"Much appreciated." Dan takes the clothes and wears some of them, drapes the others over his arm like a butler with a kerchief. "Have you met Cammie? She's a teenager her, real technological genius, is what I understand. The kind of prodigy that lets you catch up to experienced adults in the field when you're still a kid. My understanding is she does a lot with simulations. She might be worth talking to about what you can do when you get the computer ready."

He hopes he isn't hyping Cammie up too much when he truly barely understands a tenth of the tech jargon she uses, but he's fairly sure she's an exceptional talent based on all his context clues. Either way, the warmth and fondness he has for her is all over his face and even his flat, ugly, atonal voice.

He gestures with his chin in the direction they should walk, which is through two kitchen room doors to a side pantry, where North keeps his alcoholic beverages. In true fashion, most are either cooking sherries or top-shelf vodkas, but Dan uncovers some expensive white rum tucked into the back.

"Do you prefer on-the-rocks or taking it straight?" Dan pulls some glasses out. He thinks Miguel looks like an on-the-rocks guy for rum, but that's all just an assumption. "I've come to enjoy putting fresh snow in my liquor instead of ice. Feels like taking advantage of a climate otherwise hostile to me."

He laughs. "But I ain't going back out in the cold just yet, so that's a suggestion, not an offer."