Dune Book I, Chapter 9 Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Paul is actually awake in the bed, having palmed the sleeping pill.
  • He gets up to explore the room and notices that the place seems to have been designed specifically to appeal to him.
  • A tiny hunter-seeker enters the room, and Paul freezes. Just like a T-Rex, the assassin's weapon won't be able to detect him if he doesn't move.
  • Mapes enters the room, and the hunter-seeker attacks. Paul's too quick, though. He grabs the thing in midair and smashes it against the door.
  • Paul tells Mapes to go to his father's men and tell them to search the premises for the operator. 
  • First, Mapes needs to get the business of the water burden (read: life debt) out of the way. She knows there is a traitor in House Atreides. Although not specifically said, it seems she's going to sniff the traitor out.
  • Paul then goes to inform his mother, who is in the place Mapes called the "weirding room" (9.45).