‘Anyway,’ Woollard went on. ‘If you’d undertake to deliver them to her right away, I’d be grateful.’

‘Sure,’ Tom said quickly. ‘I’d like to meet her.’ Maybe she had heard of Jicaque. And if she was working on a cure, maybe Tom’s blood could help her out? Then he realised Jasmine was looking at him like he was a freak.

She turned to Woollard. ‘Are you sure it can’t wait, Doc?’ She pleaded, rubbing her eyes. ‘It’s getting kind of late for me.’

‘So I notice,’ said Woollard wryly. ‘But the trip will be worth your while. Dr Stein has offered to give Rico free drugs for his asthma by way of reward.’

Rico sighed. ‘Won’t work.’

Jasmine cuffed him lightly around the head. ‘They will if you take them regular, Ric! That’s all you gotta do.’

‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Rico sullenly.

Woollard smiled bleakly as if at some private joke. ‘You’re acting as though the remedy were worse than the disease, boy. That is, if I may misquote Bacon?’ He scowled at the blank faces staring back at him. ‘Francis Bacon! You’ve surely heard of him?’

Tom hadn’t. But at the mention of bacon, his stomach growled.

Woollard threw up his hands in despair. ‘Philistines. Where’d I leave my drink?’ He wandered from the room, muttering to himself.

Jasmine turned to Tom. ‘Well,’ she said scathingly, ‘now you’ve finished making us look totally stupid, why don’t you carry that box back to our wheels so we can get the mercy dash done with.’

Tom nodded. But he still wasn’t totally convinced by Woollard. ‘Isn’t it a bit weird that he lives in a dump like this, but he’s got all that high-tech equipment lying around?’

‘It’s his life,’ Jasmine replied shortly.

Tom wasn’t sure if she meant it was Woollard’s choice what he spent his money on, or that high-end science stuff like that was what he lived for. As he hefted up the metal carry-case, he guessed she was right either way.

‘Maybe we should go and find Kate,’ Tom ventured. ‘She could come with us.’

‘We get Rico sorted first,’ Jasmine said flatly.

‘C’mon, Jas,’ Rico moaned, ‘I wanna get back and check Ramone.’

‘We will. Soon as Stacy’s checked you out,’ Jasmine replied. ‘Ramone’d want that.’

Rico sighed and nodded, then led the way out. ‘Can’t you take us there in a real hot motor, Jas?’

‘You don’t wanna know how hot that Lexus is gonna be in a couple of hours when the cops start looking,’ she retorted, and then jerked her thumb at Tom. ‘And that’s another good reason why we can’t go cruising about town looking for his girl. But I reckon it’ll get us to Park East OK. Then we ditch it for good.’