Chapter 40
Neptune's Bounty - Lower Wharf - Maintenance Ducts beneath Fontaine Fisheries
Edward leant back against the moist, mould-covered wall and waved his thick wellington boots around in the ankle-deep water. He sighed with regret, before looking back Ms Lily Van Zant, hanging by her wrists from a large water pipe that snaked across the ceiling. Bear stood to her left, his fist held out and curled, ready to release another torrent of Electrobolt through the old girls body upon Edwards command.
Lily Van Zant had been one of the many not to splice at all, and as such until this point she had retained a fairly human visage, with the excpetion of looking rather gaunt and tired as a result of malnourishment and lack of sunlight. Yet after having spent the last two hours under Bear's heavy hand, her wrinkled old face was as swollen and distorted as that of the most enthusiastic splicer.
Edward did not want to be doing this - he had set out with a vision that would have led to him being loved and embraced by every man and woman left alive in the city. Yet his endeavors seemed to be bringing nothing but trouble and resistance - and in order for him to pursue his destiny and succeed where Ryan, Fontaine and Lamb had failed, he would have to clear the road ahead of any doubters. He'd heard the stories of how Ryan had his security chief Sullivan bring Fontaine's goons down to this maintenance duct, so he had felt it fitting to use it again for the very same purpose. It was also conveniently close to his next appointment, observing the work being done to repair the fishing submersibles.
"Lily... Lily, please let us bring this to a close. Who else shares your doubts about me? I'm only going to ask this one last time." He practically wanted to beg the poor old girl, but compared to Bear's stone-faced approach that would make Edward look utterly pathetic.
"I never doubted your resolve... I was supporting you every step of the way!" She coughed up a mix of bile and blood, and spat it out down her top.
"I used to think so, Lily, I really did. But you humiliated me yesterday, in front of the rest of the council. You even presumed to threaten me that I would loose my grip on Rapture..." Edward used the anger the memory filled him with and channeled it into his voice. Stepping closer to her, he gave a single nod to Bear, who obeyed and clasped MS Van Zant's ankle, sending a powerful blast of electricity up through her lower body. She shrieked and convulsed under the pain, pissing herself like a frightened dog.
"What I said, I said to help guide you... we all wanted you to succeed... to save the city..." She spat out each word between weeps. Edward heard only the insinuation in her words... "...wanted me to succeed?" He snarled, growing angry again. "...wanted? Past tense?" He began to shout louder, until even the echo of his voice drowned out the soft sobbing of the elderly woman.
"Again!" Edward barked at Bear, who began a second attack. Over the crackling of the leaping sparks of electricity, Boxer suddenly appeared from around the corner, calling out for his master. "Mr Carson sir, Mr Carson!" He bellowed in his deep, slurred voice. Leaving Bear to continue the torture, Edward walked far enough out of the duct to hear Boxer clearly. "What's up old chap?"
"Mr Carson, we've lost sight of Jack Ryan - can't finds 'im any place! Nor his two metal bitches. We was watchin' him, real close like! But after he went to Paupers Drop, my men says he vanished! We'd locked down all Bathysphere's and the Express, no way he could 'ave left! But he's gone!" Edward placed an arm on Boxer's to guide him into a more secluded corner, and checked around for anyone close enough to listen in.
"What was he doing in Paupers Drop? Why would he go there?" Edward's stomach began to churn - he hated not knowing what was happening, hated that Jack Ryan was still snooping around the cities slums when he could have chosen to remain in Edward's fine company. Edward realized, he felt distinctly out of touch - out of control.
"He was in old Gracie's place for hours - seemed to have taken quite warmly to the old cow." Boxer growled, disapproving.
"Fucking Grace - why is she always where the trouble is lately?" Edward cursed to himself, "What shit is she stirring?"
"Word is the old gal still has quite the following down in the drop - almost as much as you do. Maybe more, since the accident in Dionysus Park."
Edward ground his teeth and clenched his fists, infuriated that she had been down there, that she had managed to see first hand the controversial decisions he was having to make, because he knew she would have her own opinions - ones that could easily counter his own.
"You Fucking bitch Grace! What are you up to!?" Edward bellowed, before turning from Boxer, and unleashing his own storm of 'Incinerate', straight through the air, past Bear, striking Lily Van Zant. Bear had just finished the fifth session of electrocution, leaving her gasping for breath, when Edward's firestorm finished the job, blasting away her skin and burning up her flesh. He stayed silent for a moment, watching with some lingering whisper of regret as the body broke apart and fell from the chains that had suspended it in the air. Finally, he called over Bear, and addressed both splicers together.
"Something is up, I can feel it. It involves Grace first and foremost - I swear if I didn't need those sorry bastards down in the drop so badly to fix up the power core, I'd flood the fucking place and be done with it! Now I need you both to gather your men, and find me Jack Ryan, now. Tear the city apart if you must - nobody else seems reluctant to. We must not loose control now... otherwise the city is lost. I... WE... are all that stand now between Rapture and it's demise. We cannot let whatever this situation is gather pace... find out what is happening, what they are doing... and stop them."
It was then, that the lights went out. The ventilators stopped. The Pumps stopped. Neptune's Bounty fell into a silent darkness. Splicers near and far could be heard screaming in terror, but none screamed louder than Edward, who boomed above all else with a fiery rage. "What the hell is going on?" As he fumbled through the darkness, stumbling repeatedly to try and find his way out of the water, Edward could only acknowledge his helplessness, and remember the words Lily Van Zant had spoken the day before, "Be careful, the great chain pulled away from Andrew Ryan. It can pull away from you just as easily".