"It was the train car in Town Square. It fell over," Gideon said as soon as he returned, "No one was hurt, but it's made a helluva mess; metal and rubble all over the place."
"I'm sure we can patch that up soon," Grace replied, still holding the microphone.
"Still waiting for a reply?" Gideon asked, his brow furrowing.
"It's only been a few minutes yet," Grace replied wearily, settling down in a chair.
"Ya know, when I was down there, people started asking questions. Getting' panicked and all that. They wanna know what's going on Gracie," Gideon said meekly, "Myself included."
"I'll make an announcement to…"
"Hello? Paupers Drop? This is Stanley Poole from Dionysus Park callin'," a voice came through the radio. Grace had immediately flicked to a closed channel, assuming everyone who wanted to reply would lock onto her signal so no-one else could hear them.
"Stanley Poole? The guy from the Rapture Tribune, right?"
"Yeah, uh, that's me. Who's asking?" Stanley replied.
"Grace Holloway. I'm in charge over here," Grace calmly replied.
"Yeah, Stanley. I run things over here at Dionysus."
Grace leaned forward and narrowed her eyes.
"Now I thought that place flooded…"
"Well I uh, came back after someone drained it. How thoughtful, hehe."
"Lemme guess; Delta?" Grace raised an eyebrow. She heard Stanley laugh nervously over the radio.
"I guess I wasn't the only one who came face to face with that palooka, eh?"
"Naw, I met him. But to business Poole," Grace sounded serious.
"Hello? Is this thing on?" a new voice spoke, sounding young and female.
"Who's that?"
"This if Becky Langford of Arcadia speaking. What's going on?"
"Langford as in Julie's daughter, right?" Grace asked, recalling hearing about Langford's work with Rapture's oxygen supply.
"Yeah, she was my Mom. She died."
"Sorry toots, but this is Rapture. We've all lost someone."
"Mr. Poole, please be more considerate. Apologize."
"Urgh, fine. I'm sorry Becks."
"Becky."
"Becky then. I'm sorry. Now what was all the shakin' and quakin'about?"
"I was hopin' to ask the same question. Do any of you know?"
"As a matter of fact, I think I do. I just checked the seismic sensors…"
"How did you do that!"
"I've got a computer here dumbass, and this is Rapture after all; the smart survive," Becky retorted, repeating Stanley's words with a mocking tone.
"And what did the sensors say?" Grace asked, urging these two strangers from descending into argument.
"Well, the printout said…"
"You got a printer too?"
Grace could hear Becky's frustration through the Radio.
"Calm, Mrs. Langford."
"Right, the printout. Well, are you familiar with the codes Ryan gave to each district?"
"Yeah, like Paupers Drop is PPD and Dionysus park is DNP, right?"
"Right. It said that the seismic activity began in one place and shock waved outwards."
"I'm guessing that's smart talk for "It wasn't an earthquake." So what are we dealin' with here, an explosion in a district or something?"
"That's what I'm thinking. The readout read that the most activity was recorded at FTF."
"…Fort Frolic?"
"No, Fontaine Futuristics."
The mic nearly fell out of Grace's hands. Fontaine Futuristics. She didn't know where Lamb's hideout was, but she knew it was near there.
"There was also…"
"Yes?"
"It's probably nothing, but there was a…strange reading."
"Strange. In Rapture," Stanley's tone was blunt, as though hinting at how stupid the previous statement sounded.
"Well, stranger. There was a ghost reading. The data is set out in order of location, right? So the reading both on top and below FTF should have been near the same reading."
"Where you goin with this Becky?"
"Well, there was a reading entitled PNE. On the list it was directly below FTF but…"
"Well?"
"It was blank. Zero reading."
"It could just have been broken," Grace dismissed.
"I suppose it could be."
"What does PNE stand for anyway?
"I don't know. Perhaps it was just a glitch. I was gonna e-print it before I heard Grace's call…"
"How about you Poole? Have you seen anything?"
"As a matter of fact I did. I was in a tunnel at the time. I saw something in the sea, something goin' up."
"What do you mean, goin' up?"
"What are ya, deaf? Gee. Oh. Eye. En. Gee. You. Pee. Going up, like some sorta craft or something."
"Indeed it was!"
