MAY 24, 1959 — 4:28 PM

The volcanic vents and network of massive, endlessly-pumping pipes that surrounded Hephaestus never failed to tinge the great glass windows of Central Control with a constant red-hot glow. Ryan kept his gaze fixed beyond the glass, watching pockets of air bubble up past the steel panes, striving endlessly upwards as though reaching for the surface in vain.

"Are you sure you don't want the rest of the council briefed on this, sir?"

Ryan folded his hands behind his back. "The council has no authority in this matter, Sullivan. Just give me the report."

"Right." Sullivan knew better than to argue. He was dependable for that. "We've had five different robberies in the past three weeks, all of them large-scale, all of them targeting places connected to you or to Ryan Industries. It looks like the thieves have been using the emergency access tunnels to hit all of 'em."

Thieves. The word burned in his mind like a simmering hot coal, stoking the quietly growing fire of his fury. The thought of any thief in his city, let alone one so brazen as this, was simply unbearable.

"Other than that, there doesn't seem to be any connection between the incidents."

Ryan knew that much, from his own reviews of the individual reports. He also knew that such a conclusion hardly meant there was no significant connection to be found between them. These thefts were not random incidents fueled solely by greed, weakness of will, or hatred against him—no, there was something coordinated and deliberate in this.

He only needed to discern to what end they were coordinated before he knew which course of action would best be taken.

"What was stolen?"

"That depends on the location." There was a rustling of papers as Sullivan searched for the details. "From our armories they took weapons, uniforms, boatloads of ammunition, and we'd been keeping some ADAM in there too... When they hit Fontaine—er, I mean Ryan Industries, of course, they took just about everything they could that wasn't nailed down. Including scores of ADAM." More rustling. "Seems like every place they hit, they cleaned out whatever ADAM or plasmids were being kept there."

On its own, such a theft could have easily pointed to splicers. But a series of such thefts was too coordinated for a group of junkies to accomplish, Ryan was certain, particularly any junkies who were so deeply addicted to ADAM that they needed such great amounts to get their fix. He doubted that splicers could have been involved in this at all.

"Food, too—some of the storehouses had been keeping canned goods and the like, or they were selling 'em. Totally cleaned out."

This new piece of information made the picture in Ryan's mind just a little bit clearer. If these thieves weren't stealing ADAM for their personal need or use, it was hardly likely that they had that much need or use for that amount of food, either.

"And last night... We got reports that somebody tossed Fontaine's old place, the penthouse in Olympus Heights. We're not treating it as a related incident just yet, though."

"It very likely is related," said Ryan. "If these thieves are intending to benefit by taking from my wealth, it only follows that they should take from the wealth of others as well...even if those others are now deceased."

Sullivan was silent for a moment, perhaps contemplating Ryan's conclusion for himself. "All right. I'll advise the boys to take a closer look."

"Be sure that you do." Ryan turned his head just enough to see Sullivan in the corner of his eye. "Was there anything else?"

"Well..." Sullivan seemed to hesitate, but he never hesitated for long. "To be frank with you, sir, that theft from the armory really put a hurting on us when it comes to dealing with those splicer goons. Seems like they're just getting worse by the day."

Ryan frowned. It did certainly seem that way, for all the progress he had made in stamping out the influence of the parasite and preserving the sanctity of his city. But it wasn't a matter he would need to concern himself with much longer.

"If there's anything you could do to help us out—I don't know, give us greater authority, or more resources, or put some regulations down—"

"Rapture will never be a city of regulations," Ryan said sharply, raising his voice for the first time since their conversation began. "The people of this city are of a stronger sort than that. They have no need of our interference to tell them what they can and cannot do."

There was a pause.

"With all due respect, sir... It looks to me like there are some people in this city who do."

Ryan bristled. "Their numbers are few and thus inconsequential. I will not have our ideals betrayed to cater to their weakness."

"Again, with all due respect..." Sullivan's tone grew ever more cautious; he knew full well that this line of conversation was not unlike tiptoeing through a minefield. "Maybe they're inconsequential to folks like you and me, but there's plenty of other folks for whom there's plenty of consequences. There's an awful lot of innocents out there getting mugged and killed by junkies looking for their next splice."

Ryan took a deep, fuming breath before he made his reply.

"The parasites will sort themselves out, given time." Then he turned to face Sullivan. "But there is a solution in the works to speed along the process. I would strongly advise you not to concern yourself with the matter any more than is deemed necessary."

"Yes, sir." Sullivan nodded quickly. "Of course, sir. Sorry for, uh, for speaking out of turn."

