“Maddie?” I couldn’t help myself. I could’ve sworn I heard her voice amongst them. I sprinted down the hall and turned into the area it led into. A handful of little girls dotted the room. Several sat on the floor, several on bunk beds. One stood idly in the doorway to another room.
They all stared back at me, their laughter and chatter ceasing. My eyes quickly swept over each of them. They all looked the same age -- between six and eight. Clifford hadn’t been lying. My heart sank.
They all wore soiled dresses and were barefoot. But none of them were Maddie.
I turned to the one standing closest to me. She shirked away as I grabbed her shoulders. “Is there a girl here named Maddie?” I asked her feverishly.
There was a look of fear on her face as she shook her head and squirmed.
I let go and directed my attention to the others. “Does anyone know of a girl named Maddie here? She’s seven. Red hair, blue eyes.”
They all merely backed away, shaking their heads collectively.
“Excuse me, sir,” a voice from behind me said. I whirled around to see a tall woman staring me down. Her hands propped against her hips. “Just what do you think you’re doing here?”
“I’m looking for my daughter. Maddie. She went missing yesterday,” I said quickly, the words coming out in a rush. “I think she might be here. Do you know her?”
“Sir, it is not in our policy to return orphans after they’ve been given up.”
“I didn’t give her up! She was taken. Someone stole her.” Realizing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with this woman, I stumbled past the girls and into the next room. The woman shouted after me as I explored from room to room, looking for Maddie. Calling for her. There were other little girls. All in the same sad state as the ones in the first room. By the time I came to the last room, I had to accept the fact that my little girl was not among them.
As I gripped tightly one of the rickety metal posts of a bunk bed in one of the crowded rooms, the woman caught up to me. She stopped in the doorway of the bedroom just as I looked up.
“Your child has been chosen for a role far more important than that of a mere daughter,” she said as she extended her arm towards me. “You should be proud.”
Her hand glowed blow and before I knew what was happening, a bolt of electricity shot out of her palm. Immediately, I was engulfed.
In the next moment, the world went black.
***
I opened my eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. My vision was fuzzy.
“Finally comin’ around, huh? I was worried you were a goner,” someone said with a laugh. It was a voice I recognized. Lionel Groose.
As I sat up, he plopped down onto a chair next to the bed I was on. How the hell…? Where were we, even? I looked around, but came up empty. I felt like my body was buzzing, as if it were numb, but not really.
“Whoa, there, pal. You shouldn’t be gettin’ up or anything just yet.”
“Why?” I asked. Why did I feel like shit? And why couldn’t I remember how I’d gotten here?”
“Well, from the looks of ya, someone used to Electro Bolt on you,” Lionel replied, handing a mug of water to me.
I reached for it, then winced as sharp pains shot through my hand. That’s when I realized it was wrapped with a bandage. The other one, too.
And then I remembered. The woman at the Little Sister’s Orphanage. The electric shock.
“So I’m walking home through Apollo Square and what do I see lying on the street in front of Hestia Chambers? Good old Arthur Winters heaped up in a pile. Thought you were dead, but you had a pulse, so I dragged you back here and tried to keep it that way.” He looked pleased with himself as I gingerly took the cup and drank. “Did a pretty good job of it, too, if I don’t say so myself.”
“Thanks,” I managed, cringing. It wasn’t just my hands that hurt. My whole body did. My skin itself felt tender, like a terrible sunburn.
“I would’ve taken you down to the Medical Pavilion, but even an IV drip there costs a fortune, and you know I’ve been a little down in my luck lately…” He trailed off, running a hand through his disheveled hair. “Anyway, what the hell were you doing down there? This doesn’t have anything to do with your daughter, does it?”
At that, I could only nod. He looked mortified.
“Oh, God, I’m sorry, man. I thought for sure she’d be back by now.”
“So did I. Or so I hoped.” When I moved to set down the coffee cup, he sprang up from the chair and took it for me. “Where are we? Is this your place?”
“Yeah! Sure thing,” he said, his mood brightening as he placed the cup on the bedside table. “I couldn’t remember your apartment number over at Olympus Heights, and this was a much shorter trip.”
“Thanks again, Lionel. I mean it.”
“No problem. What’re friends for, after all,” he said with a grin and a chuckle. “So, exactly what was it you were doing there, anyway? Looking for leads?”
“No. Looking for Maddie. I heard she might be at that Fontaine’s Little Sister’s Orphanage,” I replied, earning a surprised look from him.
“You think she’s at one of those orphanages? What the hell made you think that?”
I’d expected that kind of reaction. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later, once I get her back.”
“And… so? Was she there?” he asked warily.
I shook my head. “I searched the place top to bottom, but she wasn’t. There were a lot of other girls like her, though.”
“Girls like her?”
“There’s another place I have to look. There’s another one of those orphanages over in Siren Alley. It’s at Plaza Hedone.”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of heading over there next.”
