Ghost Hunter

Chapter 4

SHE GAVE HIM A QUICK, STARTLED LOOK AND THEN, evidently choosing to let the remark go, she slipped into the front seat. She moved quickly and gracefully, but he nevertheless got a tantalizing glimpse of the inside of one softly rounded thigh. He felt his blood heat. Definitely a dangerous neighborhood.

He went to the other side of the car, got in beside her, and rezzed the ignition. Flash rock melted, and the powerful engine purred. He pulled slowly, sedately away from the curb. "What's the address of your friend's place?" he asked.

"Number Twenty-six Ruin Lane. Not far from my shop. Turn right at the next corner."

Rose hopped from Elly's shoulder onto the back of the seat and sat up to take in the view of the night-shrouded streets.

Cooper drove to the corner and turned down another narrow street lined with the dark, gloomy, old-fashioned buildings the First Generation colonists had erected two hundred years earlier.

The newer sections of Cadence were optimistic and energetic in style. But here in the Old Quarter, the structures fashioned by the settlers reflected a grim determination to survive. The buildings hunkered down like gargoyles, creating a maze of narrow streets, crooked lanes, and dark alleys. Atmospheric was about the only positive word that could be used to describe this part of town.

The dark, brooding structures of the Old Quarter stood in stark contrast to the elegant, airy, alien towers and spires that rose inside the massive green quartz walls. Cadence, like the other three major city-states on Harmony, had been established around the ruins of one of the four major ancient dead cities that had been discovered shortly after colonization. Although the mysterious aliens who had originally settled the planet had vanished thousands of years ago, their strangely ethereal urban landscape and the dangerous labyrinth of underground tunnels they had built defied time and the elements. Cooper sometimes wondered if the human cities would last as long.

On the other side of the car Elly cleared her throat.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"Why wouldn't I be okay?"

"Just wondering," she said a little too lightly. "That was a very tightly wound ghost you used against that mugger."

It hit him that this was the first time she had actually seen him work ghost energy. He tightened his grip on the wheel.

"What's the matter? Are you afraid I'm going to turn into a raging sex fiend?" he asked politely. "Don't worry. I usually save that for a full moon."

She wrapped her arms very tightly around herself and angled her chin. "Don't be ridiculous."

"Look, Elly, I'm sure you're well aware that every hunter rezzes ghost light a little differently. No two do it quite the same way. My patterns have always been complex. It's the way my psi energy resonates." He didn't even pause as he gave his standard explanation. He'd been using the line for years, ever since it had become obvious in his teens that his para-senses were not the same as those of other hunters. "Doesn't mean I exerted an unusual amount of power. I didn't melt amber."

"Right." She shot him a quick, assessing look and then turned back to stare fixedly ahead at the street scene. "Nevertheless, everyone knows that working a ghost, even a small one, has a certain, uh, pronounced effect on a hunter. Turn left here."

The conversation was going downhill fast. "Don't tell me that you actually believe all that garbage about ghost hunters becoming sex-crazed after they work ghost light."

"No offense, but I've got three brothers, remember? They can't wait to find a date after a day spent working ghost light down in the catacombs."

"Most guys your brothers' ages, ghost hunters, or not, are seriously interested in sex. Goes with the territory of being male."

To his surprise, her mouth curved a little at that. "But men like you who are older and wiser are no longer at the mercy of their hormones, is that it?"

Was she teasing him? "Relax, I'm no more of a threat to your virtue now than I was before I rezzed that damned ghost back there in the alley."

"I see," she said, perfectly neutral.

That hadn't come out quite right, he reflected. The unfortunate fact was that he was semiaroused, and she had obviously sensed it. What she did not know was that the ghost work had little to do with his current condition. He'd been feeling this way since she'd walked into the Trap Door.

"Look, I'm not saying that summoning ghosts doesn't have some side effects," he plowed on, going for reasonable. "But as you get older, you learn how to handle the rush. I'm not going to throw you over my shoulder and haul you off to the nearest bed."

She tilted her head slightly. "You're starting to sound a little testy. That's part of the syndrome."

"Testy?"