"It's quite all right, Sullivan." There were few who could speak so freely in such a way to the founder of Rapture, and the chief officer was one of them. "Tell me when you've made any further headway on your investigation. More importantly, find wherever these parasites are keeping everything they stole."

"Of course."

At that moment, the two-way radio at Sullivan's belt crackled to life.

"Officer Sullivan? Come in, Officer Sullivan."

"Excuse me—" Sullivan stepped back, features hardened, to take the call. "This had better be goddamned important."

"You're meeting with Mr. Ryan, aren't you? He needs to know that his son's been detained."

"What—" He made the mistake of looking directly at Ryan then. It was a mistake he quickly corrected. "What happened?"

"It's nothing serious, just—"

Ryan didn't want to hear it. "Send him to me. Now."

Sullivan was already long gone by the time Jack made his way to Central Control. Ryan waited for his arrival in the innermost chamber of his office, staring down the great machine that held the keys to his city. He waited until he heard the hiss of the door as it slid open and shut, then the sound of his son's footfalls upon the tiled floor.

"Would you care to explain yourself, Jack?"

Even without looking at him, even before hearing him speak, Ryan could sense the anger and defiance rolling off him in waves. It was to be expected, after all.

"There's nothing to explain, father."

Ryan turned then, only to see the anger barely contained in his son's face. Just as he expected.

"What did you do?"

"Mind my own business, and nothing more than that."

He did not immediately counter, but instead stared Jack down. For once, Jack didn't seem to recoil or wilt under his gaze.

"Is that the truth, Jack? Tell me."

"I did nothing wrong."

"Tell me what you did, sin moj."

Jack's upper lip gave the slightest twitch before he finally answered him.

"I went to Eve's Garden."

At those two words, Ryan's blood ran cold.

"And?"

"And nothing. Security ejected me as soon as they saw me on the premises."

If Ryan had been seated, this news might have driven him to put his head in his hands; as things were, he could already feel a throbbing in his temple. But he stood before his son and it was this way he must remain, to ensure he maintained his upper hand. Jack needed no further opportunities to flout any defiance of his father's authority.

"You know that you're forbidden from that place."

"Why?" Jack's anger hadn't abated in the least. "Why that place and nowhere else, huh? What's so special about Eve's Garden that you'd have a standing order to kick me out on sight?"

Ryan could see where this was going, and it filled him with a fury like nothing else in this miserable day had managed so far. He would have thought that the people of his city, let alone his own child would know better than to defy him like this.

"I will not have my son seen in the presence of dancers and whores," he said quietly, maintaining calmness in the face of the oncoming storm. He moved past his son as he spoke, making for the door to his office proper. "That is all."

"Is it really?" Jack snapped at his back. "Is that really all it is, or did you just want me out of there because one of those whores is my mother?"

And there it was.

Ryan stopped as the door opened, listened to it shut as he turned to face his son again.

"Who told you?"

Jack's hands clenched into fists at his sides.

"Nobody told me. I figured it out on my own."

"Tell me the truth, sin moj."

"That is the truth."

The boy's voice was shaking. Ryan could drag no more of the truth out of him, if he was truly that determined to bury it. He would simply have to find it through other means. In the meantime...

Ryan took a step closer to him. "If you know this much," he said, his voice just as quiet as before, "then you know why you cannot go there. No one else must know what you really are, Jack—no one, not even her."

"I wasn't going to tell her about me," said Jack, evidently doing his damnedest to hold to his earlier anger, but now there was desperation straining through his tone. "I just wanted to see her."

"That risk is one none of us can afford and you know that. Perhaps she would never be able to figure it out on her own, but there are those with sharper wits who frequent that club."

"So what?" His desperation was plain now. "I don't have to see her there, I could—I could meet her somewhere else."

Jack's defiance was no longer restrained to raising Ryan's ire; now it was making him weary. "You cannot see her, Jack."

"Why not?" It was obvious that it was taking everything Jack had not to advance on his father. "Shouldn't a man have a right to see his own goddamn mother?"

Naturally, Ryan had nothing to hold him back from advancing on his son, and that's exactly what he did.

"You haven't yet proven yourself to be a man, have you?" He didn't need to shout to make his fury known; those words alone were enough to make Jack flinch and recoil. "Are you a man, Jack? Or are you merely a child who plays at one by defying his father's will, by grasping at power and authority which he has yet to rightfully earn?"

There was no need to demand an answer from Jack this time. The boy made it plain with his wilted posture and refusal to meet his father's sight.

Just as Ryan thought.

He turned to approach the door again.

"You will not go near Eve's Garden again, sin moj, nor will you approach Jasmine Jolene. Am I understood?"

There was no reply.

"Am I understood, Jack?"

"Yes, batya."