Jack held the box of cigarette out in front of him to study the side of it. The label: a portrait of Andrew Ryan smoking a Rapture Products logo.
"Lincoln, Nebraska." The younger officer said.
"These are shit." Jack said pulling a cigarette out and lighting it in his mouth. He exhaled and put the box in his pocket, looking out over the railing in the fisheries. "You know what the good part bout being from the south Alabama? Means guys like Ryan and Fontaine don't know nothin' about where you're coming from. They think you come from some piece of shit swamp that ain't got nothin' to offer the higher beings that run this piece of rust. Probably the same for Nebraska."
He scanned all the activity involved in the loading of the catch, the gutting of the fish. He watched a man skillfully handle a long silver fish that Jack had never seen fishing the Gulf. The fish had been fast and powerful mere hours before. Now it was helpless as it was held down and cut apart. Inside Rapture.
"So that's where you're from?" The younger man said. His shield read Howard. "Alabama?"
"Look, Howard." Jack said still searching the shuffling fishermen below. "You're taking over a position I've held for a bit of awhile. Now, I don't want you to go getting yourself hung in a prison cell for treason, cause I'm the man who put you where you're at now. And if you go and get caught, then I'm gunna get strung up with you."
"Don't worry, sir." Howard said. "I won't let them know I'm working with the smugglers. I can keep a secret, sir. Especially ones that end up with me getting executed."
Jack's eyes darted to a man who had apparently lost his balance. Quickly the man righted himself and stood up right laughing as other fisherman patted him on the back. Made jokes. A slick spot made him momentarily lose his balance.
"Nope." Jack said. "I ain't worried about you being dumb enough to trust Rapture's finest if you went over to the other side. I hate to be the one to break this to ya Howard, but you've passed the point of being completely fucked. You are now part of the treasonous activity of bringing surface goods into Rapture. The fact that you're an officer of the Law in Rapture gives you the ability to facilitate such illegal activities. That's fancy for evil son of a bitch. It also means that if you are caught you will receive the full wrath of a betrayed Rapture and Ryan. Don't that just sound nice?"
Jack finally looked over to the young man. A tall barrel chested blonde with the short hair associated with men of authority. At the moment the big man was shuddering.
"I guess that means you've seen the prison?" Jack laughed and looked back to the workers. "I trust that you'll get along in my old spot. For awhile at least. But sooner or later you're gunna have to get good at lying. You see, the reason I picked you is cause you didn't come here to be a cop. You wanted to be somebody's hero. And they told you that you could be. But now you're standing next to me. Wearing that uniform. And now you know. We're livin' in one big fat lie at the bottom of the damn ocean. And sooner than you want to, you're gunna have to start learnin' to lie about loving this place."
"But that's why I turned for you in the first place." Howard said standing next to the rail looking at Jack. "Because I hate this place. Because it's a mistake. It's a lie. You told me it is. I always knew it really. How can I pretend to love this?"
"Look you may be the dumb Nebraskan who plays football to them, but don't play the feeble mind with me Princeton." Jack said. He flicked the remainder of his cigarette to the ground below. "You may be from hay seeds. But I know about that big brain of yours. Too bad none of the higher ups here take ex-sports stars seriously. Even fancy college boys."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Look." Jack finally faced the man eye to eye. "You're taking my job cause you're basically me. You've come from shit but you still got smarts. Your gunna figure it out. My advice? Only way I've been able to keep up with this is practice. Lying takes practice. You need to lie all the time. To everybody. But not big lies, save that for your new job. But just make up things about yourself. Tell a girl you're from Oklahoma. Make up a hobby you've never had. Lie about who your parents were and what they did. In this life you want to give out as little truth about yourself as possible, but still give out lots of information. Always have that one thing about yourself that people think they know but don't. In a world of lies you've gotta have as much bull shit as possible to keep yourself from getting killed. Because these people gotta believe you're risking your life and bringing in scumb for the your home that most assuredly ain't a pile of metal shit on the ocean floor."
"What about a wife or a girlfriend? People close to me?"
Movement down below. Jack's head snapped back to the dock. A man stumbling into the wall. His back hunched over with his hand over his mouth. A lurch. Another one. A fellow fisher comes over and puts a hand on his back. The dry heaving fellow holds a hand to reassure. Spits a mess out on to the floor.
"Bingo." Jack said. "People close to you? That ain't happenin."
"Not even a girlfriend?"
Jack moved swiftly to the stairs and descended with Howard on his heels. As he got closer to the ground his face changed into stone seriousness. His right hand now had his baton in it. Soon he was behind his prey. He looked back at Howard smiling.
"There's plenty of whores in Rapture."
…..
"This ain't tah way to tah hole?" The drunk man leaned heavily against the Nebraskan to stay up right. "I ain't taht drunk. And even ifta I was. Drink tain't illegal."
Jack had a fistful of the man's shirt dragging the fisherman behind him.
"You're working at the air locks that lead to an ocean that could flood or freeze the entire fisheries." Jack led him down the darkly lit hall. "And you're gunna argue about the legality of gettin' tipsy while working? Shit, son. My daddy ran shine and the bothers even me."
"Drunk mick." Howard popped the back of the drunk's face with his hand.
"I believe the gentleman is Scottish Officer Howard."
"What's your point?"
Jack laughed as he opened the door he'd been looking for.
