As the airlock door seals closed behind me, I lean against the wall gasping for breath, my head spinning and my mind reeling from its exposure to events ranging from the improbable to the surely impossible!

Mere hours ago I was relaxing onboard an aeroplane, my chief concerns the turbulence which spilled my drink and the probability of whether or not I would arrive at my destination on time. Such trivialities seem foolish now and yet I still can’t shake the feeling that if I just close my eyes and concentrate hard enough, I’ll wake from this nightmare and be faced instead with the warm smile of a stewardess, waking me to buckle my seatbelt as we’re coming in to land.

But when I do open my eyes, the grim reality surrounding me persists stubbornly. If this is indeed a bad dream, then it’s one I must play out until I can figure out how to wake up. So regaining my feet and at least a degree of composure, I look around at my new surroundings.

I am standing in a narrow hallway. To my left is a dead end and a Vita-Chamber and on the wall in front of me is a poster of an attractive smiling woman and declaring; "Adam. There’s No Reason Not To Be Beautiful."

To my right a wheelchair lies upturned and abandoned. The corridor opens out into a larger chamber and with the way behind me obviously undesirable, I strike out to explore.

The larger chamber turns out to be an ornate Foyer. A double staircase rises at the far and of the chamber to a small landing above with a doorway. A desk sits slightly set back at the foot of the stairway and another doorway sign posted "Security" is to my left, its doors sliding open and closed with a constant swish clang as though caught in a loop.

How do I get my wheelchair up there? The stairs up to the medical pavilion.

The floor is strewn with rubble and debris, the left over props discarded by actors from a play interrupted, which they had thought was their real lives.

A large domed ceiling dominates the room, the great sections of glass looking up into a sea of skyscrapers, although since the tallest of them is still fathoms below the surface of the ocean, the term hardly seems to apply.

Rather like a slightly grubby railway terminus in the center of a city, the foyer despite its size has a claustrophobic air. An ornate sign reading "Medical Pavilion" hangs lopsidedly on chains suspended from the ceiling, where also six large chandeliers hang ineffectually, their light valiantly trying but failing to lift the overall feeling of gloom.

Ignoring for a moment the temptation of the stairway, I turn instead to the Security doorway. Lying in between the blocked doors is one of the security drones which Atlas had despatched earlier to protect me from the scythe-wielding Splicer, but this one is seemingly deactivated.

Luckily I am not unfamiliar with the inner workings of many kinds of machinery and prising open a panel on its side I can see where an adjustment to the wiring might well reactivate the drone and even set it to working for me! It’s but a few moments work before the rotors begin slowly turning once more, gathering speed until the machine rises above my head and for the moment at least I seem to have found a protector.

The drone whirrs and buzzes around me as I step into the security room. A shattered glass panel in front of me contains the remains of another drone and at the far end of the room sits a cluttered desk.

Halfway along the room opens up into a wide corridor down two or three steps to the right and as I emerge across this opening I’m suddenly attacked by a Splicer, intent on burying the knife she’s carrying deep in my chest!

I stagger backward caught by surprise and throw up my arm to defend myself, but before the poor woman can strike she is hurled backward by a stream of machine gun fire from the orbiting drone and crashing down the steps she lies broken and dead on the floor!

I make a mental note that a few moments tinkering with the machinery is indeed time well spent.

Turning to search the desk I find various food and medical supplies which I gratefully stuff into my pockets, as well as what looks like the circular clip of a Thompson machine gun! Though I’ve no use for it right now, I decide to take it along in the hopes of finding the weapon it is intended for.

As I turn away from the desk I suddenly see another recording device. I almost missed it and scooping it up I press play. The message entitled "Adams Changes" is from a Dr. Steinman and extols the advantages of using Adam to "change people" which sounds all the more sinister given what I have seen here so far.

Pausing for a moment to look down the steps and into the corridor beyond, I can see a door at the far end. To the left and right a double metal stairway which doubles back and rises toward me, culminating I suppose in some unseen balcony somewhere above me.

