Prisoner of Glass by Mark Jeffrey Read Free Book Online Page A

amongst the twisting gnarled boughs of the trees.   In fact, it was another prisoner who first attempted a conversation with her.  
    “Hey,” said a skinny, soft-spoken man with furry sideburns.   He spoke with a thick French accent.   “Over here.   What’s your name?”
    “Elspeth,” she said under her breath, still wary.   “Elspeth Lune.   Fifteen fifteen.   You?”
    At the mention of fifteen fifteen , the skinny man flinched.   “Huh.   Nobody’s been in fifteen fifteen for a long time.   Daniel Ogden.   Twenty-Five Eleven.”
    “Twenty five?   So you’re the near the top, then?”
    Daniel nodded.   “Not exactly.   The numbers don’t all go in order.”
    “So I don’t suppose you know what this place is or what’s going on?” Elspeth said.  
    Daniel shrugged.   “I’ve only been here a month.   But you know what I’ve noticed?”
    “What’s that?”
    “ No bees .   There’s no bees in this garden place.   How does anything here get pollinated?”
    She nodded.   He was right.   One more impossible thing to add to the file.
    “All this … it’s one big biology experiment,” Daniel concluded.   “All this food — it grows really fast, and in the worst conditions.   No bees, no water, no sunlight — but it all grows anyway.   So I think it’s like, genetically modified.   Superfood.”
    Elspeth nodded.   Well, it was a little crazy of a theory.   But she was willing to entertain anything at this point.
    “Do you mean the whole Glass Prison is an experiment?”   Daniel scrunched up his face in non-comprehension at the name.   “There was writing on the wall in my cell,” Elspeth explained, lowering her eyes and voice now as a guard loomed near.   “It called this place — all of it — the Glass Prison.   Does that mean anything to you?”
    Daniel shook his head.   “No.   Never heard it called a Glass Prison.   But it would fit my theory — you know, all of this is just a big petri dish.”  
    “Rats in a maze,” Elspeth said.   “And we’re the rats.”
    “More like the space monkeys,” Daniel corrected.   “We’re the ones they’re experimenting on.”
    Right.
    “So Daniel.   You want to get out of here as badly as I do?”
    “Of course I do,” Daniel hissed with a new urgency.   He looked up with a quick furtive glance, like a starving rat glimpsing hope for the first time in a long while.   “I was hoping … well I was wondering if …”
    “Yes?”
    “You can’t tell anyone I asked you, okay?”
    Elspeth nodded.   “Of course not.”
    “Do you know Sebastian Cone ?”   He spoke the name with a kind of awe or reverence.  
    Elspeth shook her head.   “No.”   The name meant nothing to her.   “But I only just got here.   Why?   Who is that?”
    “He’s the guy who can get anyone out,” Daniel said dejectedly, very visibly disappointed with her answer.   He rubbed his forehead nervously, like he was trying to dig the flesh off his skull.
    Elspeth was suddenly very interested.   “Is this Cone guy a prisoner also?”
    “Yeah.   But I don’t know which one he is — I don’t know what he looks like.   You can supposedly cut a deal with him, and you’re gone.   So you really don’t know, huh?”   Daniel was hoping that she was lying.
    “No.   No, sorry, I really don’t.   I’d like to talk to this Sebastian Cone myself.”
    “Well.   Okay then.   Thanks.”   And with that Daniel moved on away from her.   Moments later, Elspeth spied him chatting up another prisoner, probably asking the same question.
    Sebastian Cone.  
    She’d have to look into this.

    JAMES CARD shook his head when she brought up Cone.   “Probably just a wacky rumor.   All prisons have them.   Everybody needs a fantasy tale to keep them going.   Otherwise, everyone here would hang themselves.”
    “Oh?   What’s your fantasy tale?”
    “I’m not telling.   But I know what yours is.”
    “What’s