“Of course I am.”
Lionel rubbed the stubble on his chin, eyes narrowed as if in deep thought. “So it sounds like you’re sayin’ Fontaine’s up to something shady at these orphanages.”
“That’s about it.” I slowly sat up, cringing at the pain the simple movement caused. My vision still wasn’t entirely clear, and my fingers felt like they were vibrating. But I was glad just to be alive. “Anyway, I have to get to -- ”
“Buddy, you’re not gonna just waltz up to the other orphanage in Siren Alley and find your little girl, if that’s what you think,” he said. “Chances are Fontaine’s already heard of your little incident at Hestia Chambers. He’ll have people on the lookout for ya.”
“Then what the hell am I supposed to do?” I nearly shouted. “If there’s any chance that Maddie’s there… I have to find her.”
“You will. You will, believe me.” He gave a few quick nods, as if reassuring himself. “And you know why? ‘Cause Lionel Groose just happens to work at Bathysphere DeLuxe, and he got access to a bathysphere. If we take that instead of using the trains, we can sneak up to the back entrances of Siren Alley and they won’t even see us coming.”
***
“I can’t believe you can get your hands on a private bathysphere like this,” I said, standing close to the bubble of glass, watching Rapture glide by.
“Well, to be fair, it’s not really mine,” he said from where he slouched against the curved wall. “I’m supposed to be fixin’ it for a customer, but a little excursion like this won’t do this baby no harm.”
“How long until we get there?”
“About another fifteen minutes, I’d say. This thing’s a little old, so she don’t move as fast as the rest.”
I was glad she moved at all. If it wasn’t for Lionel, getting to Plaza Hedone would either be immensely difficult or altogether impossible.
I spent the next ten minutes trying to come up with a plan. Once I was in Plaza Hedone, exactly how would I go about getting Maddie? If there were more people with those Plasmids, I was a goner for sure.
I was still contemplating it when I noticed something odd. The buildings we were passing -- this was the more industrial part of Rapture, somewhere nestled between Di
onysus Park and Outer Persephone.
In other words, we’d already passed Siren Alley.
Just as I realized it, a large building came into view. A tall monolith labeled Fontaine Futuristics.
When I turned to look at Lionel, he stiffened.
“What is this?” I asked, snatching him by the collar.
“What is what? It’s business, of course,” he said, letting out a shaky laugh. “This is Rapture, Arthur. Everything’s about money down here.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means if Fontaine wants to pay me a little somethin’ extra and give me my own bathysphere just for ‘napping a few kids for his little abomination program, then why not?”
I slugged him across the face, sending him into the wall. His hands came over his face as blood started to pour from his nose. But despite that, he was laughing.
“Welcome to Rapture, pal.”
Before I could wind back for another punch, he thrust his hand out to me, fingers splayed. A blast of ice hit me. Every inch of me was frozen. My already blurry grew worse. I couldn’t move a muscle. The darkness crept in again.
The last words I heard were, “Peach was supposed to kill ya, you know. Fickle bastard…”
***
My throat hurts…
It was all I could think. As I regained consciousness, it was the only thing that truly registered in my mind. Before even opening my eyes, I reached up to feel my throat. To figure out why it hurt.
But where fingers should have met neck, I felt something else. My arm was heavy, and clad in thick gloves. When my fingers brushed against my throat, all I felt was metal.
I opened my eyes and felt like a fish inside a bowl. A pane of rounded glass obstructed a clear view of what was before me.
I looked down. The movement was difficult. I was wearing a heavy diving suit. Instead of a hand, a large drill hung from the end of my right arm.
Am I a diver? I couldn’t even remember who I was, let alone what I was, or how I’d got here. Wherever here was.
Across the room, past a wall of glass, a woman knelt next to a little girl. They were speaking. I had to strain to hear over the sound of my own labored breathing.
“ -- and Mr. Bubbles will protect you no matter what, okay?” the woman said. “So get out there and collect as much as you can. Got it?”
The girl gave a fervent nod, her ponytail shaking. The woman stood up and said something else too low for me to hear. The girl then skipped out of sight, and the woman left, too. I stared at the empty room until the door opened on this side.
It was the girl, red haired. She wore a tattered green dress. Her eyes glowed yellow from darkened sockets.
She looked up at me and smiled.
“Mr. Bubbles!” she cried, running over to me. “You’re awake, Mr. Bubbles! You took such a long nappy nap.” She took my hand and began leading me out of the room. “Let’s go, Mr. B! Let’s go to where the angels are!”
I haltingly followed, plodding along behind her.
She seemed familiar, somehow.
Skipping along, she hummed, her red ponytail switching back and forth.
I watched it, mesmerized.
Then suddenly, a name came to me. I don’t know from where, but it felt right.
“Maddie?” I said.
But the only sound that left my throat was a mournful growl.
Rapture: The Big Daddy Page 5
