Jack looked through the glass in the bubble that was his helmet. Through the glass he looked between the bars. From between the bars he saw the ocean floor. It took some getting used to, but he could now see clearly even with the helmet on. At the southeastern edge of rapture was a large canyon. A steep drop of three fourths of a mile. Thirty feet from the pressure lock to a deep fall into the abyss. From Rapture flowed lines past this ravine.
"What are those connected to again?" Marks asked.
"Some sort of buoy." Jack said. They could hear each other through speakers in the helmets. Two men standing on the ocean floor.
"What keeps em' from rising?" Marks turned his face plate towards Jack. A worthless gesture, neither could see the others face only dull glass.
"You pick how much air you put in it." Jack said gesturing towards the dark. "You put the right amount of air in, and it doesn't go all the way up. Just part of the ways."
"Damn, Jack." Marks said. "That's amazing."
"Marks, you stupid shit, you live on the bottom of the ocean floor." Jack shook his head. The helmet didn't move. "The fact that we ain't dead is amazing."
He had to lean back to look up. Way back, so that his backside was perpendicular with the floor. The lights from the city made it impossible to see that far up. Jack wondered.
"So what made you turn? You've been on the fisheries port for a long time now." Marks said. "You've brought in at least ten cases of smuggling."
"Nine of which ended in execution." Jack said.
"Execution? We do not have Capital Punishment in Rapture!"
"Capital Punishment? That's a fancy way of putting it." Jack said. He smiled. "Jesus, it's cold. Let's just put it this way. Ryan encourages Warden Weir to put a lil' hurt on the people me and Sullivan send his way. Try and get deeper in whatever goin' on down here. You know how many of em' cracked?"
Marks was probably shaking his head.
"None, Marks. Not a damn one." Jacks straightened up and took a step forward. He thought he saw something in the darkness. "Something down here running around Fontaine's little palace is twice as scary as that sadist in Persephone."
"Sadist?"
"It means cruel, torturing sonuvabitch."
"Torture? There is no torture in Rapture."
Jack saw a marlin make a quick turn in the distance. It's side reflecting the lights of rapture. Jack imagined it's large black eye scanning across what it saw. He wondered if the fish was curious or just scared. It turned quickly and swam back into the darkness. Jack didn't blame it.
"Just cause we're at the bottom of the sea don't make no difference." Jack said. "People are people. Things are the same as they are at home."
"But, Rapture is our home Jack." Marks said. Jack closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He walked to edge of the ravine and looked down. Exhale deeply. Five feet below where he stood was pure darkness. Jack opened his eyes and stared at the line where light was swallowed then looked down into the nothing.
"Battle not with monsters." He whispered. "Les you become one. If you look into the abyss the abyss looks into you."
"Jack I couldn't quite hear you." Marks said.
"Just butcherin' some philosophy Marks." Jack looked out into the darkness and this time saw the familiar bubble on the line. It was still a long ways off. He looked back into the nothing. "You see Marks, what I mean is people are gunna be people. Ryan, the communists, and every other revolutionary, never take into account the nature of humans. How we're gunna act regardless of where we're at and what government we're under. Ideals and dreams are nice, but people are gunna be corrupt.
"That's the advantage of growin up poor white trash. You pretty much figure out early on that there's people that are on the bad end of the stick and people on the good end. And the people on the good end are gunna wanna stay there."
"What is that thing?" Marks said. Jack stared for a moment longer than looked up. The bubble was being pulled along by two of the three men.
"It's a metal air bubble that shoots along the line with the fisherman. They hang on for dear life and attach the fishing line to the bubble, then pull it all back in." Jack said. He grabbed his air hose in his right hand and walked back towards Rapture.
"Those aren't fish." Marks said.
"What do you think we're doing out here?" Jack said.
They both waited patiently. The men worked with percission. Bring down the nets with the boxes. Dropped by various boats of various decents. Brought in by Irish, Chinese, Poles. All brought into Rapture because rapture made cigarettes smelled awful and Rapture booze tasted like shit.
"What's in the boxes?" Marks said.
"You're not supposed to ask." Jack said.
The fisherman set about unhooking the bubble and pulling down the long nets filled with cargo dropped from above. The workers pulled in all the boxes in the nets. First went in was the air bubble with contraband. Then the fisherman edged in around the haul.
