Page 74 of Seer Prophet

Loki heard the faint humor there, but only looked at her and nodded. He found his eyes shifting to the woman in the fourth row of seats behind the cockpit.

“Is she coming with?” Illeg asked. “Or staying here?”

Loki thought about that, too.

He really did not want to leave her with Rex, not even with Preela here to watch over the two of them. He could leave Illeg behind… or Anale… but both were seasoned in the field, and he might need them if things got difficult inside.

He made the decision even as he glanced back at Rex.

“Yes,” he said. “She stays. So does Preela. I want Rex with us.”

The large-boned seer with the heavy shoulders grinned. “Don’t trust me with your best girl, eh, Capitan?”

Loki didn’t answer aloud, but found himself thinking it.

No. No, I do not.

He must have thought it louder than he intended, because Anale laughed.

“I can stay behind, boss,” she told him.

Loki shook his head, slower that time.

“No,” he said. “I might need you, sister. Preela can handle it. She can lift off if she encounters any trouble… and unlike last time, we shouldn’t be long.”

Hesitating, he glanced to his right.

He avoided looking at the human woman, Gina, as he met Preela’s light hazel eyes from where she stood silhouetted in the cockpit door.

“Land on the roof.” He motioned towards the White House’s south side. “If you can. Meaning if you encounter trouble, sister… but have a care. There could be structural damage.”

Preela nodded, winking at him.

She glanced at the woman in the fourth row, smiling at her in a friendly way. When Holo stood up, however, the woman, Gina, stood up to follow.

“No,” Holo said in heavily accented English.

He motioned to her, using seer sign language, which Loki knew would be meaningless to her. His English was mostly nonexistent though, so he could only smile at her, motioning again with his hands, smiling as he indicated her seat.

“No… stay. Please. Thank you…”

Anale snorted, rolling her eyes. In Prexci, she faced the rest of them. “Are all of you that bad at English?”

“I speak it,” Loki said.

His voice was clear, holding a trace of British accent, or so he’d been told. He’d been classically trained in English. He did know the language well.

His answer only made the others bust up laughing, however.

Rex clapped him on the back, answering in Prexci.

“You can practice it later, brother,” the big seer said, grinning. “You know, when you ask her, ‘does this feel good?’ and ‘how about this?’ And ‘what if I tried this?’ and ‘how does it feel when I do this with my?’”

Before he could warm up in his exposition, Anale cut him off.

“?It is okay, cousin,” she said, switching to the human language.

She faced the woman, Gina, speaking with only a slight Asian accent. She held up both hands in reassurance.

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