Having brought the gunship to a halt, I step off the dock and approach the door to Elizabeth's prison. Around are various signs stating that Monument Island is closed, but that does not deter me anymore than the armed racists did.

Speaking of arms, two clockwork plasmid vendors catch my eye. I had better make sure to examine the vending machines to see which Plasmids/"Vigors" they offer.

I purchase something called "Murder of Crows", then I use "Posession" on the two machines. The green cloud shoots into them, covers them, and causes them to belch out the coins in inserted as well as several new ones ("new" isn't the right word, as most of them are dull and rusted and suggest that these particular machines have not seen use in years). I pick these coins up, and drink down my new plasmid. Once again it tastes horrible, once again I have a jarring hallucination, and now I feel slightly more prepared should another Fireman burst through the door to ambush me.

I push against the door, and it opens. It was not even locked! While that is helpful to me (I don't have an automatic hacking tool, and I only know how hack tube-based locks like the ones in Rapture), it does snow a certain amount of sloppiness on the part of Comstock's Men. Perhaps they expected the checkpoints to stop anyone before they got this far, or perhaps they are setting me up for an ambush. If it's the latter, then my wrench and this rifle I "borrowed" will show any potential ambushers why that would be a mistake. Not to mention the plasmids at my disposal.

This door leads me to a small garden area. There's an empty fountain in the middle, the walls are overgrown with shrubbery and vines, and at the end of the garden is another gate. This gate isn't messing around; in addition to the usual "closed" signs there is also a large coil of chains wrapped around the gate. Now this is how you keep people out.

I try looking for another way around when I spot a freight-hook right over the fence. I do not long ponder this strange architecture choice, I simply jump and let whatever is in my sky-hook work its magic. It works, and in short order I am above the fence. When I retract the sky-hook, I land on the other side with a thud. This time I try to roll so as to break my fall.

Now I make my way up the path to the door to the tower itself. In front of it is a statue of Elizabeth, dressed in a flowing angelic robe and holding a large scroll. I remind myself once again that the most beautiful woman I have ever seen needs me to take her Topside.

But before I can go further, I need to change out of these clothes lest she mistake me for another captor. With her with me, I would not be able to disguise myself as a convincing Colombia Soldier anyway. So I sit at the foot of the statue and remove my disguise.

The first thing to go are the damn boots; as soon as I pull them off I let out a loud moan of relief. Those damn boots did not fit me, and while I could power through the pain I don't want to do so if I don't have to. I put on my old shoes - they fit - and I throw the boots into some bushes nearby. Next goes the helmet and the mask; I too throw those into the bushes. The gloves I toss to my side, as being able to use Plasmids is worth the risk of potentially being spotted. Finally I take off the jacket and the pants I took from the dead soldier.

The only pieces of equipment I keep from the dead soldier are the belt and the rifle. The former because it is extremely helpful for storage without being too conspicuous, and the latter because a pistol just won't cut it if someone tries to kill me again. Plus a belt isn't all that conspicuous.

I also take out the key that the Luteces gave me at the lighthouse; this might be where I need it.

I push the doors to the tower itself open, and come to an empty locker room. Chairs overturned, lockers left open, trash on the floor, and above it all a statue of an angel who looks kinda like Elizabeth. There are signs on the walls making it clear to stay away: "Danger, do not approach the Specimen!" "The Specimen is Dangerous" "Past this point 12 hour quarantine!"

Well, I never let danger stop me before. I will push forward! Just as soon as I do a sweep of the room ...

There is not much in this room; mostly some coins people left on the floor. In the unlocked locker of one janitor, I find a voxophone. "Ty Bradley" is written on the player part, and on the disk itself is the word "diary". I guess the janitor keeps his thoughts down on a voxophone, and ruefully I recall how in Rapture many people kept their thoughts on Audiobooks.

I activate the voxophone, and it plays. "I guess even in a restricted area, these crackers need someone to clean the floors, hm? Hmph. Those politicians and scientists don't bother 'bout what they say 'round me, because I'm some half-lettered colored boy. But I can tell they scared out of their wits by that thing they got locked upstairs, yessir. They got a tiger by the tail, and they don't know whether to hang on...or run."

Scientists? Oh God, why did it have to be scientists ...

Jack, not all scientists torture little girls for fun. And if someone is harming Elizabeth, it is all the more reason to push onward.

Reluctantly, I enter the next room.

