The Midnight Stand (The Elysia Saga Book 1) (4 page)

“What’s to train?” Earl said. “You just point it
at what you want to die and then pull the trigger.”

“Do you have to be so graphic about it?” his
wife asked.

“Graphic? Honey, I don’t know about you, but I’ve
never seen a gun that didn’t fire when you pulled the trigger. And if someone
happened to be in front of that trigger when it’s pulled, you’re damn sure that
someone better go down or I’ll want me money back.” This garnered a slight
chuckle from everyone except Theresa.

“What about him?” Allen asked, gesturing towards
Harley.

“He’ll learn like everyone else,” Ancil said.
“He’s a part of this now, unless he doesn’t want to be. If that’s the case then
he’ll have to decide now.”

They all looked at Harley, waiting for a
response. He appeared more like a child than ever with all those eyes on him.
Harley looked to his grandfather for guidance, but only received steel eyes in
return. He had to make this decision himself.

“I want to stay,” Harley said. His voice was
barely able above a whisper as he tried to amass the courage to sound
determined.

A paper thin smile etched itself on Ancil’s
face. “Good. Now all that is needed is-“

A heavy knock at the door stopped Ancil in
mid-sentence. Every head in the room snapped to the doorway as another loud
knock pounded on it.

“Open up! This is the county Sheriff,” a booming
voice yelled from behind the door. “Open the door immediately or we will open
it for you.”

Maxon waited in the office of the Director of
Wrecking with the crew docket in his hand. When he accepted his docket and
looked over the crew list for the night, he regretted it immediately. The
computer had put Bruce Lennox on his crew and Maxon knew that was going to be a
problem.

Bruce was the nephew of the Chief of Upgrades
and Structural Advancement and that proved to be his only needed qualification
to be placed in the wrecking department. He served under Maxon on a few other
wrecks that year and they all ended with Bruce attempting to hijack the job and
run at it solo. He was arrogant, consistently disobeyed protocol and a danger
to others on the crew. Maxon needed him off that night’s wreck.

The door slid open and the director walked in
and sat behind the desk. When he sat the chair immediately started to massage
his neck. He groaned with pleasure and closed his eyes. Maxon watched him,
unsure of what to do. He was about to speak when the director opened one eye.

“And why is it I find you in my office for the
second time tonight?” he said.

“Well, director Hayes, it’s about tonight’s
wreck,” Maxon said.

“What about it?” he said. “You have your
protocol, don’t you”?

Donovan Hayes was an impatient man who didn’t
respond well to small talk or non-essential conversation. He expected that if
you had your orders there was nothing else to talk about.

“I have Lennox on my crew tonight. I don’t think
that’s a wise choice given his past behavior and the nature of tonight’s
wreck,” Maxon said.

Donovan sat up in his chair and the massaging
stopped. “The crew lists are spit out by the central computer. We have no
control over who gets picked or not.”

“I realize that, but I feel in this case we
really must make a correction.”

“A correction?” Donovan asked as he eyed Maxon
with a suspicious look. “You’re questioning the system?”

“No sir, I’m just asking if a request can be put
in and a new list be created.”

“Max, these lists are generated by very
sophisticated algorithms that neither of us understands. It knows what is needed
on any given day for any given job. If we go about messing with its X’s and O’s
we can cause the entire system to malfunction. Then where would we be?”

Maxon didn’t give an answer, not sure about what
to say.

“I’ll tell you where,” Donovan continued, “right
back to twenty years ago when we were scribbling everything down by hand and
worrying if someone in dispatch sent out the right docket. This way there’s no
concern about any of that. So no, I can’t grant your request to take Lennox off
tonight. Besides, he’s my boss’s nephew. We have to find something for him to
do. Handiwork might be gone, but nepotism isn’t.”

“Sir, you don’t understand the implications putting
Lennox on tonight will have,” Maxon pushed on. “He’s not fit for this wreck.
You know as well as anyone of the reports against him and how he sabotages
assignments. He has no consideration for his fellow crew members and will put
everyone’s life at risk. This is too important a job with too many variables
that can go wrong.”

