft that could take several passengers. The flashing beacon signaled from the top of the craft—but Duncan saw no one.
He waited in silence for a few moments, then cautiously left the shadows of the trees and moved forward. Was the craft abandoned? Left there for him? Some kind of trap the Harkonnens had laid? But why would they do that? They were already hunting him.
Or did he have a mysterious rescuer?
Duncan Idaho had accomplished much this evening and was already exhausted, stunned at how much had changed in his life. But he was only eight years old and could never pilot this flitter, even if it was his only way to escape. Still, he might find supplies inside, more food, another weapon. . . .
He leaned against the hull, surveying the area, making no sound. The hatch stood open like an invitation, but the mysterious flitter was dark inside. Wishing he still had his handlight, he moved forward cautiously and probed the shadows ahead of him with the barrel of the lasgun.
Then hands snatched out from the shadows of the craft to yank the gun from his grip before he could even flinch. Fingers stinging, flesh torn, Duncan staggered backward, biting back an outcry.
The person inside the flitter tossed the lasgun with a clatter onto the deckplates and lunged out to grab hold of the boy’s arms. Rough hands squeezed the wound in his shoulder and made him gasp in pain.
Duncan kicked and struggled, then looked up to see a wiry, bitter-faced woman with chocolate-colored hair and dusky skin. He recognized her instantly: Janess Milam, who had stood next to him during the yard games . . . just before Harkonnen troops had captured his parents and sent his entire family to the prison city of Barony.
This woman had betrayed him to the Harkonnens.
Janess pressed a hand over his mouth before he could cry out and clamped his head in a firm arm lock. He couldn’t escape.
“Got you,” she said, her voice a harsh whisper.
She had betrayed him again.
We consider the various worlds as gene pools, sources of teachings and teachers, sources of the possible.
—Bene Gesserit Analysis,
Wallach IX Archives
Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was no stranger to despicable acts. Still, being coerced into this encounter disturbed