Dark Light (34 page)

Never taking her eyes off the leather shoulder bag, she stepped back into the opening of a room directly behind her.

She heard Harlan's hard breathing and the soft thud of his shoes. Then the beam of ultraviolet appeared.

“You bitch,” Harlan gasped. “You crazy, interfering, stupid bitch of a woman.”

He came into view. He had the generator in one hand and a locater in the other. His attention was fixed on the locater's screen. If he looked up and to his right, he would see her standing in the doorway. But if he followed the locater, he would look to the left and see her purse on the floor just inside the chamber.

Harlan looked to the left.

She did not know what he was thinking at that moment, but it was obvious that he was winded and desperate. He was not paying attention to small details like faint shadows where there should not be any. Whatever the case, he was unable to resist the bait.

He went through the chamber doorway, triggering the trap. Sierra did not see anything; the energy released by the illusion snare was invisible to the naked eye. But Harlan stiffened violently as though he had stumbled into a ghost.

She knew that the sound of his horrified scream would follow her into her nightmares for a long time to come. She clamped her hands over her ears and continued to stare hard at her purse.

A few seconds later the high, keening wail of anguish ended abruptly. Harlan fell, unconscious, to the floor.

She waited a few tense seconds and then stepped over him to collect the handbag. She reached inside, took out the black and amber ring, and clutched it tightly in her fingers.

Then she started to shake.

A SHORT TIME LATER SHE WAS STILL ON HER FEET, WALKING
tensely back and forth in front of the chamber, hugging herself and concentrating on her breathing, when Elvis appeared.

He scuttled toward her down the glowing corridor, white cape flying. She heard the faint, familiar whine of a sled engine behind him. The vehicle rounded the corner a few seconds later. Fontana was at the wheel. Ray was in the passenger seat.

“Elvis.”
She swept him up into her arms and buried her face in his tatty fur. “I thought you guys would never get here.”

Fontana brought the sled to a stop, vaulted out, and came toward her with long, swift strides.

“Are you all right?” he demanded.

The harshness of his voice made her smile a little. She understood. This was the way it had been when they had fled into the rain forest, and he had forced himself to remain on his feet until he got her to safety. A successful Guild boss had to know how to clamp a mag-steel lid on his emotions so that he could prioritize.

“Yes.” She blinked back the tears of relief that filled her eyes. “I'm fine now that you're here.”

“You scared the living ghost light out of me,” he said. “Promise me you won't ever do anything like that again.”

“Wasn't planning to make a habit of it.”

He caught her in his arms and pulled her hard against him. Elvis, squashed between the two of them, squeaked in protest, wriggled free, and scurried up to sit on Sierra's shoulder. Satisfied that all was well, he preened his ruffled fur.

“I was so damned afraid,” Fontana said into her hair.

“How did you find Elvis?”

“He found us down here in the tunnels. We were all headed in the same direction. He must have some kind of psychic link with you.”

Ray prodded Harlan's body. “What happened to Ostendorf?”

She turned in the circle of Fontana's arm and looked down at Harlan. “I was running from him. He was using a locater to track me. I saw a shadow in a doorway and remembered what Fontana had told me about illusion traps. I had the ring in my purse.”

Fontana's hand tightened on her shoulder. “You threw your purse into that chamber to lure him inside, didn't you?”

“Yes.”

His jaw tensed. “You tossed away your only amber? Damn it, Sierra, if you had lost sight of it—”

“Take it easy,” Ray said to Fontana. “It's an old hunter trick, and you know it. Sure, it's risky, but it wasn't like she had another option, now, was it?”

Fontana pulled Sierra more snugly against his side. “No, it's not.”

Ray grinned. “Looks like the Crystal Guild has a brand-new legend, and the
Curtain
has another scoop.”

She knew what he meant. “The claustrophobia?”

“Must have been bad.”

They were on her apartment balcony overlooking the Green Gate Tavern, glasses of wine in hand. Elvis perched on the railing, munching on the remains of the pizza they had all shared earlier. He still wore his white cape and dark glasses.

Sierra drank some of her wine, thinking back to the sensations she had experienced that afternoon. “Running from Harlan's ultragenerator was certainly a distraction. But later, after he triggered the illusion trap, I couldn't seem to stop shaking. So I just kept walking up and down that hall past the chamber. I knew it wouldn't be long before you came for me. That's what I kept telling myself.” She paused. “That's how I got through it.”

“It was my fault. Should have figured out sooner that Ostendorf was involved.”

She rounded on him, outraged. “That's ridiculous. You moved amazingly fast as it was, taking down the drug operation and cornering Patterson within days of getting into the executive suite. Harlan Ostendorf covered his tracks well. It's amazing that you figured out what he was up to at all, let alone realized that he had kidnapped me today. I think you must have a pretty strong streak of intuition, yourself.”

“I should have understood immediately that he was the only one who could have known about the sector chart in the journal.”

“Listen up, Mr. Guild Boss. If you intend to make it in the business, you're going to have to learn when to beat yourself up over a perceived failure and when not to beat yourself up over one. What happened today was not your fault. Get over it.”

He went still for a moment. Then his mouth twitched.

“Maybe you've got a future as an executive career coach,” he said.

She wrinkled her nose. “No, that wouldn't be any fun. I've met a few executives, and let me tell you, none of them take direction well. You're a perfect example.”

“You're probably right. Stick to the do-gooder gig.” He rested both forearms on the railing, wineglass cradled between his hands. “It's definitely your forte.”

“What about the six ultragenerators that you recovered?”

