Queen of Wands-eARC by John Ringo

helped at all, but Janea seemed to be resting more comfortably.
    “I guess it’s time to get back to work,” Barb said, holding out the bag. “Come on, Laz.”
    The cat just looked at her. He looked comfortable where he was.
    “I need to go,” Barb said, gesturing to the bag.
    “Cats have minds of their own,” the young witch said.
    “Well, this one has to keep with me,” Barb replied.
    “I’m familiar with your…” She paused and frowned, “companion.”
    “Come on, Laz,” Barb said, reaching for him.
    Laz didn’t even get up, just swatted at her hand, claws retracted. Then he held up one of them with the claws extended. The meaning was clear.
    “I can’t get far from you, dummy,” Barb said.
    Laz plunked his head down between Janea’s breasts and looked at Barb out of one eye, balefully.
    “Seriously,” Barb said. “You’re staying?”
    “I think he’s staying,” the witch said, frowning. “Generally the familiar bond is not something to be stretched. But yours is…unusual. And at least you can be assured he will be safe in this house.”
    “Hmmm…” Barb muttered. “Okay, I’ll try it. If it doesn’t work, though, you are definitely coming with me.”
    Laz got up, turned around, kneaded Janea’s breasts for a moment, then plunked back down and closed his eyes.
    “I have never been sure that cats can walk the Moon Paths,” the witch said. “But it looks as if that is his intent.”
    “A year ago I was a housewife,” Barb said. “I had, still have, a husband that couldn’t cook. I was president of the PTO. Chairman of the bake sale. Now I see angels and demons and have got a familiar wandering around the astral plane.”
    “It does take some getting used to.”
    * * *
    “I’ve got some interesting information,” Kurt said, looking up then frowning. “Where’s the cat?”
    “He seems to prefer Janea’s company to mine,” Barb said, shrugging. “I was warned that I shouldn’t get too far from him and always make sure he was safe. But it seems I’m going to extend the distance. We’ll see how far I can go. What’s the info?”
    “You’re going to love it,” Kurt said, gesturing to one of the seats in the empty waiting room. “I ran a search in the ‘mundane’ files on that symbol of Vartouhi’s you didn’t like.”
    Barb clicked on the link and blanched. The link led to the website of a corporation that used the same symbol. And, again, it gave her what her daughter would call “major creep factor.”
    “Trilobular,” Barb said, flipping through the pages. “Pretty widely invested…Defense contracts. Biotech. Coca-Cola bottling stock?” She paused and blinked rapidly.
    “You hit the part on ‘psychological research,’ didn’t you,” Kurt said, grinning. “Skip the rest of the brochure and take a look at their grant list.”
    “Dr. Stewart Downing,” Barb said, musingly. “First we infect them, then we cure them. How interesting.”
    “Still doesn’t tell us what’s going on,” Kurt said. “But I think I’m starting to get an interesting smell. You think this is some sort of bio research gone wrong?”
    “No,” Barb said. “Or not in any normal way. This is paranormal. Those patients are D-E-D dead. It’s possible they’re combining scientific neurological research with paranormal, but you’d be surprised how hard that is to do. The various powers that be seem to have an aversion to mixing the two. And since they have all sorts of earthly controls, they can make sure that paranormal activities don’t conform to clinical results. That seems to be the case for both sides of the street. God prefers Believers, thank you. Trying to derive some philosophical rationale for God? All well and good. Trying to prove His existence empirically? He is going to make sure you cannot. The Adversary seems to agree on that subject if nothing else. If they are combining paranormal with standard biological research…it’s going to require a power