I decide that allowing myself to become too side tracked would be a mistake. I am, after all, trying to reach Atlas’s family in Neptune’s Bounty and I have a feeling that the way ahead lies through the door at the top of the stairs in the foyer, so turning on my heel I return to that depressing domed hall.

A body lies slumped behind the desk and among the rubble I find a generous supply of money, some food and some Eve, all of which I collect greedily. Atop the desk is an empty handbag, a bunch of flowers long dead and nestled between them another recording device, this time from a Dianne McClintock.

Dianne speaks at length about the "kind" Dr Steinman and his promises to make her more beautiful. Staring at the dead flowers and discarded effects I feel a sudden sadness along with a certainly that this poor duped woman came to a bad end at the hands of the "kind" doctor.

I turn to make my way up the stairs and inwardly curse as I collide with the drone, which is now hovering directly behind me!

On the semi-circle balcony, at the top of the stairway, lies another body next to an upturned wheelchair and after searching for anything useful I turn to the doorway to the Medical Pavilion, only to find it blocked by a steel gate! I can’t see any way through, and until I can work out how to open it, I suppose the only thing I can do is return to the security room and that unexplored corridor.

Resignedly I make my way back through the foyer and the security room, this time turning right and moving cautiously down the steps into the tiled corridor beyond. Movement above my head is accompanied by cackling laughter and a woman’s voice yells "Open the door Sydney!"

Warily I continue onward, but have barely gone a handful of steps before the angry clanging of shoes on metal heralds the arrival of the crazed woman from above. Screaming at me incoherently now she raises a pistol shakily and laughs insanely as she pulls the trigger again and again!

Leaping for cover behind a support pillar, I hear the low, solo pounding of her pistol become a barking duet as my security drone adds its own firepower to the deadly melody.

Seconds later and a hush falls over the corridor, broken only by the insistent buzzing of the drone's rotor blades. Looking out from cover I see the dead woman sprawled awkwardly at the bottom of the stairs, while the drone hovers dispassionately over the body, billowing smoke and sparks from damage somewhere within its mechanism.

Collecting some pistol rounds and bandages from around the scene, I then turn to the door at the end of the corridor. The sign above reads "Security: Emergency Access" and then "To Neptune." This is the right way then! If I can get through this door then I needn’t explore any further into the Medical Pavilion. But as before my way is blocked by a large steel grille with no way through.

From this position I can now see that the metal stairs behind me join as expected in the middle, with a small balcony and a door beyond. Climbing up I find the door locked and a control panel on the balcony, facing the entrance to the emergency access and with a rush of excitement I pull the lever downward hoping to hear the sliding of its metal grille, but am rewarded instead by the click of a lock behind me.

On your own head be it if you open that gate!

Sure enough, testing the door behind me I find that it’s now open and as I push it swings back without protest on smooth hinges. As the door opens I get a fleeting glimpse of a fluttering white medical coat as its occupant runs out of sight. Recovering quickly from the surprise I inwardly curse at my carelessness! I should have remembered that the gun-toting woman had been yelling at someone up here and I suspect that I’ve just met Sydney.

Moving through the door I find myself in a tight corridor or access conduit, lined with pipes and slowly revolving ventilator fans. To my right the conduit quickly meets a dead end, so I turn left and make my way along till it opens out into a windowed booth of sorts, really no larger than the balcony I was just on, but surrounded by windows and with no other way out.

A sudden movement to my right drags my head around and I lean backward barely in time to avoid the clumsy attack of Sydney! Who though armed with a pistol has decided to use it as a club and bares down on me even as I stager backward in the cramped space.

Behind me the gun barrel of the hovering drone barks out again and bullets tear through my jacket even as I throw myself to the floor! Taking the full force of the blast, Sydney is hurled backward against the reinforced window and slides dead down to the floor.

Recovering, I resume my search. A control panel sits ahead of me and against it leans a machine gun! I grab it eagerly and push the rounds cartridge I found earlier into place with a satisfying click. Even as I peer down the sights of this new weapon and feel more secure in being so much better armed, it occurs to me that I’d better not lose my head with this thing. I know that once my limited ammunition is gone, this machine gun might as well be a club and slinging it over my shoulder I return to investigating the panel.

