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Miss Tarabotti had the transitory idea that he ht be suitable husbandalliance with a man of such weak character would certainly turn her into a veritable tyrant

She said, pretending ti, "He believes that the supernatural may either be blood-borne, a type of disease, or present as a special organ that those who can become supernatural possess and the rest of us do not"

Siemons smiled in a superior manner at this explanation Alexia was seized with a quite unladylike desire to slap the sht off his fat face With those jowls, her hand would probably ulp of tea instead

"That is near enough to the truth," he said "We at the Hypocras Club find his theories intriguing but instead favor the idea that y transh, a snetic fields Have you heard of electricity, Miss Tarabotti?"

Of course I have, you nincompoop, hat Alexia wanted to say Instead she said, "I believe I have read soht be the answer?"

"Because supernatural beings react to light: olves to theto theorize, is but another form of electricity; thus, we believe the two all leaned forward and joined in the conversation, as it had becoested that the two theories are not , there was discussion of possible electricity within blood transfer, or organs whose purpose is to process this light-borne energy In other words, that the two hypotheses could be combined"

Miss Tarabotti was interested despite herself "And it is the capacity to process this electrical energy that you believe correlates to the soul?"

The two scientists nodded

"How do I fit into this?"

The two men looked at each other

Finally, Mr Siemons said, "That is e hope to find out Do you soy? We know that certain materials do not conduct electricity Are preternaturals the living equivalent of a grounding agent?"

Great, Alexia thought, I have gone froet sweeter and sweeter "And how, exactly, do you plan to figure this out?"

She did not expect theh she had a pretty good idea that Mr Siemons, at least, rather relished such an eventuality

"Perhaps it would be best if we showed you soet an idea of hoe conduct research," suggested Mr Sieall blanched at that "Are you certain that is such a good plan, sir? She is a lady of gentle breeding, after all It ave Miss Tarabotti an assessing look "Oh, I think she is of a strong enough constitution Besides, itparticipation"

Mr MacDougall looked whiter at that "Oh dear," he muttered under his breath, his forehead creased in a frown He shoved his spectacles up his nose nervously

"Co is so bad as all that! We have a preternatural to study Science will rejoice--our ht"

Miss Tarabotti looked at him with narrowed eyes "And what exactly is your mission, Mr Siemons?"

"Why, to protect the commonwealth, of course," he replied

Miss Tarabotti asked the obvious question "Frolish us since King Henry’sof what they really are They are predators For thousands of years, they fed upon us and attacked us What they have given us in e has allowed us to build an empire, true, but at what cost?" He beca of a fanatic "They perovernment and our defenses, but they are not motivated to protect the best interest of the fully hu their own agenda! We believe that agenda to be world dooal is mobilization of research in order to secure the home-land from supernatural attack and covert infiltration This is an exceedingly co the focused effort from our entire association Our main scientific objective is to provide a fra that shall eventually lead to a unified national effort toide-scale exter her face blanch "Good Lord, you are not papal Teious paraphernalia Was that the hed

"Those fanatics," said the pipe h some of their tactics have proved moderately useful in our collection expeditions And, of course, we have recently realized that Teents We had thought those ruious embellishment, the power of faith to cancel the devil’s abilities Noe see there were scientific underpinnings Soet possession of it, will pave the way toward better understanding of your physiology, if nothing else But, to answer your question, no, we of the Hypocras Club are of a purely scientific bent"

"Though advocating a political agenda," accused Miss Tarabotti, forgetting her ploy to lull them into a false sense of her stupidity in her aard for the tenets of scientific objectivity

"Say instead, Miss Tarabotti, that we have nobility of purpose," said Mr Sieious fanatic "We are preserving the freedom of those whomore of them? Why the experiments?"

Mr Siemons said, "Know thy enemy, Miss Tarabotti To eliminate the supernatural, we must first understand the supernatural Of course, now that we have you, further supernatural vivisectionsthe nature and reproducibility of the preternatural instead"

The two ly endless labyrinthine white laboratories of that nightmarish club Each contained complex machinery of soreat puears and coils to facilitate up-and-down ines, sanic curves that were, in their way, ardless of size, boasted a brass octopus, riveted soine and invertebrate was oddly sinister