After extracting information from a black-market pilot, Ishanti spends two weeks quietly investigating illicit desert activity on Arrakis. She traces the spice-poaching operation to Dol Orianto, whose public boasting in Arrakis City bars reveals his belief that independent melange harvesting can still flourish despite Venport interests.

Ishanti leads forty VenHold attack skimcraft against the poachers’ small industrial outpost in the mountains above Carthag. The strike is swift and devastating: habitation buildings are burned, the workers are killed, and the spice-storage silos are deliberately spared because Josef Venport wants the valuable contraband melange preserved.

Rather than leave survivors to warn Arjen Gates and Celestial Transport, Ishanti records images of the attack so VenHold can control the warning message. She also plans to salvage the equipment and spice while secretly alerting Naib Sharnak’s deep-desert people to collect the bodies and reclaim their water before outsiders notice.

Ishanti keeps Dol Orianto alive so that he can witness the destruction of his operation. Bound with tightening shigawire, Orianto is brought aboard a skimcraft and forced to contemplate how he will die, though he gives no answer and only trembles and weeps.

The skimcraft flies above a nearby Coriolis storm, guided by a pilot familiar with Arrakis weather. After the passengers secure themselves, Ishanti apologetically acknowledges that Josef Venport’s wishes are clear, opens the hatch, and throws Orianto into the storm as a deliberate spectacle and message. With the execution complete and the necessary images secured, Ishanti orders the pilot back to Arrakis City to report.