“Nobody was forced,” he said.

“Did anyone refuse?”

“Six.”

“And where are they now?” asked Larissa.

“In cells on Level H,” said Matt.

Glowing red flashed momentarily into Larissa’s eyes. “They were locked up because they wouldn’t let the Department turn them?”

“That’s right,” he said, aware of the look of unease that had appeared on Jamie’s face.

“And you’re OK with that?” said Larissa, her voice little more than a growl.

Matt sighed. “No,” he said. “I’m not. But I’m tired of defending PROMETHEUS, Larissa. Like I said to Jamie before you got here, I didn’t give the order, I didn’t make it mandatory, and I certainly didn’t decide the punishment for those who refused to take part. All I did was help create the science that made it possible. And to be perfectly honest with you, given that we now have a working cure, I really don’t see what the big deal is.”

Larissa smiled narrowly, crimson still flickering in the corners of her eyes. “You’re the only non-vampire sitting at this table,” she said. “I don’t know how qualified you are to make that statement.”

“All right,” said Jamie, frowning at her. “Take it easy.”

“It’s fine,” said Matt. “If you want to take it up with the Director, Larissa, then be my guest. But I’m not going to fight with you about this, and I’m not exactly sure why you think you get to just stroll back in here and start criticising. Are you even still an Operator? Have you told anyone where you’ve been for the last six months?”

Larissa stared at him; he held her gaze as Jamie looked back and forth between them, his eyes wide with worry. After a long, silent moment, the glow in her eyes faded away, and she nodded.

“You’re right,” she said. “That was crappy of me. I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” said Matt, instantly. “I really don’t want to fight.”

Larissa nodded, and sat back in her chair. Matt took a nervous sip of coffee and looked at Jamie, silently willing him to break the tension. Thankfully, his friend did not let him down.

“Speaking of the cure,” said Jamie, “I assume you heard about what the last couple of nights have been like in London?”

Matt nodded, grateful for the slight change of subject. “I read the reports,” he said. “It sounds like the first one was crazy.”

“The first what?” asked Larissa.

“The first distribution of the cure,” said Jamie. “We’re releasing it in eight hospitals around the country, and it’s all going pretty smoothly now, but the first night it was just one, UCH in London, and it was pretty hairy.”

“You were there?” asked Larissa.

Jamie nodded. “Mine and Jack’s squads were the security. About four hundred vampires turned up, trying to get the cure, and we had anti-vampire protesters, anti-cure protesters, and about a hundred police trying to keep them apart.”

“What happened?” asked Matt. “I read there was some violence.”

“There was,” said Jamie. “Although it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. The vampires kicked off when we had to announce that we were only taking ten more of them, and then the protesters broke the police line and someone threw a bottle that hit one of the vamps in the head. So she went mental, and we had to go in and calm it all down.”

“Jesus,” said Matt.

Jamie shrugged. “It was all right in the end,” he said. “I went back to London two nights ago and it was better, and the reports from last night were better still. I think we’re on top of it.”

“Still speaking of the cure,” said Larissa. “How’s your mum, Jamie?”

Jamie grimaced. “I haven’t seen her,” he said. “They locked the infirmary down when they started testing the cure, and then the last two days have been crazy.”

Larissa frowned. “You haven’t had five minutes to go down and see if she’s all right?”

“No,” said Jamie, his eyes narrowing. “What with people coming back out of the blue and Dracula starting the end of the world, I’ve had a lot to deal with.”

Larissa stared at her ex-boyfriend; he held her gaze for a long moment.

“I saw her,” said Matt, softly.

Jamie frowned. “Saw who?”

“Your mum,” he said. “I saw her in the cellblock, when I went to get Valentin for the start of PROMETHEUS.”

“Was she all right?”

Matt nodded. “She seemed fine,” he said. “Happy. She was talking to Valentin. She said she was looking forward to seeing you.”

Jamie grimaced. “You didn’t tell me.”

“I meant to,” said Matt. “But like you said, it’s been crazy.”

“You knew she’d been discharged,” said Larissa. “You shouldn’t need Matt to tell you that your mother would like to see her son.”

Red flashed into the corners of Jamie’s eyes, but died as quickly as it had arrived. His grimace deepened, and he nodded.

“You’re right,” he said. “I’ll fix it. For now, let’s talk about something more cheerful, shall we?”

“What’ve you got in mind?” asked Larissa.

“Carcassonne.”

Matt burst out laughing, spraying coffee across the table. Jamie and Larissa recoiled, wide grins on their faces.

“Sorry,” he said. “Are there any updates from France?”

“Only what we’ve seen on the news and what we were told in the Zero Hour briefing,” said Jamie. “But things are happening. The Director was in Carcassonne yesterday, and I really think the suspension of PROMETHEUS is telling.”

“What don’t I know?” asked Larissa. “Angela brought me up to speed, but I don’t think she told me everything.”

“Has your Zero Hour classification been reinstated?” asked Jamie.

“I don’t know,” said Larissa.

“Did you know your friend General Allen is running things on the ground?”

“No,” said Larissa.

Jamie nodded. “He’s taken charge on behalf of NATO and the FTB is taking the lead on behalf of the Departments. I think everything else is public knowledge.”

Larissa nodded. “All right,” she said. “That’s a smart move. Bob Allen will do a good job.”

“So what do you think our response is actually going to be?” asked Matt.

“I don’t know,” said Jamie, and shook his head. “Paul will tell us as soon as they finalise a plan, but if you ask me, I think we need to move as soon as possible. If we don’t, Carcassonne will just be the start.”

“Level with me,” said Matt. “And I mean level with me. If we go in after Dracula, what are the chances we make it out alive?”

Jamie shrugged. “I honestly don’t know,” he said. “Probably not all that good. Larissa?”

“Not good,” she said, and nodded. “Valentin and I fought Dracula together and didn’t beat him, and that was more than six months ago. He’ll be stronger now than he was then, probably a lot stronger.”

“It doesn’t make any sense, does it?” said Matt. “The end of the world, I mean. It’s just something people say, that doesn’t really mean anything. But we might be about to watch it happen.”

They fell silent. The loud buzz of the canteen continued around them, but for a long moment, the three teenagers merely stared at each other.

Matt was suddenly full of desperate love for his friends, the two sitting with him and the one who was lying unconscious one floor above them. There were problems between them, problems that were sticky and hard to solve and had opened wounds that he knew ran deep, but they were all still here, still breathing in and out, still mostly intact, on the outside at least. For how much longer, nobody knew, but for right now they were still alive, and they would fight with everything they had until the end.

“America,” said Larissa, suddenly.

Jamie frowned. “What?”

“That’s where I went,” she said, her eyes fixed on her ex-boyfriend.

Matt looked at his friend. Jamie’s face had paled, but he saw neither the anger nor the hostility he was expecting; what he saw instead was something that looked a lot like resignation, or even acceptance.

“To Nevada?” asked Jamie.