Julie had continued to follow the arrow and finally found a functioning door out of the Medical Pavilion…even if she had to electrocute the control panel. The sign indicated it went to the Vulcan's Forge district. Julie couldn't recall ever going there as a Little Sister, but it sounded like there'd been a high accident rate when the factories had been running. She was definitely staying away from the heavy machinery.

Julie walked through the entrance and looked around. There was a punch clock on the wall, along with a couple of punch cards. Julie grabbed one and looked at it curiously.

"Think you can come in here and take whatever you want?"

Julie dropped the card and spun around.

"Think I'll just let a sack of slag like you walk all over me?"

Wait…Was that coming from the intercom?

"Just try. I'll show you what happens to bastards like you."

That was definitely a threat. Julie waited for him to say something else, but he seemed done for the moment. Who the heck was that? Did Lamb go on break or something? Maybe Eleanor knew…except Eleanor had always been the one to contact her so far. How was Julie supposed to contact her? Think hard at her?

That didn't make sense, but she'd try it anyway.

After a few minutes of thinking 'Eleanor' as hard as she could, she got a response. Julie?

Julie brightened. 'Whoa! It worked!'

What was that?

'I…thought hard…at you.'

…That seems far too simple to work.

Julie shrugged. 'It's what I did. Anyway…I'm in Vulcan's Forge, and an angry man just threatened me over the intercom. What's going on?'

…I really should have realized you wouldn't know about that. Mother is extremely intelligent, and she learned from Ryan's mistakes. She doesn't try to control every part of Rapture by herself. She appointed her most loyal followers to run various districts. They still report to her and have to do as she says, but they use their own judgement in the day to day running of their districts.

'…That actually makes sense,' admitted Julie. 'So who was that?'

Jacob Norris. He was a very talented welder. He was disillusioned and unhappy about how the working class was treated so he was staunchly against Ryan. He was also part of a test group for Sinclair Solutions that performed trial runs on experimental weapons, plasmids, and gene tonics.

'So, he's heavily spliced, really crazy, and really dangerous.' Julie took a moment to shoot a splicer. 'I'll try to avoid him.'

You can't.

'Huh?'

He has a genetic key. He'll use it to lock you in place and bar your path.

'…But I don't even know where I'm going!'

Then he'll lock down all the exits.

Julie glanced back at the door she'd come out of. The control panel was malfunctioning on this side too. She stepped over to the door, which failed to open. She hit the control panel with an Electrobolt, which still didn't work.

"You don't break into my house and then run. You've already made your bed."

Julie stepped away from the door. 'Guess I can't retreat to the Medical Pavilion. Why doesn't that one have someone in charge of it?'

Most splicers are too afraid of Steinman to stay there for more than a few hours.

Julie blinked. 'But Dad killed him…'

I know. He is still feared even in death.

True. He was part of the reason why Julie didn't find Medic as scary as she probably should. 'Right, well, I'll try to get out without running into Jacob Norris, but if I do run into him, I'll get the genetic key from him.'

Good. Be very careful. From here on out things will be much more difficult.

Julie nodded as Eleanor withdrew from her mind. She looked out at the poorly lit factory floor and the maze of catwalks.

…She was gonna end up completely lost.