OK - I believe the intentional neuter, since your reasoning sounds good and also since it seems like anyone who knew enough Latin to stick it in would know the proper quote. I'm still a bit dubious about the Dante... both my experience (with other geeks, even though I'm opposite girl here) that medieval Italian is less of a geeky skill than Latin and the fact that she did, in fact, mistranslate it in English makes me a little less inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt there. But I may well be being too harsh, as I sometimes am when my man Dante is dragged into it :)

The book reads to me a bit as though Duane wanted to give a de-aged Harb Tanzer his own adventure, except in a day-after-tomorrow setting. :)

Hee -- it really does!