‘I know. I actually hate it now. But I can’t go back home. I’m stuck.’
‘There’s always hope, Erica. Come on. We’re Wise Women. Let’s go and make a plan.’ She pulls herself up, staggers, then turns round and holds out her hands, pulling me up too.
Back inside, we get out my laptop, which we can’t open to start with and dissolve into laughter. I mean, we’re drunk – but let’s be clear, I’m not suddenly best mates with Cassia. Nobody was holding out for that plot twist. Her incessant use of the word ‘sweetie’ really grates as does the fact that she talks about being ‘decadent’, which I’m fairly sure nobody who is actually decadent says.
‘Give it here,’ says Cassia. ‘I’m an influencer. I know how to work Google.’
More laughing, and replenished Corpse Revivers, and Cassia is suddenly concentrating hard on reading something on a website.
‘I think the problem here, sweetie, is that you have been looking for the wrong person.’
‘What d’you mean? It’s Dr Marcus we need. Or Marcus, should I say.’
‘Yes, but if he’s hiding, we’re never going to find him. However, d’you know who isnothiding?’
‘No – who?’
‘Professor Brandt. Dr Marcus’s former partner. She’ll know how to reverse WULT®. In fact I think she had more of a hand in its creation than that phoney doctor did.’
I thought Professor Brandt was a man. Which doesn’t reflect that well on me… But that’s probably why I’ve never been able to find out much about her online.
‘What’s her name?’
‘Rosamund.’ She points at the screen. ‘That’s her.’
I peer at the laptop, swaying slightly, and can see a woman in her fifties, with a half-smile and neat, shoulder-length salt-and-pepper hair, wearing medical scrubs. ‘Oh well done. So where is she?’
‘Geneva. She works for Médecins Sans Limites now. We need to get to her.’
I might be full of vintage cocktail, but the name Médecins Sans Limites rings a very loud bell. Then I remember – Laure. That’s who Laure works for. Maybe there is a chance after all.