The first thing I see is a blackboard with a graph on it, at the end of a small hallway ... and one of the walls in the hallway must have a faulty wire as it is spewing out sparks in an irregular stream (like a Shock-Jockey Splicer who had too much to drink). Without paying mind to the sparks, I walk right through them until I am close enough to the blackboard to examine it. At the top is written "Specimen Morphology" and below are four outlines (age 1, age 5, age 11, and age 17). This tells me two things; first that Elizabeth is somewhere around 17 years old, but more importantly it tells me that these scientists do not even see her as a human being.

Advanced Deployment, Lot 111 Dr. Suchong/Client Fontaine Futuristics. Baby is now a year old, weighs 58 pounds, and possesses gross musculature of a fit, 19-year-old. The results are... disappointing, but within expected tolerances.

Jack, calm down! At least Elizabeth's growth was not artificially accelerated. Not like yours. You'll take her out of the tower, then take her to the surface, and everything will be fine. Now just move forward ...

When I walk behind the blackboard I see and ignore two more danger-signs and head into the next room.

Standing prominently in this room is a large machine. There are three levers on it, and behind each lever is a giant glass tube hooked to some electrical wire. Two giant electric arcs from the walls jump to the top of the machine. On top of the machine is a giant sign which reads "SIPHON ACTIVE".

I walk to the first lever, labelled "Transpose No. 1", and pull it. A light shines on the corresponding bottle, revealing a teddy bear and a card that reads "age 4: childhood companion". Then a bolt of something that looks like electricity strikes the bear, causing it to turn black and finally read.

Huh?

When I pull the lever for Transpose No. 2, the second bottle lights up and reveals that it holds a book and a notecard that reads "age 11: poetry book". Again a bolt of lightning from the top of the bottle strikes it, again causing the object to turn blue.

I wonder what's at play here.

When I pull the third lever, that bottle lights up and I get mad. In that bottle is some sort of bloody bandage and a sign that reads "age 13: menarche". I don't know what a menarche is, but I do know what blood is and that it usually only comes out when someone is wounded. Have these people been stabbing Elizabeth? I wouldn't put it past them considering they also drown people and throw rocks at them for the Hell of it.

I quickly leave this room and enter the next one.

It is a hallway; one door at the end, one door to my right, and two doors to my left. While my intuition tells me that the door at the end will bring me closer to my goal, I decide to explore the other rooms first as leaving stones unturned is a good way to get killed.

I head to the first door to my left - a large metal one - and open it. There's a big warning sign above, so I know to ignore it.

When I step into this room, I see a glass chamber with a restraining chair similar to the one on the rocket ship that took me here. There is also a hospital bed, a typewriter, several tanks of some form of gas, an entire wall full of big jars of blood, a camera-and-tripod pointed towards the chair, and more grizzly-looking tools than I can imagine.

Looming above the room is a large sign writtein in big bold words. "CAUTION: TO PREVENT RISK OF EXPOSURE ONLY OPERATE IN ROOMS AFTER SOPORIFIC HAS BEEN APPLIED!". a

Soporific? Have these bastards been drugging Elizabeth?! What have they been doing to her?!

Immediately my head fills with hypothetical of all the potentially horrific tortures at play. What if they're ripping her organs out?! What if they're Mentally Conditioning her? What if I'm already too late!? What if -

When my panic subsides, I find I am outside the door of this room. I most likely rushed out under the direction of instinct. Either way, I head to the second door on the left without looking back.

The second room has a dim red glow, a camera, and photos of Elizabeth. Photos taken without her knowledge or approval, and in one of them she isn't even dressed. I leave this room as quickly as I entered it; then I take a deep breath, and with a sudden turn I fire a blast of Incinerate 3! into the dark room. I fire it, then I fire another one, than another after that. I swear, if I find any of these pervert scientists in Columbia then I am going to disembowel them with my bare hands! What kind of sick fuck locks a girl in a tower her whole life, collects her blood, and spies on her?!

Calm down Jack, what's important is that you get Elizabeth as far away from these creeps as possible.

Only one more side room left before I leave the hallway. Against my better judgement, I decide to investigate it. While the photo room burns behind me, I enter the only door on the right.

Inside is a projector camera on a tripod and several overturned chairs. If this video is of the same nature as the photographs, then I just might lose it.

I turn the video on, and fortunately there is nothing too terrifying. The first title card reads "11/5/11 Lockpick Attempt No. 132". It shows Elizabeth standing in front of the door to her holding cell, examining it in vain, and walking away from it.

