The Winds of Dune (65 page)

With a feeling of trepidation, Gurney heard chatter over a com-line as the command was relayed. He touched his earpiece. “They’re reporting it’s only Bronso and one other potential conspirator. Maybe it should just be the two of us, Duncan. Go in ourselves.”

At the very least, if just he and Duncan went in, maybe the ghola’s loyalty would let them save Jessica.

The other man shook his head firmly. “We will not underestimate him. Levenbrech, block off the closest streets, surround the building, guard every possible exit. Watch the ’thopter on the roof so he can’t use it to escape.”

Orik was eager to make his report. “Our engineers have cut the fuel lines and disabled the jet pods. He cannot fly away from us.” With a
hand signal, the grinning levenbrech led the way out onto the balcony and across the riley-ramp, which remained rigid and steady even as the men trooped across it quick-time.

Gurney said, growing more desperate, “Maybe I should go in first, try to convince him to surrender. Bronso will remember me. I don’t like the potential for casualties—”

Duncan scowled. “A foolish risk to take. No, we will go in, full force. The time for half measures is past.”

The assault team signaled their readiness, and Gurney felt a lump in his throat. He touched the long knife in its sheath at his waist. With their body shields activated, Duncan motioned them forward, and the net closed.

With his senses heightened and paranoia sharpened by living so many years on the run, Bronso detected the assault first. A change in the air, a series of faint, out-of-place sounds. He cursed and looked out a window, but saw nothing. Still, something was not right. “To the ’thopter on the rooftop—we’ve been tracked!”

Jessica balked. “They’ll have pursuit ’thopters.”

Bronso gave her a quick, sly grin. “Mine has Ixian modifications.”

The sound of booted feet running in the corridor grew louder, and Jessica knew there was no time for further discussion.

As the troops crashed through the door of Bronso’s bolt-hole apartment, Gurney remained right behind Duncan. Both men had their long knives drawn and ready, but Gurney was ready to throw himself upon Jessica, to prevent her from being harmed by overzealous soldiers. He had to whisk her out by any means possible . . . if he could only find a way.

Reacting to a flicker of movement, he spotted a concealed door at the back of the room just as it closed. Before Gurney could hope that no one else would notice, before he could exclaim that Bronso wasn’t there, Levenbrech Orik yelled, “They’re getting away!”

Duncan smashed open the door at the back of the room. Footsteps could be heard rushing up the stairs. “To the roof!” he shouted. “Send more men to the roof!”

Gurney shouldered him aside and took the lead. Bolting up through the passage, he hoped to gain an extra second or two. He tripped intentionally on piled debris in the stairwell, stalled the men behind him, then proceeded upward with exaggerated caution.

Emerging onto the rooftop in the uncertain light of deepening dusk, Gurney spotted two shadowy figures dashing toward the faintly shimmering camo-shield that covered an ornithopter. Knowing what he knew now, one of them had to be Jessica. After a brief, heated discussion, the two figures split up, the woman running toward a different access door on the far side of the roof.
Good . . . they’re apart
. If Jessica could get far enough away, perhaps she would have deniability.

Gurney knew what he had to do.
Cut losses. Focus on the objective
. Give Jessica just a little more time. “Bronso is our main target! After him!” This was a battle like so many others, and Jessica was more important to him, even given the sacrifice of the Ixian. “Duncan, I’ll take the other one. Go!”

Moving like a shadow, Bronso dove under the camo-shield and vanished in a ripple of color and darkness. Gurney heard a metal ’thopter hatch being yanked open, a seat creaking, controls being activated.

With a burst of speed, Duncan bolted to the hidden aircraft as engine sounds coughed and ground together. With a disorienting flick, the ghola tore away the chameleon cloth and reached inside the cockpit to grab the figure behind the controls, hauling him out onto the hard, dusty surface of the roof. Bronso was no fighter, and the Swordmaster easily subdued him.

When she saw Bronso fall, the disguised woman eluded Gurney and ran recklessly back toward the ’thopter. She leaped into the fight, kicking and whirling with her own combat skills, hitting Duncan with repeated blows, forcing him to release his captive.

The ghola spun to face the unexpected opponent, raising his short sword. Even with her Bene Gesserit fighting methods, Gurney did not know how long Jessica could last against a seasoned Swordmaster of Ginaz. She eluded Duncan’s thrusts, and kicked his weapon arm so hard that he had to shift the sword to his other hand. Her abrupt movements
caused the hood to blow back and reveal her face, just a flash of skin and her eyes.

At that instant, Bronso threw himself at Duncan’s legs, knocking him off balance. Gurney lunged to put himself between the ghola and Jessica, then hissed sharply, close to her ear. “My Lady! Strike me now—
hit me!
Then escape.”

