Dark Light

by Randy Wayne White

  “You don’t know him very well, do you? I suppose that’s typical of Marriages of Convenience. People don’t go into them for the long haul, so why check out the family?”

  Enough was enough. “Let’s get something straight here, Mr. Burns. I am Fontana’s wife, and as such I am quite prepared to be polite to members of his family. I am not about to let said family members insult me or my husband or our marriage.”

  He blinked and then reddened. “Sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “What you should keep in mind here is that, while I know almost nothing about you, you, in turn, know very little about me or the reasons for my marriage to your brother.” She smiled coolly. “Just what you’ve read in the papers, right?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “We all know how much you can trust the press.”

  Nick cleared his throat. He glanced uneasily at the copy of the previous day’s edition of the Curtain lying on the table. The glaring headline read, “Guild Boss and Bride Vanish. Kidnapped by Aliens?”

  “Right,” he said.

  “How did you find me?” she asked.

  “Are you kidding? You and Fontana are headline news in the tabloids in Cadence as well as here in Crystal.”

  “I was afraid of that.” She folded her hands together. “What can I do for you, Mr. Burns?”

  His mouth tightened at the corners in a way that reminded her of Fontana.

  “I won’t play games, with you,” he said. “My family needs Fontana’s help, and they need it very badly. My mother is so desperate she tried to contact him herself several times in the past month. On each occasion Fontana’s executive assistant made it clear that Fontana was unavailable to take the call.”

  “I see.” This was worse than she had realized.

  “If you knew my mother, you’d know how much pride she had to swallow in order to make those calls. Fontana is the result of an affair my father had years ago. She’s always had a difficult time accepting him.”

  “I understand,” she said quietly.

  “Look, you’re family now, so I’m going to tell you a big family secret.” Nick leaned forward and spoke in very low tones. “Burns & Co. is in serious trouble. A year ago my father died. He stunned everyone when he left controlling interest to Fontana. But Fontana turned around and shocked everyone all over again when he declined his inheritance.”

  “Declined?”

  “Just walked away from it.” Nick waved one hand. “Blew it off. Cold as ice. Like Burns & Co. meant nothing to him.”

  “Well, maybe it doesn’t. He hasn’t ever been involved with the firm, has he?”

  “No, but that’s not the point. That company was my father’s life. And he left Fontana in charge of it. That should have meant something, damn it.”

  “Please calm down,” she said gently.

  Nick took a visible grip on his emotions. His tone steadied. “At the time everyone in the family was enormously relieved to find out that Fontana didn’t want the company. But then my brother, Josh, took over the firm, and we learned the truth. Burns & Co. is on the verge of bankruptcy.”

  “I’m very sorry, but I really don’t know what you expect me to do.”

  “You’ve got to help me convince Fontana to save Burns,” Nick said. “If he doesn’t do something fast, a lot of people are going to get hurt.”

  “The members of your family?”

  “Sure, but it isn’t just my family that will take a hit. If the company goes under, several hundred people will lose their jobs. Look, we just need time. Fontana is the only one who can hold things together financially until Josh can get a handle on the situation.”

  “I realize you’re desperate, but what, exactly, do you expect Fontana to do? I can tell you right now that he won’t give up the Guild in order to run Burns & Co.”

  “Josh can turn the company around. He’s brilliant. But he needs time and a large infusion of private capital to hold things together until he can restructure the business.”

  “You expect Fontana to pour money into the firm in order to save it for your family?”

  “He’s our only hope.”

  Chapter 32

  TROY PATTERSON’S OFFICE WAS IN THE EXECUTIVE WING of Guild headquarters. Patterson was inside, seated behind his desk, signing some papers, when Fontana opened the door without warning.

  Troy looked up. Cold anger glittered in his eyes before disappearing behind his genial mask.

  “Fontana,” he said easily. “What are you doing here? Figured you were still recovering from your honeymoon in the jungle.”

  “It’s over, Patterson.”

  Troy cocked a brow. “The honeymoon? That didn’t last long.”

  “Not my honeymoon. Your little rain forest drug factory.”

  Troy did not move, but something frantic flickered in his expression. Like the anger, it vanished quickly. Cool outrage took its place.

  “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He gripped the arms of his chair. “I don’t give a damn if you are the new boss of the Crystal Guild. I’m a member of the Council. I’m one of the people who helped put you into the CEO’s office, remember? I and the others can kick you out of there just as fast as we put you in.”

  Fontana came to a halt in the middle of the room. It was raining outside. His black coat dripped water on the amber and granite floor.

  “You had no choice but to vote with the rest of the Council, because you knew that if you didn’t, everyone would wonder why,” he said. “By the way, when the cops arrest you, it won’t be only for running drugs. You’re the chief suspect in the murder of Brock Jenner. There’s also the little matter of kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment. We freed a total of twelve hunters, counting the additional men on the transport team.”

  Troy gripped the arms of his chair. “You’re crazy. I didn’t touch Jenner. And there’s no way you can pin a drug charge on me.”

  “Ray and I found the source of the ghost juice. We picked up the four guards at the scene. The police caught the others when the transport crew emerged on the surface with the fresh supply of the drug. They’re all Riders, and it turns out they don’t feel any loyalty to the Guild. They’re talking as fast as they can.”