Everyone fell silent. The voice had sounded warped, as though who ever it was had been talking into a fan. Perhaps they had a weak signal, or some Gene Tonic had tragically disfigured this person's voice box. Grace glanced back at Gideon, who shrugged. She turned back to the microphone.
"And who might you be?"
"NEVER YOU MIND! Indeed it was a craft. And on said craft were three life forms! Lamb, Delta and El-ean-or, the sky a most beautiful sight they saw!"
Who ever it was had sung the last two sentences to the tine of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star," though he had to rush the last few words to fit them in.
Grace tilted her head confusedly.
"What? Lamb's…gone?"
Silence.
"Hey pal, what were you on about?"
Nothing.
"I think he's gone," Grace said, suddenly staring at a random point on the wall. Lamb was gone? Well, at least she wasn't dead, but what did that mean for the rest of them? If Lamb was gone, that meant no one was controlling Rapture.
Well, no-one Human at any rate.
But Eleanor was gone too? Grace clutched her stomach, a sharp pain wrenching her gut. Eleanor's gone!
"She's with her Father Grace. She'll be fine," she heard Gideon say, touching her shoulder lightly. She waved him away with a flap of her hand.
"I'm fine," she gasped, shaking her head to clear it.
"Grace? Is everything okay? And who's that with you?" Becky sounded worried for the first question, but worry melted into suspicion by the second.
"Oh that's Gideon. He helps me from time to time. It's Eleanor, Lamb's daughter. I shan't bore you with the details, but she mean's a lot to the people here in the Drop. She also means a lot to me."
"Wait! Eleanor's gone?" Stanley asked, disbelieving.
"Well, that's what tat guy said."
"Oh that's…terrible! She was the people's daughter! What're we gonna do now?" Stanley had paused before saying "Terrible," a fact Grace picked up on. Grace kept silent, but from the fake tone in his voice, she knew that Eleanor being gone for some reason was a good thing for him.
"You part of the family? Grace asked instead.
"Of course I am. I was in charge of Dionysus Park weren't I? You think Lamb would put someone in charge that she didn't trust? Did you even know her?"
"Well, she trusted me enough to look after Eleanor when Lamb was arrested. That is, until I lost her…"
"Oh my, that sounds terrible! Not that I'm blaming you, but to lose a child in Rapture…"
"No, you're quite right Miss Langford. I was partly my fault for being careless, but I now know it was organized. Someone took Baby Eleanor from me on purpose. Took her to be a Little Sister…"
She heard Becky's muffled gasp through the speaker. She'd presumably covered her mouth with her hand.
"What now?"
"It's nothing," Becky said quickly, warding off any conversation that would ensue.
"It didn't sound like nothin' to me. What's wrong?"
Becky let out a long, shaky breath.
"I too was stolen as a child. I was going to be a Little Sister."
"Jesus Christ, they're everywhere…"
"Oh, you poor thing! What happened? Do you have a…thing inside you? Were you a Big Sister or something?"
"No, I didn't allow any of that. I escaped halfway through mental conditioning. I never had the operation."
"…Did you know Eleanor?"
"No, I don't think so. I wasn't introduced to many other girls, but I knew a few. Maybe. I dunno. It was a long time ago, and my mind was being altered at the time."
"Not to be rude or anything, but her knowing Eleanor at Little Sis' boot camp isn't really relevant right now."
"Yes, quite right," Grace sighed, closing her eyes to give herself time to think.
"Well...let's summarize. Sofia Lamb, recent Leader of Rapture, is gone. Her daughter is also gone. And some guy called Delta. Without Lamb, no one is running Rapture, which means…"
"It's up to…us?"
"I think you may be right, Mr. Poole. It's up to us."
"So what're we gonna do with Rapture? We could do anything we want!"
"Now hold up, Mr. Poole. Jus' because no-one is pushin' Rapture's buttons doesn't mean we can do it for them."
"But what do we do now?"
Grace sat there, pondering. She looked about her room. She and her two new partners could assume power of Rapture. She smiled slightly. My very own city.
But what should they do?
She looked around her room for the second time, but this time she really looked. If she were in charge, what should she change?
She confidently reached for the microphone.
"We're going to rebuild. We're gonna fix Rapture."