While deliberating as to which of two possible routes to follow next, it suddenly occurs to me that I am forgetting something. A little further back in the hall I passed a doorway blocked by ice. Ice which stubbornly resisted my electro bolt, but will surely succumb to my newfound power of flame!

Leaving the stairway for the moment, I retrace my steps and am quickly standing before the frozen portal once again. It looks as I remember, thick with a dense and immovable block of ice, which previously defeated my attempts to gain access. But now I stretch out my hand and concentrate on searing heat and a torrent of flame gushes over the ice which bubbles, turns to water and then evaporates away, leaving the door clear and accessible.

The doorway opens to a small semi circular stairway rising three steps from the floor. The room is warmly carpeted and has plush furnishings arranged around the walls. On my left is a sign which reads "Twilight Fields" and sombre music plays over the tannoy, leaving little doubt that this is a funeral parlour.

In the middle of the floor sits a reception desk and behind it a closed door, while to the left and right archways lead to other unseen areas.

I start toward the right hand side and suddenly I can hear weeping from somewhere beyond the arch. Peering carefully around the corner I can see that this is obviously a quiet area put aside for relatives to pay their final respects to their recently departed loved ones. The room is sparsely furnished and drapes hang all around.

At the far end a Splicer stands with her back to me and weeps over an open coffin. How strange to see the dead of mind and soul, mourn for the dead of body. Does she weep from emotion? Or just some half remembered ghost of a memory.

Shelving my doubts I deal with her before turning my attention to the room and whatever possible supplies it might provide. . I see a piece of paper bearing the number "0451" lying next to the coffin, but discard it and continue my search. Some food, a small music box with some money in it, these are the only items I find but I take them anyway.

Turning to retrace my steps to the reception area, I notice a door part hidden behind a curtain which I missed on my way in. It has a combination lock but I can't see any access panel which I might be able to pry loose in order to gain access. I am just about to give up when I remember the piece of paper with the number scrawled on it and I hastily enter it into the mechanism..... 0451.

The lock clicks and the door is open! With a satisfied smile I step thorough and find my efforts rewarded by a small supply room in which I find an Eve hypo, and automatic hack tool, some machine gun and other assorted ammunition.

Returning to the reception area I cross over to find that the archway on the left leads to a similar viewing area. A coffin at the far end sits on a cloth draped table, but as I approach it is flung forward and crashes to the floor! A Splicer leaps out form behind the table and runs toward me with a knife, but she is easily, almost thoughtlessly, despatched and searching her body I move to look around the rest of the room.

I crouch behind the upturned table to retrieve some items of money and food, but even as I stuff them greedily into my pockets I hear the sound of a panel rising and fearing the worst I peer over the top of the impromptu barricade to see that the back of the room, which had ended in a blank wall, now has an alcove in which sits a machine gun turret!

Sensing my movement the machine unleashes a deadly hail of bullets which tear into the wood of the table and the floor around it, sending me diving for cover with a curse and a strong feeling of déjà vu.

Sure in the knowledge of what I have to do, I jump up unleashing an electro bolt before dashing toward the immobilized turret and hacking into the wiring. Moments later the machine resumes its duties, but this time it is wandering Splicers who should fear it.

Unexpectedly I find a safe perched on the wall behind the turret and I spend some time carefully listening to its tumblers as I turn the dial this way and that in search of a combination. After several minutes the mechanism surrenders with a satisfying click and the door swings open to reveal some money and ammunition.

Safes are hard work and not always worth the effort.

Walking back out into the reception area I search the desk. A body lies on the floor underneath it but neither it nor the desk provides anything useful, so I turn my attention instead to the closed door behind me.

As the door swings open I recoil at the smell which assaults me! The room beyond was obviously once a preparation area, where bodies would normally be embalmed and cosmetically composed before being placed in one of the viewing areas for visiting relatives. But somewhere during the unfolding of the anarchy which reigns here, the purpose of the room has been corrupted.

The whole room is tiled on the floor and walls and what little lighting remains reflects wetly in the blood pooled on the floor, splashed on the walls and dripping from various horrific looking instruments hanging haphazardly off the edge of the preparation tables.

Large metal doors are placed here and there on the walls, presumably refrigerated storage areas and on the table closest to me a body lies strapped down and mutilated, a selection of scalpels and other tools sitting nearby in a disorderly pile, as though sorted through by someone not quite able to make up their mind which one to use next.

To the left three steps lead down to a corridor running up the length of the room and disappearing beyond the rear wall and ankle deep in water. As I watch, a body floats slowly face down into view coming to rest at my feet.

Stepping cautiously down into the water I quickly search the body before turning right up the flooded corridor and heading toward a dimly flickering lighted area at its end.

I freeze as a shadow is cast on the wall ahead!

The unseen figure leans over and works on something, muttering to himself intently before suddenly pausing. "Is there somebody there?" comes a man's voice, then the clanging of metal dropped on tiles and the whole corridor is plunged into darkness!

Bringing my machine gun to bear on the darkness ahead I stand tense and steeled for an attack which never comes. Eventually I slowly begin to shuffle forward once more through the water and a few feet later the lighting comes back on, but I am alone.

The end of the corridor opens up to the right, into a second preparation area as grizzly as the first. Once more the tiled walls are interrupted only by the occasion metal storage cupboard and glancing from left to right I can't see any exit through which the shadowy figure might have escaped!

