"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 modem 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 forest, 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."