I was only half-right (which is always better for me and the story anyway). We have a first initial on him--Q (unless this turns into a Bond flick and that's his name). Now, I confess I don't know whether to smile because maybe you changed the dynamic on us again--and we have an honest-to-Ellspeth villainness on our hands and Q (for all his appearance) is just a henchman with potential--or to scream at you because it looks like you deliberately pulled a "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" routine on us with Sample 49 between Issue 83 (Back to the Lab) and Issue 86 (...or perhaps, a disinfectant). It's interesting to note that before the introduction of the perfume, Kanti appears (to me) to be the dominant in the danger power couple.
Either way, decent bit of foreshadowing with Vik talking about Kanti and how concerened he was about her current taste in men (no matter which of them turns out to be the actual villain here). Either Vik was right and his concern for his sister is exceptionally well justified or Vik was only partly right and his blindness about his sister is endearingly naive.
However, I'm not sure what to do about the perfume yet (which is what simultaneously makes this last one such a good cliffhanger and so frustrating). Clearly, there's something about the musk in 49 that men can smell but that really affects women (it seems to trigger a trancelike state, but we don't know for how long). So far all we have is that abrupt asterisk breaking off their speech and train of thought as the musk hits them and they freeze.
Kanti's initial reaction is identical to Laura's. Talking about the orange, but then the abrupt cut-off asterisk * as the musk hits her just as she'd begin absorbing, thinking, and speaking about it. And Q has the same initial reaction Vik did. However, there are a couple of crucial pieces missing here.
What was the time lag between the end of 83 and the beginning of 86? Was it only momentary ("Laura" followed by a moment of blankness that Laura shakes off after Vik says her name and then things pick right back up) or was it more like 20-30 minutes (enough time for Pearl/Miri to make her first appearance, leave, and then Jacqui returns from lunch, has the revealing conversation about her daughter, pulls Adrian toward the storeroom, and then, as the door closes behind her, Laura awakes on the other side of town)?
Either seem possible, although I'd have thought that Vik would have mentioned to Laura
"Y'know, you were out for about 20 minutes there. Maybe I shouldn't give this to Kanti."
There's also the possibility that Laura was more than out as a result of the perfume and that Vik took advantage of the situation and then didn't mention it after she woke up. However, if THAT were the case, he definitely shouldn't have given his sister a sample. Hmm. so many questions left unanswered for at least a week.
It's also possible that the perfume has two sets of effects--one initial momentary trance and then a secondary effect if the subject (woman) is attracted to the man she's with when she first smells the perfume (which could have a range of implications for the partial sequence we already saw in the lab as well as what we're about to see in upcoming issues).
ETA--I'm still unclear about the significance of the title, unless
1. It's the name of the establishment, or
2. It's meant to be a play on the concept of billiards in that all the mischief started with a vial in Kanti's pocket. Har, har.
Oh, and Kanti is Vikram's younger sister?
Hmm.
Oh, and could we have an age on Q. His first close-up he looked somewhere between late '20s and late '30s with a hint of danger. Pulled back in this issue he looks like he has a considerable amount of gray in his hair which could push him back to--maybe early 50s which just adds an entire extra layer of unsavory to his character.