Looking out of the windows for the first time I realise that my observation point overlooks the Medical Pavilion foyer and I am now on a level with and opposite the barred access door to that area.

Atlas crackles into life once more and tells me that to get through the emergency access door to Neptune, I’m going to need to persuade Dr Steinman to give me a key. Atlas does not believe that Steinman will be inclined to part with it out of the milk of human kindness and judging by the little I’ve learned about this demented man from the recordings I’ve found, I’m prone to agree.

Based on what Atlas has told me, it would seem that I’m going to have to go into the Medical Pavilion after all. Unless Dr Steinman is kind enough to come out here and hand over that key and I really don’t think that’s going to happen.

Studying the security panel I find a button marked "Emergency Override" and thumbing it produces the satisfying squeal of moving metal and the steel grilles blocking my access across the foyer grinds jerkily open.

My smile fades instantly though as through the now open doorway floods a tightly packed group of screaming Splicers! Some are firing pistols at me and it’s clear that their being behind the grill at just that moment is no accident. The window in front of me shatters with a tremendous bang and shards of flying glass force me to my knees with my hands pushed up protectively over my eyes.

Couching low to avoid the gunfire I half crawl half shuffle back up the conduit toward the open door and arrive just in time to greet the first of this new wave of attackers.

Lashing out with my electro bolt, I root him to the spot and effectively block the access to the two standing behind him unable to squeeze through the gap to get at me. Using this to my advantage I’m able to immobilize them as well, but things are not going completely my way and a blinding pain in my shoulder signals the impact of a pistol round.

Quickly employing my wrench to yet more grizzly work, I despatch the creature before me and move out onto the balcony swinging wildly! My makeshift club lays a second assailant to rest before the drone flies out from behind me and finishes off the third.

I’m not given time to catch my breath as two more Splicers begin pounding up the metal stairway on the left hand side and another one dashes headlong up on the right. Reaching reflexively outward I unleash a bolt of electric fury toward the single attacker, while the drone moves purposefully forward and engages the other two.

Staggering down the stairs I brain the Splicer with my wrench and spinning to face the other staircase I slip the machine gun from my shoulder ready to open fire, but I am presented only with the lifeless bodies of the remaining pair, one slumped obscenely through the railings and the other slipping slowly downward toward the ground floor.

I take a few moments to search the bodies for useful supplies, acutely aware that my count of kills is swiftly arising to epidemic proportions, then I return through the security room and cross the foyer, followed by the ailing drone whose buzzing has now taken on almost something of a panicked note and whose trickle of smoke has now turned into a persistently trailing black cloud.

As I approach the stairway, two Splicers charge at me from the desk area, but half expecting a further attack I was ready this time with my electro bolt, which I arch out into the growing puddle of water at their feet causing them to jolt upright and then judder helplessly before finally collapsing dead in the water.

Passing through the doorway at the top of the stairs I find myself in a small connecting corridor. An ornate pedestal sits in the middle on of the floor and a lively waterfall cascades down onto a plant arrangement at its center.

On the walls at either side are posters, one advertising the use of "Health Stations" is posted by the side of some wall-mounted wreckage which I assume was once the heath station in question. The other is an advertisement for the services of Dr. Steinman and I take a moment to mentally note the face of the man I must now find.

As if on cue Atlas warns me to watch out for Steinman and suggests that to find him I’ll need only to follow the trail of blood.

The floor is once again strewn with rubble and a couple of bodies lie against the walls. Working my way around the pedestal I approach the door at the opposite end, when suddenly my vision begins to blur as it did once before and again I seem to see an apparition of some kind. A spirit trapped in this place, of a woman desperately pounding on the door and shouting to be let out! Just as quickly the vision is gone and shaking my head I move on and through the door.

I'm a beer man, I'm not so fond of spirits. This ghostly apparation has appeared briefly in each level so far.

Stepping through I face a wall running from left to right. More Steinman posters adorn it and on the left a sign reads "Crematorium: Funeral Services" while on the right its twin reads "Surgery". In front of me is a table on which I see an overturned vase with spilled dead flowers and a recording device.

