Siona looked away from him and stared at Nayla seated off to her left. Nayla was looking first one direction and now another. She paid special attention to the new cadre of recruits at the back of the room. Nayla did not give her trust easily. Siona wrinkled her nose as a stirring of the air brought the smell of lubricants. The depths of Onn always smelled dangerously mechanical! She sniffed. And this room! She did not like their meeting place. It could easily be a trap. Guards could seal off the outer corridors and send in armed searchers. This could be too easily the place where their rebellion ended. Siona was made doubly uneasy by the fact that this room had been Topri's choice.
One of Ulot's few mistakes, she thought. Poor dead Ulot had approved Topri's admission to the rebellion.
"He is a minor functionary in city services," Ulot had explained. "Topri can find us many useful places to meet and arm ourselves."
Topri had reached almost the end of his ceremony. He placed the knife in an ornate case and put the case on the floor beside him.
"My face is my pledge," he said. He turned his profile to the room, first one side and then the other. "I show my face that you may know me anywhere and know that I am one of you."
Stupid ceremony, Siona thought.
But she dared not break the pattern of it. And when Topri pulled a black gauze mask from a pocket and placed it over his head, she took out her own mask and donned it. Everyone in the room did the same thing. There was a stirring around the room now. Most of the people here had been alerted that Topri had brought a special visitor. Siona secured her mask's tie behind her neck. She was anxious to see this visitor.
Topri moved to the room's one door. There was a clattering bustle as everyone stood and the chairs were folded and stacked against the wall opposite the door. At a signal from Siona, Topri tapped three times on the door panel. waited for a two count, then tapped four times.
The door opened and a tall man in a dark brown official singlet slipped into the room. He wore no mask, his face open for all of them to see - thin and imperious with a narrow mouth, a skinny blade of a nose, dark brown eyes deeply set under bushy brows. It was a face recognized by most of the room's occupants.
"My friends," Topri said, "I present Iyo Kobat, Ambassador from Ix."
"Ex-Ambassador," Kobat said. His voice was guttural and tightly controlled. He took a position with his back to the wall facing the masked people in the room. "I have this day received orders from our God Emperor to leave Arrakis in disgrace."
"Why?"
Siona snapped the question at him without formality.
Kobat jerked his head around, a quick movement which fixed his gaze on her masked face. "There has been an attempt on the God Emperor's life. He traced the weapon to me."
Siona's companions opened a space between her and the ex-Ambassador, clearly signaling that they deferred to her.
"Then why didn't he kill you?" she demanded.
"I think he is telling me that I am not worth killing. There is also the fact that he uses me now to carry a message to Ix."
"What message?" Siona moved through the cleared space to stop within two paces of Kobat. She recognized the sexual alertness in him as he studied her body.
"You are Moneo's daughter," he said.
Soundless tension exploded across the room. Why did he reveal that he recognized her? Who else did he recognize here? Kobat did not appear the fool. Why had he done this?
"Your body, your voice and your manner are well known here in Onn," he said. "That mask is a foolishness."
She ripped the mask from her head and smiled at him. "I agree. Now answer my question."
She heard Nayla move up close on her left; two more aides chosen by Nayla came up beside her.
Siona saw the moment of realization come over Kobat his death if he failed to satisfy her demands. His voice did not lose its tight control but he spoke slower, choosing his words more carefully.
"The God Emperor has told me that he knows about an agreement between Ix and the Guild. We are attempting to make a mechanical amplifier of... those Guild navigational talents which presently rely on melange."
"In this room we call him the Worm," Siona said. "What would your Ixian machine do?"
"You are aware that Guild Navigators require the spice before they can see the safe path to traverse?"
"You would replace the navigators with a machine?"
"It may be possible."
"What message do you carry to your people concerning this machine?"
"I am to tell my people that they may continue the project only if they send him daily reports on their progress."
She shook her head. "He needs no such reports! That's a stupid message."
Kobat swallowed no longer concealing nervousness.
"The Guild and the Sisterhood are excited by our project," he said. "They are participating."
Siona nodded once. "And they pay for their participation by sharing spice with Ix."
Kobat glared at her. "It's expensive work and we need the spice for comparative testing by Guild Navigators."
"It is a lie and a cheat," she said. "Your device will never work and the Worm knows it."
"How dare you accuse us of..."
"Be still! I have just told you the real message. The Worm is telling you Ixians to continue cheating the Guild and the Bene Gesserit. It amuses him."
"It could work!" Kobat insisted.
She merely smiled at him. "Who tried to kill the Worm?"
"Duncan Idaho."
Nayla gasped. There were other small signs of surprise around the room, a frown, an indrawn breath.
"Is Idaho dead?" Siona asked.
"I presume so, but the... ahhh, Worm refuses to confirm it."
"Why do you presume him dead?"
"The Tleilaxu have sent another Idaho ghola."
"I see."
Siona turned and signaled to Nayla. who went to the side of the room and returned with a slim package wrapped in pink Suk paper, the kind of paper shopkeepers used to enclose small purchases. Nayla handed the package to Siona.
"This is the price of our silence," Siona said, extending the package to Kobat. "This is why Topri was permitted to bring you here tonight."
Kobat took the package without removing his attention from her face.
"Silence?" he asked.
"We undertake not to inform the Guild and Sisterhood that you are cheating them."
"We are not cheat..."
"Don't be a fool!"
Kobat tried to swallow in a dry throat. Her meaning had become plain to him: true or not, if the rebellion spread such a story it would be believed. It was "common sense" as Topri was fond of saying.
Siona glanced at Topri who stood just behind Kobat. No one joined this rebellion for reasons of "common sense." Did Topri not realize that his "common sense" might betray him? She returned her attention to Kobat.
"What's in this package?" he asked.
Something in the way he asked it told Siona he already knew.
"That is something I am sending to Ix. You will take it there for me. That is copies of two volumes we removed from the Worm's fortress."
Kobat stared down at the package in his hands. It was obvious that he wanted to drop the thing, that his venture into rebellion had loaded him with a burden more deadly than he had expected. He shot a scowling glance at Topri which said as though he had spoken it: "Why didn't you warn me?"
"What..." He brought his gaze back to Siona, cleared his throat. "What's in these... volumes?"
"Your people may tell us that. We think they are the Worm's own words, written in a cipher which we cannot read."
"What makes you think we..."
"You Ixians are clever at such things."
"And if we fail?"
She shrugged. "We will not blame you for that. However, should you use those volumes for any other purpose or fail to report a success fully..."