The Many Misfortunes of Lady Luck - Chapter Seventeen

The Many Misfortunes of Lady Luck - Chapter Seventeen

The Many Misfortunes of Lady Luck
Cerulean Lee // Spynmaster
Chapter Seventeen

Word of the revival of the Celes case spread fast, along with all rumors and suspects. A few well-placed Sain-Celes accusations had brought Harry many visitors, most of which he tried to ignore. It wasn't easy without anything in the cell to focus on. Most came to take out their old grudges against him whether they believed he was guilty or not. Boxed up, he was a safe target. The guards were first to relay the news to him and they were sure to give him a piece of their minds. He was only glad he wasn't in endline yet. They had moved him to the courthouse jail, which was very similar to Galaxy Security's holding facilities. There were less guards and more conversation. It was easier to hear everything going on outside.

Croix was the only welcome visitor he had. She came alone, and everyone in the cell block silently changed paths for her as she went by, turning all ears towards her as she came to a stop in front of Harry's cell. They were expecting a fight. Instead she was the second person to tell him what he needed to hear - that she believed him.

"You're not as bad of a person as Sainlevie is having us all believe," she said.

Harry didn't agree, but Croix was a person not to be argued with, out of respect.

He tried for the thousandth time to sleep, lying with his arms folded around his face to block out light. He needed the rest, there would be none for him in endline. Without the others to help him out it would be easier on him not to waste the court's time. He would have been better off with Quindel speaking for him rather than representing himself, though not by much. His mind went numb in defense from looming inevitability of endline. It was as close to sleep as he would get. Soft footfalls were approaching, and they ended at the door of his cell. A timid voice barely pushed through the filterframe. "Harinder Roshan Roye?"

He lay still. He was plenty worn by trying to ignore the previous verbal batterings. He didn't know how many more he would take. They were just words, he reasoned, but without food or sleep they had more impact.

As if to accent his thoughts, the food tray by the door clattered, accompanied by an exclamation and then some scraping. "This food is cold," the visitor said. "Aren't you hungry?"

Less confrontational than he expected, but he wasn't willing to bait her. He pretended to sleep, hoping it would soon be a reality.

"You don't know me." The girl's voice halted and trembled. "My name's Juliara Sue Crady. I was with Sain-Celes - now I need your help."

Harry lifted his head. The young lady at the door was just as small as her voice made her sound. Her slender body barely filled the clothes she was wearing. She was too young to have been in the workforce for long, even with anti-aging treatments. Her frightened expression seemed genuine, and he kept his tone light to soothe her. "I don't know how much help I can be from here."

Finding coherent words was almost too much of an effort. "Could you do me a favor and put that in?" Harry pointed at the food tray. "Someone pulled it out of the frame earlier."

Juliara nudged it through the filterframe. There was a pile of pink grains and a cup of foggy, syrupy liquid. The grains had tread marks in them. Either Juliara accidentally stepped on the tray or someone else had done it on purpose. He inspected the liquid, then downed it in a few seconds. "What do you need?"

She crouched by him so he could hear her better. "Did you know the manager of the finance department?"

The liquid made him realize how hungry he really was. He found a spoon on the side of the tray and shoveled the bland grain into his mouth with zeal. He didn't care what might have happened to it. "Nico Shier was the manager when I was there," he said between bites.

"That's who I'm talking about."

"Everyone in security knew him," Harry said thoughtfully. "He was always friendly with us. Dangerous guy, though. He must have been arrested for breaking every Nialdan law on record. He always got a trial and never got convicted. I figure he's an attorney for Sain-Celes now the way he knew the legal system. Is that why you're here? Is he representing the company against me?"

His tone must have become accusatory, because Juliara receded in fear. "No, no! He's still the finance manager. I used to work for him."

"Used to? You must have been promoted, if you're still alive."

Tears gleamed at the edges of Juliara's eyes. Harry perceived this with skepticism, and he wasn't sure why. The youth in her face reminded him of Osprey. Still, he let her talk. "I left," she said. "He was going to send me up."

"Unlikely." Harry's expression became stern. "I barely escaped my END order. Correction, I didn't escape. Look where I am now."

"I had help." Clutching her hands, Juliara glanced around for the guards or eavesdroppers. No one was in sight. "Please. You're with Nialda Divided. I need to talk to you."

Sympathy left him. He dropped his spoon on the floor and checked the bottom of the tray. He heard rumors that inmates had escaped using the cards that allowed the trays through the filterframes. There were two major obstacles - the cards were nearly impossible to remove from the trays, and they would have to be modified to work with the human form.

"Haven't you been keeping up on the news feeds?" he said. I've been - disowned."

She took a moment to process the information. She chose not to believe him. "I haven't had the time to read. I was trying to keep up with my work, but I've been sick. The manager doesn't leave once we start our shift."