"If they're doing all the work why are we out here?" Marks said.
"You have to have certified clearance directly from Ryan to work any of the transports to the surface." Jack said, gesturing to the blackness. "And any access to the ocean deep. As Rapture Poh-leese we got that clearance."
Jack pulled down on the outside switch and lock with the fishermen in it drained of water and depressurized. After it was empty a whole team of men lifted the air bubble and the contraband out of the portal. It took less than five minutes for the illegal contents to be moved into hiding by pure man power.
"I hope they hurry up." Marks said. "I'm so cold."
"That's why the whole kit and kaboodle has to take under forty minutes." Jack said. "Otherwise we'd get sick from the cold and pass out."
The pressure lock filled with water again and the outside gate opened. The two men walked in. At the glass was a man with a pencil thin mustache. Behind him were the three fisherman who had ridden the bubble.
"Mr. Fontaine?" Marks said.
"Marks meet our benefactor." Jack said. "Fontaine, can the boys in there hear us?"
Several of the loading workers and other fisherman crowded behind Fontaine and the others behind the glass.
"It's very nice to meet you sir." Marks said, holding his arms out. "I'll come out and meet the whole group once I get this damn suit off."
Marks laughed sheepishly.
"Gentleman." Jack said. "This is why you don't talk to Ryan."
Marks wanted to turn to look back at Jack. Before he could Jack had removed an under water welder and sliced through Marks' breathing hose. The part still attached to Rapture shot into the wall. Spewing bubbles and air.
Marks view finder was still visible to those inside. It immediately filled with a red liquid. The suit's chest and arms collapsed as the pressure of the sea floor crushed bone and muscle. Marks was turned to paste. He fell to the floor
"Why don't you," Fontaine said, "take out the trash."
Then Jack grabbed the crumpled can that used to be a man and started walking back out to the Ravine. The hose spewed out blood and body tissue as he dragged Marks corpse to the edge. He couldn't see the faces of his co-conspirators back in Rapture. But he could guess.
He dropped Marks over the side and the mans body sank in to the darkness.
Jack stared down and for the slightest moment was envious.
….
"You did that on the word of this brute!" The German lady was pissed. She was talking to Fontaine in a tone that not many people could talk to him in. "How do you know that man was an informant? What makes you trust this man with another persons life?"
"Not to be a doubter, Farnk," Jack said while leaning against an operating table, "but why does this woman get to see my face?"
"Because she's in deep, Jackie-boy. Cause she's in deep." Frank smiled. The German lady looked back towards Jack with a harsh look of contempt. "This is Jack. Jack, this is Ms. Tenebaum."
"Oh I know Ms. Rapture's Best and Brightest." Jack lied.
"Brigid, I trust his word because Jackie-boy has been on since day one." Fontaine said. He pulled a cigar out of his pocket and matches when the tobacco was in his mouth. "He's also got a penchant for getting Cubans so we tend to like him around here."
"I saw nothing wrong with that man." Tenenbaum said.
"Trust me, he was Ryan's man." Jack said. Tenenbaum looked doubtful and angry. "Pretty much anyone willing to wear the shield is a true believer, but there's a few of us that don't think everything is so peachy. You have a conversation with Marks and you could hear it. He looked at all this metal and he looked out into that ocean and he really thought this was home."
Jack looked back into the hot eyes and smiled.
"Kinda like you."
Tenenbaum turned her back on them both and walked to a window that had a view of the endless black. Fontaine smiled and puffed his cigarette.
"I'm gunna need you two kids to play it real nice here soon." Fontaine said looking to Tenenbaum's back then Jack. "We're gunna need some real protection from Ryan's goons once this operation gets underway, Jackie-boy. Someone to keep other Rapture elites from coming after the golden egg."
"Well the next one they send they'll want to be loyal." Jack said. Running his hand through his hair. "Someone with a bit of a rough streak. Someone trashy. Cause they know there's inside help and the only way to get inside is to send someone that is as pathetic as the boys doin the fishing but smart enough not to get killed."
Fontaine snorted still smiling.
"Kinda like you."
"Kinda like me."
Tenenbaum looked back towards Jack. Her face was a cold slab of neutrality and indifference. Jack held his hands up in front of him.
"So what do y'all got that's so special?"
"Jackie-boy, we got a winner. A real winner."