Trying to ignore as best I can the blood dripping from the two preparation tables, I search through the cabinets and drawers and am rewarded by the discovery of another Plasmid! Titled "Security Expert" I can only assume that this will enhance my hacking skills and I apply it without hesitation.

Satisfied that there is nothing else to find here, I make my way back along the flooded corridor into the main preparation area. I am just turning toward the reception room when a metallic creaking spins me back around just in time to see a medical coated figure emerging from one of the metal cabinets on the far wall! I realise it must be connected though to the other side and that this is how the shadowy figure pulled his disappearing act!

With a scream he leaps toward me and despite plenty of warning he almost manages to cut into me with a deadly swing of the blade he is clutching! There are no second chances for the fiend though and with grim finality I bring my wrench crashing down into the side of his head! Staring at me in surprise for the barest moment, he moans something unintelligible before collapsing dead at my feet.

Quickly crossing back through the reception area I hurry down the steps toward the main hall, but press myself silently against the wall as three Splicers with clubs wander by not noticing me. Even as I stand here holding my breath in the shadows I realize the degree to which my thought processes are changing. Not one day ago it would have been fear pressing me against this wall, but now fear plays only a very small part in proceedings, replaced by the pure practicality of saving ammunition.

Waiting until the shambling trio are out of sight, I return to the spot of my previous deliberations and once again faced with the choice of the stairway down or the airlock to the undersea walkway, I quickly choose the former.

My boots click painfully on the steps as I make my way downward. Ahead of me the stairs rise again to the other side of the hall, while to my right they continue down into a small entrance area. On the wall to my left is a poster advertising "Fontaine Dandy Dentures" and once again I am struck by the degree to which something so normal looking, can now seem so alien in the face of the bizarre events which have transpired around it.

As I reach the bottom, a frigid gust of air wafts over my face and ahead I see a large entranceway completely blocked off by ice. The entrance area runs under the stairs behind me and to my right I see a vending machine and tucked into the rear corner on the same wall, a door marked "Supply Room."

Taking a moment to look at the vending machine I attempt successfully to hack it! The security plasmid I found earlier was obviously well worth picking up. Using some of the money I've found scattered about during my journey, I take a moment to buy some more eve and medical supplies from the freshly hacked vendor, before moving onto the closed Security Room door.

Expecting to tackle a lock, I am not disappointed and find a sparking mechanism to the left of the door, which I short out with my electro bolt before pushing the door which swings open easily.

Inside are a number of crates and cabinets. Searching these produces some ammunition, some food and an "Automatic Hacking Tool", the instructions for which promise instant success on any hack with this single use tool. With nothing else to find I turn and return to the entrance area.

Turning my attention once again to the ice packed entrance, I notice a recording device lying there. It's signed "McDonagh" and warns of the danger that certain areas of Rapture might be prone to leaking and freezing if not properly maintained. A Poster on the wall here advertises "Steinman's Plastic Surgery", but having already seen examples of Steinman's work I decide that I'll not be taking advantage of any bargain offers.

Taking a moment to summon up the Inferno, I bathe the ice blocked entrance in flame, quickly melting and evaporating the blockage and allowing access to the area beyond.

The passageway is strewn with paper and debris, most of which is wet now after the melting ice and my feet splash faintly as I walk. An old rusting wrench lies submerged by the wall next to an upturned bin and the water ripples gently as I wade through. Ahead the passage opens to the left, where there is another door and to the right where an open metal grill stands in front of an archway leading to a larger hall

An arrow on the wall points the way I've just come and a sign says "Surgery" but the area I'm entering seems to have been set aside for dentistry. The door to my left is signposted "Cure All", but for now I disregard it to explore the larger area.

My heart leaps momentarily at the sound of an explosion somewhere in the distance above and it occurs to me that I am now exploring the area directly below the main hall. Who knows what's going on up there!

On stepping through the archway, my eyes are drawn immediately to a pool of light shining onto the floor in the center of the open area ahead. It looks somehow out of place against the dim shadows lurking in the rest of the room and my instinctive weariness is doubled when I see that lying at its center is a shotgun! Straining my ears I try to make out the sounds of anyone close by, but can hear no-one. Still I can't shake the feeling that the spotlight is being watched from the shadows and woe betide anyone who steps into its tempting brightness. Instead I move to the left, circling the shotgun and sticking to the wall to better map out the area.

The first door I come to bears the sign "Dandy Dentistry" then moving past it I find a locked supply room. A health terminal sits on the wall here and I immediately hack it reflecting on how easy it has become to do so.

I Work my way down the opposite wall, now on the opposite side of the shotgun and pass a doorway to "Painless Dental". A neon sign stands on it's end next to the doorway, which presumably used to hang from the ceiling here and although it's been torn down, it's still connected and flashes out it's illuminated introduction in a futile message to an empty room.

As I move further down the wall toward the end of the room, I come to three steps which lead down to a waterlogged corridor travelling to the left. As I splash into it I pass windows on my left looking into "Painless Dental" and I've barely stepped into view before a turret hidden inside launches a deadly attack, shattering glass, splintering wood and forcing me to my knees in the water.

Using an old bench for support I carefully raise my eyes just above the rim of the smashed window and search the shadows within for the position of the machine. It opens fire again just as I see it and once again I'm driven down to cover!