Titled "Higher Standards" the diary is a further entry from Steinman and tells of his excitement at being able to use "Adam" to enhance what he is able to do to his patients, above and beyond that he would normally be able to accomplish with conventional plastic surgery and I shudder to think what exactly this maniac has done!

Above me a stream of water falls from a ruptured pipe, pooling at my feet and for the first time I notice that written at the foot of the table are the words "Above All Do No Harm" words I recognise as being part of the "Hippocratic Oath" sworn by all doctors, but here taking on a sick and twisted dimension as crouching down I am fairly sure that they are written in blood!

I decide to begin by exploring to the left, but from what I can see I quickly realise that in fact this is one giant hall, divided into sections by what seems from where I stand to be about two or maybe three walls like the one I’m looking around the edge of now.

The ceilings are high and windowed. Brightly lit buildings rise above and schools of fish drift lazily about. Once again I am struck by the surreal nature of fish wheeling above my head instead of birds!

Scattered about the hall are various occasions of arches and steps, giving the chamber the impression of being on more than one level. The floor is littered with the traumatic aftermath of the drug fueled rampage that took place in the city. Wheelchairs lay on their sides amidst the debris, litter bins lay upturned, bottles and medical supplies are scattered about and through the air floats adverts and announcements to the people of Rapture, looping over and again on a long forgotten tannoy system.

The tinny voice of Atlas reaches up to me from the radio, informing me that any machinery I come across can be temporarily short-circuited by my electro bolt. A handy thing to know should I encounter any drones which prove less friendly than my hovering companion.

As I move forward scavenging amongst the rubble, I see a counter running across the hall to my right. A cash register sits to one side as does a…….!! Suddenly it becomes clear that Atlas’s suggestion was not made simply to exercise his vocal chords, as with a deafening roar an unnoticed machine gun turret opens fire on me! I leap over the top of the counter and crouch with my head down as fist sized chunks of plaster are torn out of the wall around me.

I hear the protesting whine of my drone as it whirls in to the attack, followed by an explosion and then silence….. After a few moments I risk raising my eyes above the level of the counter top and just have time to see the wreckage of the drone smoking on the floor before the turret opens up again, sending me cringing to my hands and knees while bottles, books and splinters of wood explode off the counter top where my head had been a moment before!

With dust from the countertop settling around me, I grit my teeth and prepare for drastic action. I can’t stay here on my knees in the dust indefinitely. The turret will not tire or get hungry or go away and sooner or later I’m going to have to take the initiative.

With a deep breath I hurl myself upward and shielding my eyes against the splinters rising up from the resulting hail of bullets, I lash out with my electro bolt and in a blue swirling flash the turret lapses into an uneasy silence, it’s gun turning ineffectually back and forth, its computer brain caught for the moment in a short circuiting loop.

Atlas has warned me that this will only be temporary and leaping over the counter I lunge toward the malfunctioning weapon, my fingers grasping for some purchase, for some raised area which might betray the existence of a circuit box. In the nick of time I find what I’m looking for and levering open the panel I study the components within, which while more complex than those of the drone, are none the less based on the same principle and in moments I have rewired the turret to work on my behalf.

Now free from the danger of being shot at by this mechanical sentinel, I set about searching the counter as well as the area where I started to the left and reveal supplies of bandages, food, money and much needed Eve.

Recessed in from the left wall is a double door smashed beyond repair. Inside I can see more supplies and I try to lever it open with my wrench, but it refuses to budge and finally I move on. On the floor I pass another blood-scrawled message, "Adam Denies Us Any Excuse For Not Being Beautiful" and another diary hangs above it on the wall titled "Limits of the Imagination."

With a yell, two Splicers emerge from the direction of the foyer and immediately charge in my direction. I run back toward the counter to bring my freshly hacked turret into the fray and am almost cut down myself by the resulting fire as the deadly machine takes the approaching Splicers to pieces with ease.

