3
Medical Pavilion
"Do you have a plan, Mister Ryan?" Holly asked, standing straight, hands behind her back. She walked over to a nearby wall and patiently leaned against it. She acted rather high-and-mighty after finally getting what she wanted.
Jack started to rummage through the pockets of the downed Splicers again, bothered that he kept getting interrupted. "You get me to Sapphire, we stop her…" He answered bluntly, pocketing the few Rapture Dollars that the young Splicer had had on him when he attacked Jack. There was a slight pause. Jack could feel Holly's eyes on him. He turned and looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "What?"
"You… just want to 'stop her?' That's all you've got to your plan? Haven't you got some sort of idea for a backup plan? Or… what to do when you get to her?" She asked incredulously. When Jack shook his head in answer, she let slip a trickle of laughter. "Really? No offense, Mister Ryan, but if you want to stop her, you're going to need a more thought-out plan than that. She's no Frank Fontaine, and she's not going to just hand you her death the way Andrew Ryan did."
Jack checked the last body, finally standing to look at her face-to-face. "I realize that, kid. I'll think of something that could work on the way there."
"Mister Ryan, it's going to take a little more than you wracking your brain to stop her. We're going to have to work together, listen to each other's suggestions. Like I said, she's moved. It's a much harder location to get to, now. It's secluded. She's secluded. She has security. It won't be easy—"
"Holly," Jack held his hands up in a gesture of telling her to shut up. When she closed her mouth, waiting for him to say what he wanted to, Jack growled: "We're not going to worry about that right now, alright? We haven't even gotten to her, yet. We'll worry about it when it becomes a problem, OK?" Then, as if it were a side thought, he added: "And would you quit calling me that?"
"Calling you what?"
"'Mister Ryan?'" He raised hands slightly and let them fall back to his sides, as though exasperated. "What else?"
"It's your surname, though, isn't it? I didn't think we were on a first-name basis."
"We're not – but it's also his name."
"Well, what do you go by on the surface, then?"
"Rianofski." He reloaded the pistol with ammunition he'd picked off a Splicer. "It doesn't raise any questions." He cocked the gun, making sure it was ready if he needed it. "But I don't even want you calling me that."
Holly looked a little offended. "What do you want me to call you, then? Sir? Your Majesty? Have you any preferences?" She asked sarcastically.
"Jack," he answered bluntly, tucking the gun in his waistband again.
"Alright… fine. Jack…" She let out a huff of laughter, as if she simply couldn't resist it. "It's funny; father didn't even call you that. He called you 'Little Moth', always."
"Hilarious…" Jack remarked dryly. He stopped what he was doing, looking over at Holly. "If Sander always called me by a pet name, how did you know my last name?" Jack asked suspiciously.
"Oh, don't look at me like that. It's traveled through the grape vine. Many people acknowledge the fact that you existed, but they don't really know what you look like. I didn't either. But I remember hearing about those tattoos of yours." She lifted her own wrist and pointed to it. When Jack turned away from her, evidentially ending the conversation, she let her hand fall to her side. After a moment, she spoke again: "So…Jack… Are we ready to move on? You did say that you want to be in and out of here as fast as possible, after all…"
"I've been ready to move on for a very long time now…" Jack muttered inaudibly. To Holly, he said "Better now than never. Where is she?" Jack asked. It occurred to him just how lost he was when it came to plans and schemes. Literally all his life, he's always had people asking – or rather ordering – him if he would kindly go here, go there, do that, do this. People like Frank Fontaine who exploited his conditioning. But they were always people with a plan. They knew what they were doing, and they only had to move their chess piece from one part of the board to the other with the simple phrase 'would you kindly.'
Looking thoughtful, Holly screwed her mouth into a cone before speaking. "It's a little hard to explain. It's not connected to Rapture – it wasn't even built at the same time. Like I said, it's rather secluded. So, as you can imagine, it's going to be a little difficult to get to."
"How difficult is difficult?" Jack prompted impatiently when Holly delved into silence. He didn't have the capacity in him to hold the patience for a game of Twenty Questions.
"We'll need a certain Plasmid to get to it. Her hideout only has a slot that is room enough for a single Bathysphere, which, to my understanding, is constantly there. Probably kept for emergencies."
"Then where is this Plasmid?"
"Unless it was moved, it's still in Fontaine Futuristics."
Jack pressed his index and middle fingers against his temples. He was trying to remember the layout of the city. He tightly closed his eyes. "Fontaine Futuristics…" He muttered under his breath, shaking his head. "… I don't think I've been there. I don't know how to get to it…" He's definitely heard of it. He's seen its logo printed on products and boxes. He's even seen the building itself.
"If I may," Holly interjected loudly, breaking his concentration. "I know how to get there. We just have to get to the Emergency Access Bathysphere, then go to the Atlantic Express Train Station." She frowned at him. "Like I said, I know a lot about Rapture. If you need help with something, just ask."
"I'll keep that in mind," Jack responded non-committedly. "We can get to her from the Train Station?"
"Um… sure."
"Kid – I swear to God…" He sighed irritably. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Well… all I can say is that I hope you're not claustrophobic." She turned and started towards the Emergency Access, not checking to see if Jack was following. "Come on, then, Busy Bottom. We oughta get to your new friend before your vacation is over."
For a brief moment, Jack only stood there, contemplating just leaving Rapture and letting this girl deal everything out, since she was so keen on the idea of it. But, now that he knew of Lady Sapphire's plan, he couldn't just leave without knowing if she'd been truly stopped or not. Letting out a long, drawn-out sigh, Jack walked after Holly. Under his breath, he muttered "I'm in too far to go back…"
"What was that?" Holly glanced over her shoulder.
"Nothing…" Jack sped up to get in front of her. He didn't want to follow the strange girl – He didn't trust her enough. "Just… talking to myself."
"That so? Then you'll fit right in…"
