“Well?” asked Louis. He looked to Fareed. “You want to try an experiment or two to see if I’m right? Viktor here is bravery personified. If you put a candle flame to Lestat’s hand Viktor will feel it. Unfortunately so will Rose and so will every vampire in the world, though in different degrees, correct? I won’t feel it. You can see this for yourself. And ancient blood or no, I should feel it, because I’m not even three hundred years old.”

“I wish there were some other way of proving it,” David said. “There has to be.”

“There is,” I said. “It’s simple. Stop my heart! Stop my heart. Stop it until the blood in me stops circulating, and what will happen to all the others all over the world? They’ll lose consciousness, yes, but…”

“But that’s what happened when Akasha was decapitated,” said Seth. “You told me.”

“But only for three or four seconds, Seth,” I said. “It was no longer than that. She was decapitated and her skull was shattered by the falling glass. And Mekare scooped up the brain in her hands and had it in her mouth immediately, just as Maharet ripped open her chest and took out the still-beating heart. I know the heart was still beating because of the way the blood was flowing. So it was only a matter of seconds. What if the heart of Akasha had really been stopped and stopped for a long time?”

“It’s been proven in tests on animals,” said Fareed, “that the brain lives for perhaps as long as seventeen seconds after decapitation.”

“Well, there you have it,” said Louis. “It was only a matter of seconds.”

“He’s right,” I said. I was almost too excited to speak. “Fareed, he’s right. Stop my heart. Stop it for a long time, and then start it again.”

“If I do that, Lestat, I’ll lose consciousness and there won’t be anyone here to restart your heart. Unless you trust a mortal with such a responsibility.”

“No, wait a minute. There’s no need to trust a mortal,” said David. “Gremt can do this. Gremt can restart it. You only have to give him the instructions. Gremt knows all about the theory of the silver cord. Good Lord, Gremt founded the Talamasca and he probably has read more literature on the silver cord than anyone, and Gremt can be trusted to do this!”

“You don’t need Gremt,” said Louis. “You have me. If you stop Lestat’s heart and every other blood drinker worldwide suffers it in one form or another, I won’t suffer it. I will be wholly conscious and able to restart Lestat’s heart. You just have to tell me how.”

“If you’re right about the disconnection,” said Fareed.