Page 180 of Seer Prophet

As she did, the virtual landscape receded, revealing the much more drab and uninteresting tech room that surrounded her in reality. Filled with bolted-down, semi-organic tables equipped with built-in screens and dead metal chairs, the twenty-by-ten room smelled, and not only of ocean air and rust. Human and seer smells could be overpowering at times, especially during major op planning, where a lot of them worked fifteen, twenty hours in a stretch.

Apart from the work stations, the rest was just, well––stuff.

Tech stuff, mostly.

Semi-organic machines, dead-metal wires, tubs of jellies or “squids,” as the comp-head seers called the full-organic circuits. Someone even shoved a dented cabinet of guns and ammunition in one corner, even though it stuck out awkwardly and got in everyone’s way. Armor-piercing vests, life vests, anti-grav boots, even rafts were stacked on top of that same cabinet in off-kilter piles.

Some stuff didn’t exactly fall into the “practical” or “tech” bucket.

Ping pong sets lay on various desks, for when the seer and human techs got bored and played across the length of tables. A small refrigerator crouched in the corner filled with snacks and pick-me-ups. Junk food mostly, and things with a lot of caffeine.

Plastic dinosaurs lay on desks, or stuck out from where they’d been glued to monitors. Miniature cars littered the floor from when they’d built racing tracks made out of old tubing. A plastic beach ball someone found during a shore excursion and brought in here to be annoying sat next to the refrigerator. A rack of long trays sat under grow lights, part of an experiment the Vik-man and a few others had going, trying to grow squids by splicing clones from high-functioning organics with organic matter culled from dead animals.

That last thing made the room stink even more than seer sweat.

Dante was used to the smells, so they didn’t really bother her, but whenever she left for any amount of time and came back, she always got a shock when that first cloud of squid and sweat stink hit her nose as she walked through the door.

Most non-techs complained about it every time they had to come in here for any reason.

Dante was used to techs being viewed with various combinations of disdain, annoyance, incomprehension, fear and awe, though.

The same was pretty true in the human world.

Still, in this case, the normies had a point.

Thinking about the squids fermenting in that tank, Dante wrinkled her nose, glancing up at the ventilation fans.

“Do not dodge me, cousin,” Vikram scolded. “Something is bothering you. I would prefer not to read it out of your light.”

Dante folded her arms.

“You didn’t tell me mymomwas on the List,” she said, jutting her chin. “Is that why you sent Jax and Loki and all those guys to go look for her in Queens?”

Vikram’s eyes went blank.

They went so blank, Dante realized he had no idea what she was talking about.

She unfolded her arms, losing some of her defensiveness.

“You really didn’t know about that? About her being on the List?”

Vikram shook his head, slowly, his expression pinched.

He rose to his feet, walking to her.

Realizing he wanted to see for himself, Dante transferred the data she’d been looking at––essentially a scanned version of the human List––to the monitor on the table nearest to where she stood.

She often stood while she worked, a nervous habit they all seemed to have gotten used to, since they’d finally stopped telling her to relax. She liked to pace and think, not sit so that her brain fuzzed out and went numb, along with her ass.

“Are you sure about this?” Vikram’s voice reflected that same worry. “We looked for her name, cousin. We checked… months ago.”

Dante felt her shoulders relax for real.

“Marriage, Holmes,” she said, a little impatient.

“What?” He looked at her, his violet eyes showing bewilderment.

“You didn’t look under hermaidenname, did you?” Dante pointed at one of the names glowing in orange type on the monitor. “She took my dad’s name when she got married, Vik. Her name wasn’t ‘Gina Vasquez’ when she was born. She was Gina Justicia Black. That was my grandfather’s name. He was Cherokee Indian or something.”

---