Standing up and brushing myself down I move slightly to the right of the counter and am taken by surprise by an attack from a second turret somewhere over on the right-hand side of the hall! Ducking and covering I run back across to the left and loop back behind the wall at the entrance. This time I emerge on the right-hand side, determined to sneak up on the position of the second turret and disable it the same way I did the first.

Peering ahead I finally see movement through a head sized gap in the right-hand wall up ahead and carefully peering around the edge I see the turret cunningly set up in a side room and scanning the hall through what could surely quite literally be called a "murder hole"! I quickly disable it and rush around the corner through the side door to hack its circuitry.

I take a moment to search the cabinet and crates in this side room for useful items, and play the Steinman diary I found before the Splicers attacked. It turns out to be more insane rhetoric by the good doctor and shaking my head I cast it aside before moving back out into the main hall.

Just beyond me on the right are three or four steps down to a small room ankle deep in water, in which two vending machines sit on opposite walls. A diary here from none other than Andrew Ryan himself, warns of the repercussions of attempting to hack the vending machines and with a grim smile I decide to do it anyway! Unfortunately the circuitry is more complicated than the machines I have seen so far and I end up receiving a shock for my troubles!

Is it just me, or are clowns scary? A vending machine for buying a variety of ammunition, Eve, and such like.

Nursing a sore hand I decide to look into them again at a later point in time. Searching this way and that across the hall I find two health stations and hack them both before using the second one to heal my hand as well as my shoulder which I suppose in shock I’d forgotten had received a gunshot wound. Now feeling refreshed to a degree I once again move across to the left of the hall.

While passing the counter area again I notice a diary I had missed the first time around and move across for a closer look. Titled "Parasite Expectations", at first I think that it’s more of Steinman’s ramblings, but instead it turns out to be another recorded by Andrew Ryan and discusses at some length his belief that mankind are parasites of the societies in which they live. Expecting to be looked after and cared for by the very members of the community who would be forging ahead without the burden they represent.

Putting it aside I return again to my investigation of the left-hand side of the hall. Passing a sign for "Cremations and Funeral Services" I pass a doorway, the bottom half of which is completely blocked off by ice! Driven by curiosity I employ my electro bolt against the ice, but it succeeds only in creating tiny pools of water on the surface of the much larger ice block, so shrugging I move on.

Up ahead I see a sign for "Twilight Fields Funeral Services" and I move up to investigate. Up ahead I hear a woman’s voice coming from beyond the doorway to the crematorium and to my right I pass a set of stairs which leads downward into a darkened area and rises again over on the right hand side of the hall, affording access to the lower level from either end.

On my level and above where the stairways meet, is a walkway forming a bridge of sorts and leading to a large airlock door, above which a sign reads "Surgical Savings". I know from experience that this type of doorway leads to one of the undersea walkway tunnels.

Disregarding these possibilities for a moment I creep through the doorway to the crematorium and coming to a small flight of about five steps I stop and peer though the railings to see where the shouting is coming from.

Peering through the railings I see a door on the left and the source of the shouting female voice. A Splicer stands pounding on a closed door with a length of pipe and I ready myself for the inevitable attack once she realises I am here.

Suddenly I am rocked by a deafening explosion and the door on which the Splicer had been pounding, erupts inward in a ball of flame and smoke! The woman is thrown backward by the blast, arching through the air with her arms and legs waving frantically, until her short flight ends with an impact on the wall opposite and her broken body bounces off, hits the floor, and is still.

A shout draws my eyes back to the gaping doorway and a figure in a white medical coat emerges through the smoke and flames carrying a hefty looking box. Grinning wildly at the body of the woman on the floor, he suddenly notices me and the grin turns into a wide-mouthed laugh as he reaches into the box, produces a bomb with a lit fuse and hurls it in my direction!

Running around the railing I travel underneath the path of the bomb, which bounces off the wall where I was and ricochets out of sight into the main hall before exploding.

Taking advantage of my momentum, I barrel into the white coated man, pinning him against what is left of the doorframe. I can’t let him reach again into that deadly box and raising my wrench high above me head I bring it crashing down again and again, until finally the man is still.

