Chapter 39 - Antenna

The telephone in her shop rang for the third time in the last hour, but Lupe was too busy to answer it. I should hire someone, she thought while helping a woman who was so shy shouldn't make eye contact pick out a peignoir. She had to assure her customer several times that there was no one else in the shop when she finally worked up the courage to try it on, and even put the 'back in five minutes' sign to coax her into relaxation. Lupe's patience paid off, however, and she sold three peignoirs at nearly two hundred percent mark-up.

And no taxes. Sometimes Rapture isn't so bad, I suppose. Lupe pulled out her accounting books and started to pencil in her sale. I need to make another order with Mimi. She could start finding her own suppliers, but Mimi had treated her fairly and she didn't see any reason to fink on her. After all, Lupe was successful enough, why start cutting throats?

The telephone rang again, but this time she was able to answer. "Kitty's Purr-fect Pleasure Boutique, how can I help you?"

"May I speak with Miss Cervantes?" The voice was male, which was not her usual clientele, and there was a formality to it that made her instinctively stiffen.

"Speaking," she slowly said into the handset, her stomach tightening.

"This is Detective Pierce from security in Port Neptune. I've got your name attached to a missing person's case on Helena Lewandowski. Are you familiar with this person?"

Lupe nodded to herself. "Yes," she answered, slowly. Her stomach began tumbling. Please, please be good news! Lupe would consider it to be good news even if she was arrested because that meant she was still alive.

"Alright, Miss Cervantes, I am going to need you to come to the security station at Port Neptune at your earliest convenience."

Lupe's heart thundered in her chest. "Why?" Her voice wavered, already knowing the answer.

"We need you to identify her," came Detective Pierce's bland reply.

Tears leaked out of her eyes, despite having mentally rehearsed herself for this moment. "How did she die?" Lupe rushed out, not wanting to know but needing to know.

"Oh, she's not dead."

Lupe's breath caught in her throat and for a few bewildered moments, she couldn't think of anything to say. "I'm sorry, but that is not what I expected you to say," she plainly replied after a few seconds. "I'm happy to hear it, but…well, why do you need me? Is she hurt?"

There was a pause before Detective Pierce replied. "Please come down to the station, Ms. Cervantes. As soon as you can."

Lupe mindlessly hung the handset up and pressed her lips together. This is good news, she nervously told herself. Then why do I feel so afraid? The same striking fear that rippled through her when she first saw plasmids demonstrated returned as she picked up her purse. It wasn't the same sort of fear she held for Dorothy or the roof and walls suddenly crashing in and drowning her. No, it was a fear of the unnatural, the twisted, the just plain wrong.

She nearly forgot to hang the 'closed' sign on the door. She hastened to the Atlantic Express station as fast as she could manage in her new and still somewhat painful patent leather black pumps. Her haste was in waste, however, as she missed the train and there was a twenty-minute wait for the next train to Neptune's Bounty. Lupe nervously tapped her fingers on the arm of the chair as she waited and tried to collect her thoughts.

Why do they need me? That singular thought ran through her head a hundred times. Is she in a coma? Has she lost her memory? Has she gone mad? Things like this happen on the surface, Lupe tried to calm herself. It probably doesn't have anything to do with ADAM. But her hands shook and she had to struggle to keep herself collected.

But of course it had to do with ADAM – she could feel it in her gut because it was in her gut. Little whispers of the stuff like a wafting flame turning her into the unnatural. Part of her wanted to become what Richard was, a fusion of human and other, because at least then she could stop worrying about the 'degeneration' Tannenbaum had warned of. She didn't know exactly what to expect, but a thorough daily examination of her body hadn't produced anything out of the ordinary. Yet.

Wishing for a slug of her own was an idle daydream, however. Richard had told her of the letter he had received, and why Lupe didn't get the whole picture she did ascertain that the slug implants were now off the table. And Richard made her swear up and down that she'd never so much as look at the commercially available ADAM. And what did that leave her with? Sucking on Richard's pecker twice daily for the rest of her life. At least I have it down to an art form.

She then felt guilty for her thoughts straying into her own problems. Doubtlessly, whatever was wrong with Helena was a much bigger problem. Dwelling upon the situation at present gave her no answers. Lupe smoked three cigarettes while waiting, and was just about to light a fourth when the train finally pulled into the station.

Neptune's Bounty stank, and not in the way the fetid and steamy boarding house did nor the mildewy staleness that permeated every inch of Rapture unless aggressive steps were taken against it. Lupe wrinkled her nose as she hurried to the security station, having to pause and ask directions several times in the warren of gates and corridors.

