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“How dare you keep suggesting a bargain with an Honored Matre?” she demanded. “Know you that we set the price!”

“I do not know your ways, Honored Matre,” Waff said. “But I sense in your words that I have offended.”

“Apology accepted.”

No apology intended! He stared at her blandly. Many things could be deduced from her performance. Out of his millennial experiences, Waff reviewed what he had learned here. This female from the Scattering came to him for an essential piece of information. Therefore, she had no other source. He sensed desperation in her. Well masked but definitely there. She needed confirmation or refutation of something she feared.

How like a predatory bird she was, sitting there with her claw hands so lightly on the arms of her chair! Rot at the core spreads outward. He had said it and she had not heard. Clearly, atomic humankind continued to explode on its Scatterings of Scatterings. The people represented by this Honored Matre had not found a way to trace the no-ships. That was it, of course. She hunted the no-ships just as the witches of the Bene Gesserit did.

“You seek the way to nullify a no-ship’s invisibility,” he said.

The statement obviously rocked her. She had not expected this from the elflike manikin seated in front of her. He saw fear, then anger, then resolution pass across her features before she resumed her predatory mask. She knew, though. She knew he had seen.

“So that is what you do with your ghola,” she said.

“It is what the witches of the Bene Gesserit seek with him,” Waff lied.

“I underestimated you,” she said. “Did you make the same mistake with me?”

“I do not think so, Honored Matre. The breeding scheme that produced you is quite obviously formidable. I think you could kick out a foot and kill me before I blinked an eye. The witches are not in the same league with you.”

A smile of pleasure softened her features. “Are the Tleilaxu to be our willing servants or compelled?”

He did not try to hide outrage. “You offer us slavery?”

“That is one of your options.”

He had her now! Arrogance was her weakness. Submissively, he asked: “What would you command me to do?”

“You will take back as your guests two younger Honored Matres. They are to be bred with you and . . . teach you our ways of ecstasy.”

Waff inhaled and exhaled two slow breaths.

“Are you sterile?” she asked.

“Only our Face Dancers are mules.” She would already know that. It was common knowledge.

“You call yourself Master,” she said, “yet you have not mastered yourself.”

More than you, Honored Matre bitch! And I call myself Masheikh, a fact that may yet destroy you.

“The two Honored Matres I send with you will make an inspection of everything Tleilaxu and return to me with their report,” she said.

He sighed as though in resignation. “Are the two younger women comely?”

“Honored Matres!” she corrected him.

“Is that the only name you use?”

“If they choose to give you names, that is their privilege, not yours.” She leaned sideways and rapped a bony knuckle against the floor. Metal gleamed in her hand. She had a way of penetrating this room’s shielding!

The hatch opened and two women dressed much like his Honored Matre entered. Their dark capes carried less decoration and both women were younger. Waff stared at them. Were they both . . . He tried not to show elation but knew he failed. No matter. The older one would think he admired the beauty of these two. By signs known only to the Masters, he saw that one of the two newcomers was a new Face Dancer. A successful exchange had been made and these Scattered Ones could not detect it! The Tleilaxu had successfully passed a hurdle! Would the Bene Gesserit be as blind to these new gholas?

“You are being sensibly agreeable about this, for which you will be rewarded,” the old Honored Matre said.

“I recognize your powers, Honored Matre,” he said. That was true. He bowed his head to conceal the resolution that he knew he could not keep from his eyes.

She gestured to the newcomers. “These two will accompany you. Their slightest whim is your command. They will be treated with all honor and respect.”

“Of course, Honored Matre.” Keeping his head bowed, he lifted both arms as though in salutation and submission. A dart hissed from each sleeve. As he released the darts, Waff jerked himself sideways in his chair. The motion was not quite rapid enough. The old Honored Matre’s right foot shot out, catching him in the left thigh and hurling him backward on his chair.

It was the old Honored Matre’s last living act. The dart from his left sleeve caught her in the back of her throat, entering through her opened mouth, a mouth left gaping in surprise. Narcotic poison cut off any outcry. The other dart hit the non–Face Dancer of the newcomers in the right eye. His Face Dancer accomplice cut off any warning shout by a blurred chop to the throat.

Two bodies slumped in death.