Chapter 7:
Tenebaum was pacing her office, a habit that the girls recognised as something troubling had occured.
Its been half an hour Tenenbaum thought. Betsy came back, Elle came back. Where is Debbie?.
The very minute Debbie had been late Tenenbaum knew, deep down that what she feared te most had happened. Phillip got tired of waiting.
Furiously lighting a cigarette Tenenbaum pulled on her trench coat, grabbed her handbag and opened the office doors. All the girls looked up at her immediately stopping what they were doing.
Marsha stepped forward, or rather pushed by Betsy and Elle. Sheepishly she looked up at Tenenbaum.
"Are you going to look for Debbie Mama?"
Tenenbaum crouched down and hugged her "Yes little one. Tell all the other girls I shall be gone for a while. You know what to do until I get back".
Tenenbaum stood up as Marsha dutifully walked around telling all the girls. Betsy ran upstairs to unlock the main door and set the perimeter alarm. Elle however just stood there, calmly regarding Tenenbaum.
Elle was odd. Even for a Little sister. She never acted like the others, she was always more mature but also more reclusive. She rarely spoke but Tenenbaum could feel that girl wanted to be in a family. And like her, Elle was very protective.
Tenenbaum looked at her a moment longer, then walked to the stairs. Elle followed closely behind.
Stopping Tenenbaum turned around "Where are you going?".
"With you". Elle said it so casually, as if the matter had been discussed and decided ages ago.
"No you are staying here where it is safe" Tenenbaum said sternly.
Elle looked around the safehouse, then shook her head "No. I want to help".
So young to be acting so old in her ways "Elle, please do-"
"I know where the bad men are" she suddenly said.
Tenenbaum just gaped at her. "How?!" she demanded.
Elle shrugged again "In the last few days I saw the bad men lurking around all the places the vents lead to. I thought the would try and take one of us. I knew you would want to rescue us, so I followed one back to where they were staying".
Tenenbaum raised her eyebrows "That was very dangerous. You could have been taken or worse!".
Elle nodded "It was a risk".
Tenenbaum shook her head in confusion, and though it shamed her, aprehension of Elle. She was so different, so off-putting. Tenebaum had expected some kind of trauma with the girls but never did she expect one to be so accepting.
Elle was still standing there as if Tenenbaum was the hold up. Taking a deep breath she motioned her to follow. It a few seconds they were walking out of the safehouse and through a transit line.
"Where are the bad men?".
Elle took the lead and crawled through a vent on the right. Tenenbaum followed. They crawled for about ten minutes before Elle took her back to the streets. Tenenbaum recognised the area as Juno's Lane. Back in the day it was a posh section where the high and mighty would take time to stroll and relax. The are had bulkhead connecting it to Mercury Way.
Elle pointed to a dillapted hotel name 'Venerated Venus'. Half the sign was gone but the statue was still there. It was suppose to be Venus but someone had scratched up the face.
"I stayed for a bit and saw the same splicers go in and out a few times. Everytime they did a complicated knock. Then I saw Phillip" Elle said.
Tenenbaum felt her chest tighten again. Elle had probably heard about him from the other girls and knew enough to match the descriptions. However Tenenbaum couldn't help but feel she failed to protect her from the truth.
"Evening ladies"
Tenenbaum reacted. Pistol drawn she took a shot at the speaker.
"Damn it woman!" Atlas hissed "I beginning to think you don't like me".
Just like last time Atlas had appeared from the side of the street right behing her. Tenenbaum almost regretted being a poor aim.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Tenenbaum asked coldly.
Atlas rolled his eyes "A group of splicers, a paticularly large group, made their were from that hotel through Mercury Way. Thought they were bringing in something valuable" he eyed Elle "or maybe valuable to someone in paticular".
Tenenbaum stepped in front of Elle "Anything else?".
"Jesus! I can put two and two together! You think they took one of your girls and now you're going in to find out" Atlas moved forward "You're not the kind of lass to risk another child, so why not let me come with you?".
Tenenbaum tried not to laugh "Really? How noble of you..... but you are right." She turned to Elle "I want you to hide this time and wait for me and Mr Atlas to come back ok?".
Elle nodded then walked off. Atlas raised his eyebrows "Ain't you gonna check she will be safe?".
Tenenbaum shrugged "Its what she does best." She started towards the hotel.
Atlas came up close to her left. There were about five floors to the building, there were splicers keeping watch from the third row of windows. Tenenbaum knew Phillip well enough that he would have place most of them in the middle floors. If there was an attack, they could retreat higher, plus they could lay traps across the bottom floors.
They crouched low next to a destroyed shop. The light from the flickering sign showed Atlas' scars again.
"If you don't mind me asking, what happend to your face?"
He looked shocked "How did you know?"
"Cosmetics was the very first thing ADAM allowed us to... perfect. Most people wouldn't notice the scars but I've seen plenty of people to recognise face surgery".
Atlas suddenly looked sadden. "One of my guys, or rather girls, turned on me when she spliced up too much. Her name is Diane. And she is in there." He jerked his head at the hotel.
Tenenbaum cocked her eyebrow "So this is a revenger thing?".
Atlas shrugged "If you like. Lets just say she knows things that could be harmful to what's left of me crew".
Or maybe something harmful to you Tenenbaum thought. She pushed the idea aside. If they were to pull this off she couldn't doub Atlas, at least not now. She loaded her revolver.
"Lets go".
