Sandworms of Dune - Brian Herbert [100]
What snakes will they set loose among us? he wondered.
In the main medical center away from the tanks, he found the old Rabbi grumbling as he assembled a portable medical kit. Since refusing to remain behind on Qelso with his people, he lingered for hours at a time over the tank that he called Rebecca. Though he despised what had been done to her, he seemed relieved that she hadn’t been the one implanted with the new ghola.
Reluctant to have the Rabbi hover too long near the axlotl tanks, the Sisters gave him duties to keep him busy. “I am going to run Scytale through a battery of tests,” the old man huffed to Yueh, starting to retreat from the medical center. “Sheeana wants him checked out—again.”
“I can do that for you, Rabbi. My duties here are light.”
“No. Sticking needles into the Tleilaxu is one of my few pleasures these days.” His gaze fixed on Yueh’s new diamond mark, but he did not comment on it. “Walk with me.” The Rabbi took Yueh’s arm in a tight grip and led him into the corridors, away from the hovering Bene Gesserits. When they were far enough away for him to feel safe, the old man leaned closer, speaking in a conspiratorial tone. “I am certain Scytale is the saboteur, though I have not found evidence yet. First the old one, and now his ghola replacement. They are all the same. With his memories restored, the young Scytale continues his insidious work to destroy our ship. Who can trust a Tleilaxu?”
Who can trust anyone? Yueh thought. “Why would he want to harm the ship?”
“We know he has some dirty scheme. Ask yourself why he would store Face Dancer cells in his nullentropy tube, along with all the others—yours included. Why would he need them? Isn’t that suspicious enough for you?”
“Those cells were confiscated and secured by Sheeana. No one has had access to them.”
“Can you be sure of that? Maybe he wants to kill us all so he can restore an army of Face Dancers for himself.” The Rabbi shook his head. Behind the spectacles, his reddened eyes were angry. “And that isn’t all. The witches have their own schemes. Why do you suppose they won’t reveal the identity of the new ghola baby? Does even Duncan Idaho know who is growing in that tank?” He craned his neck, glanced over his shoulder back toward the medical center, watching out for surveillance imagers. “But you can find out.”
Yueh was perplexed, and curious, but he didn’t tell the Rabbi that he had been having some of the same doubts. “How? They won’t tell me either.”
“But they don’t watch you like they watch me! The witches are afraid I’m going to do something to hinder their program, but now that you have your memories, you’re their trusted little ghola.” The Rabbi slipped him a small sealed polymer disk, with a dab of filmy substance in the center. “You have access to the scanners. These are cell samples from the pregnant tank in there. Nobody saw me obtain them, but I dare not run the analysis myself.”
Yueh surreptitiously pocketed the disk. “Do I really want to know?”
“Can you afford not to? I leave it to you.” The Rabbi slipped away, muttering. Carrying his portable medical kit, he trudged off to the Tleilaxu’s cabin.
The sample weighed heavily in Yueh’s pocket. Why would the Sisters keep the new ghola’s identity secret? What were they up to?
It took several hours for him to find an opportunity to slip into one of the no-ship’s small lab chambers. As a Suk doctor, he had permission to use the facilities. Even so, he worked as swiftly as possible, running the small sample from the axlotl tank through a DNA catalog. He compared the cells from the growing ghola with the identifications that had been run years ago, when the Sisters first assessed the material in Scytale’s nullentropy