At least it isn't the same agents as Adranos Place, she warily comforted herself as she entered the police station. "Hello, I'm Lupe Cervantes, I was told to report her to identify someone," she perfunctorily introduced herself.

The clerk at the desk, a portly man with graying sandy hair, looked up and gave her an odd look. "Detective Pierce is in interrogation room three, down the hall and to your left." The clerk exhaled slowly and leaned back in his chair. He looked like he was about to say something, but he kept his mouth shut and motioned for Lupe to get moving.

Lupe followed the instructions and steeled herself before knocking on the door. A shouted order from within told her to enter. She was expecting to find Helena in whatever state she was in, but instead, she found only Detective Pierce, a gangly man with a short buzz haircut and nicotine-stained eyes and teeth.

He nodded brusquely at her when she entered. "Ms. Cervantes, I assume?"

She nodded. "Where is she?" The waiting was suffocating her.

"Next room, we've got her…comfortable. Before you see her, I'd like to prepare yourself. Now, we think it's your missing friend based on a rough description, but, well, I need to know what's going on with her. If you have any information, anything at all, I would consider it a personal favor if you told me."

The letter that Richard had received loomed large in her mind. Whatever has happened to her cannot be undone by putting us at risk. "I don't know anything. She didn't tell me anything. She disappeared one day, that's all I know."

"Yeah, that's what my colleagues said you said." Detective Pierce stood up. "You ready?"

Lupe shook her head. "No. But I don't think I ever could be, so let's go anyway."

"You've got guts," Detective Pierce complimented her as he led her down the hall. "And brains. I remember reading about you and your sweetheart in the papers. Something seriously sketchy happened at that casino, my buddy down at Fort Frolic clued me in on that. But you took the tiger by the tail and you ended up going from a maid to businesswoman inside three days." He stopped in front of an unmarked door. "Which is why I think you're not going to go to pieces. I don't want to see you go to pieces. I know they can be real bastards over there in Adranos Place, and I read your report. I ain't going bust your chops like they did, and you're not a suspect. But if you know anything, anything that could explain what's happened, I want you to tell me because I don't want to see other women end up like her."

Lupe nodded. "Please," she said in a small voice. "Open the door."

Detective Pierce obliged. Lupe gasped in shock and horror. A figure lay on a bed, but no, as her eyes took in the scene, it wasn't really a bed. It was a tank. Halfway between a tank and a stretcher. The figure was half submerged in inky black water that smelled powerfully of body odor. Lupe took a few fearful steps towards the figure and saw that the skin was rubbery and slick, like that of a dolphin or an eel.

Her mind reeling, Lupe's eyes traveled upwards. The figure was not wearing any clothing, but there were no identifiable breasts or genitals. The neck was ringed with gill-like organs, but the face…it was still human, and it was Helena. Her hair was still the same color and as she had seen it last. Her eyes were shut as if in a deep sleep and she hadn't moved from her position when the door opened.

Lupe must have uttered a cry of terror she didn't hear because Detective Pierce gently took her by the arm and led her out of the room. He brought her back to interrogation room three and guided her into a chair.

"ADAM," Lupe whispered to herself.

"What was that?" Detective Pierce questioned her.

"How?" Lupe said louder, too stunned to try to cover her tracks. "How could they do this to her?" She stared at the floor but saw nothing other than Helena.

"Who's they?" Detective Pierce softly but firmly pressed her. "Remember, you're not under suspicion of any crime. I want to know what happened to your friend."

"I can't tell you," Lupe whispered, her frightened voice nearly inaudible.

"Why not?"

Lupe made a slitting gesture across her throat.

"I can protect you," Detective Pierce tried to assure her, but Lupe wasn't buying it.

"No one is safe here, don't you see?" Lupe raised her head to meet his eyes.

"Did you say ADAM when you sat down?"

"No," she quickly denied. "I didn't say anything. I don't know anything."

There was a heavy pause between the two of them. "No, I suppose you didn't."

Lupe's senses began to come back to her. "How did you find her?"

"A raid on a smuggling operation. She was in the backroom in the tank she's in now. No one was at the location, however, and inquiries into the situation have been blocked by a certain local businessman." Detective Pierce lit a cigarette and offered Lupe one. "So it's a positive identification?"

Lupe took the cigarette. "Yes, that's Helena. Or was."

"It gets weirder than, well, what you saw. Every now and then objects will jump at her of their own volition. It's as if she's a magnet, but it's not just metal things. Cups and a clipboard and a glass beaker one of the scientists that came and looked at her had in her hand. And I swear, one time when I was in there I felt as…as if my thoughts wasn't my own."