This is going to be a close run affair! I have to short out the turret and then climb in through the window and get across the room in the few seconds before it reactivates. My legs feel suddenly weak confronted by the new demands and just for a moment I wonder if I can possibly make it.

Once again necessity makes my decision an easy one and throwing an electro bolt ahead of me I scrabble in over the ruined window ledge, tearing my knee as I do so and falling onto the floor on the other side. As I struggle to regain my feet I hear the turret once again whirring into life and I desperately short it out again before it can bring its deadly barrels to bear! Finally I manage to get behind it and ripping open the circuitry panel I successfully hack it.

This is a waiting room by the look of it. A short circuiting door lock to my left proves easy enough to fix and presents me with an exit when I need it, which will be a little more dignified than my entrance.

A cash register lies on the floor, having fallen from a nearby desk. Its draw hangs open and scattered on the ground around it are small piles of cash.

A doorway stands opposite me and walking through it I find myself in the dental surgery itself. A grinning corpse occupies a spotlighted chair in the center of the room. The buzzing spotlights send a shower of sparks down over her inert form and I find myself thinking that she really doesn't look as though she needed attention from most the grizzly looking implements scattered about nearby!

On the right hand side of the surgery, three steps lead down to a narrow area with porthole windows looking out to sea and a desk at one end. As I begin searching the desk a vent above my head gushes a cloud of steam into the room temporarily blinding me and I wave my hands in front of me in an attempt to clear it.

The desk has a recorder on it titled "Plasmids Are The Paint." And contains the logs of a Dr SuChong, who talks about the use of plasmids making more possible than ever before and next to it on the desktop is a Plasmid labelled "Speedy Hacker" which I waste no time in applying.

Then turning to leave my heart stops in my chest as I find myself staring into the eyes of a medical coated Splicer whose face is inches away from my own! In a blind panic I flail outward with my wrench and the man falls to the floor and lies still. Gasping for breath I stand over him for what seems like minutes, but is probably seconds, before regaining enough wit to once again move on. I truly believe that many more shocks like that one and I will die of a heart attack and this place will become my watery tomb!

There are various cabinets and boxes about the surgery and I search them thoroughly before moving on, then just as I turn to leave I notice that a ventilation grill sits at the base of the far wall and playing an inspired hunch I lever it off with my wrench and crawl inside.

Just as I expected the ventilation tunnel leads to the locked supply room I passed earlier, but luckily for me a movement catches my eye and just before pushing open the grill in front of me I see a pair of legs walk by.

The Splicer in the supply room paces back and forth muttering and laughing to herself, then suddenly she see's me through the grill! She immediately opens fire with a pistol, but the bullets bounce harmlessly off the wall around the grill mouth. My own aim is more careful and considered, the explosions of my gunfire deafening in this confined space, but in seconds she lays dead and the only sound remaining is my harsh breathing inside the metal tunnel.

The supply room yields an automatic hacking tool, some more ammunition and some food. A faded gramophone record floats through the overhead tannoy and the tones of an ageing crooner keep me company as I search. Finally I turn my attention to the locked door in the corner and opening it easily I step through and once again find myself facing the spotlighted shotgun.

Moving back into flooded corridor I walk past the shattered windows of "Painless Dental" and onward to the end where it turns to the right. Here the corridor runs to a dead end, with another office on the left and two corpses. One lying on the floor and the other draped through the shattered window of the unknown office.

Peering in I can see little in the shadows, but something is glinting on a pillar a little way ahead into the room. I can't quite make it out though and so I move on to try the door which is locked. A handwritten sign on the door reads "Chompers Dental Office Key Required" and I suspect that the glinting object on the pillar is just that! But as I've no way to reach it I decide to move on and keep it in mind for later.

Moving back out into the shotgun room, I continue to follow the wall around, now almost back to the point at which I began. A short corridor leads off to the left, little more than an alcove really and at its end is another Vita Chamber. With which I complete my circle and arriving back at the archway I once again turn apprehensively toward that compelling shotgun and begin to inch my way toward it.

Just off to the edge of the lighted area lies a corpse face upward and I wince to see the scissors sticking out of his mutilated face! One hand reaches into the light, the fingers just short of the shotgun and I assume that I'm looking at the weapons previous owner. Beyond him a pile of rubble is piled against a central pillar. Metal girders, bricks and wood, a large clock, once ceiling mounted but now upended on the ground in shadow, all sit in muted respect for the dead.

This is why Mother told you never run with scissors!

A recording device lies abandoned in amongst the debris. Labelled "Useless Experiments" it recalls the experiences of a "Bridgette Tenenbaum" and her ordeal at the hands of experimenting German scientists.

Holding my breath I reach down and close my hand around the shot gun and...... the lights go out!

Suddenly the air is filled with hurrying footsteps, laughter and curses! With the lights gone the blackness here seems to seep into my very soul, I can't see my hand in front of my face and my breath comes in ragged gasps as I hold the shotgun out in front of me in a vain attempt to gain some orientation.

The first blow knocks the breath out of me when it comes! A metal pipe smashes into my ribs and my finger tightens reflexively on the trigger of the shotgun. The resulting blast illuminates the area around me for a fraction of a second and I get a fleeting impression of moving figures before being plunged into darkness again.

