Page 181 of Seer Prophet

“Not Indian,” Vikram said, shaking a finger at her. “Native American. Or indigenes. There are better words for this, cousin.”

Dante rolled her eyes. “Don’t get tetchy with me. You’re not ‘Indian’ either, cuz, no matter where you were born.”

Vikram glanced over at that. He smiled, clicking as if in spite of himself.

“Fair enough,” he said. “But this…” He shook his finger at her, waggling his head, and suddenly looking much more East Indian than seer. “This is still inaccurate, cousin.”

She snorted a laugh. “Got it.”

His eyes returned to the monitor.

“She’s dead, right?” Dante said, into the silence. “That’s why you guys haven’t said anything to me. You found her, and she’s dead.”

Vikram looked up. His eyes widened in shock.

“No!” he said hurriedly. “No, cousin! No! Quite the contrary! She is very much alive. Has no one told you? They are coming back today.” He checked the time piece in the corner of the screen. “…Any minute, in fact.”

Dante unfolded her arms. “What?”

Vikram’s voice and expression grew contrite.

“I am so very sorry, my beautiful cousin. I really thought they had informed you, or I would have reassured you earlier––”

Behind him, Jaden let out an irritated and incredulous snort.

Dante and Vikram both turned.

The blue-eyed human gave Vikram an openly annoyed look.

“Nice job, asshole,” he said. “It was supposed to be a surprise.”

“What?” Vikram’s accent sounded very East Indian again. “What does that mean?”

“A surprise. Get it? A surprise. They were supposed to call me when they got in, and I was supposed to come up with some excuse to bring Dante up on deck and surprise her.That’swhy they didn’t tell her… jackass.”

Looking between the two of them, as if sensing suddenly that the idea wasn’t as cool as he’d initially thought, Jaden sat up straighter, folding his arms.

“Don’t look at me!” he said, defensive. “It wasn’t my idea. It was Chinja and Neela. They were going to record both of your reactions and everything. I think they were kind of blown away to have found her alive. Everyone’s psyched to see the reunion.”

Dante and Vikram continued to frown in his direction.

Then Dante looked at Vikram.

“What kind of stupid shit is this?” she said. “They didn’t tell me mymomwas alive, because they wanted to record me having a heart attack after they brought her on deck, with me thinking she was dead?” Her frown deepened. “What thefuckdid you tell my mom? Because if anyone told her I was dead or fucked up or hurt, she’s going to kick the living shit out ofallof you.”

There was a silence where Jaden just stared at her, blank.

Exhaling in anger, Dante stomped towards the door of the room, hands clenched.

As she passed his work station, Jaden held up a hand, his voice apologetic.

“Hey, Dante… sorry. It really wasn’t my idea.”

Ignoring him, she jerked open the metal door.

She was already fighting tears, but she managed to keep them back until she got to the head––what everyone called the toilets here––after squeezing through an oval door a few doors down from the tech room.

Sitting on the downed toilet seat in her jeans, she locked the door and folded her arms over legs before she let herself cry.

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