She had been such an innocent child that day when she went out to the waterwheel cottage on the palace grounds, where she expected to play uninterrupted.
Now, thanks to the sapho, the memory came fully alive inside her. A child again, Anna crept up to the open window, surprised to hear voices inside, since the cottage was rarely used. Heavy breathing and strange noises … a scuffle, judging by the sounds. And a woman crying out. Anna had never heard such a sound before, but it seemed like pain or surprise, or perhaps fear.
Then she saw Orenna with a naked man on top of her. Orenna was flailing her arms, trying to beat the man away … or was she clutching him? Anna couldn’t tell.
When the girl yelled for help, the man jerked away, and she recognized him as Toure Bomoko, head of the CET delegation. Now, Orenna did look terrified — her wide eyes turned toward Anna at the window. The girl screamed again, and the guards came running as Bomoko fled.…
The sapho reawakened her memories of the uproar in the palace and the rage on Emperor Jules’s face. Orenna, the so-called Virgin Empress, was in despair, filled with fear, and Anna had been certain it was because she was afraid of that man attacking her.
In a completely unconvincing voice, Lady Orenna was forced to publicly accuse Bomoko of raping her. The disgraced CET members, in protective exile, were rounded up and arrested, but Bomoko had disappeared.
Anna had never seen her father so furious, so disturbed. She never forgot his words. “I’m so proud of you for the treachery you exposed, daughter. You have done a fine thing that will strengthen our Imperium.” As a reward — Jules insisted it was a reward — he allowed her, forced her, to watch as the CET members were dragged into the courtyard. One after another, the men and women were decapitated, a more ancient and barbaric means of execution than had been used in many centuries. Horrified, with tears streaming down her face, Anna had watched each one die.
Thanks to the sapho coursing through her, she now remembered those sounds of death in incredible detaiclass="underline" the sharp thud, the pop of a severed spine, a wet rain of spraying blood. When she had tried to turn away, her father made her look.
Salvador and Roderick were also there. Even though her brothers were much older than Anna, they seemed confused about what was happening. But Toure Bomoko escaped, and had never been found in all the years afterward. He remained a hunted man, and sightings still occurred regularly.
Anna had tried to erase the scars of those memories, but the sapho reopened the wounds. The memories burned like flames in her mind. The drug surged through her bloodstream, unlocking door after door in her thoughts until finally the sapho wore off and the memories faded. She lay sobbing on her bed.
It was then, at last, that she heard the voice of her special new friend, calm and supportive, yet also curious.
“I take it the sapho unlocked your memories? Excellent! You must tell me what happened — tell me everything.”
Chapter 29 (Just repeating a statement often)
Just repeating a statement often and with great vehemence does not make it a fact, and no amount of repetition can make a rational person believe it.
— DRAIGO ROGET, report to Venport Holdings, “Analysis of Fanatical Patterns”
The Suk doctors at their main hospital on Parmentier were pleased to receive sophisticated medical equipment from VenHold industries — scanners, genetic analysis grids, and diagnostic machines that were dependent on complex circuitry, possibly even computers. Josef Venport did not explain the internal functioning of the analytical devices, and the Suks were wise enough not to ask uncomfortable questions; they merely accepted the generous gifts and expressed their appreciation.
Now, after Josef concluded his business with the Suk School, the VenHold transport ship departed from Parmentier. He climbed the long stairway to the Navigator deck so he could spend time with his great-grandmother. The complexities of running his huge shipping and banking empire must seem trivial to such an advanced being, far beneath the threshold of her attention. Yet he knew that Norma cared for him and wanted to protect her legacy — which included the Navigators (whom she considered her surrogate children) and the critically important spice production on Arrakis.
Up on the Navigator deck, he watched the shifting starfield. When he was with her, Josef felt like a child sitting on a wise and attentive maternal knee.
“As of last week, Grandmother, our fleet has expanded,” he told her, like a boy showing off a good school report. The news had been spread widely throughout Venport Holdings, but he didn’t think Norma paid much attention to those channels of information. “We acquired a hundred more ships.”
He saw her move inside the tank and knew she was listening. Even though she didn’t respond, he continued to explain, “Through intermediaries we expanded our stockholder base and purchased a rival transport company, Nalgan Shipping. Most of the captains still aren’t aware they’ve been absorbed by VenHold.” He smiled at the thought. “Once I make the announcement to the Landsraad, it will cause quite an uproar. The Butlerians will be outraged.”
Norma’s face drifted close to the side of the tank. Her oversize eyes watched him, seeming to focus and unfocus.
He expanded on the significance of this news. “Nalgan Shipping was one of the few companies that serviced Butlerian planets. Now that I own Nalgan Shipping, we will reroute those vessels and further cut off the barbarians. Let them have their dark ages.”
Norma stirred, and finally her voice came through the speakerpatch. “If you have more ships, you will need more Navigators.”
“Yes. We always need more Navigators.”
“You understand their importance,” Norma said. “To the future. To the Spacing Guild.”
“Spacing Guild?” he asked.
Before he could press for further information, Norma interrupted him. “A moment. I require my concentration.” Her eyes lost focus.
He fell silent, wondering if she had suddenly thought of another esoteric idea that was impossible to explain — possibly even a profitable idea.
Josef looked out the broad windowports through which Norma liked to view the universe. The hum of Holtzman engines sounded through the deck, and he felt the buildup of static electricity in the air. So near the Navigator’s tank, the ozone penetrated deep into his sinuses.
Norma Cenva’s mind was so powerful that she could fold space on her own, although with such a large vessel she used the Holtzman engines. Josef felt a wrenching sensation and the stars twisted, then jumped as the universe rippled around the hull.
With the transition completed, Josef continued the conversation. “I promise you, we will defeat the Butlerians, Grandmother. One devastating blow after another. Manford’s puppet Mentat recently defeated a captive mek in a pyramid chess game at the Imperial Court. They believe this proves humans are superior, but the riots afterward merely prove that they are savages.”
After the mob violence, Josef had hoped the Emperor would crush and disband the antitechnology movement … but Salvador didn’t have the spine. Josef was sickened by the images he had seen. “Once they run out of thinking-machine remnants, where will the Butlerians turn for scapegoats? The Half-Manford will need an outside enemy or he’ll lose his hold on the mob. He’ll have to make something up, maybe even secretly manufacture his own machines in order to destroy them in public.”
Norma took the matter seriously. “I can peer through my prescience, but the detail is not sufficient. I cannot predict exactly what he will do.”