Griffin Harkonnen arrives in Arrakis’s main spaceport city expecting the spice trade to have created wealth and sophistication, but he finds a sealed, crowded slum full of dust, beggars, desperate offworlders, and locals hardened by the desert. Homesick for Lankiveil, Griffin nevertheless commits to the mission Valya gave him: restore Harkonnen honor by finding and killing Vorian Atreides.

Griffin reasons that Vorian is probably not hiding, because Vorian openly indicated that he was going to Arrakis after leaving Kepler. Still, the planet’s vast deserts make one man difficult to locate. Griffin studies Vorian’s history and tries to understand why a wealthy, revered veteran would choose such a brutal world, concluding that spice wealth is the likely answer.

Because Griffin’s funds are limited, Griffin carefully rations bribe money while questioning locals, vendors, a lodging proprietor, and a hired investigator. Most people either know nothing, exploit him, or lie in hopes of payment. In a drinking establishment, Griffin buys drinks and asks after Vorian, but the patrons mock him and provide no useful information.

After leaving the bar at night, Griffin becomes lost in a narrow street and is followed by a silver-haired patron. The man demands all of Griffin’s money and attacks with a knife, expecting an easy victim. Griffin activates his shield, deflects the blow, wounds the attacker, and proves far better trained than the would-be robber.

Griffin interrogates the wounded man, who admits that he wanted both Griffin’s money and Griffin’s body water. The attacker does not know Vorian’s location but suggests that most offworlders join spice crews and that Griffin should check the Combined Mercantiles offices. When bystanders gather, a desert woman kills the wounded thief and claims his water, horrifying Griffin and deepening his sense that Arrakis is savage beyond anything he has known.