Guild Boss (Ghost Hunters #14)(14)
“I appreciate the offer of a contract,” she said. “But if you feel you must begin the search for the thief this afternoon, you’ll have to find another channeler.”
“I want the best. I’ll wait.”
“Fine. Where do I meet you tomorrow?”
“I’ll pick you up in the morning.”
“No, I’ll meet you somewhere. GPS and the mapping programs don’t work in the Dark Zone. You’ll never be able to find my address.”
Gabriel gave her a slow, cold smile. “The first thing a new Guild boss does is become familiar with his territory. I know where you live.”
She tensed. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”
“No, it’s the truth. How do you think I found you today? I stopped by your apartment building. Your landlady told me you were working here.”
Lucy groaned. “Mrs. Briggs. Of course she told you where I was.”
Few people said no to a Guild boss.
“I’ll pick you up at five,” Gabriel said.
“Are you kidding? I told you, I’m going to a full Covenant Marriage engagement ball. I won’t be getting home until two or three in the morning.”
“Five a.m. if you want the job.”
She tapped one finger against the steering wheel. Okay, the bottom line was that she really, really wanted the job. Maybe there was a slim chance that she could somehow recover from the career disaster. It was a long shot, but at least it offered a spark of hope. She did not want to spend the rest of her days driving tourists around the Storm Zone. The only other alternative was going back to Resonance as a failure.
“All right, five o’clock,” she agreed.
She could slip out of the party early. No one would notice. She would get her gear together and maybe grab a few hours of sleep before Gabriel Jones showed up at the door.
In spite of her mood, she was aware of a little thrill of excitement. She was going back into the Underworld. The Ghost City was riddled with wild paranormal weather. She would have an opportunity to employ her talent for something more challenging than navigating the Storm Zone.
“I’ll have to notify Luxton, the owner of this operation, that I won’t be in tomorrow,” she said. “He won’t like it.”
“He didn’t raise any objections when I told him the Guild would be grateful if he would let me borrow you for a couple of days.”
Lucy sighed. “Of course he was delighted to do a favor for the new Guild boss. I should have known you’d already taken care of that hurdle. How much did you promise to pay him?”
“Let’s just say the Guild will compensate him for any loss of revenue.”
“Right. Well, for what it’s worth, my advice is to take a close look at the bill when he submits it. Luxton is very entrepreneurial.”
“Meaning he’ll inflate his invoice? Don’t worry, I factored that into my offer.”
“He won’t be the only one who will be happy to do business with the Guild. It’s no secret that the organization pays well, and everyone from the casino owners to the shopkeepers will jump at the chance to do a favor for the new Guild boss.”
“Things are changing in the Guilds,” Gabriel said.
“Yeah, I’ve heard that. Whatever. In this town, you pay to play. I’m sure the Guild will flourish here.”
The Ghost Hunters Guilds were supposedly in the process of being reformed by strong, professional management at the top, but the old ways and the old attitudes died hard.
A hundred years ago, the ghost hunter organizations had been founded to defend the colonists from Vincent Lee Vance and his followers. According to the history books, Vance had been a charismatic megalomaniac who had convinced himself and the cult he created that he was destined to rule the struggling colonies.
Vance had managed to build what amounted to a militia of people with various talents. His followers had waged a guerrilla war from the tunnels. One of the city-states fell within days. Disaster loomed.
In a desperate attempt to fight back, the ghost hunter organizations had been formed. The only viable weapons were the balls of unstable dissonance energy that floated randomly throughout the tunnels. They were called ghosts because they could appear anywhere in the Underworld. They were dangerous, potentially lethal. Those with the ability to manipulate the balls of seething paranormal fire were recruited to do battle with the rebels.
Vance and his minions had finally been defeated at the Last Battle of Cadence. His followers had surrendered but Vance and his lover had vanished into the tunnels. According to the legend, the pair had made a suicide pact but in the end they had died because they had blundered into a lethal energy trap. The period of violence was now known as the Era of Discord.
A hundred years ago the men of the Ghost Hunters Guilds had been hailed as heroes. But decades of operating what had proven to be a monopoly on security in the Underworld had reduced the Guilds’ social standing to a level that was just a step or two up from mob organizations.
But as it happened, Illusion Town was unique when it came to the social ladder. After all, the city had been founded by a consortium of individuals who operated in the shadows, and most of the big casinos were run by CEOs who occupied what could only be described as a gray zone when it came to respectability. In Illusion Town, that was the top of the social hierarchy.
It had been ever thus in communities that thrived on gambling, nightclubs, and racy entertainment. There had always been dangerous power brokers in Illusion Town. As the director of the new Guild territory, Gabriel Jones was now officially one of those power brokers. People would be tripping over their feet to do him a favor.