With a flash of understanding, Jessica drove a hard kick into the center of Gurney’s chest, knocking him backward. He reeled off balance, retching, physically stunned. As he coughed and made a show of chasing her, she ducked into the roof access and plunged into another stairwell.

Levenbrech Orik and his men yelled to each other and spread out across the roof. Duncan seized Bronso and held him immobile. Strangely, the Ixian was laughing with a sound that seemed to carry a hint of relief. Duncan pushed the man roughly into the arms of two waiting soldiers. “Take him. Full shigawire bindings and restraint cuffs. If he escapes, you will explain your failure to Alia herself.”

Hearing the threat, the men added enough bindings to hold a dozen Sardaukar fighters. After they had ushered the bruised Bronso away, Duncan turned his back to Gurney and shouted to the officer. “Levenbrech, take your men down the other stairway—catch the second conspirator! Gurney Halleck and I will secure the rooftop. We have it under control.” The ghola’s metal eyes were unreadable, but his face showed unmistakable fury.

As the soldiers rushed into the second escape stairwell, racing off to follow orders, Gurney found himself alone on the rooftop with Duncan. The ghola glowered at him, keeping his voice low. “You let her escape.”

Gurney heaved exaggerated breaths, shook his head. “Gods below, Duncan, she caught me by surprise.”

The ghola regarded him coldly, activated his body shield and stood in a combat-ready posture. “I have always trusted you, Gurney Halleck, but perhaps not any more. That was Lady Jessica. You let her escape, and I
will
know why.” The flat face of Duncan Idaho was drawn with strain. He lifted his short sword. “You have a great deal of explaining to do.”

Gurney could not deny it, didn’t even try to. He activated his own shield, took a half step backward, and prepared to fight.

Each death is different, in myriad ways
.

—Zensunni axiom

O
n the darkened rooftop, Gurney refused to volunteer any information, even to Duncan. “I serve the Lady Jessica and House Atreides—
as do you
, Duncan Idaho. Or have you forgotten your loyalties?” He stared hard at his shadowy companion, trying to detect any shards of humanity there, any remnants of his old friend and comrade in arms.

The ghola did not flinch. “I’ve forgotten nothing.” Both men stood, their short swords drawn, body shields flickering.

“Damn it, Duncan, we’ve both distrusted Lady Jessica in the past. You were convinced that Jessica was the traitor to House Atreides, sure that Duke Leto himself had stopped trusting her. And you were wrong then—remember that. Just as I was wrong when I suspected her of treachery. Gods below!”

Gurney would never forget the feel of Jessica as he had grabbed her unawares in the Fremen sietch, his arm around her neck, the point of his knife at her back. His hatred for her had burned for years while he hid among the smugglers, utterly convinced that
she
was the one who had betrayed the Duke, when it had been Yueh all along. Back then, Gurney’s own shame was so great that he had offered his life to Paul and to Jessica, but they had let him live. He would not fail her now.

“Duke Leto and Paul both trusted Jessica implicitly,” Gurney said, “and they told us to trust her. Those are not loyalties to be taken lightly. They are
Atreides
loyalties.”

Duncan remained implacable. “Alia is also Atreides—and she is my wife. I cannot question her orders.”

In a sudden move, the ghola struck out, driving his blade against Gurney’s body shield, causing him to parry and use the shield to its fullest advantage. Both men were skilled fighters and had trained together for countless hours on Caladan, had fought side by side on dozens of battle-fields. Gurney drove his blade forward, penetrated Duncan’s shield at precisely the right speed, cutting his arm slightly. He withdrew to meet another blow from his opponent’s edge and was driven backward by the ghola’s anger.

Duncan seemed to have made up his mind. “I can no longer turn a blind eye to the answers that were in front of me all along. My friendship for you prevented me from acting on my suspicion that you were sabotaging or misdirecting our efforts to find Bronso. Why did you do it?”

Panting, Gurney eluded another thrust and then charged Duncan, putting him on the defensive. “Because Lady Jessica commanded me to!”

Duncan met blade against blade. “
Why?
” With a stiff forearm, he slammed Gurney against the ornithopter, so that the articulated metal wings creaked and flopped. He held Gurney there for a moment, pressing the blade tip against his throat. “If you refuse to answer, then your guilt is plain.”

“Listen to yourself! When have we ever required explanations from the Atreides?” He pushed Duncan away, made him stumble backward. “When is your loyalty conditional on a whim?”

Hearing this, the ghola hesitated, a flicker of uncertainty. In that moment, Gurney could have delivered a disabling blow, but he did not. “I wonder if you really are the old Duncan—the man who sacrificed his life so that Paul and Jessica could get away. Are you still guided by Tleilaxu programming? Or are you Alia’s puppet?”