Donovan spread his hands out in front of him
with his palms out. “I can’t help you, Max. Lennox is on the job tonight. That’s
all there is to it. You’re Lead. You know your protocol. Deal with it. These
things are only a formality nowadays anyway. There’s hardly any real danger
anymore.”

Maxon wanted to correct the director on that
statement, but he knew better and held his tongue. “Well then, sir, if Lennox
isn’t going to be taken off, I’m going to have to respectfully take my name off
tonight’s docket.”

Donovan gaped at him. He looked shocked,
something that wasn’t normal for him. “Do you realize what you just said?”

“I do.”

“Failure to report for a job will result in sanctions
and appearance in front of the Council and once you’re in front of them, you’re
at their mercy.”

“I realize that, sir, but-“

“You have a wife and child, don’t you?” Donovan
asked.

“Yes.”

“And you would put their existence at risk?”

Maxon opened his mouth to say something, but was
cut off by Donovan before he could. “You know what can happen to family units
that aren’t complete. The Council doesn’t look favorably on them. You’re still
young Max, you have many capable years ahead. Don’t go do something stupid that
will put your family in danger, especially your young son.”

Maxon was silent as his eyes drifted to the
floor.

“My advice to you is to do your duty as you were
trained,” Donovan said. “And I don’t want you coming back in here with requests
like that again, or you will be up in front of the Council.” Maxon nodded his
head while still looking at the floor. “Now go on. Get out of here.”

Maxon got up and made his way to the door. As he
walked out he could feel Donovan’s stare on the back of his head.

Out in the hall two workers walked past Maxon.
They were Henrik and Meyers. They were on Maxon’s crew for that night. They
passed Maxon and gave him a nod. He had them on his crew once before. They were
in their first year with the department and had proven to be quick learners of
the protocol. He would have given anything to have two more just like them with
him tonight but, as Donovan made clear, the computer gives and the computer
takes.

The idea behind random selection was simple, it
allowed for no favoritism. Leads couldn’t use the same crew members over and
over and, as a result, could not have a preference or influence over who was
picked. It also didn’t allow for cohesion among crew members if one of them
wasn’t up to standard, but what system was perfect, right? In the end, even
though Maxon didn’t have a say who was in his crew, he was responsible for them
and seeing through the wreck, and the burden of completion ultimately fell on
his shoulders.

Sometimes he wondered if life outside would be
better. They were told everyday it wasn’t. The picture painted was one of a
desolate landscape where no one thrived, where hard labor was required and all
the technological amenities we enjoyed were absent. Maxon had grown up with this
image of the outside world but, despite that, a part of him still wanted to see
it and leave behind Elysia. To see a world he’s never seen.

He knew if he mentioned that to Erica she would
shoot the idea down before it ever had a chance to metastasize. “No one moves
out
of Elysia,” his wife would exclaim. They were the children of the Project, the
first to be completely raised inside. This was their world. It was all they
knew.

He lifted up the underside of his left forearm
and tapped it. A small screen, about two by four inches appeared on his skin.
This was the portable bio-link unit that everyone now carried on them. The unit
was embedded in all new births after an edict was passed by the Council. It was
meant as an all-purpose communication and media device. Some of the older
citizens thought it was a way to track people and keep an eye on their
movements, bio functions and even thoughts. The Council assured this wasn’t the
case and that the device was just a way to more easily distribute information.
It wasn’t mandatory for adults to have it embedded, but there were rumors that
this would not be the case much longer. Maxon had his embedded a couple of
years ago, at the behest of the Department Chief who required all crew members
to have one.

He checked the time. It was five past ten. He
had plenty of time until he needed to brief the crew. He swiped the screen and
activated the voice control.

“Call Erica,” he said into his arm.

“Calling Erica,” a sweet sounding female voice
replied back. A person with the device was able to hear the audio directly
through his ears, almost like the sound was coming from inside his head. Three
seconds later Erica’s face appeared on the screen. She had her own bio-link
device as well. He could see that she was lying in bed with a treating cap on.