A savage blow crashes across my shoulders from behind and spinning I fire blindly again, but this time I am rewarded by a scream and the sound of a body hitting the floor. Almost immediately I am attacked from in front again and I stagger, stumbling over the body behind me before staggering backward pulling the trigger again and again, close now to losing control!

Go ahead... make my day.

I sense a figure before me and the explosion from my shotgun sends it to hell. Another leaps into view, his location betrayed by the stark light of the blast and he follows his partner into oblivion. And so it goes, have I killed five? Six? I've lost count but eventually the hammer of the shotgun falls on an empty chamber and in the resulting silence I realise that I am alone and that once again I have survived.

Staggering sideways while I regain my balance I find myself back at the archway and staring at the unexplored doorway to "Cure All". This seems as good a direction as any in which to continue and so with hands that are still shaking after the fight, I slide open the door.

A small reception area lays in front of me, at one end a counter stands against the far wall and beyond it is a glass doorway. A second doorway stands on the far wall to my right and I step into the room for a better look.

No sooner have I stepped inside, than I am thrown back out again by the blast of an ambushing rocket turret! The machine is hidden in shadow through another doorway to the right and as I painfully regain my feet I once again curse my carelessness! Somebody has set these infernal machines up in order to kill the unwelcome and the unwary. I already know that the former applies to me and it will quite literally be the death of me if I allow myself to continue being the latter!

Reaching around the doorway I disable the rocket launcher with an electro bolt and make my way into the small room in which it stands. Little bigger than a large closet, there are windows to the left through which I can see a large tiled area and scattered around the turret are crates and a cabinet. But these will have to wait for now as I don't have much time before the machine comes back to life and so I immediately start to hack it.

With practiced hands I adjust the circuitry and within moments the turret is working for me. The gears and cogs whirr into life as the machine scans the surrounding area and then with a deafening roar it begins launching rockets right above my head!

The windows to the left disintegrate in a shower of glass and wood and I throw my hands over my ears in a forlorn attempt to protect them form the noise. But through my clenched fingers I still hear the sound of a scream as the turret claims a victim. It would seem that a Splicer, alerted by my movements within, picked the wrong moment to step up and peer through that window!

With my ears still ringing I wander back out into the tiny reception area and investigate the desk and the doorway beyond. The door is blocked from the other side but through the glass I can see another Plasmid standing on a counter and can even make out the label, which reads "Wrench Jockey."

Unable to explore that further at the moment, I search the desk and am rewarded by the discovery of various supplies which I stuff greedily into my pockets before moving on to the doorway on the right.

Inside is a tiled work area which looks like a work area of sorts and is obviously part of the room I saw through the now shattered window. At the base of the wall to my right is a ventilation grill and suspecting that this might be my route to that Plasmid, I eagerly prise it open and crawl through.

As expected I find myself on the other side of the blocked doorway. A number of cabinets are strewn about the room, two of which have fallen in such a way as to prevent the door from opening. The cabinets are empty but I discover some ammunition scattered about the floor and of course I am able to reach the "Wrench Jockey" Plasmid I saw earlier.

The small print on the label reads "builds up your upper body allowing you to wield club like weapons with unprecedented skill and power" I quickly apply it and feel a surge of strength flood into my muscles.

Returning through the ventilation tunnel I emerge back in the tiled main work area and proceed to search for any additional supplies. A security camera hidden behind a pillar is quickly spotted and hacked and a subsequent search reveals a safe which the camera was obviously set to protect.

As before the safe is far more difficult to deal with than the camera's, turrets and drones and I find myself unreasonably disappointed when all I find inside is a small quantity of ammunition.

A surgery table stands to one side behind some portable partition curtains. Draped across it is a body and two more lie on the floor beside it. A recording sits on the end of the table labelled "Enrage Trail" and turns out to be another message from SuChong, detailing an experiment with a Plasmid called "Enrage", the results of which I can plainly see before me!

With this area fully explored I make my way back out through the reception area and exit to the archway. Returning to the large area beyond I turn my attention to the unexplored "Dandy Dental". Inside I find another reception area. One side is partitioned off by a counter with a working television monitor and a till at opposite ends. At the far side is a closed doorway and its twin stands to my right on the opposite side of the room.

A poster on the right hand wall reads "Rapture is Open. Sponsored by Telekinesis", while still another shows a picture of a woman brandishing a tennis racket and proclaiming "Score an Ace for Dental Hygiene"

Sliding over the counter top I search the area beyond and find some first aid supplies and some money before turning my attention to the doorway. This opens into a wood floored area and to my right is the other doorway back into reception. A body lies on the floor in the center of the room, which ends in a series of three steps leading down to a larger flooded treatment area with dental chairs and another safe.

On my left is a large glass doorway which leads to what appears to be a long corridor with of all things tennis serving machine at one end! Closer investigation reveals a pedestal labelled "Testing Telekinesis" at the opposite end of the corridor and behind it sits a Gatherers Garden containing a telekinesis Plasmid!

Almost without thinking I apply the Plasmid! Telekinesis could be invaluable as I continue my exploration and I find myself remembering that flashing object, out of reach beyond the locked doors of "Chompers Dental".

Turning once again to the pedestal I use the button on it to activate the tennis machine, which with a painful series of clicks whirrs into life and throws a tennis ball in my direction. Reaching out with my mind I seize the ball in mid flight before hurling it away to my right. Despite myself a slow smile spreads across my face, I might have faced horrors these last few hours, I might be living a nightmare, but I am changing into more than I ever was before and God help me.... I like it!

