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possible.

They had set up two forms of marriage. Covenant Marriages were formal and intended to be permanent. Getting out of a CM was a legal and financial nightmare. If there were children involved, it was impossible to dissolve the contract until all of the offspring were eighteen years of age.

The second form of marriage, the kind Jenner had favored, was known as a Marriage of Convenience. They were arrangements that, while offering all the legal protections of marriage, could be dissolved in a heartbeat by either party, unless there were offspring. The birth of a child immediately transformed an MC into a formal Covenant Marriage.

The Founders had done their best, but all the legal and social engineering in the world could not prevent the occasional birth of someone like himself, Fontana thought. A bastard.

'We believe that Jenner terminated his last marriage because he didn't think he could count on his wife to defend him if there was a challenge,' Fontana said.

Sierra's eyes narrowed faintly. 'There was gossip to the effect that he had abused her.'

'As I recall, that gossip appeared only in the Curtain. One of your pieces, I believe.'

She shrugged. 'It was no secret.'

'Actually, it was. No one on the Council was aware of the abuse until the story ran in your paper.'

'Talk about willful ignorance. The former Mrs. Jenner spent several days recovering in a private hospital after her husband lost his temper and beat her up the last time. Evidently it was the final straw for her. She wanted to warn other women about him. That's why she agreed to talk to me.'

He shook his head, straightened away from the desk, and went back to the window. 'You're amazing, Miss McIntyre. How the devil did you find Alison in that private clinic? We all believed that she'd gone off to spend a week at a spa in Resonance City. The next thing anyone knew, she had filed for divorce and disappeared.'

'As a matter of fact, she contacted me.'

'Probably because she knew you would be willing to print the story. I doubt if any other paper in town would have touched it.'

'Probably. Why were you the one chosen to go against Jenner in a ghost duel?'

He deliberated a few seconds, deciding how much to say. In the end he compromised. 'Jenner was no ordinary hunter. He was extremely powerful. Everyone knew that there was no one else on the Council who stood a chance against him.'

'Except you.'

'Except me,' he agreed quietly.

'What makes you so special?'

'It's complicated.'

'In other words, you're not going to tell me.'

'No,' he said.

'Just another Guild secret?'

'Yes.'

'You know, one of these days, someone really ought to introduce the concept of democracy to you guys. It's this really cool way of running things. You get to elect your leaders.'

He smiled. 'Sounds inefficient.'

'It's messy, but it works, and it sure beats dueling with ghost light. Never mind, let's get back to Jenner. You said you didn't kill him?'

'I won the duel, but Jenner didn't die because of his injuries. He was temporarily brain-fried, but he would have recovered.' He paused. 'Although his para-rez talents would never have been as strong as they were before the duel.' In fact, they would have been nonexistent, but he saw no reason to elaborate.

'In other words, you really burned him.'

He said nothing. The duel had been a hellish business that had almost cost him his life. Jenner had not only been a strong para-resonator, he'd worked deadly blue light, not regular green ghost energy. But there was no way to explain that to Sierra. The very existence of psi energy from the blue end of the spectrum was, like so many other things, a deep Guild secret.

There was a small scurrying motion at his feet. He looked down and saw Elvis. The dust bunny hopped up onto the windowsill, cape flying.

'Who got to Jenner?' Sierra demanded.

He looked at her over his shoulder. 'We don't know. But the fact that someone took the risk of murdering a former Guild boss told us that the conspiracy was a bigger problem than we had assumed.'

'How much of a risk was there? He was a. former boss, after all.'

'Jenner still had his secrets. I wanted them.'

'Wait a second, you think his fellow conspirators murdered him in order to keep him from betraying them?'

'Yes.'

'Any idea who those folks might be?' she asked quickly.

'I have a hunch about one of them, but there may be more. At the moment I can't prove a damn thing.'

'What about you?' she asked. 'Is your position as the new Guild boss somewhat, uh, untenable, too?'

'I think it's unlikely that I'll get hit by a truck this afternoon, if that's what you mean.'

'Why not?'

He turned to face her. 'This isn't the first time there's been a problem deep inside one of the Guilds.'

'Imagine that.'

The sarcasm was starting to irritate him, but he told himself he was big enough to overlook it, at least for the moment.

'There are procedures in place to deal with this kind of thing,' he said. 'Given the power a Guild commander wields, the potential for misuse of that power is always present. The leaders of the organizations recognized that fact from the beginning. That's why the Chamber was established.'

Chamber was short for the far more unwieldy Chamber of the Joint Council of Dissonance Energy Para-resonator Guilds, the overarching governing organization of the Guilds.

'I'm well aware of the existence of the Chamber, but everyone knows that the Guilds function autonomously.'

Sierra said. 'Individual chiefs respect each other's territory.'

'That's true unless a problem arises that might impact the safety and well-being of the city for which a particular Guild is responsible. I know you don't appreciate the role of the Guilds in society, Miss McIntyre, but the truth is, their main job is to protect you and everyone else, not only from the natural hazards underground but from would-be tyrants like Vincent Lee Vance.'

She blew that off with a wave of her hand. 'I did my time in fourth grade, just like everyone else. Trust me, I know that decades ago ghost hunters saved the city-states from Vance and his followers. The Guilds aren't likely to ever let us forget it. I'm also aware of the old saying that the Guilds police their own. But I certainly didn't know that the Chamber sometimes gets involved when there's trouble in one of the organizations.'

'For the most part, individual Guilds are expected to take care of their own problems. But when that doesn't work, the Chamber steps in.'

'How?' She sounded skeptical.

'The Chamber maintains an investigative office.' He clasped his hands behind his back. 'Officially it's called the Bureau of Internal Affairs, but unofficially it's just known as the Bureau.'

'Why haven't I ever heard of this Bureau?'

'Probably because the Chamber prefers to keep quiet about it.'

'Right. Yet another Guild secret. So why are you telling me this?'

'Because I think I can trust you, Miss McIntyre. And because I need your help. Forty-eight hours ago I met with the other Guild chiefs in a secret emergency session of the Chamber. I explained what was going on here in Crystal and how I planned to clean up the mess. They offered backup and assistance if I need it, but everyone would prefer that I take care of the problem on my own as quietly as possible.'