Searching for clues, Theodore and Lila found more posters littering the walls, some damaged, some barely clinging on, and all saying similar things, Rupert Malone wasn't liked at all in Sanctuary.
People called for his expulsion from the underwater city and all their complaints varied from him being a child killer to someone detrimental to the unity of Sanctuary.
Whoever he was, his number was called by the thirtieth poster, judging by the threats hidden in the huge texts.
"Man, talk about being 'man of the year,' you think he got out?" Lila wondered if this Rupert Malone escaped the lynching that everyone threatened him, seeing how vehemently they're calling for his head in the posters.
Joey Mussolini wasn't too far behind, marrying nine women, and making the other men irate with him depriving them of wives.
Even if all those women consented and happy with the arrangement as Joey Mussolini said so, those men left in the dust weren't going to take it lightly, though, Lila doesn't know the whole story, just what the posters alluded.
Given how many posters there were on the walls, it raised questions about how many people were here, and as Lila glanced around, where they went.
More barnacles growing on the walls and ground, like anthills, some even cascading down from the ceiling in areas, areas with large barnacles collapsed from the weight, leaving gaps, and the barnacles sticking up from the dented ground like an icicle.
Going by more open windows, the duo sees schools of large bioluminescent jellyfish with frilly tentacles floating weightlessly in the blackness.
Like one of those '90s toys that kids stuck multicolored bulbs in a black paper with a light behind it. So bright, they cast a hue, as they slowly moved in the current.
Lila remarks that it wouldn't surprise her that Theodore's able to communicate with jellyfish, before he informed her that he couldn't, they lacked the necessary components, compared to octopi.
Though, he wouldn't mind talking with them, they live forever, as it were, and he'd imagine they'd have stories about their time in the depths below.
"I guess when you put it that way," Lila thoughtfully replied as Theodore made a point, there's stories that nobody knows about, as the story tellers haven't said anything, because they don't speak a language people can understand, or able to articulate at all.
Moving forward in their long trek, the duo found a statue in the plaza of the housing district, destroyed, with the head decapitated. Red paint coated the bronze statue, spelling out in bold lettering.
CHILD KILLER.
Seeing the graffiti, made Lila guess it was for Rupert Malone. The statue made it seem like he was someone important to Sanctuary and the scope of this remained unknown at the time.
Looking at the statue, Theodore saw the marred cuts in the neck, someone went out of their way sawing off the head, wanting to prove a point.
He motioned with his long arm and he led Lila away from the statue, continuing onward to the housing district.
They found a detailed map of all the housing and the people who lived here, the only thing that wasn't waterlogged or marred by barnacles.
Around a hundred people, most couples, and from the look at the advertisements under the glass map, these were well-to-dos with more money than Theodore and Lila ever saw in their entire lives.
"Hold on, you seeing what I'm seeing?" Lila pointed at one of the amenities proclaiming that people living in the housing district's able to have anything brought to them on a whim, no matter the costs.
Seeing this made Theodore furrow his brow.
The amenities claimed anyone who uses them gets whatever they want… but… there's only a hundred people living here… and that they're rich beyond their wildest dreams…
"Either there's a servant quarter we haven't found," Lila trailed as she looked at the amenities before Theodore finished her thought.
He said as his icy blue eyes glanced over to amenities, "Or we've found why we're here."
Thinking about their situation, Theodore wondered to himself as he looked at the amenities closely.
They wouldn't advertise the servants' quarter on the map, it'd put off the people, and they wouldn't want 'those' people down here with them.
Yet, it begged the question, how're they delivering things to the people living in the housing district if there's no servants?
"Come along, we shall see if there's anything in the rooms," Theodore motioned with his long arm and Lila followed him as they went through the first hallway of the housing district.
The hallway's pristine, the air's cooler, and there's no barnacles growing, for the most part, everything looked untouched.
Not even a bullet hole in the walls and Lila checked every square inch for those familiar holes as she walked with Theodore.
They reached the first door with a large module next to it, letting guests talk with the owners, something akin to what flats use, but there's a special port on the grey metal underneath the giant camera lens.
Hard to describe, but it looked like something you'd need a screwdriver to turn with, giving the appearance of a weird screwdriver tip.
"Well, at least we have ours, don't we, Theo?" Lila looked towards Theodore as he reached into his pocket, bringing out his trusty Sonic Screwdriver.
With a twist of the wrist, the blue light illuminated from the top, and the door opened without problems, allowing them access to a massive home.
Everything looked pristine, down to the furniture, whoever owned is so rich, platinum and titanium were used in the furniture, giving everything a silver sheen.
There's an elegant staircase going up to the second floor wrapping around the wall above leading down to the bottom, platinum railings shining from the blue light coming from Theodore's Sonic Screwdriver.
A massive kitchen at the end of the room, with a grey steel two-door refrigerator bigger than ones used for restaurants.
The style fits the '50s, except everything's a shade of soft grey, going over to the kitchen while Lila checked everywhere else, Theodore sees everything expected in the kitchen, and as he looked through the drawers, he noticed something peculiar.
Everything's where they should, not a spoon, spork, whatever out of place, and he went over to check the other cabinets, seeing everything where they belonged.
Curious and he hadn't eaten anything today, Theodore gone over to the only resource that'll tell them the passage of time.
Braving the smell of rotted food, Theodore opened the refrigerator doors, and instinctively recoiled as he noticed that there's nothing inside the refrigerator except expensive bottles of wine.
He grabbed one and felt it bone chilling cold, checking the label, and saw it bottled sometime in 1917.
No later than that, it's a start.
