text: Fifteen years after the first litters of bullet-carrying kittens were born, the domestic cat had regained its status as a common household pet.
  
  One fall morning, an hour before sunrise, Lilith, now in her second year of high school, was already up completing a homework assignment she had been too tired to finish the night before. Vera and Noah were still sound asleep. Noah was jarred awake by the ringing of his phone.
  
  He glanced at the clock by the bed. Six thirty. Who calls at such an hour? Suddenly, he was wide-awake. He recalled the time many years before when Gary McKeever had phoned him early in the morning to tell him of the theft of his research cats.
  
  Vera too was now awake. Noah put the phone to his ear. "Yes," he said. "Who is it?"
  
  A voice answered, "This is Dr. Lars Sundstrom calling from Stockholm on behalf of the Alfred Nobel Foundation. May I speak with Dr. Noah Chamberlin or Dr. Vera Barnett, please?"