“I have my theories,” she said. “But Amel is made of subtle material for certain, a subtle material that implants and develops in every new host offered to him, and ideally, he would have disconnected his mind from this host in time, diminishing eventually in size until he became comfortable in one small group of hosts, or even in one alone. But it didn’t happen. It’s like all the spectacular mutations of this planet—infinitely complex, involving accident and will, and blunder and discovery.”

“I see what you’re saying,” said Fareed.

“What surprises me is that you haven’t been focused on this from the beginning,” said Kapetria. “I don’t say this as a criticism. I offer it as an observation. Why haven’t you and your team of doctors been seeking to break the link of each individual vampire with Amel?”

“I can’t see a way to do it,” said Fareed. He appeared slightly defensive. “Of course I realize the importance of this, that we could free each individual from the host.”

“Seems to me,” said Kapetria, “that that might be one of the crucial areas for your research.”

“Do you realize how many areas of research we’re facing?” asked Gregory. “Do you realize what a revolution is involved here for us—that we now have doctors and scientists studying our own physicality?”

“Yes, Herr Collingsworth, but these strange invisible connections to Amel are so obviously vulnerable,” said Kapetria, “and so obviously a mistake, a failure—.” She addressed Fareed. “And another thing, why have you not been focused on some way to take the Amel neural circuitry out of one host and transfer it to another without injuring either one?”

“Because I don’t know how!” Fareed said. “What do you think I’m doing in my laboratories, simply playing around with—.”

“No, no, no, forgive me,” said Kapetria. “I’m not saying what I mean to say. What I mean to say is…” She hesitated and then fell into her thoughts, her right hand curled under her chin.

“How would you do this?” asked Seth in a soft voice. “How would you propose moving the neural circuitry of Amel from one brain to another, when we can’t even see this neural circuitry, not even in the most sensitive scans?”

“Stop,” said Derek. “Just stop!” He glared at Kapetria angrily. His lower lip was trembling and a glassy film had come down over his eyes. “Stop right now!” he said.

She was clearly taken aback. She turned to him and asked in a small solicitous voice, “What’s the matter?”

“Tell them,” said Derek. He glared at me, at Fareed, and at Marius. “Tell them!”

Kapetria laid her right hand gently on his left hand. “Tell them what, Derek?” she asked tenderly.