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Emperor. Great
store is set on Imperial Conditioning. It’s assumed that ultimate conditioning
cannot be removed without killing the subject. However, as someone once
observed, given the right lever you can move a planet. We found the lever that
moved the doctor.”
    “How?” Feyd-?Rautha asked. He found this a fascinating subject. Everyone knew
you couldn’t subvert Imperial Conditioning!
    “Another time,” the Baron said. “Continue, Piter.”
    “In place of Yueh,” Piter said, “we’ll drag a most interesting suspect
across Hawat’s path. The very audacity of this suspect will recommend her to
Hawat’s attention.”
    “Her?” Feyd-?Rautha asked.
    “The Lady Jessica herself,” the Baron said.
    “Is it not sublime?” Piter asked. “Hawat’s mind will be so filled with this
prospect it’ll impair his function as a Mentat. He may even try to kill her.”
Piter frowned, then: “But I don’t think he’ll be able to carry it off.”
    “You don’t want him to, eh?” the Baron asked.
    “Don’t distract me,” Piter said. “While Hawat’s occupied with the Lady
Jessica, we’ll divert him further with uprisings in a few garrison towns and the
like. These will be put down. The Duke must believe he’s gaining a measure of
security. Then, when the moment is ripe, we’ll signal Yueh and move in with our
major force . . . ah . . . ”
    “Go ahead, tell him all of it,” the Baron said.
    “We’ll move in strengthened by two legions of Sardaukar disguised in
Harkonnen livery.”
    “Sardaukar!” Feyd-?Rautha breathed. His mind focused on the dread Imperial
troops, the killers without mercy, the soldier fanatics of the Padishah Emperor.
    “You see how I trust you, Feyd,” the Baron said. “No hint of this must ever
reach another Great House, else the Landsraad might unite against the Imperial
House and there’d be chaos.”
“The main point,” Piter said, “is this: since House Harkonnen is being used
to do the Imperial dirty work, we’ve gained a true advantage. It’s a dangerous
advantage, to be sure, but if used cautiously, will bring House Harkonnen
greater wealth than that of any other House in the Imperium.”
    “You have no idea how much wealth is involved, Feyd,” the Baron said. “Not
in your wildest imaginings. To begin, we’ll have an irrevocable directorship in
the CHOAM Company.”
    Feyd-?Rautha nodded. Wealth was the thing. CHOAM was the key to wealth, each
noble House dipping from the company’s coffers whatever it could under the power
of the directorships. Those CHOAM directorships — they were the real evidence
of political power in the Imperium, passing with the shifts of voting strength
within the Landsraad as it balanced itself against the Emperor and his
supporters.
    “The Duke Leto,” Piter said, “may attempt to flee to the new Fremen scum
along the desert’s edge. Or he may try to send his family into that imagined
security. But that path is blocked by one of His Majesty’s agents — the
planetary ecologist. You may remember him — Kynes.”
    “Feyd remembers him,” the Baron said. “Get on with it.”
    “You do not drool very prettily, Baron,” Piter said.
    “Get on with it, I command you!” the Baron roared.
    Piter shrugged. “If matters go as planned,” he said, “House Harkonnen will
have a subfief on Arrakis within a Standard year. Your uncle will have
dispensation of that fief. His own personal agent will rule on Arrakis.”
    “More profits,” Feyd-?Rautha said.
    “Indeed,” the Baron said. And he thought: It’s only just. We’re the ones who
tamed Arrakis . . .except for the few mongrel Fremen hiding in the skirts of the
desert . . . and some tame smugglers bound to the planet almost as tightly as
the native labor pool.
    “And the Great Houses will know that the Baron has destroyed the Atreides,”
Piter said. “They will know.”
    “They will know,” the Baron breathed.
    “Loveliest of all,”