“They are going straight into the vault at the research lab.”

The old, familiar irritation spiked within her. “In other words, they have become official, classified Guild secrets.”

“Damn straight. What's more, if I see so much as a word about those generators on the front page of the
Curtain
, I am going to be one very pissed-off Guild boss.”

“I've got four words for you. Freedom. Of. The. Press.”

“Trust me, you do not want news of those weapons getting out to the general public,” he said quietly.

“Is that right? And just what, exactly, are the lab people going to do with them?”

“Deactivate them.”

She blinked. “Really?”

“It's already been done. I oversaw the process this afternoon.”

That stopped her cold. “Good heavens.
How?
”

“Turns out dissonance energy is still dissonance energy, no matter where it comes from on the spectrum or how it's generated. The old rule still applies.”

“What old rule?”

“Takes a ghost to kill a ghost.”

“I don't understand.”

“Remember how I was able to punch a hole through that beam when we ran the Rider ambush?”

“Of course.”

“It gave me the idea that maybe an ultragenerator could be burned out if it was confronted with too much ghost light. So I called in all of the Council members as witnesses. We put the generators into a quartz-walled chamber underground and arranged them so that the beams would collide with each other. Then we activated them and ran like hell.”

“Oh, my gosh.”

“There was an impressive explosion.” Fontana smiled. “But afterward we were left with half-a-dozen burned-out generators. As far as the lab techs can determine, the mechanisms were thoroughly and permanently fried. Useless.”

She thought about that. “You know, since the story has a happy ending, it really would make a terrific scoop for the
Curtain
.”

“No.”

“Fontana, if you intend to move the Crystal Guild into the mainstream, you're going to have to get past this obsession with secrecy.”

“No,” he repeated.

“You do realize,” she said coolly, “that there will be more dangerous artifacts coming out of the rain forest as time goes on?”

“We'll worry about it when it happens.”

“The Guilds won't be able to keep all of them secret.”

“We'll see.”

“Fontana—”

“You know, it's been a long day. Would you mind very much if we put off arguing about Guild secrets until some future date?”

“Oh, all right. But don't think I'm going to just up and forget about this.”

“Never crossed my mind.”

For a time they did not speak. The silence between them grew, but it was not tense or awkward, Sierra thought. It felt good to stand here with Fontana, sharing the night with him. They drank their wine. Elvis got down off the railing and helped himself to another slice of pizza.

After a while, Fontana stirred a little.

“This afternoon Kay told me that Ostendorf got you to go out to the limo by telling you that I had invited you to meet me at the Amber Club,” he said.

“Mmm-hmm.”

“She said she was sure that I was going to propose a Covenant Marriage over lunch.”

“Kay's a bit of a romantic.”

“She was wrong about me planning to propose over lunch.”

Sierra looked at the Green Gate sign. “I know.”

“Nobody proposes a Covenant Marriage on his lunch hour.”

“That's what Matt said.”

“You're supposed to propose CMs over dinner,” Fontana explained very seriously. “Every guy knows that.”

“Right. Dinner.”

“So,” Fontana said, “since we just finished dinner, will you consider entering into a Covenant Marriage with me?”

She felt as if she had just fallen off the balcony. Weightless. Dazed. Disoriented.

“What?” she yelped.

“Not exactly the response I was hoping for.”

“Are you serious?” she demanded.

“Maybe I should tell you another little secret. Men never joke about Covenant Marriage.”

“Neither do women. What is going on here? We've only known each other a few days, and it was a business arrangement from the start.”

“Not quite.”

She drew a breath, thinking of the passion they had shared. “Okay, not quite.”

“I knew I wanted you forever the day you walked into my office. I've been waiting for you all of my life.”

“Oh, Fontana,” she said softly.

“If you need more time, I'll understand. Traditionally, there's a long engagement before a Covenant Marriage. We can have one of those if you like. But it won't change anything for me.”

The strange, off-balance sensation evaporated. A wonderful sense of certainty took its place.

“I felt the same way about you the day I walked into your office,” she said. “The moment I saw you, my intuition kicked in. I knew you were the one.”

He set the glass aside and cradled her face in his powerful hands. “I love you, Sierra.”

She smiled, gloriously sure. “I love you.”

“Guess this means I'll be going to your grandparents' anniversary party.”

“It looks that way, yes. Think you can handle it?”

“I'm a Guild boss.”

“You can handle anything.”

He laughed. “As long as I've got you.”

He kissed her then, sealing the promise. After a while they went into the apartment and down the hall to the bedroom.

The energy of love flashed and flared and sparked in the night.

 

 

OUT ON THE BALCONY ELVIS TOOK UP A POSITION ON
the table beside the empty pizza box. His white cape glittered in the angled beam of light that shone from the living room behind him. He waited.

It didn't take long for his audience to appear. The dust bunnies materialized out of the fog by the dozens, lining the balcony railing and crowding the prime front row seats, the chairs and the lounger.

Elvis picked up his guitar. Time to rock 'n rez.

TURN THE PAGE FOR A LOOK AT

An Arcane Society Novel
by Jayne Ann Krentz

 

MARTIN WAS GOING TO KILL HER.

She stepped off the gangway and onto the sleek, twin-engine cabin cruiser, wondering why the cold despair was hitting her so hard. If there was one thing you learned fast when you were raised by the state, it was that ultimately you could depend only on yourself. The foster home system and the streets were the ultimate universities, awarding harsh degrees in the most basic kind of entrepreneurship. When you were on your own in the world, the laws of survival were simple. She had learned them well.