Nico’s eyes go wide. “Could the rats survive down for centuries?”

“That’s what I intend to find out. I’m on my way to see Justine now.”

“I will come with you.”

Outside, they weave through the reporters, ignoring the questions shouted at them. They turn a corner and step inside the little café behind the hospital. Justine is already seated at a table by the window with a teacup in hand. She giggles as they sit down on either side of her. “Damn it, girl! Guessing which date you’re going to show up with is harder than predicting the next Super Bowl champ.”

Alana ignores the barb. “We need to talk about the rats,” she says.

“Yes, we do! We discovered something else really interesting today. You know how I told you that Vin Diesel could never have—”

Nico’s face scrunches. “Vin Diesel?”

“The big alpha male rat from the park that I dissected,” Justine says as if it should have been self-evident. “Anyway, we know Vin was immune to the plague, right?”

“Yes,” Alana says.

“So I thought the only way he could be carrying Yersinia would be through the infected fleas on his back.”

“It’s not?”

“No, ma’am!” Justine taps her hand above her eyebrow in mock salute. “His entire skin was colonized with the bacteria. Millions of them. You know, the way human skin is colonized with all those staph and strep bacteria that live on us but hardly ever cause infection?”

“So you’re saying this rat was a true carrier of the plague?” Alana says. “With or without fleas onboard.”

“Exactamundo.” Justine nods proudly. “So, what did you want to ask me about the rats?”

Alana relays what she just learned from Claudio about the rats and the crypt.

“Holy shit!” Justine cries. “You think Vin Diesel might have been a direct descendant of those medieval plague rats?”

“Is that even possible?” Nico asks. “A colony of rats living under the monastery for all those centuries?”

“It sure would explain a ton!” Justine says. “Like why he had such different markings and teeth from contemporary Genoese rats.”

“And also why he was immune to the plague,” Alana says.

“But how could rats survive trapped down there for so long?” Nico asks.

“Find me another mammal that comes even close to being as resilient as the rat!” Justine looks from Nico to Alana. “Have either of you ever heard of the Heterocephalus glaber? AKA, the naked mole rat.”

Alana and Nico share a blank stare.

“Not that easy on the eye, your basic naked mole rat,” Justine says. “Not a stitch of hair. Bald as the real Vin Diesel. And with two sausage teeth that would embarrass even a British dentist. Ugly! But these suckers live under the ground twenty-four-seven in Africa. Some of them don’t surface once in their whole lives. And they don’t live in any cushy underground gangsta crib. Nah, they get by in the tight burrows that they dig themselves that are up to ten feet below the ground.”