Megan and Toni stared at her with blank expressions.
“But…” She relented. “I’m also not a fan of coincidence.”
Toni raised an eyebrow. “What about the government? Does this professor have anything to do with the military?”
Megan scoffed. “And you were accusing me of conspiracy theories.”
“Unfortunately, considering the history of human study trials, it’s a fair question,” Katherine said. “But as far as I know, Ansel has no history of working on government studies. Funding from the government? Yes. But working directly with them? No.”
Toni said, “And if the military were involved, they’d probably use soldiers for test subjects, not students.”
Megan was staring at Toni, blinking with wide eyes. “They wouldn’t.”
“They have,” Katherine said. “Frequently.”
“So this study that these two kids were maybe involved in,” Toni said, “do we know what the outcome was? Can we find out? Have they… I don’t know, published anything yet?”
“No, it’s way too soon for that. There would be follow-up…” Katherine pursed her lips and thought about just how many lines she wanted to cross. “For now, let me try to contact Sarah Jordan. Let me see what she’s willing to share.”
“And I’m going to spend some time at the library,” Megan said. “Put my currently unemployed status to good use. I can look through papers and search the websites and message boards. So far, we know of two kids who had strange breakdowns that led to violence.” She shrugged. “Maybe there were more than two.”
* * *
Katherine waited until she was on a break the next day to look up Sarah Jordan’s emergency information at school. The system listed a number in Watsonville, California, along with an address, both of which Katherine wrote down. She also learned that officially, Sarah had taken a medical leave of absence but was still listed as enrolled with the university. As far as semipublic knowledge went, that was all she had.
Since Watsonville was a two-hour drive, she closed and locked her office door and decided to try a call from her personal phone.
Two rings later and a deep male voice picked up the line. “Jordan Ranch.”
“Good morning. Is Sarah Jordan available?”
The man seemed to hesitate. “Who’s this?”
Should she lie? Say Katherine, pretend she was a friend? She didn’t have a “young” voice. She suspected she was the same age as the man on the other end of the line, which meant she was probably talking to a protective parent.
Lying was too complicated: she decided to go with the simple truth.
“My name is Professor Katherine…” She choked on her last name. “I was hoping to speak to Sarah.”
“A professor?” There was a brief hesitation, but then he said, “I’ll get her. Give it a couple of minutes; she’s out in the barn.”
“I’m happy to wait.”
The line went silent, but Katherine could hear faint sounds of everyday life in the background. Someone was doing dishes. A door opened and shut. A dog barked.
Five minutes after the last voice had left the phone, another picked up.
“Hello?”
“Is this Sarah?”
“Yeah. My dad said you’re a professor?”
“I am. I’m in the physics department at Central Coast State.”
“I… don’t think I ever took physics. What was your name?”
“Professor… Katherine.”
“Okaaay. I’m confused.” Sarah huffed out a breath. “I’m on leave from school. I haven’t decided if I want to go back, to be honest. So if you’re calling about next semester, I can’t give you an answer yet.”
“I’m not calling to find out your enrollment. In case no one told you, you’re still listed as enrolled. And with medical leaves of absence, I think they only require documentation from your medical or psychological doctor three weeks before the end of each semester, so you have plenty of time to decide what you want to do.”
“Oh. No one told me that. That’s good to know.” She sounded more relaxed. “So are you calling, like, to tell me about my school options or something?”
“I am not.” She tapped her pencil and tried to think about what she could say. “I don’t want to intrude—”
“Do you work with Professor Shaver or Professor Kraft?”
That she could answer. “I do work with Professor Shaver and some of his grad students, yes.”
“Oh.” Sarah’s voice sounded more assured. “Give me a minute and let me call you back. This number okay?”
“Yes. You should know—”
“Okay, give me a minute.”
The line went dead, and Katherine mentally rehearsed how she could tell Sarah who she really was.
I’m not a psychologist or part of the study; I’m just a new psychic trying to figure out who tried to kill me a couple of weeks ago.
I don’t know anything about this study, but ask me about precognition!
Please don’t report me to the ethics committee for contacting you.
Her phone rang with an unfamiliar number and she picked up. “Hello?”
“So you’re doing follow-up about the gap, right?” Sarah Jordan was back on the phone. “I guess that’s not surprising.” She sighed deeply. “I know I didn’t keep my diary for a while, but I’m back to reporting now. My sleep has still been really good. Uh… my doctor hasn’t changed my Zoloft prescription at all, so that’s still the same.”
Alarm bells were going off in Katherine’s mind. Alert! Alert! Professional misconduct ahead! “Um, Sarah—”
“And I’ve kept up on the visualizations and meditations too.” Sarah Jordan continued without a breath. “I mean, eventually. You know what happened, right?”
Despite the alarm bells, Katherine was taking rapid notes as Sarah spoke. Unethical? So much. She was going to have to come clean to Baxter about this. And about the psychic powers.
Eventually.
“I don’t know the details about what happened,” Katherine said. “I know there was an incident with your horse, which sounds very tragic, and I’m so sorry.”
Was this what they called a personal spiral? It felt like a spiral.
Despite the spiraling feeling, Sarah continued to speak.
“Thanks. I know…” The young lady took a deep breath. “I’m doing better. At first I stopped everything. My medication, the biofeedback