Putting it back in the refrigerator, Theodore closed the doors, and turned around, as he saw Lila coming down the stairs holding something in her hands.
As she came down, she showed Theodore what she found, another tape recorder, this one worked.
"I found it in some lady's dresser. She kept it in a hidden compartment. Don't think it's some saucy secrets of a third kind," Lila described how she found the tape recorder.
Poked around a lady's massive bedroom, bigger than the entire flat building, and found all her possessions.
Clothes, jewelry, all left behind for whatever reason, and Lila went through the usual places people hid things they didn't want others knowing.
Checked under the bed, found shoes, checked the vanity, nothing, closet's nothing but clothes, checked the deep drawers of the lady's dresser and lo and behold, Lila found a tape recorder stashed away in a hidden compartment underneath her unmentionables.
A good place to hide for most people who didn't want anyone poking their noses, but determined people wouldn't hesitate ransacking, anyhow.
"Very good, Lee, I don't suppose you checked her sock drawer while you're at it, did you?" Theodore inquired if Lila checked every drawer for anything else hidden and Lila replied that she didn't find anything substantial.
Not even a linen moth, either.
Just the hidden tape recorder.
Strange there's not even a diary, but as they're talking, the two realized there's a reason for the tape recorder.
With it in her hands, Lila came around the massive kitchen island with the tape recorder, gently setting it down on the surface, and Theodore joined her side, as they played the tape.
The lady on the tape's around their age, she's talking about how she's an actress that got her break having an invitation for a slot in Sanctuary. She came down here wide eyed, not expecting any truth to the wild tales of an underwater city, but it was true.
Isley, the woman, talked about how lavish the underwater city was, how they had everything at their fingertips. No worries about wars or famine, anything unsightly, it was paradise.
She even made movies here, some people worked in the industry, and she got parts because of it.
Fast forwarding a little, they stopped briefly for Isley describing the servants that came to her home, bringing her whatever she ordered.
"They're strange, but Mr. Malone says they're harmless. He assured me that they're incapable of hurting people. I don't quite like the look of them, though, the way they move and talk, it's bizarre. I talked to the others about it and they didn't see any problems with the servants. They made fun of the way they talked and moved, how they barely react to the insults. I guess Mr. Malone knew what'd happen if he brought actual butlers down here, not that I don't blame him. Why, Mrs. Martin threw her martini at one just because she could, imagine her doing that to a young man doing his job?" Isley described the servants that roamed Sanctuary, compelled to do stuff for the people here, and the way she talked about them, led the two believing the servants weren't human.
Fast forwarding the tape, Theodore stopped briefly, Isley's clearly upset, she's frantically talking about the rumours going around about one of Joey Mussolini's wives going missing.
"It's not my place to judge, Mr. Malone never said you couldn't marry more than one woman, but Kenna was my friend. She couldn't have gone missing, what, did she go for a swim? I talked to the others and they don't know where she went. I don't know Mr. Mussolini very well, but his wives were happy, that I know. He couldn't do anything to her, could he?" Isley showed doubt about what happened to her friend, Kenna, but she believed Joey Mussolini innocent.
Going through the tape once more, they stopped with Isley bursting into tears, wailing, as she condemned Rupert Malone.
"He said it was against the rules. Kenna knew them. She should've known the con-consequences. She hadn't stopped crying since she came back. I know it's against the rules, but there had to be another way, why couldn't she leave?" Isley sniffled as she decried Rupert Malone in this message.
Kenna came back at one point, but Rupert Malone did something to her.
Don't know what, but it was something serious enough that Kenna hadn't stopped crying since she returned.
"…I heard Mr. Malone talking with Mr. Mussolini, he threatened him. He said if he catches one of Mr. Mussolini's wives with "it" again, he's going to personally expel Mr. Mussolini from Sanctuary for breaking the rules," Isley went on to say in the tape.
Fast forwarding, the tape stopped at another part with Isley saying that Joey Mussolini attempted to smear Rupert Malone and it didn't end well, Rupert Malone allowed the men who weren't happy with the arrangement Joey Mussolini had with his wives to have "words" with him about it.
It took him weeks to recover, by then, Rupert Malone forcibly dissolved the marriages, and the men happy with their chances at nine wives.
Those nine wives weren't happy that Rupert Malone dissolved their marriages to Joey Mussolini without their input, but Rupert Malone threatened to send them away, saying that they didn't have a right down here.
A privilege.
They have a privilege living in one of the safest places in the world and if they act out like Joey Mussolini did, Rupert Malone threatened to send them topside, where they're lambs waiting for the wolves.
The last message the duo stopped at before the tape finished, Isley's terrified.
She's speaking incoherently, blubbering, wailing, as she's hiding in her room. There's footsteps coming to her locked door and she screamed for the person on the other side to leave her alone.
There's footsteps, Isley's, as she's running to put something away, the nosies being the tape recorder, and the audio became muffled.
The audio muffled, the two heard the door opening and Isley panicking while screaming, loud enough that the tape recorder caught it, until the tape ran out, and the recording ended.
"So, Rupert Malone owns the place and he owns it with an iron fist," Lila summed what happened during Isley's recordings.
Nodding, Theodore added that it'd seem that he's particular about them following the rules and wasn't the type making compromises.
They don't know what he'd done to Kenna, but it's serious and likely the cause for all the protesting posters strewn on the walls.
"But the servants, what do you think they are?" Lila wondered about the servants that Isley barely described, they're not human, that much evident, and neither Theodore and Lila saw them.
Thinking to himself, Theodore says, "That my dear Watson, is a good question."