"I remember. I think you just messed it up for yourself, kid. He probably doesn't realize you're gone, but he will. That's why you got away."

"An executive operative helped me get away."

He laughed scornfully. "Why would you be sent up if an executive operative sent you here? They have higher authority than the finance manager."

"Not this one. She was a trainee. Her name was - Avana."

Harry gave up on finding a weakness in the tray and pushed it back outside. "She won't be there for long if she's screwing up Nico's roster."

"What about Avana now?" Ignace asked.

He popped into view, followed by a portion of Nialda Divided that, much to Harry's surprise, included Cyrille. Her feathers were slicked down, and she avoided looking into his eyes. "Something's up with that Avana girl," Ignace said in a lower voice. "I was just over at Sain-Celes. She cornered me but then she let me go. She said she didn't like Sainlevie."

"You always have to tell stories for the ladies." Harry grinned in spite of his mood. "Don't listen to him. None of us leaves Sain-Celes alive, or at least without being filterboxed."

"Except you did twice," Ignace replied smugly, "And I did once."

Harry rose, still smiling, disbelieving. Libby ruffled Ignace's hair. He ducked with a yelp of protest and smoothed it back to normal. "It's true," Libby said. "Almost all on his own. Came up with the plan and everything. Looks like you got some competition."

Competition was the least of it, Harry thought. "Is that right? Haha - maybe you got what it takes to be a field agent after all. Dimitri would have been proud of you."

Cyrille came forward. Her feathers puffed out as she inhaled deeply, and her shrill voice solemn and low-key. "Most of us owe you our deepest apologies, myself especially. The accusations I made of you were severe and I should have at least had the courage to bring them to you myself. Ignace went in and brought back the videoplate of the incident."

"Oh, Harry, why didn't you tell us?" Libby's smile melted into worry.

His breath caught in his throat. He was elated to be welcomed back by his colleagues, but their initial rejection and the memory of Osprey, now shared with them, dispelled most of his good spirits. "I don't want to talk about it," he said quietly.

A silence. Quindel picked up where she left off with cold straightforwardness. "It's not important for the trial. Unfortunately, as you pointed out the last time, we don't have a lot for your defense. We could go after the company for excessive END charges. As far as we know, it's near 100 percent. But it's clear to anyone who looks at your history that you have a lot of vital information about Sain-Celes security, and that you're willing to use it against them."

"It's true." The group looked away from Harry, towards someone down the hall. "You're in a lot of trouble. Strange they granted you a trial at all."

Harry recognized the voice through the irritation on Libby's face. Even Quindel was a little put off, there was an edge in his words. "If you'll excuse us, I need to speak with him on our terms."

"I need to speak with him on my own, and I'm very busy. Civically speaking, I think I outrank you."

It was strange seeing Stanford Frost so close in person. He had that same white trench coat as he did in all his pictures, a relic of Nialda a few decades ago. Most of Nialda only saw him through the media, He was both Galaxy Security's chief administrator and spokesperson, and would often hold press conferences on the state of the city or when an important breakthrough in a case was made. Quindel met him often before, and Libby had stormed his office a couple times when she was younger and wound up with a temporary detainment, even though Frost always seemed to be alone. Harry noticed Juliara move so that Ignace hid her.

Frost looked Harry up and down. "So you're the one."

"What do you want with Harry?" Libby demanded.

"I'm surprised he's your first concern, Breisacher. Aren't you supposed to be after my job? Or at least claiming you know how to handle it better than I do?"

He stepped closer to her, and for a moment it looked like Libby would back down, but she held her ground. He smirked. "After all, your organization has had such a massive impact on the injustices of society, hasn't it?"

Now Cyrille's feathers bristled. Frost turned to Harry. "I came to see you because a good portion of my officers are chasing evidence proving that you murdered Troyame Celes."

Frost's angular features were shadowed, but Harry could detect a note of neutrality, unlike Sainlevie had been the whole time. "I didn't kill him," Harry said, trying to be just as unassuming. "I hardly knew him."

"Yes," Frost said. "I think they're wrong."

"Did he just defend Harry?" Ignace said under his breath. "First exec ops helping us out, now Galaxy Security's on our side."

Frost heard him. "We're on no one's side. I think Sain-Celes is trying too hard to pin the crime of the millennium on Nialda Divided. I don't believe it was you," he said to Harry, "but it's indisputable that you evaded an END charge. For your sake, I hope Quindel has learned more than he did as a prosecuting attorney. Sain-Celes put Rainier Sharma on your case. They want to make an example of you."

He left, squeezing past Libby in a hurry. She merely glared at the back of his gray head. "Are they really going to make an example of you?" Juliara breathed.

Ignace noticed Juliara again, who had backed up against the wall. "Who are you?"