The Heir of Caladan by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson

Author:Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson [Herbert, Brian & Anderson, Kevin J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Novela, Ciencia ficción
Publisher: ePubLibre
Published: 2022-11-20T00:00:00+00:00

41

In a complex trap, it is sometimes difficult to determine who is the hunter and who is the prey.

—JAXSON ARU, Noble Commonwealth manifesto, revised

Baron Harkonnen did not like to be bait. As the head of a powerful House, he manipulated people, pulled strings, and sacrificed the weak when necessary. He watched it all from a position of power and safety, while others did the incriminating work.

Now, by his own design, he found himself at the center of a spiderweb. The question was whether he, or Jaxson Aru, was the more poisonous spider.

While Count Fenring continued to scheme with Emperor Shaddam about a broad-based crackdown on the other traitorous nobles, the Baron had dangled this opportunity that the terrorist leader could not resist.

Under normal commercial circumstances, he would never have accompanied a shipment of melange, certainly not a contraband load like this one. He had Harkonnen spice crews, even Rabban, to perform such tasks. But this was by no means a normal circumstance. The risks were too great and the rebel leader far too cautious. The Baron needed to do it himself, with sufficient security, of course.

Now he waited inside the Harkonnen spice transport that a Guild Heighliner carried to the rendezvous he had arranged, a Guild transfer depot world named Bellaris. The spice transport’s hold was packed with sealed containers of melange. Although the vessel’s registration number remained unaltered, the Harkonnen griffins on the sides of the hull had been scoured off. The ship looked battered, rumpled, and a bit disreputable—an unobtrusive trader’s craft.

The Baron and a small agreed-upon contingent of security forces were aboard the transport. The radical leader would take possession of the ship and the spice, and the Baron had arranged his own transportation back to Giedi Prime once the deal was done.

Once the terrorist’s fate was sealed.

Jaxson Aru was satisfied with the precautions, but he had no idea about the surprise Emperor Shaddam had arranged. The rebel leader was understandably eager to count the head of House Harkonnen among his secret allies.

The unmarked Harkonnen spice ship was docked inside the Heighliner hold among hundreds of vessels: loaded cargo ships, large frigates, small diplomatic yachts, scout vessels, pleasure craft. The varied ships were stacked in docking clamps like tightly packed grapes in a cluster.

The Emperor’s Sardaukar knew exactly where the Harkonnen ship was in the cavernous hold, and they lay in wait.

Most occupants of the traveling vessels remained aboard their own ships, waiting for the Navigator to fold space and carry them to the next star system. For those on longer journeys, impatient with the myriad stops and multiple delays of loading and unloading at each world, the Guild allowed travelers to pass through connecting walkways and airlocks into the multileveled outer skin of the Heighliner. Deck after deck was filled with Spacing Guild personnel, crew members, engineers, maintenance workers, as well as support staff who worked the numerous restaurants, shopping plazas, and drinking establishments.

Now that the Heighliner had arrived over the transfer depot, the Baron received

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