Cautiously I make my way back to the corridor outside "Chompers Dental". Movement catches my eye and peering in over the top of the corpse draped through the smashed window I think I might see a door opening and closing further in. It's too dark to be sure, but I must be wary just in case as it seems highly likely that Chompers might not be as empty as it seems.

On the pillar in the shadows I can once again make out the dim outline of an object, but this time I reach out with my mind and imagine that the dim shape is in my hand. For a moment my head spins, but then the object begins to move! Slowly at first, just jiggling up and down on an unseen hook or nail, but then finally rising into the air and floating toward me. With a smile I reach out and take it as it comes close and as I suspected it is a key.

Testing the lock of the previously impassable door, I find that the key fits as expected and I carefully walk in. My feet splash through ankle deep water but I am long past caring about keeping them dry.

Suddenly the tell tale beeping of a security camera pulls my attention to the left! Hidden in the shadows up above my head I hadn't noticed the whirring sentinel as it scanned patiently back and forth across the room. Simultaneously a scream from ahead heralds the arrival of two club wielding Splicers, one of whom arrives through a door on the left and another through a door straight ahead behind a counter.

The second Splicer vaults the counter top and splashes down into the water in front of me, while the first runs straight across and takes a mighty swing at my head with his piece of lead piping! Ducking under the path of the swing I reach down with my hand and electrify the water surrounding me, causing both my attackers to arch upward in spasms of pain, before collapsing dead into the water!

Quickly disabling the camera I hack it before searching the rest of the room. A till on the counter provides some more money but as there is little else to be found. I make my way through the door at the back of the room.

Moving through into a larger room I find two treatment chairs spaced at the center. The back wall has two large portholes set into it through which oddly coloured light filters in from the waving sea beyond. A second camera scans the room, but this time I've spotted it soon enough to avoid any danger of being detected and I quickly hack it.

On the wall at the back is a safe and I spend a few moments cracking it before continuing. As I stand with my ear to the safe door a deafening alarm fills the air and I wonder what on earth I missed, only to realise that in fact more Splicers have arrived in the outer chamber and triggered my hacked camera, which has even how summoned a security drone to deal with the intruders! I stand with my pistol levelled at the doorway for the duration of the unseen battle, but silence is quickly restored and calmly I return my attention to the safe.

Finding a disappointing haul of basic supplies I head out through a second door to the left of the first and find myself in a small room, dimly illuminated by the light filtering in from a single porthole on the right hand wall. The room contains a couple of cabinets which give up little in the way of supplies and yet another door, which on investigation leads back to the original room with the till. Chompers was it seems not really a profitable detour then, but at least it gave me the opportunity to try out my new telekinesis powers and so satisfied I make my way back to the double staircase and the airlock door to "Surgical Savings" in the main hall.

Thankfully the walk back to the main hall passed without event and I quickly found myself once again standing before the huge airlock door to "Surgical Savings." Above the airlock a sign declared; "Surgery: Dr Steinman's Aesthetic Ideals" and the portal slid ominously open for me as I approached.

Stepping into the undersea walkway, I am immediately struck by the closeness of the high rise buildings on either side. Grim and grey they tower over me to the left and right, as though crowding inward, begrudging the space taken by the walkway and eager to steal it back.

After about 15 yards the scenery opens out and once again I can see the great blue expanse of the ocean around me. I regret at once passing out of that stone canyon, because although beautiful the great blue void serves once again to remind me of the enormous pressure bearing down on from outside.

I approach a pillar standing in the center of the walkway. A working television screen sits half way up the pillar although the only thing showing is a Rapture "test card" of sorts. I notice that a second airlock stands to the right of it, while beyond in the distance the glass corridor rises up a few steps before arriving at a third.

Suddenly I am aware that the only sound to be heard is that of my own breathing and almost as I think it that great pressing silence is broken by an eerie moaning, almost but not quite like the low keening of a whale. As I listen the keening is joined by another sound, a stomping which is getting steadily louder.

Looking to my left I see another walkway running parallel to my own with about 20 yards separating the two and walking slowly along it is a Big Daddy! Close on his heels is one of the little girls which Atlas described as a "Little Sister" and I watch fascinated as this strange couple make their way along the tunnel until eventually they disappear from sight.

Walking quickly forward I try to see them again, but they are gone now and although I can still hear the distant sounds of their journey, their tunnel bends around a corner and beyond my sight.

The airlock up the steps slides open as smoothly as the last one and I am confronted by more blood writing on the floor. The words "Aesthetics are a Moral Imperative" are further testimony to the dangerous insanity of Dr Steinman and push further home the grim knowledge that in order to get the key I need, I am probably going to have to kill him.

"NO! I'm Not Finished!!" The words are flung into the air in a strange cross between plea and threat. I round the corner to see a white coated man feeling up three steps through an archway and tossing a burning grenade over his shoulder. The resulting explosion brings down the top section of the arch and completely blocks of that exit.

Testing the stone blockade I quickly determine that it is far too heavy to lift and reaching out with my mind confirms that my telekinetic powers are also too weak to be of much use.

