“But there’s more than one origin to the myth, isn’t there?”

“Yes.” Angleton briefly touches his Memex. “If I’ve been trying to teach you anything it’s to always look for the gaps, boy. The blind spots. The nightmares that lurk in the holes nobody peers into.”

My mind’s spinning. “Are you suggesting that there is a reason why everybody around here knows vampires don’t exist? Like, perhaps, a person infected with PHANG who, shall we say, is thoroughly embedded within the organization and makes a point of suppressing knowledge of their existence?”

“I couldn’t possibly say.” Angleton leans back and contemplates the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling. “What do you think?”

“Well, let’s see. If such a person exists, they’re obviously very secretive and a very powerful ritual magician. It’s not you or me, obviously, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation. Presumably they’ve been working here for a long time to get their geas bedded in so deeply. Long enough that you can’t identify them directly.” (I suddenly realize something.) “And, um. The arrival of a bunch of newbie vamps– sorry, PHANG cases, with no sense of secrecy, would presumably put their nose out of joint because it would risk blowing their cover. Whatever the reason for maintaining it might be. Um. The K syndrome analog? If they have to feed periodically, then, um, that would imply killing people. On an ongoing basis. Obviously if they’re official then Mahogany Row would have something to do with keeping them supplied”—I really don’t like where this train of thought is leading me, but Angleton is nodding along from time to time, listening silently, which leads me to believe I’m on the right trail, however gruesome and body-strewn it might be—“with victims.”

“Not that common, actually,” Angleton volunteers at last. “The frequency of vampirism has historically been low. The sane ones usually kill themselves as soon as the implications sink in, and the insane ones are, shall we say, not well adapted for survival in the human society they are dependent on.”

“So they do exist! Officially.”

“We may be on the verge of an unprecedented outbreak, Bob. A side effect of CASE NIGHTMARE GREEN: with the stars in alignment and the potentiation of all magical powers, it’s becoming increasingly easy for the V-parasites to break through and acquire new hosts.”

“Jesus.”