Dr. Zhoma, now Chief Administrator of the Suk School, struggles to preserve the institution after years of corruption, debt, and rising Butlerian hostility to medical science. Instead of practicing medicine, Zhoma spends most of her time seeking donors and defending advanced treatment methods before planetary leaders, while concealing the school’s desperate finances even from Reverend Mother Raquella.

Zhoma travels secretly under multiple false identities to meet Directeur Josef Venport aboard a VenHold vessel. Venport immediately reveals that her precautions were useless because his fleet monitors passengers with computers, Mentats, and trained observers, demonstrating both his reach and his willingness to use controversial technology.

Zhoma asks Venport for leniency on the Suk School’s debt payments, explaining that the new Parmentier facilities and Elo Bando’s mismanagement have left the school unstable. The chapter reveals that Zhoma herself murdered Bando after discovering his embezzlement and planned escape, then falsified the autopsy to preserve the school’s reputation and financial credibility.

Venport knows what Zhoma did and respects her ruthless pragmatism, which is one reason he previously agreed to finance the school. Zhoma argues that Butlerian attacks on medical technology have worsened the school’s crisis, while Venport frames their alliance as part of a broader fight against superstition and anti-scientific fanaticism.

Venport offers new terms: in exchange for forgiving the Suk School’s next three payments, Zhoma must obtain the original biological samples taken from Vorian Atreides after Emperor Salvador ordered his identity verified. Zhoma objects that using those private samples would be unethical, but Venport refuses to explain his purpose and simply orders her to get them.