On an impulse I search the box the man had been carrying, but no more of the homemade bombs are waiting inside. It seems he never had another one to throw and I hadn’t needed the overkill of such a ferocious attack. But somehow I can’t bring myself to feel bad about it.

Putting the thought aside, I continue through the door, pausing for a moment at the sound of heavy machine gun fire from back in the main hall. It would seem as though more Splicers have wandered into the field of fire of my twin turrets.

A sign on my left reads "Eternal Flame Crematorium" and I find myself in a small reception area with a desk at the far end. On either side a standing easel holds a portrait, cards beneath bearing the words "In Loving Memory of Winston Hoffner". But on the left-hand side the portrait has been defaced with the cruel ugly strokes of a disturbed brush, the face of the deceased now looking angular and unnatural.

As I stare I see that the floor has been signed by Steinman, once again in blood and that a diary is hanging on the easel.

Steinman proclaims that when Picasso used unusual shapes in his art, the world proclaimed him a genius! And here is Steinman, for years helping disfigured people with plastic surgery, smoothing lines, filling gaps and creating the same old tired shapes of perceived perfection again and again. But now with "Adam" the flesh has become his clay, which he can mould until he achieves true beauty!

Shuddering I check the desk for useful supplies before moving back through an entrance in the rear wall and into the surgery proper.

My boots click on the tiled floor as I make my up the corridor. I can hear a rhythmic mechanical squeaking from somewhere up ahead and I tread more cautiously. The crackle of my radio announces another comment from Atlas, and he tells me to be on look out for security cameras---the eyes and ears of Andrew Ryan.

On my right, I pass a rising stairway, but the bottom six feet or so of steps have been destroyed. Ignoring it for now I move onward and ahead I see a moving light, presumably from the security camera mentioned by Atlas, swinging slowly back and forth.

The camera is set in a wide cornered alcove, but by utilising the corners and walls around it I am able to carefully sneak up a little each time it swings away from me, until eventually I am standing directly beneath the rotating eye and able to reach up and hack the machine.

Unhampered by further scrutiny, I am able to search the area around the camera. A set of stairs rises over to my left and around the wide alcove in which I stand are various crates and filing cabinets. In one corner a furnace stands open and as I move closer I can feel the raging heat from within washing over my exposed face.

In front on the furnace is a large metal table on which lies a discarded body and on the wall next to it a labelled button reading "Furnace Control: Use". After a moment's deliberation, I decide to spare this person the indignity of being left here to rot and I press the button home.

The body slides slowly into the Furnace and the door closes behind it with a heavy clang. Through a small window I look into the flames for a few moments, until in the absence of any appropriate words to say, I begin to move on.

I’ve barely gone a handful of steps though before the metallic creak of the furnace door re-opening pulls my attention back. I watch with grim fascination as the tray slides back out onto the table, the body now replaced by a pile of smoking ashes, and….. Something else?

Shining in amongst the ashes seem to be a container of some kind and I realise that I’m looking at a "plasmid" similar to the Electro Bolt power I inherited from my visit to the "Gatherers' Garden". Peering at it closely I can just make out through the scorching, the words "Hackers Delight." And in a flash of insight I know that applying this will make my life a lot easier from this point on.

Ashes to ashes, dust to..... what's that? A plasmid lies in the ashes of a cremated corpse.

Turning my attention back to the stairs I begin to climb as they rise and turn to the left. I pass a small window through which yet another view of the city is revealed. Neon signs burn brightly against buildings of varying sizes and shapes, but the swirling current, filled with dazzling fish and hazy with floating plankton, prevent me from reading the glowing words they contain.

Reaching the top of the stairs I happen upon two Splicers with their backs to me. So intent are they on their muttering to each other, that they have no idea I’m even there until it’s much too late. Searching the bodies I am struck by the fact that they are both wearing masquerade masks. I remember seeing the results of the terrible riot at the News Year's Party and I wonder if these two had once been innocent revellers there.

Catching myself on the verge of pity I mentally harden my resolve. There are degrees of innocence just as there are degrees of guilt and as all here have at some point decided to adopt the morally bankrupt ethos of Andrew Ryan, I doubt I’ll find anyone here, Splicer or not, who can be described as truly innocent.