Looking around the chamber I now stand in, I see a Vita Chamber to my left and immediately Ahead is a small raised section on which stands a vending machine and a first aid terminal. A small balcony hangs overhead and underneath it a large sofa, the only occupant of which is a sorry looking Teddy bear.

Moving ahead to hack into the machines I pass underneath the balcony and a shrill voice rings out from above my head. "I don't want to hurt you!" Comes the cry, but its concern is belied by the grenade which is tossed down from above soon afterward! The explosive bounces harmlessly way into the center of the room before erupting in a large ball of flame which consumes the scattered furniture around it.

Suddenly I have an idea and I run out into the center of the room waving my arms and shouting! On seeing me the white coated man grins and produces another grenade, smoke pouring from its lighted fuse and hurls it at the very spot on which I now stand!

Reaching out with my mind I catch the grenade in mid flight and then just as I am about to hurl it back toward my attacker, I suddenly have a change of heart and pitch it instead at the masonry blocking the doorway. A deafening eruption follows and when the smoke clears the exit is free! Running through I hear the frustrated cries of the man on the balcony as I pass out of sight and out of range.

Jumping through the ruined archway I am brought up short by the figure of a dead and disfigured woman slumped in a wheelchair and while part of me is horrified at the sight, on another level I register relief that despite the changes I am going through, I am still able to feel horror.

Stop complaining! You guys get all the best parking spaces!

I collect the money which is scattered at her feet and notice a recording machine on a wall nearby labelled "Symmetry", which turns out to be Steinman ranting dementedly about being in communication with the goddess Aphrodite.

Abruptly the whirring rotors of a security drone pull my eyes to the left and I catch a brief glimpse of a figure disappearing at the end of the corridor in that direction, before the machine opens fire! Before I can react I suffer blinding pain at multiple hits in my shoulder and side, but through a red haze I am able to short circuit the drone with an electro bolt and gasping for breath I hack it before delving in my pockets for much needed medical supplies.

Intermittent gunfire rings out in the distance and with barely a pause after activation, the drone rises up into the air and charges down the corridor unleashing volley after volley, against a security turret placed at the top of a short flight of steps. With a loud explosion, each machine joins the other in a mutual suicide pact and so unhampered I set about exploring the corridor.

Passing a man sized hole in the left hand wall I investigate and among th rubble and pipes I find an Eve hypo, a first aid kit and a "Static Discharge" plasmid, the instructions for which describe it as turning its user into a walking "Tesla Coil" which I gather means that anyone physically hitting me, will receive a substantial electric shock in return! Happily I equip it without delay.

The corridor is alcoved at intervals with two doors along each side. Those on the left are chained but the ones on the right are not and carefully I push open the first one.

Three steps lead down to a tiled room within, which is dimly illuminated and monitored by the sweeping eye of a camera mounted on the far wall, disabling it I continue to explore. Two large fans turn slowly in recesses embedded in the rear wall and on the right hand side another three steps lead up to an exit which it seems obvious is the second doorway I saw in the corridor.

Large windows on the far wall offer little in the way of light. Seen from outside this wall would be alcoved with the windows set in the recesses and the view from inside shows little more than waving seaweed and abandoned oxygen tanks.

Between the fans is a table on which sits some ammunition and another recording device, this time labelled "Aphrodite Walking" and even as I thumb the start button I feel secure in guessing whose voice I am about to hear. Sure enough Steinman's deluded tones rise out of the machine, gushing further about his imagined liaison with the Goddess of Beauty and her inspirational effect on his "work".

Below the camera on the far wall is a desk with a till and searching this provides further money, ammunition and medical supplies. On the wall above it is a safe and a few minutes opening this rewards me with more of the same and having pocketed all this I head back out into the corridor.

Passing the combined wreckage of the turret and the drone and moving down the steps, I am confronted by doors to the left and right, one on either side. A sign above both reads "Viewing Room", but the wall to the right also holds a first aid terminal so I decide to hack it and use that door.

Beyond the door, stairs lead downward to a small tiled room. The left hand wall bears the same blood scrawled phrase I have seen elsewhere, "Adam Denies Us Any Excuse For Not Being Beautiful." And stairs leading back up to the second door I saw above.

Two more doors to the front of the chamber stand either side of a large viewing window which looks out onto a larger room with an operating table on a raised podium at its center. A dimly Lit figure works feverishly at the table and faintly I can hear him mutter to himself unaware as yet of my presence.

Moving in closer to the window I can see that the room below is indeed a spacious operating theatre. Oxygen tanks doubtless once used during anaesthesia now lay strewn forgotten across the blood stained tiles alongside discarded medical instruments. The figure in full surgery gown complete with mask, leans close over a woman laid out on the table as though surveying his work.

Suddenly the figure bursts into a furious tirade and plunges his scalpel into the unfortunate woman again and again! "It's never perfect!" he yells. "It always turns out wrong!!" Hysterically the man spins on the podium and points to the three alcoved walls above him. "This one too fat!" he wails as a spotlight turns on illuminating a crucified figure above his head. "This one too tall! This one too plain!" Two more figures appear spotlighted above him!

Steinman's victims just hanging around

Seemingly exhausted the man slumps momentarily over the corpse on his table, muttering to himself "ugly, ugly......" It seems clear that I have found Dr Steinman and even as the thought forms in my mind the Dr looks up at the dividing window and straight into my eyes. "Ugly!"He bellows. "Ugly, UGLY!!!!" With which he reaches grasping below the table and pulls out a machine gun!

