Sierra grabbed Elvis in both hands and clutched him tight. Elvis wriggled in annoyance, but she did not release him.
Fontana looked at the two men. "We won't be staying long. If you're smart, you'll sit down, finish your beers, and leave us alone."
The man who was trying to get into position behind Fontana grinned, showing off his really bad teeth again.
"We can always drink beer. Right now, the lady looks like more fun. Ain't that right, Joe?"
"She sure does" Joe agreed. "I'll get her out of the way. Don't want her to get fried when you take care of the suit."
He reached for Sierra's arm. Elvis snarled, showing his own impressive array of teeth. Unlike those of the hunters, his were in excellent condition. Joe retracted his arm instantly, reddening with anger.
"I'll wring its neck," he vowed, retreating to a safe distance.
"This is not a good idea," Fontana said, his voice calm and just slightly edged with irritation.
"Sure isn't a good idea for you," Joe agreed.
Acid-green fire pulsed. Two ghosts coalesced rapidly out of the heavy alien psi that permeated the atmosphere of the tavern, one in front of Fontana and one behind him.
More energy swirled in the shadowy space. A rippling, whirling, churning river of energy the color of midnight rapidly took shape. It formed a barely visible whirlpool that shimmered fiercely in the gloom. The nearest green ghost was sucked into it and vanished The second one quickly disappeared as well.
The two hunters were still trying to adjust to the realization that their ghosts had ceased to exist when Chuck realized that the dark waves of psi were headed toward him.
He screamed and ran toward the front door. The dark light pursued, brushing him ever so gently. He collapsed to the floor, unconscious.
The river of night turned toward Joe.
"No." Joe threw up both hands in a useless attempt to ward off the dark energy. "No."
But his back was to the bar. There was nowhere to run. The black wave touched him lightly. He jerked like a puppet on a string and then sprawled on the floor.
The darkness vanished. Fontana looked at the bartender, who seemed to have been flash-frozen.
"Will there be any further objections to our presence in your establishment?" Fontana asked politely.
The man shook his head. "Nope. You're the new Guild boss, aren't you?"
"Yes."
The bartender nodded. "Thought so. Saw your picture in the Curtain this morning. Chuck and Joe, they don't read the papers. They gonna be all right, or do I have to dump 'em into the catacombs?"
"They'll wake up in a couple of hours," Fontana said. "But they may not be feeling perky."
"Not my problem. That was dark light you zapped 'em with, wasn't it?"
"You're a former Guild man, aren't you?" Fontana asked.
"Damn straight."
"Then you know that officially speaking, there is no other kind of dissonance energy except green light."
"Right. Understood. Can I get you a beer?"
"No, thanks," Fontana said. "We won't be staying long."
He drew Sierra past Joe's still form. She was shivering with reaction to the violence. Adrenaline, she thought. Elvis, however, was fully fluffed again. Only his daylight eyes were visible in his tatty fur.
Hank was still in the booth at the rear, looking bleary-eyed and a little stunned. Both of his hands were wrapped around a bottle of Green Ruin.
Sensing the panic that was only partially dulled by the alcohol, Sierra spoke gently.
"Hank?" She slid into the booth across from him. "Are you all right? I've been very worried about you."
"What are you doing here?" Hank asked, but his attention was riveted on Fontana. "That was dark light, wasn't it?"
Fontana sat down beside Sierra. "Name's Fontana."
"Yeah, I recognized you even before you used the dark psi. You're the new Guild boss. What do you want from me? I'm retired."
"Information is what we want from you," Fontana said.
Hank's gaze went to the two men on the floor. "I don't know anything."
"We know that Jake disappeared," Sierra said.
Hank licked his lips and drew a shaky breath. "This is about what happened to Jake?"
"Yes," she said. "You saw what happened to him, didn't you?"
"I was sleeping off a lot of booze." Hank rubbed the back of one hand across his mouth. "I don't know what I saw."
"Please tell us, Hank," she said.
Hank sank in on himself, looking a lot older. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Elvis fluttered down from Sierra's shoulder. He bobbed and weaved across the table and stood up on his hind legs in front of Hank.
Some of Hank's tension seemed to ease. "Hey, there, little buddy. How you doin'?" He patted Elvis.
Elvis chortled a greeting. Hank seemed to relax a little.
"Tell us what happened to Jake Tanner," Fontana ordered quietly.
Hank tightened his grip on the bottle. "If I tell you what I saw last night, you'll figure that I've been fried." He took a gulp of Green Ruin and lowered the bottle. "I'm tellin' you right now, I'm not goin' to no hospital. I'd rather go down into the tunnels and start walking without amber."
In other words, he would rather commit suicide, Sierra thought. She reached out to touch his arm.
"No one's going to force you into a hospital, Hank," she said. "Please tell us what happened to Jake. You saw something, didn't you?"
Hank fixed her with a grim, haunted look. "You want to know what happened to Jake? The aliens got him, that's what happened."
Chapter 16
FONTANA FOLLOWED HER BACK TO HER APARTMENT BECAUSE it was closer and because they needed a place where they could talk privately.
"Okay, let's see what we've got," she said, dropping her purse and coat on the hall table.
He followed her into the kitchen. Elvis was already there. He had taken up a position in front of the refrigerator.
"We've got nothing except the Green Ruin fantasies of a burnout," Fontana said. He lounged against the counter, folded his arms, and watched her open the refrigerator. "Fish-headed creatures operating a giant beam of ultraviolet energy."
"Hank saw something." She removed a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter from the refrigerator. "I agree his recollections are garbled because of the booze, but whatever he saw scared the heck out of him last night."
"Aliens." Fontana grimaced.
"He was very clear about the fact that the ultraviolet light didn't pulse and flare the same way that green ghost energy does. He said it was steady, the way a flashlight beam is steady until you move the flashlight."
"Dissonance energy is highly unstable. It always pulses and flares." Fontana paused. "Maybe what he saw wasn't diss light."
"He said he could feel it, remember? He was sure it was dissonance energy, just not the usual kind." She spread peanut butter on two slices of bread. "Hank may be a burnout, but he worked the tunnels for a lot of years. He knows ghost energy."
"You believe he was telling us the truth?"
"Absolutely. At least he was telling us what he believes to be the truth."
Fontana rubbed his jaw, eyes narrowing. "I've never heard of ultraviolet psi light."
She put the lid back on the peanut butter jar and took a plump, yellow banana out of the basket. "Until I met you, I never knew there was such a thing as dark light."
"That's because you're a civilian," he said. "There are a lot of things civilians don't know about what goes on underground."
She gave him her steely smile and started to peel the banana. "That's because the Guilds like to keep secrets. Well, here's the thing about secrets, Mr. Guild Boss. You can't keep them forever. Sooner or later, there's always a leak."
"And there's only one surefire way of taking care of that kind of leak."