Dark Light

Chapter 10

HIS NAME WAS HANK, AND HE HAD BEEN LIVING ON THE streets in the old Quarter for nearly a year. Before that he had spent nearly two decades as a Guild man working underground until he'd been ghost-fried so bad he'd been forced to retire. He had seen a lot of weird things in his time but never anything like the four-foot-wide beam of ultraviolet energy sweeping slowly down the alley.

The beam appeared impenetrable at first, but as it got closer, he could see shadowy shapes moving about on the other side. It was impossible to make them out clearly, but he thought he caught glimpses of dark figures that resembled two-legged, fishlike beings with bulbous heads.

He crouched behind the large metal trash container, knowing it would provide no protection from the moving beam. Dissonance energy crackled invisibly in the atmosphere, a lot of it. His para-rez senses had been dulled by a steady diet of Green Ruin for a long time now, but the hunter in him could still recognize alien psi when it was this heavy. It was ghost energy but not like any he had ever encountered down in the tunnels. For one thing, it was the wrong color. For another, it was too well-controlled. No hunter could shape and focus ghost light that cleanly. The stuff usually flared and flashed in violent waves, no matter how good you were at handling it.

He should be on his feet, running for his life. Hunters had some natural immunity to green ghost light, but he was sure that no one could survive a brush with this ultraviolet monster. Nevertheless, some instinct warned him that his only chance was to remain concealed behind the trash container.

The beam halted a short distance away near the doorway where Jake Tanner had his crib. There was no sound from Jake. The guy was probably lost in a juice dream.

The fish-headed shadows on the other side of the wall of energy moved about with a purposeful air. He couldn't see what they were doing. But after a few seconds, the wide beam of ultraviolet shifted.

He figured there was some important stuff a man ought to think about at a time like this, but he couldn't seem to recall anything he really wanted to dwell on in his last moments. He'd said his good-byes to the real world and his life when he'd crawled into the endless bottles of Green Ruin.

Might as well go out on a rush of heavy diss light. Probably as good a way to die as any.

But the energy beam was no longer moving toward him. Instead, it retreated swiftly back toward the opposite end of the alley. After a moment it suddenly vanished, as if someone had rezzed a switch to turn off a flashlight.

Hank realized his heart was pounding harder than it had the time he'd encountered his first big ghost down in the tunnels. He started to reach for another bottle of Green Ruin with shaking fingers and then hesitated.

After a moment he made himself get to his feet. He didn't want to do this, but Jake had been the closest thing he'd had to a friend since he'd discovered the magic of Green Ruin.

He picked up his flashlight, switched it on, and made his way toward Jake's crib. He wasn't surprised by what he found. Some part of him had known that the bedroll would be empty.

The bastards had taken Jake.