"Frank Herbert - Dune 4 - God Emporer of Dune" - читать интересную книгу автора (Herbert Brian & Frank)

"I don't . . . think so."
"But you are not certain?"
..No."
"Do not fear, Commander Idaho," she said. "We have ways of making sure and ways
of dealing with such problems should they arise. The dirty Tleilaxu have tried
it only once and they paid dearly for their mistake."
"That's reassuring. Did the Lord Leto send me any messages?"
Luli spoke up: "He told us to assure you that he still loves you as the Atreides
have always loved you." She was obviously awed by her own words.
Idaho relaxed slightly. As an old Atreides hand, superbly trained by them, he
had found it easy to determine several things from this encounter. These two had
been heavily conditioned to a fanatic obedience. If a cibus mask could hide the
identity of that woman, there had to be many more whose bodies were very
similar. All of this spoke of dangers around Leto which still required the old
and subtle services of spies and an imaginative arsenal of weapons.
Luli looked at her companion. "What say you, Friend?"
"He may be brought to the Citadel," the masked woman said. "This is not a good
place. Tleilaxu have been here."
"A warm bath and change of clothing would be pleasant," Idaho said.
Luli continued to look at her Friend. "You are certain?"
"The wisdom of the Lord cannot be questioned," the masked woman said.
Idaho did not like the sound of fanaticism in this Friend's voice, but he felt
secure in the integrity of the Atreides. They could appear cynical and cruel to
outsiders and enemies, but to their own people they were just and they were
loyal. Above all else, the Atreides were loyal to their own.
And I am one of theirs, Idaho thought. But what happened to the me that I am
replacing? He felt strongly that these two would not answer this question.
But Leto will.
"Shall we go?" he asked. "I'm anxious to wash the stink of the dirty Tleilaxu
off me."
Luli grinned at him.
"Come. I shall bathe you myself."
Enemies strengthen you.
Allies weaken.
===
I tell you this in the hope that it will help you understand why I ad as I do in
the full knowledge that great forces accumulate in my Empire with but one wishthe
wish to destroy me. You who read these words may know full well what
actually happened, but I doubt that you understand it.
-The Stolen Journals
THE CEREMONY of "Showing" by which the rebels began their meetings dragged on
interminably for Siona. She sat in the front row and looked everywhere but at
Topri, who was conducting the ceremony only a few paces away. This room in the
service burrows beneath Onn was one they had never used before but it was so
like all of their other meeting places that it could have been used as a
standard model.
Rebel Meeting Room-class B, she thought.
It was officially designated as a storage chamber and the fixed glowglobes could
not be tuned away from their blank white glaring. The room was about thirty
paces long and slightly less in width. It could be reached only through a