CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Second night of surveillance detail. The red-neon sign of Fontaine's Fisheries blazed dimly over the dim wharf, providing only a scant addition to the light, which was always in poor supply in the deep. Sure enough, Chief Sullivan had my rear end when I got back. The good news was, Fontaine hadn't tipped off to anyone he knew the jig was up, or even about my ill-conceived meeting with him. The bad news was they did realize I'd skipped out on a full day of watch. My memory of being dragged into Sullivan's office was more of a jumble than a straight thought. I remembered the word 'dereliction' quite clearly. All it meant was extra hours for me. Like he'd said before, not enough police to go around.
None of that mattered. What mattered was how wrong I'd been. I thought I'd had it all sorted out. The makeup, Siren Alley, the brother, the money, Fontaine, the other redheads. What only hours before had lined up so neat and nice in my mind was now scattered and cloudy like trying to stare off into the inky black nothing surrounding Rapture. The only spots with any natural light in the deep were the heat vents in Hephaestus or the glowing algae out by Persephone.
The more I thought about it, the holes that had appeared in my logic before grew larger. I had taken the makeup to mean she was a working girl. I had taken the Pearl's owner at his word that it was his sister, even the name came from him, though Fontaine had seemed to confirm that at least, there was one redhead in the deep named Dana Wales. Only that one was a personal secretary, not headless in a burlap bag. What really threw me was the trio of girls I had spotted on surveillance and in the logs. Now that I knew the layout of Fontaine's offices, I realized his office faced out to the harbor, not back towards the other buildings. The room they had entered wasn't his office. Whatever they were doing inside, there was a chance Fontaine didn't know about it, either. Which made sense, seeing as I was still breathing.
And then there was Cat Periwell. I hadn't caught sight of her anywhere in Rapture since that night, and I'd spent every one of my off-duty hours the past two days asking around for her. Not a trace. Neither still of Daniel Wales back at the Pearl. I began thinking over what Cat had said to me in a completely different light. Was she getting at that all along, I wondered. If Fontaine didn't know what was going on, wasn't behind what happened to the beauty, there may be more she knew about. When she'd come over she just kept babbling about the light and the dark, when all I wanted was more information on Fontaine. Figures just when I actually want to talk to her, there's neither hide nor hair of the woman. Cherchez le femme, alright.
The chill from the window seeped in, pressing down through my coat like a silent mugger. There was always a perpetual feeling of cold in the deep, especially here by the wharf. I heard the door open behind me, and looking into the reflection, I spoke without turning back, "About time you showed up. I was starting to think you'd given up on me."
"Seems the last time we spoke, it was you giving up on me, was it not," said Cat.
I spun around to face her, not leaving me chair. "You aren't really Cat, are you?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes, actually. Cat is part of my real name, though a nickname. Something my father always called me growing up near Sevastopol."
"A Red," I said, staring directly at her.
"I'm just as Russian as the city's dear leader, Mr. Ryan or was it Mr. Rianovski?" She gave me an upturned side of her mouth.
"Explain." I was in no mood for upturned mouths.
"Inspector Nuckles, if you must know my real name is Katrazyna Privekova. I use the Anglicized name of Catherine Periwell as a cover here in Rapture."
"But its not the first name you used when you got here, is it." I said, not asked.
"Correct. You know that name already," she replied.
"You're Dana Wales. The first Dana Wales, at least." I had begun to put it together not long after getting the bum's rush out of Fontaine's offices. His secretary, the other red heads, the beauty, and now Cat, somehow had all had that in common.
"There is always a Dana Wales, and she is always in the employ of Mr. Fontaine. As far as he knows, there has only ever been one Dana Wales, and she, I, have been his personal assistant for several years now. Since he first arrived in Rapture," Cat explained.
"How is that even possible? We talking plastic surgery here? That don't account for the age difference, though, unless it's some new kinda surgery I never heard of before." This was adding up, just not in a way that made any sense to me.
