"It seems like a weird coincidence, if we weren't targeted, don't you think?" she says, but she can't quite manage a smile. Vanessa's been caught up in supervillain nonsense once or twice before, in the last ten years – when you're a very visible science celebrity this sort of thing happens – but it has never been quite this bad. It's hard not to be certain this is nefarious as hell.

Her thick, fluffy tail curls around her ankle. "... But if they wanted us for anything we actually have in common, they would have made demands by now."