"Guess your right." Jack led the man into the room where Bridgette Tenenbaum stood before a table of assorted syringes. Behind her was a table that had straps on the side for the arms and legs.
"What kind of hole is tis?" The drunk was released. He whipped around and jabbed a finger in the Nebraskan's face. "And you. I lost terty dolars on taht woman's knee o yours! Your American rugby is gob shite!"
Jack walked over next to Tenenbaum and smiled at her. She looked at him in agitation then returned to her tools..
"Officer Howard."
"Yes, sir?"
"If you would."
"Gladly."
The drunk opened his mouth to say something but was silenced as Howard's right fist caught him flush with a haymaker. The man crumpled to the floor. His eyes barely open at the bottom and his legs twitching.
"What took you so long?" Tenenbaum said pulling up a syringe filled with a murky red liquid.
"Can't just nab anybody." Jack leaned back on the table and crossed his arms. "Good thing about the docks is you can always count on a few drunks. Howard put our guest on the table and strap him down."
"Damn. He's heavier than he looks." The Nebraskan labored with the limp man and worked him into position with the straps. Once on his back the man started to snore through his nostrils.
"This is pretty evil." Jack said pulling out a cigarette. "Even for us."
"Do not smoke that here." Tenenbaum pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and tossed it in the corner. She set the syringe on the man's stomach. "If you had been in the camps you would not think so."
"I'd never left America until Korea." Jack said. "What about you Howard?"
"Too young for both wars. Is that normal?"
"Is what normal?" Tenenbaum started pushing her fingers down on the side of the man throat. Pulling back his eye lids.
"The snoring."
"For a concussion this is normal. Stand back you two."
"You and the zipper head figure this out yet?" Jack walked to the corner and picked up his cigarette.
"That is what we are here to see." Tenenbaum pulled back the man's sleeve and wiped an area with a damp cloth. After sanitizing she brought the needle to his arm and punctured him. She closed her eyes. Something unintelligible whispered out of her mouth then she opened her eyes and plunged the murky red liquid into the man.
"What is that stuff?" Howard asked.
"Officer Howard." Jack said. "Get back."
All three people backed away from the snoring man and waited. His chest rose and fell. His right leg twitched occasionally. They waited and watched for ten minutes.
"Is this supposed…?" Howard asked.
"Silence!" Tenenbaum said.
They waited another ten minutes. The man continued breathing normally.
"Well at least he didn't die this time." Jack put the cigarette behind his ear. "Maybe that's a good sign?"
Tenenbaum glared over at Jack in his corner and looked ready to say something nasty. Then the snoring stopped. Her head shot over to the man.
"Up." Jack said shook his head. "Spoke too soon. But at least this one was quiet about…"
The drunk's chest shot up off the table as he pushed his body upwards by his elbows and he screamed wide eyed at the ceiling. He jerked violently at every strap. Convulsing and howling.
The three tried to push themselves into the wall.
The man's back came back to the table and he looked down at his hand clawing at itself. The skin on his forearm blushing a light pink, then a full red.
"Arm! Arm! Arm!" The man screamed over and over. His fingers started twitching.
Jack pulled his gun out of his holster and pointed it at the top of the man's head.
"Nein!" Tenenbaum grabbed his arm and looked into Jack's eyes. They looked into each others shocked and scared faces for four heart beats. Each breathing deeply. Then they looked back to the man who was now shaking his head from left to right and frothing.
Howard was on the ground in the corner. His head to his knees and his hand on top of his head.
The man stopped moving and looked back to the arm and was still. He stopped yelling. Everything in the room seemed as if it was in a snapshot. A living photo. Each person as motionless as death.
Two of the man's fingers touched and sparks shot out his fingernails squirting blood onto the floor. Both finger ignited in flame and in turn ignited his whole hand. Than forearm. The man went back to screaming non ]sense. At first the fire seemed content at the forearm.
Then is started spreading. A smokeless fire the spread the rancid smell of burning flesh throughout the room.
His upper arm and chest. Then his neck and belly. The head was engulfed silencing the man after a few horrific moments. Then the legs.
The body burned fast. Too fast.
Inside ten minutes of burning there was nothing left but ash and a full human skelaton. And a complete forearm with red skin completely unharmed.
"Mein gott." Tenenbaum said. Somehow she had ended up leaning heavily into Jacks chest. His arms pressing her head against him. They released without looking at each other as she walked over to inspect the arm.
"The smell." Howard said. He was starting to get up. His eyes were puffy and red. "Dear god the smell. What a failure. What a disaster. What horror."
"Failure? What failure?" Tenenbaum looked at the hand wide eyed wanting to touch it and afraid to touch it at the same time. "I gave a man the ability to create fire from his hand with nothing. That was miracle!"
Jack rubbed his face down from his forehead.
"Well that's the thing about miracles, ain't it?" Jack interlocked his fingers on the back of his neck. "If you think about it they're all scary as hell. How you doing Howard?"
"I just watched a man burn to death sir." Howard looked to the ground. He looked back to Jack.
"Well I think we'll call that a day, Officer Howard." Jack said closing his eyes and leaning his head back to the ceiling. "Battle not with monsters."
"Was your father really a bootlegger sir?"
"Hay-ell, no."
When his face came back and he opened his eyes Tenenbaum was looking at him intently. Jacks face was just tired. For a beat they stayed that way. Then he grinned.
"And you told me not to smoke."
Tenenbaum smiled back then looked back to the arm.