"Actually, that's more right than you realize, Inspector," said Cat. "I, and others like me, were sent here by the motherland. Our operation was simple. We were to discover the truth of Ryan's so-called Atlantic Project, and report back to the office."
"KGB."
"Yes. Despite his efforts to the contrary, there was no way Ryan could undertake a project of such scope without it rising to our attention. Naturally, Moscow was extremely interested in the prospect of a hidden city halfway across the sea, located just between America and Great Britain. They realized rather than attempt to stop Ryan, they had much to gain from helping him."
"What would the Russkies want with this city?"
"Impunity, Inspector." Her eyes grew coldly serious. "With this as a base of operations, the motherland would be able to keep an eye on the new powers in Washington and London. Some in the halls of power have taken a stand against our leaders, despite our shared sacrifices together to defeat the fascists."
"Wouldn't have gone that way if America hadn't pulled the Allies out," I didn't know where this was going.
"You Americans and your bombs. Yes, you used your weapons of destruction to level cities in Japan with a push of a button. We Russians, though, we paid the price to free all Europe. More of our men, women, and children died fighting Hitler than all the soldiers sent from America. But, that is another discussion."
"I take it you're not here to teach me a history lecture," I was getting anxious.
She looked anxious, too. "I have been trying to tell you, Inspector. This is not about girls and fish and some smuggled cigars from above the waves. This is about the fight for Rapture itself." Her eyes pierced. "Russia would take this hidden city from Ryan's hands and transform it into a military and intelligence outpost."
"Why are you telling me all this, and where do the girls come in?"
"I was part of something. Something that started with the scientists who traveled to Poland, to the German camps there. They saw the experiments, and wanted to continue the work. They first went to Moscow. They made improvements, developments. Then, they were approved to come along on the Rapture mission. The critical component. Avrova."
"Avrova?"
"Project Avrova. They needed a way to take the city from Ryan while keeping the city intact. They authorized the scientists to come to the deep. They brought their work with them."
"How could you have done all this without Ryan noticing?" I asked.
"You are here, watching, aren't you? We gave him something else to look at."
"Fontaine," I said instantly.
"Yes. We made sure his submarine runs to the surface went smoothly, and used our agents to pay more than handsomely for his goods when they arrived in the city. That was my role as his assistant, to keep the books on the runs, to make sure everything was running smoothly. As well as my secondary duty." Her face took a grim look.
"Which was?"
"Project Avrova, it's not a poison or a gas like with the Jew. They wanted the city to still be inhabitable. It does not kill outright through the air. It must be inserted into the blood. A bite, a needle, and the change is instantaneous. They needed, test subjects."
"Fontaine's missing workers. The accidents." It was beginning to make sense.
"It was too much for any person." Cat looked away from me, out at the window to the workers down on the wharf beyond. "After a year of seeing what, what they were doing to people here, I couldn't take it. Rapture is, an amazing place. It is a light. A light for the world in the deep of the ocean. It is a fresh start for humankind. A new way. The man, Ryan, he is flawed, as all men are, but his ideal, a civilization without the corruption, the old powers, the old way. The world needs this place."
"And you need this place." I stood up and walked over to her by the window.
"I left," she whispered, her hand rising to trace the lines in her face. "But not before they, they had already injected me with Avrova. I began to age. Far faster than I should have. I needed to report in every week for another dosage to maintain my youth, or…"
"Or you'd become what you are now," I finished. The animals.
"After I left, they found new agents. Gave them Avrova. Made them to look as I did, so Fontaine wouldn't know. The procedure, it was imperfect. It lasted only weeks at a time, so they needed substitutes. There's always a Dana Wales, and there's never been a Dana Wales."
"And there's still a way to save Dana Wales," I said, taking her hand in mine. "Take me to them. I have an idea."
Her eyes met mine, "ideas are the only things that are truly ever ours."