The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) by Louis A. Affortunato Read Free Book Online Page B

members of the Council once the new cycle approached.
    The incident that Dana referred to happened a couple
years ago. The Council sent two engineers to survey the land Harley’s house
stood on. The sector they lived in was on the edge of the limits and was next
in line to be fully upgraded. They were essentially the final stage before full
implementation or completion of Phase One as the Council called it. When the
surveyors came to the house Harley ran at them with a knife screaming, scaring
them away.
    The next day the Council Guard brought Harley in
under sanction and placed him in the Cube, the judicial center and criminal
housing building. Ninety-five percent of the Cube was built underground with
the most violent criminals in the lowest parts of the facility. No one knew how
far it really went down. Some reports mentioned a thousand feet, others more
than a mile. However deep it was everyone was in agreement that you didn’t want
to end up in the lower levels.
    Stories of pitch black cells and psychological
torture pervaded the general view of the Cube. Harley’s offense didn’t quite
warrant the lower levels, but he was charged with aggravated action against a
fellow citizen, or in this case citizens, which would double the charge. Harley
was potentially facing up to four years in the Cube where he wouldn’t even get
to see Sara or Jasper.
    Harley had refused any kind of defense or help,
saying he would rather spend time in jail than prostrate himself before the
Council. Sara couldn’t understand why he was acting the way he was. She pleaded
with him to reconsider and present his case to the Council. She felt because it
was a first time offense and he never was sanctioned before they might reduce
the charges. Harley would not give in. To Sara it was almost like he wanted to
go in the Cube.
    She didn’t know what else to do so she went to
Richard and begged him to do something. He was hesitant to do anything at
first, afraid to compromise his standing with the Council, but Dana persuaded
him to intervene on Harley’s part, mostly as a favor to her. No matter how much
she disliked Harley, the social stigma of having a sister with a husband put
away would have been even worse.
    Sara never knew how he did it, but Richard was
able to appeal to certain members of the Council, members that Dana insured he
had a personal relationship with, and get Harley’s charged wiped from the
central database. As far as the computer was concerned, it never happened. As
Dana so often pointed out to Sara, it was a huge favor to ask and Richard put
his personal relationships on the line to help Harley. It would be his only get
out of jail free card.
    When Harley found out what Richard did, he was
furious and refused to see him or even thank him. Sara couldn’t understand why
Harley acted the way he did or why he seemed so willing to accept his
punishment. Something changed in their relationship after that. They didn’t
talk to each other as much and Harley went off more and more on his own, coming
home late and never bothering to say where he’d been. When she asked him he
would just say he was at the yard again, collecting scrap metal.
    “And why after all this time would he suddenly
suggest for you to visit me?” Dana said, interrupting Sara’s train of thought. “Doesn’t
that seem odd to you?”
    It was odd to Sara. Everything about that
evening was odd. Everything from the way he rushed her out the door with Jasper
to his nervous behavior. It was as if he was hiding something or he was going
to do something and he didn’t want her there to see it.
    “I’m telling you,” Dana continued. “He’s up to
something.” Her eyes suddenly got wide as she dropped her cup down. A devious
smirk spread across her face. “Do you think he’s fooling around?”
    “No, Harley wouldn’t do that. It’s something
else,” Sara said as she absently stirred her tea. Her eyes looked like they
were a hundred miles away.
    Harley was