  Troy’s eyes tightened. “You’re bluffing. You haven’t got proof of any of those charges. This is just a threat. You want me off the Council, and this is your way of forcing me to resign, isn’t it? Congratulations on your more modern approach to running the organization. At least Jenner was honest about it. He got rid of people he didn’t like the old-fashioned way. He made them disappear into the tunnels.”

  “I know about the bank accounts that you set up to launder your ghost juice profits. They all lead straight back to you.”

  “I’ve got a right to set up all the accounts I want.”

  “Sure, but not under a bunch of phony IDs,” Fontana said. “The City-State Tax Service will want a detailed explanation of the source of your income. Things are going to unravel in a hurry when they start looking into your finances.”

  “That money came from selling antiquities that I found in the course of my own private explorations,” Troy said.

  “In which case the tax folks are going to want to see a hell of a lot of receipts. And they’ll still want an explanation for the phony IDs used on the accounts.”

  “I can handle the CSTS,” Troy said evenly. “If that’s all you’ve got, you’re about to find yourself unemployed.”

  “You’re underestimating the CSTS, but that’s your problem. As a matter of fact, I have got something more in the way of proof. I just came from an interesting conversation with Donovan Corley.”

  Troy stiffened. “The hell you did.”

  “Corley was a little annoyed to hear that his firm might have been connected to a drug operation, so he turned over all of the paperwork he had relating to a certain UEX project that took place six months ago.”

  “If anyone’s running a drug operation in the rain fore
st, it’s UEX,” Troy said.

  “According to the reports, they never found the alien ruin where the juice is produced. They didn’t find a damn thing because on the advice of the hunter in command, they cut their losses and turned back before they stumbled onto the drug fountains. The hunter in charge was you.”

  “It’s not unusual for a Councilman to work on an important joint exploration project; you know that,” Troy said. “We had a deal with Corley’s company. The Guild invested heavily in the venture. In situations like that, we always send a high-ranking member of the organization along to protect Guild interests.”

  “In this case, you protected your own interests—yours and Jenner’s. Here’s how it went down. At some point two weeks into the expedition, you and your second-in-command, Cal Wilson, went ahead on a routine scouting mission. You found the alien ruin, but you couldn’t get inside because it was protected by the biggest ghost river either of you had ever encountered. Neither one of you could de-rez river light.”

  Troy’s face twisted with fury. “You’re making this up as you go along.”

  “You recognized the potential value of the discovery, and you didn’t want to share it with UEX. You and Wilson made a deal. You noted the coordinates, and then you went back to the UEX team. You told them that the entire sector was blocked by a massive ghost storm. No one can work storm light. The team turned around and returned to the surface.”

  “If you think the authorities are going to buy this, think again.”

  Fontana thrust his hands into the pockets of his raincoat. “Here’s where it gets really interesting. You knew that one of the other men on the UEX team could work river light. Jake Tanner. After the UEX people were safely out of the way, you and Wilson returned to the ruin with Jake. He de-rezzed the ghost river for you.”

  “Tanner’s a juice dreamer,” Troy said. “His testimony is worthless.”

  Fontana ignored that. “All three of you went into the ruin. You found the ultraviolet generators and the juice fountains. The waters in the fountains were obviously infused with a lot of unusual psi, but it tested clean just like all of the rest of the water sources discovered in the jungle.”

  “You’re starting to irritate me, Fontana.” Troy made a small move with one hand. A mag-rez gun materialized in his fist. “I mean, really irritate me.”

  “Jake and Wilson drank some of the water. Ten minutes later they were in dreamland. You couldn’t wake them, so you were forced to sit there until they woke up. While you waited, you experimented with the ultraviolet generators and discovered what they could do.”

  Troy smiled. “Those generators are incredible, Fontana. Absolutely amazing. There’s no knowing what the aliens used them for, but I realized their potential as weapons immediately. It’s the first reliable, sophisticated technology we’ve come across that can be operated both on the surface and underground in heavy psi conditions. What’s more, you don’t need a hunter’s talent to activate them.”

  “You didn’t tell Tanner and Wilson what the generators could do, did you?”

  “Of course not.” Troy’s disgust was clear. “Tanner and Wilson came out of their dreams in a state of euphoria. They couldn’t stop talking about their visions. I realized immediately that the fountains were a source of some kind of highly addictive hallucinatory drug.”

  “All you had to do was figure out a way to make the discovery profitable.”

  “Yes,” Troy said. “There were some serious logistical issues to be resolved. I faced the same distribution obstacles as any other businessman trying to get a product to market. I also knew I couldn’t hope to run the operation alone out of the jungle. So I brought Jenner in on the deal.”

  “Was it Jenner’s idea to form a partnership with the Riders?”

  Troy nodded. “Got to hand it to him. It was a brilliant move. He said we couldn’t risk trying to recruit Guild men to sell and distribute the juice. He was right. You and some of the others on the Council would have heard the rumors. Also, it would have been a PR disaster if the cops had started arresting hunters and charging them with dealing the latest street drug.”