"Short tempered, irritable. You know, testy. I've noticed that ghost hunters often get that way after they've fried a ghost."

"Is that so?" he said, very polite, but through his teeth.

"If they don't get rid of the adrenaline overload in some other way, that is. When they can't get a date, my brothers go to the gym, instead."

"You really know how to rez a man's amber, don't you?"

"Like I said, three brothers. I've had oodles of experience."

He got a cold feeling. No doubt about it, leaving her alone here in Cadence for the past six months was proving to be one of the biggest miscalculations of his life. He didn't make many mistakes, but when he made them, they tended to really resonate.

"What have you been doing for fun here in Cadence?" he asked, determined to change the subject.

"I've been pretty busy." She patted Rose again. "You'd be amazed at how much work it takes to open up a small business and get it running at a profit."

"As a matter of fact, I'm not the least bit surprised," he said, putting a not-so-subtle emphasis into the words. "I run the Aurora Springs Guild, remember? It's a very big business. Requires even more work and time than a small business."

"Forget it, that logic isn't going to fly with me. There's a vast difference between being interested in your work and being obsessed with it."

"And you know where that line is?"

"Yes, I do." She paused deliberately. "You know, in hindsight, you owe me, big time."

"How do you figure that?"

"What if we had actually gone through with a Covenant Marriage? Just think how miserable you would have been by now. I'd be nagging you, rezzing your amber, as you put it, constantly, day in and day out. To escape, you'd be spending even more time at the office. What were you thinking, anyway, going straight for a full Covenant? If we were going to try any kind of relationship at all, we should have gone for a limited Marriage of Convenience."

"Thought I knew what I was doing," he said.

The marriage laws had been relaxed slightly in the past two centuries, Cooper reflected, but not a whole lot. The rigid rules had made sense two hundred years ago when the colonists had found themselves abandoned on Harmony.

The settlers' primary goal in those dangerous early years had been to establish a strong, cohesive social fabric. The personal happiness of individuals had been a distant second. The social scientists, philosophers, and elected leaders had known that the basic building block of any society was the family. They had concluded that if the small, fragile colonies were to stand any chance at all of survival, the social structure had to be founded on strong family units.

The desperate, determined Founders had drawn up a Constitution and a series of laws designed to ensure that families remained intact, regardless of the price that had to be paid. Hence, the institution of the Covenant Marriage, a bond which, generally speaking, could be severed only by death or an act of the Federation Council.

But the Founders had also understood the need to provide an alternative for those who were not ready to take the big leap. The Marriage of Convenience was a legally recognized arrangement that had to be renewed regularly by both parties involved. It could be terminated at any point. There were pitfalls, however. Couples had to be particularly careful about birth control. The arrival of a baby automatically converted the short-term status of a Marriage of Convenience to that of a permanent Covenant Marriage.

Families encouraged their offspring to experiment with MCs while they were young and more at risk of being swept away by the glittering lures of romance, passion, and plain, old-fashioned lust.

Covenant Marriages were supposed to be carefully thought out business and social arrangements reserved for those who were more mature and ready to settle down.

Guys like him, Cooper thought. He'd had it all so carefully planned.

"Well, don't blame yourself too much." She patted his shoulder in much the same way that she had just patted Rose. "After all, I accepted your proposal. I thought I knew what I was doing, too. And Guild tradition is a powerful force. Guess we both had a narrow escape."

"Guess so." Conjugal relations was the last subject he wanted to think about just now. But he couldn't seem to move on. "You ever tried an MC?"

"Who? Me? Nope. Left at the next corner."

"Why not?" he asked, unable to stop himself.

"Let's just say that an MC is easier said than done in a small town where everyone knows that you're the daughter of one of the members of the Guild Council. I always had to worry about the real motives of the men who showed an interest in any sort of arrangement with me, short- or long-term."

"Men like Palmer Frazier, do you mean?"

"I think we'd better avoid the topic of Palmer Frazier." She paused. "What about you? Ever been in an MC?"

"No."

"Why not? Too busy working your way up through the Guild?"

