The chapter opens with Princess Irulan's reflection on the limits of Muad'Dib's prescience: Paul can see possible futures, but obscure choices and unseen terrain can change everything. In the present, ornithopters descend near Paul and Jessica, and Paul recognizes Duncan Idaho leading them with Liet-Kynes and Fremen helpers. Duncan explains that he left a full-force shield as a trap; when a lasgun strikes it, the resulting blast devastates the pursuers and warns the enemy against further lasgun use.

The Fremen hide the aircraft and lead Paul, Jessica, Duncan, and Kynes into an Imperial Ecological Testing Station concealed beneath the desert. Kynes questions his own decision to aid the fugitives, but Paul's bearing as the new Duke and his answer that the station could help make Arrakis fit for humans strengthen Kynes's sympathy. When the station's masking equipment fails, Kynes orders nonmechanical precautions and invites Paul and Jessica into his office.

In Kynes's quarters, Paul deliberately asserts his title and argues that his survival is a political threat to the Emperor and the Harkonnens. Paul proposes using proof of Sardaukar involvement to force the Emperor into a choice between public exposure before the Landsraad and a negotiated alternative that could put Paul near the throne. Kynes challenges Paul's motives and loyalty to Arrakis, but Paul shifts from bargaining to pledging total Atreides loyalty to Kynes, which visibly moves him.

The debate is interrupted when Sardaukar in Harkonnen uniforms attack. Duncan Idaho holds the passage alone behind his shield, killing attackers long enough for Paul, Jessica, and Kynes to bolt the plasteel office door. Duncan is fatally wounded, and Kynes recognizes that he has now chosen Paul's side. Kynes opens a hidden tunnel, sends Paul and Jessica through a maze toward a secret ornithopter, and separates from them so he cannot reveal their location if captured.

Paul and Jessica follow fading luminescent arrows to the concealed aircraft. Paul realizes that he has entered a blind area outside his prescient certainty and that overreliance on vision has weakened his other instincts. With Harkonnen and Sardaukar forces pursuing, Paul launches the ornithopter, evades projectile fire, and drives into a massive desert storm. Unable to land or escape upward, Paul decides they must ride it out, and both he and Jessica fight fear with Bene Gesserit discipline.