Looking around now I find myself in a large room. Ventilation machinery hums softly over to the right and beyond that more stairs leading downward. In the left-hand corner is a small office, but the door is firmly locked. Investigating the stairs I discover as expected that they end in the sheer six-foot drop of the ruined staircase I discovered near the camera and turning I make my way back up.

If you recognise this man, do NOT approach him!

One wall of the room has cold storage units where doubtless bodies would have been stored, but now they stand empty. A ruptured pipe above one of them leaks water onto the floor and I weave to avoid it. As I do so I realize at second glance that the storage units are not completely empty after all, and seeing a machine gun clip lying within, I gratefully take it.

Moving back to the office I notice for the first time that a pool of water lies right around the outside walls and door. As I move closer though my nose detects a trace of something and I realize that in fact it’s not water, but some kind of fuel.

The door remains stubbornly locked, but down to the left a vent cover has been removed and by dropping to my hands and knees I have just about enough space to crawl through.

As I stand on the other side and look around at the office, the tannoy system booms into life and the distorted voice of Andrew Ryan, which I recognize from the tapes I’ve discovered, bellows a short tirade. The distortion is such that I can’t make out the words, but I hear enough to realise that a bounty has just been placed on my head!

There’s nothing I can do about that though and instead I turn my attention back to the office and its contents. A desk sits on one side containing an Eve hypo and various supplies and opposite this is what looks to be an upturned filling cabinet, but on closer inspection turns out to be an overturned "Gatherers' Garden" machine!

Tilting it backward a little I am rewarded by the jingle of something falling out and checking I find another plasmid! Picking it up I read the word "Incinerate" on the side and sure enough once applied my left hand begins to grow almost unbearably hot. For a moment I begin to panic, but breathing deeply I manage to fight my way back to a level of calm and I instinctively know that I have just gained the power to throw flames!

Suddenly the air is filled with screaming and shouting and a howling mob of Splicers has appeared outside the office. Unable to make their way through the door and seemingly not noticing the open vent, they pound and hammer instead on the reinforced glass of the windows. For now the fragile divide appears to be holding, but there’s no telling how long that status quo will last.

The noise is deafening! The hatred in their eyes burns into me as they wildly attack the windows and door! I’m trapped here and I can’t think how to…….. But wait a moment……

The mob is standing in the puddle of fuel around the outside of the office! If I can just ignite it……!

Crouching and reaching quickly outside the vent, I summon my new power and searing fire gushes forth from my fingertips, igniting the fuel and almost instantly turning the howling mob into a whirling screaming mass of writhing flame!

So much for safety advice! Using the fire plasmid, a pool of fuel on the floor gets ignited.

Atlas sparks into life and tells me again about the terrible way that "Adam" has changed everything and everyone and as I watch the unfolding carnage outside the office window I know in my heart that I am already changing.

The fire takes a while to die down and I spend the time sitting on the desk looking at the smoking corpses and trying to make sense of my conflicting feelings. To reconcile my horror at what I just did, against the undeniable satisfaction cursing through my mind. In the end I make no headway, but take some satisfaction in the fact that whatever the price to my soul, for now at least I have survived.

I crawl back through the vent and almost automatically check the charred remains for any useful supplies which might have survived, before making my way back down stairs, through the reception parlour and back out into the main hall.

As I arrive I remember the distant sound of my turrets firing at unseen enemies and standing still I listen intently for any sign of anyone close by. As if in answer to my thoughts I see far down on the right the dim, hunched shape of a Splicer wandering aimlessly about. I can hear her giggle as she moves this way and that and I notice something is flashing around her before realizing that she is dragging whatever implement she is carrying against the floors and walls, creating a cascade of sparks.

In a moment she is gone having failed to notice me and now a choice is at hand. I need Steinman’s keys to get through the emergency access to Neptune’s Bounty, but will I find him down on the level at the bottom of the twin staircase beside me? Or, should I cross the bridge and go through the airlock doors into the undersea walkway, through to Surgical Savings?

For a moment I stand transfixed and unable to choose…..