15
A QUICKENING TIDE
Doubt gnawed at Durante all the way down to C Deck, where a hulking marine was already waiting for him at the hatch to his quarters. Durante stepped through, hop-ing to find a meal prepared, but instead there were four officers seated at the table, study-ing their files.
“Reader,” said the most senior of them, pointing to the braid emblem on a cuff, “we three are Scutari Informatics, and over there is the provost’s officer supervising. Sit, re-trieve, compare.”
Durante’s brain curdled at the command, and his thoughts were no longer his own. The speaker began reading from a stack of mission folders. Simultaneously, those same words emerged in parallel from a separate, pre-existing text inside Durante’s head. For the most part, the sentences unrolled in synch, but wh
