He looked up from the piece she had written on him, his expression politely neutral. "You seem to think that, on their good days, ghost hunters are just a bunch of overpaid bodyguards. On our off days we're flat-out criminals."

"I never wrote that you were all criminals," she said quickly. Ivor Runtley, publisher and editor of the Curtain, had made it clear that, while he was willing to allow her a lot of leeway, he definitely did not want her bringing the full wrath of the new Guild boss down on his beloved paper.

Fontana tossed the paper aside. "Okay, I'll concede that you did not actually use the word criminal. But it's obvious that you don't think highly of those in my profession."

"I believe that the Guilds have far too much power when it comes to what goes on underground. A great deal of power in the hands of any one organization is always dangerous."

"Do you really think it would be a good idea to strip the Guilds of their authority underground?" he asked.

"I'm not saying that some control and organization isn't necessary. Everyone knows that people with your sort of talents are necessary for safe exploration."

"My sort of talents?" he asked softly. "What do you know about my talents?"

"You're obviously a hunter, a powerful one, I'm sure. You wouldn't have made it to the top of the Guild unless you were a very strong dissonance energy para-rez talent." She paused. "Of some kind."

She tacked on that last line very deliberately. Historically, the Guilds had always maintained that there was only one sort of hunter talent: the ability to work green ghost light. But in the course of her new career as an investigative reporter, she had picked up some very interesting rumors hinting that some hunters could work other kinds of alien psi, specifically silver and blue light. If it was true that there were some exotic hunter talents, it was yet another secret that the Guilds were keeping. She doubted very much that she could trick Fontana into admitting it, but it had been worth a shot.