He moved one hand slightly on the wheel. "That was one of the reasons."

"Are there any others?"

"None that I'm prepared to discuss tonight."

"Oh." She sounded chagrined. "I don't have the right to ask those sorts of personal questions, do I? Turn right."

He followed directions obediently. There was no reason to mention that he already knew how to get to Ruin Lane because he had cruised past St. Clair's Herbal Emporium earlier today, immediately after he had arrived in town.

As was the case with all of the other major city-states, Cadence had grown rapidly, pushing out into the surrounding countryside. Predictably, the Old Quarters had been treated with benign neglect. Over the years many of the neighborhoods near the great walls had became home to the down-and-out and those who lived on the margins of society, as well as a varied selection of nightclubs, bars, and taverns.

But due to their close proximity to the ancient alien metropolises, the Old Quarters all possessed one strong, vibrant, economic underpinning that kept them from sliding into complete decay: a lively trade in alien antiquities, both real and fake.

Interspersed with the cheap apartment houses, dives, and forlorn storefronts here in the cramped streets of Cadence's colonial neighborhoods, Cooper saw small shops purporting to offer relics from the Dead City and the Early Colonial era:

When he had made quiet inquiries a few months back to assure himself that Elly was not living in a dangerous neighborhood, he had been told that her shop was in one of the newer, recently gentrified sections of the Old Quarter. Today when he had driven slowly down Ruin Lane, he had been relieved to find out that his information had been solid.

True, the area wasn't as neat and tidy as the street where she had lived back in Aurora Springs, but he didn't see conventions of drug dealers, cop cars, and prostitutes on the corners, either.

"There's Bertha's shop," Elly stated. "Go around the corner. We'll park in the alley."

"I seem to be spending a lot of time in alleys tonight."

"They're considered a scenic attraction here in the Old Quarter. Very atmospheric."

He eased the Spectrum slowly into the narrow service lane behind Newell's Relics, parked, and climbed out. The fog was getting thicker, he noticed.

Elly, with Rose on her shoulder, emerged from the front seat before he could get around to the passenger side.

She removed a key from the depths of her tote and went quickly toward the rear door of Newell's Relics.

"Hang on a second," he said quietly. "I want to be sure the Spectrum is still here when we come back."

He sent out a little pulse of psi power through his amber, using it to grab some of the ambient energy drifting through the night. Concentrating briefly, he formed a tiny ghost and anchored it to the rear license plate of the Spectrum. The little UDEM flared to life, illuminating the plate in a faint, green glow.

"That should do it," Elly said dryly. "Can't imagine anyone dumb enough to steal that car now."

He shrugged. "In my experience, it's excellent insurance against grand theft auto."

Okay, so it was a little flashy, he conceded silently. Very few dissonance-energy para-rezzes were strong enough to anchor a ghost, even a small one, outside the catacombs. But replacing the Spectrum would be both expensive and inconvenient. The little UDEM sent an unmistakable message: Touch this car, and the owner will hunt you down and fry your brains.

Elly opened the door of the darkened shop and switched on the lights.

He followed her inside and found himself in a back room filled with small green quartz artifacts. There was nothing that looked particularly valuable, as far as he could see. Most of the relics were the sort of simple tomb mirrors, undistinguished urns, and unexceptional vases that were found in low-end antiquities shops in every Old Quarter.

"Where's her rat hole?" he asked.

"Same place mine is, in the cellar. Stairs are over there."

"You've got an entrance to the catacombs beneath your shop?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes. Pretty cool, huh? Doesn't do me much good, of course, but I let my friend Doreen use it. She takes me down with her sometimes."

"Who's Doreen?"

"She's another ruin rat. A tangler. Very fashionable. She went shopping with me shortly after I arrived and helped me pick out a new wardrobe."

"I did notice the new clothes," he said neutrally.

"Doreen has a shop and apartment directly across the street from mine."

"I see."

He followed her down a cramped flight of steps into the depths of a damp, dark cellar.

"You know, this isn't how I had planned to spend my first night in the big city," he remarked.

"That's the trouble with you Guild bosses, you're not spontaneous," she said.