After that the film shows a second title card, one that reads "4/15/12 Specimen Investigating Codes". This one is followed by a clip of Elizabeth writing down numbers on a very large data table. It is clear she has not taken her imprisonment passively, but has instead been searching for any possible way out of her prison.

It seems she is clever as well as beautiful ...

Next the film shows Elizabeth painting, putting care and detail into a painting of a triangular tower. The rest of the film shows Elizabeth singing (sadly this is a silent film, but I'm sure Elizabeth's voice is better than mine ... especially considering Tenenbaum had to sew my vocal cords back together with rusty tools) and Elizabeth teaching herself to dance. The elegance and precision with which she does these things -especially in the face of constant imprisonment- speaks of a sort of bravery and grace that is rarely seen in the world.

I head out, and enter the door at the end of the hallway. This door leads to a chamber nearly filled by a giant ... thing! There's no other way to describe the great mass of wires and metal and electric currents and other bits and parts all lumped together into a huge pile. This siphon is also surrounded by large speakers, and they seem to be broadcasting a humming sound. I do not know whose humming that is, but in all likelihood it is probably Elizabeth's. It is a sweet sound, one that feels me with a melancholy for the optimism in this humming is something that I -a living weapon forged in a watery Hell- have never felt and will never feel in my lifetime.

At the end of the Siphon Chamber I see what looks like an elevator. I enter it and press the button: the elevator takes me directly to a small room.

This room has two windows; both blocked by metal shutters. There is a lever in front of one of the windows, and sure enough when I pull it the shutters move aside and reveal what looks like a bedroom. Elizabeth is not in either room, so she must be elsewhere.

I briefly consider using my wrench to bash open the one-way-mirror so as to create an easy escape route for her, but I would rather not risk activating any security systems this place has. Instead I go down the hallway to see what else I can find. At the end of the hallway I find a deactivated list of rooms in Elizabeth's Prison with a light next to each one set to illuminate when she is in that room. The list includes the library, the dining room, the dressing room and the bathroom (I'm REALLY going to kill the creepy scientists if I get a hold of them), the conservatory, and the bedroom.

When I activate the "Specimen Location Tracker", it states that she is in the dressing room.

... I need to find a way to access the prison cell if I'm going to get Elizabeth out of Columbia, and that means I need to search everywhere. If Elizabeth is in a state of undress I'll avert my gaze - somebody in this city needs to respect her privacy.

When I get to the second observation room, I find yet yet another one-way-mirror closed by a lever-activated-metal-shutter. There's a glowing sign above the window that reads "Specimen Present", and another "Specimin-tracker" glowing list. There is a chair and a camera in this room as well ... both pointed at the window.

Did I mention that I am going to kill the scientists who have been spying on Elizabeth? Because given the opportunity I am going to kill them. And it won't be quick either.

I wait in the room until the light above the closed window dims, indicating that she is out of the room. The "Specimen Tracker" indicates she has moved to the dining room. I walk down the hallway towards the third observation room.

As before this room has a mirror covered by metal shutters. This time I feel comfortable pulling the lever to see what Elizabeth is doing.

In her dining room is a desk with a large stack of books on it, around ten-to-twelve sketches of a giant bird pinned to the wall, and a painting of a triangular tower aglow with lights in the night sky.

Elizabeth is wearing a long blue skirt and a white shirt, and her hair is tied back in a ponytail. She seems healthy; I can not see any visible scars or signs of trauma, so perhaps I am not too late -

I am immedeatly caught off-guard by what happens next. Elizabeth walks over to the painting, puts her hands into it, and ... I don't know! All I know is that when she pulls apart the painting and the entire wall itself is gone! Just, just gone! In it's place is a large street leading to the shining triangular tower. Music seems to be eminating from this ... this opening ... and I feel myself breathing more rapidly.

"You acting on your best behavior,

Turn your back on mother nature,

Everybody wants to rule the world-"

We only get a bit of the song before a giant wailing firetruck comes rushing down the street towards us!

Elizabeth makes the opening go away before it does, and in a puff of smoke the wall and the painting are back where they were.

Elizabeth and I are both panting and breathing ragged breaths. For myself, I can feel my heart beating in my chest, the way it gets when I am backed against a wall and a Big Daddy is rushing towards me to drive a Drill through my belly.

But I have to press onward, I have to. My daughters are depending on me to return to them alive, and Elizabeth is depending on me to get her out of this tower and out of this city.