  “But everyone knew the Riders were already established in the drug dealing business. It’s no big deal whenever one of them gets snagged by the cops.”

  “One of the problems we discovered straight off was that the juice only works well on people with strong para-resonating talents. That limited our market to hunters. We focused on retirees and guys living on the streets.”

  “At some point Cal Wilson proved to be a problem, didn’t he?”

  “The stupid son of a ghost tried to blackmail me,” Troy said. “He wanted a bigger piece of the action.”

  “So you killed him.”

  “I had no choice. Tanner was much easier to handle. He was a solid Guild man. I told him that the ghost juice fountains were a deep, dark, Guild secret. That was fine by him. All he cared about was his next fix. I made sure he got it. He couldn’t handle his Guild work anymore, though, so he was forced to resign.”

  “You kept him alive because you knew you might need him again someday.”

  “You know how it is with those damn ghost rivers. You de-rez one, and two weeks or six months later, the currents come back.”

  “That’s just what happened this week, wasn’t it? The river came back, blocking access to the ruin. So you picked up Jake Tanner and took him back down into the jungle to get rid of it.”

  “He had to come out of his drug haze to do the job. He looked around and saw the other washed-up hunters we were using for labor. I realized that if he went back to the surface, he would start talking.”

  “So you made him one of the prisoners.”

  “We’re always short of labor underground,” Troy agreed. “In fact, I intended to pick up a few more burn-outs this week. I had plans to expand the business to the other city-states. But you’ve ruined all that.”

  “Why did you murder Jenner?”

  Troy shrugged. “I didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I was going to get rid of him after you fried him, but I never got the chance. He died from a stroke, just like the doctors said. I am, however, going to kill you.”

  “You want my job.”

  “Oh, yes,” Troy said. “I want your job. And I’m going to get it, too. The Council will be only too happy to give it to me when I prove to them that you were running the drug lab.”

  “Shooting me here in your office is going to be a little messy. Bound to raise a few questions, don’t you think?”

  “Self-defense. You threatened me because you knew I was going to report your drug operation to the Council.” Troy raised the mag-rez. “I had no choice.”

  Ultraviolet light flared, bathing Troy in waves of heavy psi. Shock etched his features. His hand clenched spasmodically on the grip of the mag-rez, but it was too late. The weapon’s sophisticated technology died under the impact of the energy beam. Simultaneously every light in the room crackled and winked out. The computer screen went dark.

  Fontana removed the ultragenerator from the pocket of his raincoat. He looked down at the unconscious man. “You were wrong. You did have a choice.”

  HE COMPLETED HIS SEARCH OF THE OFFICE A SHORT TIME later. There was one ultragenerator in the hidden floor safe. That made a total of five recovered. One was still missing.

  Chapter 33

  ELVIS WAS SITTING ON SIERRA’S DESK, ATTIRED IN HIS flower-patterned shirt, the small lei around his neck. Kay gave him an affectionate pat and then looked at Sierra.

  “Time is running out for tomorrow’s edition,” she said. “We can’t wait much longer for Fontana and Ray. We need to come up with a cover. Runtley says we should go back to basics.”

  Sierra eyed her warily. “Basics?”

  “Sex. We need a new angle on the jungle honeymoon.”

  “Forget it. You’ve run that angle into the ground.”

  “Come on,” Kay urged, “I’m just doing my job here while we wait for the big story. Fontana and
Ray have been gone for nearly two days. Who knows when they’ll get back? We need to fill space in tomorrow’s edition.”

  “Fontana promised that he and Ray would only be gone for forty-eight hours.”

  “It was an estimate. You know that. Something might have come up.”

  Sierra shuddered. “Don’t say that. I didn’t sleep at all last night.”

  Kay made a face. “Neither did I. Kept thinking about Ray down there in the rain forest, wondering if he was okay and what he was doing.”

  “You’re falling for him, aren’t you?”

  “What’s not to fall for? Not only is he hot, he doesn’t make a running joke out of my career as a journalist here at the Curtain. That makes him unique among men in my experience.”

  Elvis suddenly chortled and started to bounce around on the desk.

  The anxiety that had kept everything inside Sierra tight and tense for the past two days metamorphosed into shattering relief. She flattened both hands on her desk and pushed herself to her feet.

  “I think we’ve got our big story,” she said.

  She scooped up Elvis, plopped him on her shoulder, and headed for the door.

  “What’s going on?” Matt asked.

  “They’re back,” Sierra said.

  The door opened before Sierra got to it. Fontana walked in, dark hair damp and long, black raincoat swirling around the tops of his boots. He smiled a quick, triumphant smile when he saw her rushing toward him.

  “Got a story for you,” he said, opening his arms.

  “It’s about time you got back,” she said.

  She flung herself against his chest with such force that Elvis lost his grip. Momentum launched him forward. He landed nimbly on Fontana’s shoulder and began making happy, welcoming noises.

  Fontana’s arms closed fiercely around Sierra. She hugged him with all of her might.

  “I’ve been so worried,” she whispered into his wet raincoat.

  Ray moved through the doorway behind Fontana. He grinned at Kay.