Lupe barely registered what he said. The horror was plastered in every recess of her consciousness. Like those fish things I saw at the lab. Degeneration. Her hands shook and, unbidden, she saw herself as the eel-woman. Degeneration.

She damn near blurted out everything in that second. Poor Helena! Oh God in heaven, look at us now! See us! Save us from this Hell of man's making! But she recalled the nature of this Hell. Everything could be bought and everything could be sold. The ADAM peddlers could buy the security force, if they hadn't already. No matter how nice Detective Pierce was being he could still bring about her destruction. Being dead isn't going to solve anything.

Lupe smoked the cigarette in silence. This is no time for a sadness soak for myself. I need to be there for Helena, even if she's not all there. She's only got me. "I'd…I'd like to see her again," she softly said once she was done with the cigarette. She snubbed the butt out in the ashtray.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. Maybe if I talk to her she'll wake up." Probably not though. But she had to try.

"Very well. I must insist that I supervise as this is an active investigation."

At least he's polite enough to inform me that he's spying on me. "I understand," she acknowledged, but didn't rise from her seat quite yet. "What's going to happen to her?"

Detective Pierce sighed heavily. "Well, we can't bring any charges against her like this for the burglary she's accused of. If she's seen publicly I'm worried it will cause a panic."

"Where is she going to go?"

He sighed again. "Persephone, probably, that's where they store the certifiable as well as the criminals."

Lupe felt tears leak out of her face and wiped them away with the back of her hand. "She won't survive there," she softly said.

"Probably not, no. But I am not releasing her from my custody until I am satisfied that there's not a massive public safety risk."

There is. The ADAM is going to turn this place upside down. But the ship had already sailed on that. Plasmids were sold on every street. Lupe had been the only person on the train platform lighting her cigarette with a lighter and not her fingers. She could only pray that enough ADAM could be sourced to stop everyone from becoming whatever horrible fate had befallen Helena.

She stood up. "I'm ready."

The second time was easier. Lupe was able to look longer, at least. Helena's legs had fused together at the knees and her feet had become elongated and flattened, like that of a seal. Her hands remained relatively normal, however. Lupe instinctively reached down and took her hand. It was cold, but Helena squeezed back.

Lupe sank to her knees. "Oh, Helena, you're in there, aren't you? I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered in a strangled voice. "Can you tell me anything? Anything at all?"

Helena's eyes remained shut and her grip slackened, leading Lupe to believe that the grasp had been a non-voluntary response. But she wasn't going to give up.

"I got Richard," she informed Helena, hoping that perhaps bringing up what they had talked about last would maybe serve as an anchor. "He's very much in love with me. He left his wife. He bought us a house. Oh, and his wife is very angry about it," Lupe blabbered on, hope fading fast. "I have my own shop, you'd-you'll love it, I sell all sorts of bawdy things."

*ESCAPE*

Lupe stopped talking with a sharp intake of breath. The thought wasn't hers. It had intruded into her mind, scraping the sides of her skull in a tactile and definite way. "Helena," she whispered. "Was…was that you?"

*ESCAPE* And then came images – an advertisement for the Mermaid Lounge that had been plastered outside of their boarding house. An image of Lupe herself, but dressed in an old blue dress she had frequently worn at the boarding house. A school of fish lazily floating by a window. The advertisement again.

As suddenly as the images and alien thoughts entered her mind, they left. Lupe blinked, trying to make sense of any of it and to grapple with what had happened as well. "Helena," she gently said, looking for an explanation from an unlikely source. "What…what did you just do?"

"What did she show you?"

Lupe had forgotten that Detective Pierce was in the room as well. "Pictures," she cautiously said, reluctant still to mention the word 'escape' to the authorities. "An advertisement from the neighborhood we lived in. Fish. And myself from last year." Lupe shut her eyes and tried to think. She's trying to tell me something, but what? How no longer mattered. It was the ADAM. That was answer enough.

"You saw something? I can't see anything with her," Detective Pierce pensively said. "I feel as if she's trying to show me something. 'Look', that's what I…hear from her. 'Look'. But I cannot see." Detective Pierce lit a cigarette.

Lupe noticed that he used a matchbook and not his bare hands to spark up. I've got a little bit of ADAM in me, she realized with a start, and he hasn't got any. It's like a radio antenna. I bet someone with a lot of ADAM would be able to 'hear' Helena much better than I can…

She bent closer to Helena, no longer frightened of her monstrous appearance. "I'll come back soon," she softly told her. "I'll take care of you, don't worry." Lupe stood and looked at Detective Piece. "You won't send her off before tomorrow, will you?"

He shook his head. "You've got something in mind?"

Lupe pressed her lips together into a tight line and nodded.