E.Godz

But even the most potent of caffeine buzzes has a finite trajectory. By the time they actually set foot within the Poughkeepsie city limits, it was difficult to tell for sure whether their master plan was really as foolproof as it sounded, or if it only seemed foolproof because their brains were starting to turn into piles of played-out espresso grounds. Peez had come down off her mocha-java high just in time to realize this, and it was not the sort of epiphany that gave you confidence in the future.

"It's coming just fine," Dov called back to her. "The link's holding. We may not have as much magical power as she's got, but by taking our magic plus the stuff we're pulling in through the tapping spell and slaving the whole thing to our Net access, there won't be a firewall in existence that can keep us out of Edwina's system! It's just going to take a little time."

"You're sure she won't be able to tell we're doing this until we're ready to make our move?"

"Relax, Sis. We are golden. Say she does catch wise that someone's ferreting around in her system, the only way she can intervene is by locating the source. That would be child's play for her: Just slip a tracking spell into the wires. She can't do that to us the way

I've got this set up. No wires, no way to trace the co

"No wires, no electrical feed for the laptops," Peez said. "I've never tried anything like this before. What happens if we power down in the middle of it?"

"We won't," Dov reassured her. "Not as long as we've got good, solid battery backup. Not as long as you keep feeding our batteries."

"Yeah, but what happens when I run out of peanuts?"

As if to answer her question, a large gray squirrel not six inches away from Peez's feet sat up on its haunches and set off a long stream of loud, chittering complaints. Peez threw him another peanut and thought that this was one hell of a way to harness the earth- power.

It did look somewhat bizarre to the untrained eye. It even looked bizarre by the standards of some of E. Godz, Inc.'s more eccentric (pronounced "woo-woo") clients. Of course anything looks bizarre when it involves squirrels.

A nineteenth-century French painter might have made a pretty picture of the siblings' command center for Operation Bad Mommy, titling it Le Takeover Hostile Sur l'Herbe. While Dov delved deeply into Edwina's databanks, Peez sat on the grass under the outspread branches of a venerable sycamore tree on the campus of Vassar College, a giant economy-sized bag of peanuts in her lap. Every so often she tossed a handful to the coterie of about twenty squirrels surrounding her, making sure to keep them from losing interest and scampering away. The squirrels' plump bodies pulsed with waves of energy which was being siphoned away along threadlike conduits all leading to Dov's tandem laptops, giving him all the power he needed.

"By the time you run out of peanuts, we'll be done," he told his sister. "Then we'll go pay a little call on Edwina."

"I hope you're right," Peez said. "And I hope the creatures will be satisfied with what I gave them. I don't like the way that big bull squirrel's looking at me. I think he might be plotting something. Did we have to use squirrels? Even back in New York City, they gave me the creeps. They're always watching."

"Squirrels are nature's most compact and efficient gatherers of the earth-power," Dov said, sounding almost as dull as a tenured professor. "Have you ever seen how fast they can move? Pure energy. They press their little bodies right up against tree trunks for better power absorption, and they've perfected the method for extracting the potential energy of a full-grown oak, maple, pine, whatever kind of tree from the seeds, nuts, and acorns they ingest. You call them rodents: I call them fuzzy plutonium! And this place seems to have an infinite supply of the little buggers."

"If you say so," Peez said. She continued to dole out peanuts. The squirrels, much like a gaggle of junior faculty members, put up with any kind of public humiliation if it meant that they got to stick close to a source of free food.

At last Dov hit one final keystroke, slapped both laptops shut simultaneously, flopped over onto his back and triumphantly a

"What did you do?" Peez asked.

"Oh, nothing much." He rolled onto his stomach and sat up again. "I just isolated all of her assets, monetary as well as supernatural. She's down to the spare change level on all fronts. She may have more experience than we do when it comes to magic, but a fat lot of good that'll do her when she can't reach the stuff she needs to power her spells."

"Like owning a Mercedes but only having enough money to buy a teaspoonful of gas?" Peez liked the idea.

"Bingo." Dov tapped the tip of his nose. He stood up and offered Peez his hand. "Give the furry-tailed rats the rest of the peanuts and let's go pay a call on dear, dear Mamma."

Giggling, Peez tossed the remaining peanuts to the squirrels before allowing Dov to help her up. As they walked off, Dov flipped open his cell phone to call for a taxi. He was so engrossed in the call that he didn't notice the big male squirrel sitting right in his path until he almost trod on him. The two of them exchanged peevish stares.

"Shoo!" Dov commanded. "Scat! Get out of the way!"

"That's him," Peez exclaimed, pointing wildly at the beast. "That's the one that was looking at me before! He wants something; I can tell."

"What he wants is a kick in the rump for bothering my sister," Dov said grimly. "And I'm the guy to give it to him." He drew back his right leg, ready to suit the action to the word.

* * *

"How are you feeling, Mr. Godz?" the doctor asked brightly.

"Better. I think." Dov moved cautiously on the examination table, but not cautiously enough. Sharp pains shot all up and down the length of his right side where the squirrel had ducked inside his trousers and run races around Dov's leg before finally scooting out and away.

"You're just lucky that the scratches were superficial and that you didn't get bitten," the doctor went on. "Of course even without a bite there's still the chance of rabies infection if—"

"Rabies?" Dov was panic-stricken. "But that's just from bites. That rotten little bastard didn't bite me."

"True, but if the squirrel was rabid and some of his saliva got into your system via those scratches ... Would you happen to know if that happened?"

"You want me to figure out if the bloody damn squirrel that ran up my pants was drooling at the time?"

"Well, failing that knowledge, and since we don't have the squirrel itself to examine, I would suggest that you have the inoculations."

"Shots? You want me to have rabies shots? No. No way. I know all about them and they hurt!"

"They don't hurt as much as they used to," the doctor said primly. "But rabies still kills."

"Doctor, let me talk to my brother," Peez said. "I think I can persuade him to take the shots. May we have a moment alone?"

The doctor shrugged. He was busy. "Have them page me when you're ready," he said, leaving the examination room.

"I am not having rabies shots!" Dov declared, clutching his leg. It was almost completely swathed in bandages where the doctor had tended to the squirrel scratches. Pulling his pants back on over all that gauze would be an adventure.

"Shush; you don't need them." Peez laid her hand on Dov's leg and closed her eyes. She began to hum and murmur, swaying back and forth gently. Dov felt a warm, pleasant sensation creeping over his leg, as if he were slowly immersing it in a tropical sea. Peez stopped humming and opened her eyes. "It's okay," she said. "The squirrel wasn't rabid."

"How do you know?"

"A little something I picked up in my travels. Part of it's stuff I learned out in Arizona, part's drawn from things Mr. Bones taught me, but it all boils down to being able to read the body so you can heal it. Your body says it's definitely not harboring any rabies virus, the scratches will be gone in a few days, and for the love of heaven, stop eating all that damn pastrami."