Kate looked appalled at the thought. ‘Sorry,’ she said tightly. ‘I’d rather die than let my lupine cells “get in gear”. But believe me,’ she added, ‘my mother’s trying to help you out.’ She wound a finger distractedly through her hair. ‘How about you? How come you’re so interested in lupines?’

Stacy shrugged. ‘I’m a virologist. I study viruses and the diseases they cause. To me, lycanthropy –the transformation into the lupine state – is just another infectious medical condition.’

‘A lot of people wouldn’t see it that way,’ Tom pointed out. ‘These are werewolves we’re talking about.’

‘I don’t care for terms like werewolf.’ Stacy shook her head decisively, and took a quick swig of coffee. ‘People are so conditioned by all that cheap horror movie crap. If they ever found out the truth about lycanthropy – about how many real lupines operate in this city – there’d be widespread panic.’

‘Right,’ said Jasmine dryly. ‘When the poor folk are just hungry, the good people don’t give a damn. But when the poor folk grow fangs … that’s when the good people take notice.’

Stacy passed her another bagel. ‘I know it’s tough, but that’s the situation we’re dealing with. People can’t handle the truth. That’s why the work I’m doing isn’t sanctioned or funded by the hospital authorities, why it has to stay completely unofficial. Just me and a few sympathetic health workers who turn a blind eye when they need to. We’re working to do something about the situation before it gets completely out of hand.’

‘That’s why you have to use people like Woollard,’ Tom concluded.

Stacy nodded. ‘Funding cutbacks at the hospital last year meant that I lost a lot of the equipment I’d come to depend on in this private little crusade of mine. So, yeah, I turned to Dr Woollard.’ Her tone softened. ‘Despite the drink, he’s still a brilliant man. And he’s really helped me out. With this kind of research, you can’t outsource sample preparation and testing to any regular lab. I really rely on him.’

‘You ever hear of a man called Jicaque?’ Tom asked. ‘We came here to find him.’

‘The big-deal shaman guy – lot of dealings with the ’wolves, right?’ Stacy replied. ‘Yeah, he got in touch, once. Tried to help, must’ve heard what I was doing somehow. He sent me some herbs that were meant to boost the body’s defences against cellular mutation. But it was so hard to run proper trials that I—’

Tom cut her off. ‘You’ve never seen him, met with him?’

‘Never even talked to him,’ she admitted. ‘Sorry.’

Tom shrugged defeatedly. ‘Forget it,’ he said. And so should I.

‘But Stacy, how come you got involved with all this?’ Kate persisted.