The Light in the Deep

by Alcoac

Rapture Noir. Exiled Inspector Teddy Nuckles wasted not a single good thought when he set eye on the lumbering brute clutching a bag of blood on Opening Day of Rapture. He shot him. In the bag, a beautiful woman's severed head. Chief Sullivan orders him to focus on the Fontaine case, but Tenenbaum's autopsy brings up many a puzzle, including a link to German experiments in Poland.

7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

Dana Wales. The red-headed beauty had a name. 25 years on the earth and below the sea. Lived in one of the high-rises of the mason quarter. Occupation unknown. Sort of. Came from money, same as her younger brother. When Ryan invited him to come to Rapture, she followed along as immediate family. I never understood the need to be around someone just because you'd spent some time with them when you were young. Anyone who knew me from before was probably happier I was off the map. Literally. I didn't tell him about how her remains were found, or the beheading. I didn't have to tell him she was dead.

As I sat in the office, Wales told me he hadn't seen his sister in a few days. Normally, that wasn't much of an issue. She had her life, he had his. Still, she'd come around from time to time and they'd have a meal or catch one of Cohen's new shows. He wasn't sure exactly what she did for money. Dana never asked him for any, and always seemed to have more than enough herself.

From all that, I gathered she didn't have a set work schedule. That wasn't strange in Rapture, half the people in the deep were entrepreneurs of some sort. What was strange, though, was that the way she made a living was unknown even to her brother. Practically everything was legal in the sunken city, save the few cardinal sins Ryan kept off-limits, namely smuggling from the surface and anything connected to religion.

"There's one thing though," he finally said, his voice full of pain. I sat back in the chair as he continued, "she had a friend I saw her with sometimes. At Cohen's shows, mostly. Another woman. Older. Cat."

"She had a cat?" I asked.

"No, that was her name. Cat. Like, Catherine," he explained.

"Last name?" I said.

"Never knew it. Anytime they'd see each other out it was always some big to-do like they hadn't known they would see each other. You know the kind, I'm sure."

I didn't.

"Calling out each other's names loudly. Kisses on cheeks all around. Very European."

"She's European?" I asked, picking up on something.

"Certainly. I never knew exactly which country, but definitely from the East. I'll tell you another thing, she saw some of the war."

"She told you that?"

"I meet a lot of people running a hotel. You get to know how to see a person's story before the moment they open their mouth, and honestly, the war's an easy read. So many people in the deep have that look. Like they've seen the fires of Hell."

I nodded and turned to get up, "Haven't you heard, Danny?"

"Heard what?"

"Ryan runs this city on that fire."