“Hey,” she said. “Everything okay?”

“Yes, I just wanted to check in and see how you
were doing.”

“Doing fine, just about to go to bed.” A
whirring sound was coming from her side of the call. Maxon recognized it as the
sound of the manicure device.

“How’s Elliot?” he asked.

“He’s sleeping. Took forever to get him down in
the grow bed,” she said. “I don’t think he likes it.”

“Well, the doctor said for the first couple of
years he should be in it.”

“Are you coming home soon?” she asked.

“Not yet, I have a midnight wreck to do,” he
said. “I probably won’t be home till after one.”

“Can’t they find someone else to do it?” she
asked.

 “You know it’s done by assignment. I have no
control over it,” he answered.

“Yeah I know, but why do you even have to be
there anymore. It’s not like you’re doing any of the actual work.”

“It’s more about quality control and safety
concerns,” he said. “We still need to be onsite.”

“Right, until they program the machines to handle
that too. Then where will you be?” she asked with a wry smile.

“Running the department, of course”.

Erica’s expression changed when he said that.
The smile was gone.

“I know you’re trying to be funny,” she said.  “But
I do think you should make that a priority of yours. You’re approaching mid-age
and you have to think about sustainability.”

They had talked about this several times, more
so since Elliot was born. Maxon didn’t expect her to bring it up at this time,
in this way. It made him uneasy to think about, the idea that he could be
deemed non-essential by a computer one day. It was a very real possibility
though and he would have to prove his worth one way or the other. It scared him
to think about, which is why he didn’t.

“Erica, we talked about this,” he said. “Decisions
on who is appointed Director are made by the Council. You know how much
maneuvering needs to take place? I doubt I’m even being considered. Besides,
Donovan isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

“Didn’t you say there were grumblings about
him?”

“That’s not something we should talk about
here.” A wrecker turned the corner and came down the hall. He gave Maxon a
brief glance and continued walking. “There’s too many ears around,” he said in
a hushed voice. “Why are you bringing this up anyway?”

“I just don’t want you to miss an opportunity,”
she said. “We have to be prepared for the future.”

Maxon sensed that something was up. Erica’s
voice had a tone to it that he recognized as her being worried about something.
“Is everything alright? You sound like something is bothering you.”

Erica didn’t respond right away. “Yes,
everything’s fine.” Her eyes looked down when she said it. Maxon caught the
lie.

“No, something’s wrong. What is it?”

She sighed, “I was feeling sick the past couple
of mornings and I decided to take a test. Max, I’m pregnant.”

The words stunned him. He wasn’t ready for that.
He started to stammer when he replied. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, positive.”

“Maybe there was an error,” he said hopefully.
“Why don’t you test again?”

“The test has a 99.999 percent accuracy rate,
and I tested twice,” she said. “We have to face reality here. We’re having
another child.”

Normally this wouldn’t be an issue. Yes, most
people weren’t lucky enough to have more than one child and the pre-natal exams
will still need to determine if this child is up to standard, but it wasn’t out
of the ordinary. The problem was they got pregnant outside of their window.

Each couple is given a certain amount of windows
to attempt to conceive. The criteria is based on many different factors such as
age and the overall health of the couple, but normally the window is one month
every five years. It was a population control method put in effect in the early
days of the Project.

 All conceptions outside of the window are
illegal and the punishments are determined on a case by case basis. Punishments
can be anything from a sanction, to incarceration, to even cancellation of the
birth. Maxon hoped that since this was a first offense and given his standing
within the department, the Council would take it easy on him and only give him
a small sanction.

“What should we do?” asked Erica.

“We don’t do anything just yet. It’s still
early.”

“But if we wait too long, that will only put us
in a worse position. They’d think we were trying to hide it from them or
something.”

Maxon knew this, but he didn’t want to worry
her. “You only just found out this morning, right? We won’t have to do anything
for at least three to four weeks. We can say we just found out then if
anything. Besides, anything can happen between now and then. We shouldn’t jump
the gun needlessly on this.”

Erica’s eyes squinted at him. “What do you mean
anything can happen?”