Eleanor smiled, a tight-lipped contortion of her lower face that didn’t reach her eyes. ‘You’ve got spunk. I like that in a woman.’

‘My British husband would be smirking like a teenager right now. So why did you bring me here?’

‘Straight to the point, too. Good. Saves time, and at my age I hate to waste it. I’ll do you the same courtesy.’ She reversed, gesturing at an armchair near the windows. ‘Take a seat.’

‘That’s okay,’ Nina replied, not moving. ‘I like to stand.’

Malice flared in the wheelchair-bound woman’s eyes. ‘You watch that tongue of yours, missy. If it gets too sharp, I may just have to blunt it.’ She gestured, and Harhund shoved Nina forward.

‘Hey!’ the redhead said. ‘Watch it, asshole.’

Eleanor frowned. ‘If there’s one thing I can’t abide, it’s a potty-mouth.’

‘You’ll probably die of apoplexy when you meet my husband, then.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s a sign of no class. I expected more from a professor. Even one from New York. But anyway.’ A dismissive wave, then she continued: ‘You want to know why you’re here – and why I need the key and the sarcophagus as well.’

‘The sarcophagus is here?’ Nina asked.

‘I’ll show it to you soon. Now, what do you know about Miller & Family?’

‘The company, or the jerks?’

‘Watch your damn mouth,’ said Miller angrily.

Eleanor, however, was almost amused. ‘You are defiant, aren’t you? It really must be the red hair.’ She said the latter almost in confirmation rather than comment, but Nina had no time to dwell upon it. ‘I founded the company almost fifty years ago. I don’t expect you to know this, but I have a doctorate, just like you. Although mine is in chemistry rather than,’ a twinge of disdain, ‘the soft sciences. I prefer learning to have some practical value.’

‘If my doctorate didn’t have any practical value, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now,’ said Nina snippily.

‘True, true. But you’d have to admit that the creation of new pharmaceuticals has been of greater benefit to the world than digging up its lost past, wouldn’t you?’

She folded her arms again. ‘I doubt the victims of thalidomide or Vioxx would agree.’

The sour scowl returned to Eleanor’s face. ‘Not a single one of Miller & Family’s products has ever been recalled, I’m proud to say. Everything I’ve worked for has been to improve the health of humanity, to increase our lifespan. With great success, I might add. People are living longer than ever before. And that,’ she said with a sudden flourish, ‘is the problem.’

Nina cocked her head. ‘How is that a problem?’