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.

13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"Is this some sort a chain-yankin', then?" Fontaine looked at the picture perplexed. I wasn't about to let him play the fool.

"You know just what this is about. This is about what you did to Dana Wales," I said.

Fontaine, however, looked less than awe-struck with horror. "What did I do to Dana Wales?"

"You used her up and spit her back like a bone from one of your fish cakes. She was only 25, Fontaine. Did you even think about that? Her family? Her future?" I felt the fire at my neck now. He wasn't talking his way out of this.

"Certainly. I think about it all the time. In fact it's a frequent topic of discussion between we two."

"You sick freak."

"I don't know what sort of idea you have here. You know what, I don't like your tone at all." Fontaine called into the next room, "Dana? Would you come in here a minute?"

"What the…"

Dana Wales walked into his office.

"Yes, boss?" she said. I nearly felt my heart stop as I realized she was the secretary I had brushed past only minutes before in the hallway. I fought for breath but found none. Somehow, someway, she was standing right there in front of me, not a scratch on her, not a line in her perfect features.

"Dana, please see this Mr. Mac-Feeny to the door. In fact, call up Tony and Sam and have them make sure he doesn't get lost on the way out." Dana exited as Fontaine gestured to me with a cigar hand, "Thanks for the tip, though, hoss. Can't never be too careful, my line of business and all."

A pair of gorillas in matching striped suits materialized in the doorway, and ushered me out before I could say a word. They frog-marched me past the desk where I saw Dana sitting, filing an office memo like this was any other day to her. The world didn't make sense anymore. A city in the deep made more sense that the last 48 hours, and I wasn't about to leave without figuring something out.

I pulled back from the gorillas, and stepped quickly between them towards Dana's desk. They grabbed me from behind and pulled me toward the stair case.

"Dana!" I called, slowly losing the fight to the goons' hairy hands shoving me out of the place. "How's your brother?"

She looked back at me, for a muggy moment her eyes flashed recognition, but then turned to cold anger. She reached under the desk and pulled out a shotgun. She leveled it at me and cocked it. Double-barreled. The last thing I heard was, "Sir, I'm sorry. I don't have a brother."