When my daughters wake up and walk into the kitchen, I have already prepared a breakfast for them; scrambled eggs, bacon chewy like they like it, golden hashed browns, cups of hot chocolate for Masha and Sally and Veronica, a cup of syrup milk for Leta, and a small cup of coffee for Susie (you try saying no to her when she makes those eyes - it can't be done).
"Now be sure to eat everything on your plate so you can grow up to be big and strong."
Like I need to tell them; my daughters love my cooking. While my cooking is as good as can be expected from someone whose childhood memories were fabricated whole-cloth, as far as my daughters are concerned anything that isn't Rapture Canned Food is the utterly delicious. They even insist that the sardines and anchovies on the surface taste better than those in Rapture (which makes sense, as Rapture was probably a place where the "The Grocer Need Not Fear The FDA").
After they eat, my daughters go into the living room to play with their toys. Leta is drawing pictures with crayons, Sally and Susie are playing hide-and-seek, Veronica is listening to a news report on the radio (apparently the United States is increasing it's military presence in Southeast Asia), Masha's staring outside the window and (probably) cursing her luck that it had to rain last night and make the front yard too muddy to run around in.
The newspaper was probably delivered by now, so I decide to go collect it from the driveway. I tell my daughters where I am headed so they will not worry over my absence.
"I'm going to get the paper. It'll only take a minute."
While the others continue going about their business, Masha jumps up and all but runs to my side.
"Can I come with you?!"
"You are still in your pajamas. You know you have to get dressed before you can go outside."
Masha becomes disappointed, so I try to make it up to her.
"After you're all dressed, I'll take you into town to go bowling."
This pleases all my daughters, and Masha immediately cheers up.
Once outside, I walk down the path from my house to the road. The grass is muddy and covered with last night's rain, and there are still a few residual clouds in the sky. I deeply inhale the air and the pine aroma which the rain stirred up. Every breath of surface air is a blessing as well as a reminder that (for my daughters and I at least) The Rapture Nightmare is over.
It's after I finish inhaling that I notice some people standing in front of me. Specifically, a man and a woman. They were both redheads, and despite being different genders they appeared to be identical twins. They did stir in the cold morning breeze, and their shoes were not even muddied by the ground they were standing on.
But if they're here, I am sure they are here for a good reason. "Why are you two here?"
I did not mean to sound quite so blunt, but they would not be here without a reason and I do not have a good feeling about what that reason might be.
The woman turned to her twin brother and gestured to me. "See? Even he thinks we should have gone with my suggestion."
"Mr. DeWitt and his willingness to sell his daughter has caused enough damage as it is. In any case, Mr. Wynand is much more qualified for this undertaking."
What undertaking?
The woman counters, "Perhaps if she was trapped in Rapture, but rescuing girls from there hardly makes Mr. Wynand equipped for the task at hand."
Needing to get to the bottom of this, I raise my hands and interrupt them. "What are you two talking about?"
This interruption seems to get them down to brass tacks. The woman starts. "We have come here to make you an offer."
They had better not be salesmen ...
Her brother elaborates, "There is a girl who is currently imprisoned in a city much like Rapture."
My heart freezes at the mention of that Watery Hell, and my mind recalls those damp halls and the horrors they held. If this new city is even a little bit like Rapture, than this girl needs to be rescued immediately!
But it is not that simple: I have my own little girls to look after. Five precious rays of sunshine who depend on me to look after them. Masha's parents are doubtlessly dead, and the biological parents of my other daughters are probably dead as well. There is the grim possibility that I might have been forced to kill some of their parents - splicers are not known for listening to reason after all. In any case, I can not risk the future of my daughters, even to save an innocent girl's life.
I am about to decline, but before I can even open my mouth the woman explains what I would get in return: it seems she did not expect me to rescue this girl out of the kindness of my heart.
"Get her out of the city and to us, and in payment we will wipe away your debts and grant you enough money to ensure your daughters never have financial worries again."
My debts and my daughters ... how did these two know about them? I am too shaken to even bother asking.
Of course I am in deep debt. I had to borrow a lot of money to support my five daughters and ensure they have the life they deserve, and finding a job with which to pay off those debts has proven impossible. The conundrum is that I need a job that pays enough to support five daughters, will leave me enough free time to spend with those daughters, and that the only marketable skill I posses is the ability to bludgeon insane drug-addicts to death with a wrench. While I have a few years to repay my debts, I know it is unlikely that I will be able to do so without my daughters having to suffer from me being away long hours at work.
On one hand, this mission could potentially solve all of my problems. If I succeed, than I will have solved my family's financial problems forever. I will be able to care for my daughters for the rest of my natural life, and will still be able to spend time with them.
If I succeed. That is what is on the other hand. It is very possible that I will die on this mission, then my daughters will have lost yet another parent. Brigid Tenenbaum would take care of them if I died, but she already has twenty little girls she has to care for.
And then there is the girl who is imprisoned. What if nobody else will go to rescue her? Then she might end up being experimented upon or eaten by splicers or whatever sick fate her home city has in store.
The two twins wait patiently while I think this over. Finally I make my terms, "I'll do it under one condition: even if I die and fail, you still have to give my daughters the money you would have given me. And I will want four days to get my affairs in order."
The man talks it over with his sister.
"These seem like reasonable terms."
"They are decidedly unreasonable, but if you insist on hiring Mr. Wynand instead of Mr. DeWitt than we have to accept them."
I guess that settles it then. One last mission; one last person I need to save.