With barely a moment to spare I dive for cover behind the low wall as the window above my head showers glass over me and bullets tear chucks out of the ceiling in the center of the room. Steinman continues to fire and scream hysterically as I crawl toward the right hand door to the operating theatre and reaching up fling it open!

Rolling into the theatre and down the remaining steps I tumble behind some stacked crates as bullets whine around me exploding wood into splinters and holing the loose flapping material of my jacket. Bringing my own machine gun to bear I return fire and with a howl of dismay Steinman dives behind a pillar and proceeds to launch himself from one piece of cover to the next, firing as he goes.

I manage to shock him with my electro bolt and empty a machine gun clip directly into him, but the Adam cursing through his veins appears to have fuelled his strength along with his insanity and despite his blood soaked coat he seems almost to shrug off the attack.

Springing forward he rushes at me in an attempt to get his foul hands around my neck, but moving in to such close quarters was a mistake and it would prove to be his last. Shocking him once again I pummel him with the stock of my machine gun and as he staggers backward I empty a second clip into his body at point blank range! For a moment his body arches, collapses back and twitches.... Then finally falls still.

Dr Steinman gets what he deserves.

Taking a moment to recover I search his body and find the key which Atlas sent me here for, the key to "Emergency Access" which will allow me to travel to "Neptune's Bounty." Snatching it up I quickly search the rest of the operating theatre for supplies as Atlas congratulates me over the radio and prompts me to come to meet him.

The theatre has a recessed flooded area at the back which travels around beneath the viewing room and in which I discover a safe. Opening it with practiced fingers I discover a good supply of medical kits, two of which I apply gratefully to the wounds sustained from the fight.

Finally I turn once again to the task at hand and my return through the corridors to Emergency Access.

As the airlock door slide shut behind me the whole walkway begins to rumble and shake and I grab the rail to keep my balance. "Another tunnel collapse," Atlas tells me. "Welcome to Rapture, the worlds fastest growing pile of junk!"

A light sprinkling of dust and rubble fall around me as I make my back along the corridor, only to find my original exit is now blocked off! Turning on my heel I head back to the pillar and the second airlock I had noticed on my right. So intent had I been on my intended destination, that I somehow managed to walk right past it without realising that this time it stood open.

The new walkway seems only to extend a fairly short distance and on the right I can see the windows of a room branching off it. As I move forward a child screams and the window suddenly dissolves in an explosion of glass and wood as the huge figure of a Big Daddy flies backward through them and crashes into the reinforced glass of the walkway before slumping to the ground!

Tentatively I peer around the wrecked window and there in the room is a Little Sister, helpless with her oversized guardian dead at my feet and backing away in terror from a Splicer who slowly advances on her as I watch. "Here's your chance to get some Adam!" Broadcasts Atlas as the grizzly scene unfolds.

That girl is too young for a pipe!

I fumble for my own pistol but before I reach it shot rings out from overhead and looking up I see a woman standing on a balcony with a smoking gun clenched in her hand. The Splicer collapses dead to the floor and the woman turns toward me. "Don't touch her!" She growls. "Stay away from her or it will be you who gets shot next!"

A conversation then unfolds on my radio between Atlas and the woman, who it seems is the Dr Tenenbaum whose recordings I found earlier. Atlas explains that I only need a little Adam. That these "Little Sisters" are beyond any redemption and that she is fooling herself is she truly believes that these creatures are still children. Tenenbaum meanwhile insists that the children can be saved and as I listen she throws me a devise which could be used to free the child should I chose to do so. A little Adam would be extracted this way, but the child would live!

As I slowly walk into the room the Little Sister backs away from me into a corner. It seems then that I must make a choice between life and death for what was once an ordinary little girl, who played and sang and had a normal life before being mutated by this terrible gene altering parasite. In what hell does such a place exist, which forces an ordinary man to make so dire a choice?!

Atlas is right!

This is no longer a child. Everything she once was has been lost to the parasite which stole her young body and despite all visual evidence to the contrary, that foul parasite is now all that exists.

Don't believe those puppy eyes, she's a freak I tells ya!

Swallowing hard I decide that my allegiance is to the living. My best chance to rescue Atlas's family lies in my accumulating as much Adam as possible and I can't let this parasite jeopardize that mission whatever outward form the creature might take.

Grasping the Little Sister by the shoulder and ignoring its protesting cries, I turn my mind toward dragging the alien parasite from its terrible hiding place and after a few moments struggle I am temporarily blinded by a bright flash and when my vision clears the child that was, has now gone and in her place a large writhing worm like creature struggles in my grasp!

Hold still this won't hurt a bit. Well…maybe just a bit!

"You did the right thing!" Murmurs Atlas. "That thing wasn't a little girl any more." I can only hope that he and I are both right as I watch the creature slowly dwindle to nothing in my hand, leaving behind its boost of Adam. "How could you do that to a child!" Mutters Tenenbaum. "There are other lost children wandering Rapture, I can only pray you show more mercy to them."

Turning my back on the whole sorry scene, I move to leave through the door on the opposite side of the room, when a sliding panel opens on the far wall and revealed within in a Gatherers Garden terminal.

