Hadley's Hope

Robert Hadley - September 13th, 1958

The one man that cared about the little guy is dead a day now. It's Fontaine's blood in the streets, and Ryan looks less and less like a businessman than a king. Now, no one really bought the line that we would all be kings down here under the sea, but we at least thought we wouldn't be under anyone's thumb. And Ryan has a big damn thumb. No one came looking for handouts either, but armed gangs, spliced up to their eyeballs? Best not be poor now. In case some idiot throws a lightning bolt at you, like they're spitting at you. You need to be able to spit back, and genetic modification isn't free.

Fontaine gone does mean one thing. Rapture, for better or worse, has an uncontested ruler. That means things should get back to what the city was built for in the first place; business. And thanks to what I found today, the Great Chain of Industry won't be lashing out against this little guy too much anymore.

Never thought I'd strike gold doing what I do either. Every day, it's march around the seabed, climb up and down the city's skin in a big stinking diving suit, stopping Rapture from bleeding air and looking after the excavation rigs. All so I can get juiced in the evenings, maybe go down to Eve's Garden. There's maybe three guys in the whole city who do what I do, and we've all agreed to keep to our corners. Doesn't matter to the bigwigs, they've started rolling out these... things, to do the job instead. My days as a working stiff were numbered. Now they are for a different reason.

So there I was, depressed about about losing my job to a mute giant and about Fontaine when the sandy ground under me collapses. Not surprising either, I was in a crevice in the rock near one of the main rigs. Happens pretty often around there. So down I fall, as I have before, into a cavern. This time though, it's big enough to fit three whales inside if you wanted to. I knew immediate that getting out was going to be a complete bitch, but I soon discover that I'm not alone in there.

I turn around and there's this huge submarine off a little ways down the cave, stuck in the silt!

My flashlight beams are barely able to pick it out of the dark too, it's painted pitch-black. It ain't like no submarine I've ever seen before, but you know that feeling when you know you've won big? It washed over me like a tidal wave. I don't know who built the damn thing, but it wasn't anyone down here. No one could have built this thing that lives in Rapture, or I'd know the jerk.

I figure either it's someone's personal get-the-hell-out card or it's been here forever. Either way, it's gotta be full of expensive stuff, or better yet, a ticket off this fishbowl. I'm going down there near the end of my shift again with some equipment, crack a doorway on top of the thing with a diving bell.

Looks like there's hope at last!