Tympans of Temples Held

October 13th, 1958

Audio Transcript – 'Why?'

[One month has passed. With Fontaine dead, I had hoped Andrew Ryan would recognize the destructiveness of the plasmid market and halt production. He would break up Fontaine Futuristics, lift the restrictions on smuggling, suspend capital punishment. Things would return to normal. If anything, Ryan's newfound autonomy has turned him brazen. He has nationalized Fontaine's investments, introduced a whole new line of plasmids. There are gene banks and ADAM dispensaries on every street corner. Moreover, Ryan hasn't freed the Little Sisters. Now the girls patrol the streets with their new armored escorts, drawing ADAM from the dead. Rapture is no longer a city; it's a feeding ground. Booker, could the Luteces be wrong? Why would Comstock be here? Why would anyone want to come to this place?]

"Why has the tram stopped?"

The security guard had the good grace to look apologetic. "I'm sorry, miss, no entrance past this point. Andrew Ryan's orders."

Elizabeth frowned. "I need to reach Mercury Suites."

"Unless I can see your residency pass, miss, we're not letting anyone back there at the moment. We're trying to cordon off Olympus Heights."

"I'm visiting someone... Brigid Tenenbaum. I don't live there myself."

"Tenenbaum? You mean that Kraut scientist who's gone missing?"

"Yes." Elizabeth was one of many to notice Tenenbaum's recent withdrawal from the public eye. Ryan had tried to cover it up, claiming she was working on her next great innovation for Ryan Industries. But Fontaine had been dead for a month, and there was no sign of Brigid Tenenbaum. Elizabeth had her suspicions, though she kept them to herself. "It's urgent that I speak with her."

"Even if I did let you in, I don't think you'd find her. No one's seen her since Fontaine went tits up, begging your pardon." The man furrowed his eyebrows. "Why're you so desperate to find her, anyhow?"

Because even with Fontaine gone and the economic competition over and done, the Little Sisters are still disappearing, Elizabeth thought to herself.

After Ryan Industries seized what remained of Fontaine's assets, the girls in the orphanages were left to fend for themselves. Those who weren't killed by rogue splicers or picked up by Cohen's trafficking ring –– now working independently from Sinclair Solutions –– were brought to Andrew Ryan's educational facilities. Elizabeth suspected the schools were fronts for Little Sister conversion centers. With plasmids and gene tonics still on the market, the citizens of Rapture needed their ADAM, and so Ryan needed the Little Sisters. But many of the girls had vanished, and with them, Brigid Tenenbaum herself. Elizabeth couldn't help but wonder if the former confederate of the late Frank Fontaine had had a sudden prick of conscience. And if Tenenbaum was working to free the Little Sisters, then perhaps Elizabeth had an ally in her campaign to close the books on Cohen's trafficking racket.

"Tenenbaum and I have a debt to settle," Elizabeth finally said.

"I still can't let you in, miss. I'm sorry, it's for your own safety."

Elizabeth stuck her head outside the tram. She could hear fires burning, and somewhere, a man shouting; his words were unintelligible under the cries of distant spectators. "What's going on out there?"

"That Fumblin' Dublin's stirring up trouble again." The young man harrumphed. "Down in Apollo Square... he's got quite a bit of a following now, so says the word on the street."