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Tenenbaum watched as the arguing went on… Booker unable to pick a side, Diane falling to her emotions, Jack fighting for answers, and Elizabeth trying to restore order.
She dropped her cigarette on the floor, crushed it under her shoe. This happened plenty with Fontaine and Suchong, so she’d had practice – and luckily, these people weren’t out for power.
“Blutige hölle,” Tenenbaum muttered, drawing her pistol and aiming for the ceiling. “Listen or I shoot!”
They all turned to her, though only Diane was surprised. The rest knew both that she would not shoot and that this was the fastest method. Why else would she use it?
“For God’s…” Booker came over to her and put his hand on her arm. “Just put that down, we can talk about this.”
“Now you can.” With that done, Tenenbaum holstered her pistol.
Jack and Diane would not look at one another, so all of them were staring at her and Booker. Elizabeth stood between them both for the second time that hour and raised her hands passively.
“Let’s focus on solutions. We’ll have plenty of time to discuss…” She paused, weighing her words. “The rest. First, Tenenbaum, is there a way to reverse the effects of ADAM in any addicted splicers?”
Tenenbaum frowned, crossing one arm across herself and putting her other hand to her chin. “I hadn’t thought of that. But yes, yes, it could. Painful withdrawal, but quick. Mentally, who knows?”
“You can’t be serious, Elizabeth,” Booker scoffed, shaking his head. “Splicers? We aren’t bringing them down here.”
“They do make up most of Atlas’ numbers. For now,” Jack added. “If we break their addiction, it would at least get them stable. Let them really decide for themselves what they want.”
“Regardless,” Tenenbaum interrupted, “there isn’t enough ADAM in Rapture for both Ryan and… Atlas.” The bitterness in her tone was obvious, but Miss McClintock had enough stress for one day. Telling her now about Fontaine being Atlas would likely prove too much for her. “They will still have withdrawal symptoms, which will absolutely make them insane. We can only win.”
“Precisely,” Elizabeth agreed. “We’re already starting to see it out there. Only a few have lost themselves, but it’s only a matter of time.”
“I will need tools, supplies, chemicals, more staff beyond just Elizabeth in my lab,” Tenenbaum listed, counting them off on her hands. “There’s not enough space here and not enough bullets for us to collect those things to put there.”
Elizabeth ran her fingers over the metal stump of her pinky, thinking. “Suchong’s Clinic is free now, I could step up for that, but the defenses…”
Jack smiled and stood tall, answering, “Booker can help with that! He works with–”
“Jack,” he warned, putting a hand up to silence the boy for what little good it did.
“It’s civil war out there, we can’t be keeping secrets from each other now.”
Tenenbaum couldn’t help but smile. Jack was coming into his own and Booker, well… Anytime he was caught off guard was a reason to smile.
“Yeah, so says the kid who snuck out. Twice.”
“Three times,” Tenenbaum interjected, putting her hand on Booker’s back. “And once with you, no?”
Booker sighed and ran a hand over his head. He knew when he’d lost. “When you asked me to lay low, I took up work with Sullivan. He doesn’t agree with Ryan anymore, not after–”
Booker cut himself off and wouldn’t meet anyone’s gaze. “Doesn’t matter. It’s hitting him hard. We can rely on him a lot better than a splicer, there’s that.”
What do you want to do, Elizabeth and Tenenbaum?
Read the next chapter.
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