The Royal office room was quiet when the report arrived.
Shaddam read it standing up, he was not seated.
Sitting felt like receiving, and he was not in the mood to receive anything from Arrakis today.
He read it twice just to make sure.
Then he set it down on the table beside him very slowly.
His jaw tightly clenched.
"Spice is flowing," he muttered through his gritten teeth.
Nobody responded. There was nobody to respond. Except Mohiam, who stood to the side with her hands folded and said nothing because she understood that he was not speaking to her.
The silence that followed was the kind that had weight. Shaddam moved to the viewport and stood with his back to her, looking out over Kaitain's skyline the way he had been doing more and more lately. As if the view might eventually give him something useful.
Mohiam watched him.
His shoulders tight. His hands were clenched into fists.
She had known Shaddam Corrino for a long time and she knew the difference between a man who was angry and a man who was beginning to feel the specific cold sensation of running out of options. This was the second one.
A small frown settled on her face.
"The Guild will be pleased," she said flatly.
"Yes," Shaddam said. "They will." he slowly said.
He turned from the viewport.
"I am sending an envoy to Arrakis," he said. "Formal inspection team. Compliance review of the new stewardship's administrative processes." His voice had found composure again. "Twenty Sardaukar as escort."
Mohiam said nothing.
"I will also be drafting a formal letter," Shaddam continued. "Outlining Imperial concerns regarding the pace of the stewardship transition. Questions of accountability. Documentation. and the missing stewards previously sent" He said.
"Of course," Mohiam said.
Shaddam looked at her for a moment.
"Leave me," he said.
It was said quietly. Almost gently. Which was worse than if he had said it with anger.
Mohiam held his gaze for a moment then bowed her head slightly and walked to the door.
It closed behind her.
She stood in the corridor and did not move immediately.
The formal letter, the inspection team and Twenty Sardaukar.
Her mind moved quickly and quietly the way it had been trained to move. The inspection was the performance. The letter was the performance. Twenty Sardaukar that everyone could count and report to the Guild and account for in official records.
Which meant there were others.
She did not know how many. She did not know the targets. But she knew Shaddam and she knew what a man looked like when he had decided that patience was finished and that the board needed to be cleared before it collapsed entirely beneath him.
She began walking.
Inside the throne room, Shaddam waited until he was certain she was gone.
Then he activated the private communicator.
The Sardaukar commander appeared within moments. As they always did.
"I need ten men," Shaddam said. "Unregistered. Not listed in any deployment record. Not visible to Guild observers or CHOAM monitors." He paused. "They will travel to Arrakis separately from the official delegation and will not make contact with them under any circumstances."
The commander did not ask questions.
"Targets will be communicated through the secondary channel," Shaddam said. "Priority is the Atreides command structure. The Duke first, Hawat second and Idaho last." He paused for a moment. "Duncan Idaho reputation has proven difficult to kill directly." he said and the communicator went dark.
Shaddam stood alone in his throne room.
He looked at the report still sitting on the table.
'Spice is flowing.' the thouhgt cuased a burst of anger within him again.
He picked it up and folded it roughly and threw it in the disposal.
Meanwhile, Mohiam moved through the palace corridors at a quick pace.
She reached her room. The door closed behind her.
She stood at her desk for a moment then sat and pulled a sheet of correspondence paper toward her.
She began to write.
A few days latter.
The reports had started arriving in order.
That was the thing Paul had not expected.
Not the content of them but the fact that they came in sequence, one after another, each one building on the last in a way that suggested Thufir had reorganized the entire administrative pipeline while Paul was dealing with the Fremen meeting. Which he had. Obviously. Without being asked.
Paul sat at Leto's desk, which had become his desk now, though he still thought of it as Leto's and worked through them with a cup of a warm mildly strong melange tea.
Spice production was consistent. Infrastructure repairs on schedule. The Richese shipment confirmed received. The Fremen council had sent no word yet which Thufir had assessed as neither positive nor negative, simply as Fremen operating on Fremen time.
Paul set the last report down.
He looked out the window at Arrakeen.
Things were working.
He sat with that for a moment because it was rare enough to deserve sitting with.
Then the aide knocked.
"My lord a message has arrived adressed to you personally."
Paul glanced at the seal before he opened it.
Bene Gesserit.
Not House Atreides. Not the office of the Duke. His name. His personal name.
He opened it.
The language was elegant and warm and said almost nothing directly.
Acknowledgment of the Landsraad outcome.
Recognition of spice resumption.
Congratulations. Three paragraphs of careful nothing.
Then, buried in the fourth paragraph, almost as an afterthought:
The Sisterhood wished to assign a Sister to Arrakeen. A gesture of cooperation. Support for the new stewardship. Standard practice for major houses navigating significant transitions.
Paul paused.
'Sneaky bastards'
He set the letter down.
He thought about Mohiam's hands on his wrist. About Jessica's face in the office when she processed what he had told her. About what the Bene Gesserit actually wanted from Arrakis and mainly from him.
'They want eyes on me'
He picked up a pen and wrote the response himself. He did not call Thufir as it wasnt needed.
It was short.
He thanked them for their acknowledgment. He noted that as sovereign ruler of Arrakis for the next fifty years, confirmed by Landsraad vote and Imperial ratification, House Atreides maintained full administrative discretion over personnel operating within the fief. He wished the Sisterhood well in their other endeavors.
Simple as that.
He sealed it and handed it to the aide and the aide left.
Paul looked at the window again seeing the setting sun, he let out a small sigh of releif as he watched the blazing sun of Arrakis setting at the horizon of Arrakeen.
"What a life" he muttered.