Perched in front of it is a recording labelled "Gather Vulnerability" and playing it I discover that it's from Andrew Ryan, talking about killing the Little Sisters being like removing a terminal patient from a life support machine. After the horror of the choice I have just made, the double blow of finding myself in agreement with Ryan, is almost too much to bear!

Desperately trying to shake these thoughts from my head I activate the Gatherers Garden and select the plasmid "Enrage". According to the instructions this power, when correctly applied, should drive my enemies into a frenzied rage against anyone in the vicinity! In amongst a mob of Splicers, I can see this being a very useful thing indeed.

Exiting via the unexplored doorway, I find it leads me back to the main hall and to my right I can see the now blocked airlock to the undersea walkway I used minutes ago. Grasping Steinman's key in my hand I turn away and head back through the Medical Pavilion toward the Emergency Access.

Struggling in a daze through the Medical Pavilion I barely notice the corridors and side chambers I explored on the way in, when Atlas suddenly disturbs my troubled thoughts with a warning of trouble ahead. It seems a Big Daddy is wandering not far ahead with his Little Sister in tow and Atlas sees this as the perfect opportunity to get more Adam. "It'll be a hard fight," he advises, "but you can do it!"

Turning a corner I see the giant and his infant charge making their way slowly along the corridor away from me. From this distance the steps of the huge bodyguard actually shake the floorboards on which I walk and the air is filled with the odd combination of his whale like keening and the Little Sisters infantile nursery rhyme chanting.

Approaching carefully it becomes evident that the Big Daddy does not see me as a threat. In fact he gives no indication what so ever that he is even aware of my presence. But then as I stray a little too close to the girl, the creature bellows a blood chilling cry and turns menacingly toward me with his giant rivet gun raised and I quickly back away!

Following the pair for a little while I am fascinated by the relationship which exists between the two. The beast a barely contained powerhouse, never more than a hairs breadth away from terrible violence and yet dotting on this little girl who calls him "Mr Bubbles" and occasionally takes him by the hand. At one point the monster bends low over the girl and strokes her hair! Then for a terrible moment I wonder if I've made an awful mistake not listening to Tenenbaum.

But then as I watch, the Little Sister crouches down over a body on the floor and plunges a huge hypodermic needle into the corpse. For a few seconds she works at withdrawing a fluid, the raw Adam, from the body and then horrifically.... She drinks it!!!

You goin some place Alice?

Proof if proof were needed, that this is no little girl but some God cursed creature who has taken control of her body! With a flourish I pull my pistol from my waistband and levelling it at the Big Daddy I fire!

Even as I was goaded into action a plan of sorts had been forming in my head. Down the stairs at the far end of the Medical Pavilion, were various pools of water and fuel. If I could temp the monster into one I'd electrify it, if into the other I'd set him alight!

At the impact of the first bullet the creature turned abruptly and roared! "Kill him Mr Bubbles!" yelled the Little Sister and with a shocking turn of speed the beast began to run in my direction. Almost loosing my footing in surprise I turned and ran, not daring to look back and hoping that it would keep following me till I could spring my trap!

Nearing the top of the stairs I risked a glance backward and was horrified to find the behemoth immediately behind me! Loosing a moments ground by turning, I'd inadvertently given the creature a chance to strike and without hesitation he swung an enormous gloved fist in a wide backward arc which caught me and flung me upward and down the stairs.

Survival instinct alone saw me ignore the protests of my winded body and drag myself straight to my feet. Gasping with pain and the sickening feeling that I have completely underestimated my foe, I struggle through the archway toward the dentists section, only to have the beast smash into the wall of the arch mere inches from where I'd just lurched through.

Groaning under the strain the masonry gives up the struggle and collapses in a pile between the Big Daddy and I, effectively blocking a large part of the corridor and preventing the monster from following me through. With a bellow of pure rage it throws itself again and again against the impromptu barrier and I realise suddenly that though not at all planned, this was in fact the opportunity I had hoped for.

You mess with me? You mess with my whole family!

Pulling the shotgun from across my shoulders I step in as close as I dare to the whirlwind of crazed hatred before me and I pull the trigger and reload and fire and reload, a mixture of the ordinary and electronic buckshot I've founding my searches, pouring into the weapon in a seemingly mechanical stream, continuing until I no longer have shells to push into the empty chamber and when the smoke finally clears.... The beast is dead!

After a moment I emerge from my stunned state and gratefully dip into my supply of first aid kits, before crawling through the rubble which had so recently saved my life and emerging on the other side, by the still body of the Big daddy.

On impulse I search it and discover a large amount of cash and while stuffing this into my pockets I notice for the first time a whimpering coming from under the stairs. Peering into the shadows I see the huddled form of the Little Sister, pushed against the wall in an effort to hide from me.

With the memory of what I've just seen her do still fresh in my mind, I have much less of a crisis of conscience this time and reaching in I drag her out into the light and without stopping to think, I harvest the foul creature inside her!

With this grizzly work done I climb the stairs again with exhausted steps and make my way slowly out of the Medical Pavilion. The trip back to Emergency Access is thankfully uneventful and before long I find myself standing once again in front of the control panel. Thumbing the button the grate in front of the door slides smoothly open and Atlas chirps to life on my radio. "You've done it! I don't know how, but you have! Come meet me on the other side.

Stepping through the door I cross the small room beyond and step on board the Bathysphere bobbing gently up and down at the back of the chamber and with a determined hand I pull the lever.