BioShock Rapture

She shrugged. She stared at the children, becoming dreamy again. After a moment, she murmured, “One of the children—she sat on my lap. I push her off…” She touched the glass of the window, before going on, letting smoke drift slowly from her mouth as she looked languorously through the glass. “… I push her off, I shout, ‘Get away from me!’ I can see the ADAM oozing out of the corner of her mouth!” She closed her eyes. Remembering. “Her filthy hair hanging in her face, dirty clothes, that dead glow in her eye … I feel—hatred.” Her voice broke. “Hatred, Frank. Like I never felt before. Bitter, burning fury. I can barely breathe. But Frank…” She opened her eyes and looked at him, for one surprising instant. “Then I know—it is not this child I hate.”

With that, Brigid Tenenbaum turned suddenly on her heel and strolled distractedly away, back toward the lab, trailing cigarette smoke behind her.

Fontaine stared after her. She was cracking up. Maybe he should have her taken out. But she was too valuable. And Ryan would be making his move. Everything was almost in place …

“Mr. Fontaine?”

He jumped a bit, startled by Suchong’s voice. Turning to the scientist as he bustled up from the other direction. “Christ, Suchong, you don’t need to sneak up on people like that.”

“Suchong is sorry.”

“The hell you are. Listen—what’s going on with Tenenbaum? She losing it or what?”

“Losing … it?” Looking the same as ever, each hair in place, his glasses polished, Suchong gazed placidly through the window at the sight that had so moved Tenenbaum. It was as if he were looking into a cage containing lab rats, which was, of course, just what he was doing. “Ah. Perhaps so. Suchong sometimes thinks she loses … objectivity.”

“Speaking of nutty females—you follow up on that one I told you about? For that special project?” This was what he’d mainly come here for today.

Suchong glanced up and down the hall. None of the assistants were in earshot. This was top secret. “Yes.” His voice was barely audible. “You were clever to put the listening device in this Jolene woman’s rooms. She spoke to one of her friends, a woman named Culpepper. This woman Culpepper, she tries to educate Jasmine. Talks to her about Ryan. To convince her he is the great tyrant, and so on.”

“Yeah, Reggie told me; he went over the transcripts. You think he doesn’t tell me everything first? Culpepper’s turned against Ryan. And Jasmine Jolene’s pregnant. Or maybe I should say Mary Catherine’s pregnant—that’s her real name. So—did you make her the offer?”

He bowed. “Tenenbaum made offer—she accepts! Money. So she doesn’t need Ryan to live. In exchange for the fertilized egg. Ryan’s baby! She came to lab, Tenenbaum extracted diploid zygote!”

“The what? Oh—basically, the kid, right? Prefetus?”

Suchong bowed. “Mr. Fontaine has it exactly.”

“We got someone to bear the kid?”

Suchong blinked. “Who can bear kids? I cannot bear them. The kids, they—”

“Suchong—I mean someone to have the baby, and turn it over to us!”

“All is arranged!”

“So Ryan’s bloodline, his, what do you call it—”

“His DNA. Yes. When new vita chambers work, when security is DNA specific—Ryan’s DNA will protect your … subject.”

“You think the project is doable in the short term, Suchong?” Fontaine pressed. “I mean, making it—what was it you called it?”

“Accelerated development. Child growing faster. And then—the conditioning…”

“That’s the important part. The conditioning. Brainwashing. Kid has to respond to cues, like you said. You can do that?”

“Yes. I believe so. My experiments confirm it. Suchong use the reward system of brain, condition the organism, the human offspring—to do anything! Anything you desire of them!”

“Anything? On cue? I mean—even something the guy’d never ever normally do? That’s what we need, see. I need to know I can use this kid against Ryan when the time comes.”

“I believe so—yes!” Suchong’s eyes were shining. Conditioning, mind control—that was his meat. It was what he gloried in. “Especially if I have him very young.”

“Okay, say you’ve got him as a kid—and let’s say he’s got a puppy. Kids love dogs. You could make him kill his own dog? I mean, a cute little puppy, one he really loved—could you make him kill it with his bare hands? That’d be the real test…”

Suchong nodded, showing his teeth in a grin—very unusual for him. “Yes! Wonderful, is it not?”

“Yeah, if it works.” Fontaine felt a giddiness himself. It was a real grifter’s ace—a primo con. Maybe the best bunko of all. One that would take years to unfold. But that was the beauty of it. The time lag would make it something Ryan would never expect. This way, if the Atlas project didn’t pan out … he had another way to get at Ryan.

He already had wealth and control over a great deal of Rapture. But to have a conditioned little puppet, waiting to do his bidding—it was a thrilling thought. A con carried out by life itself …

16

Rapture Central Control

August 1958