Deus Ex Diaries Part Fifty-Seven (Mankind Divided)

This is my ongoing exploration of the Deus Ex Universe, in release order. Whether you’re a newcomer or an old-goer, I hope to make this something you can read along with and enjoy. This time I continue Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

After a semi-successful operation in Dubai, Jensen had returned to Prague in time to be caught in a terrorist attack at Růžička Station…

30 hours later, Jensen woke up in his apartment, his augmentations still glitching from the explosion at the train station. He spoke to Alex Vega who was fine, and said he was going to get checked out by someone.

Looking around the apartment, I found a newspaper with headlines about the Dvali crime family evading prison time thanks to “accidentally” destroyed evidence, and Sheppard being killed in Dubai. As I entered the living room the house computer told me that there was a message from David Sarif waiting for me, so I listened to it.

Sarif had heard what happened at the station and despite having not been in touch for two years he decided to reach out. I decided to call back in a bit and checked my emails. One was from Christian Jarreau, the director of the North American Division of TF29, who couldn’t give me much information on my boss Jim Miller, but seemed to be the reason that Jensen had even joined Interpol. Another email confirmed Jensen’s order for a new trench coat, and a third was from Jensen’s co-worker Peter Chang, who seemed very paranoid about TF29’s security.

I opened the armoury hidden behind a wall panel and took the ammunition before storing the various beverages I’d picked up to save some inventory space. I then called Sarif back to get that out of the way.

Jensen was surprised that Sarif knew where to find him, but Sarif explained that Interpol ran an extensive background check when Jensen applied for TF29. Being blunt, Jensen asked what Sarif wanted only to get a bit of deflection from his former boss, who said that they had both been through a lot these past two years. I chose to concede his point, telling Sarif that I was glad he escaped Panchaea. It seemed that Sarif hadn’t used the submersible that he was next to, as he said that he was “at death’s door” by the time he was pulled from the wreckage. Sarif Industries fell apart with him in hospital, so Tai Yong Medical bought everything out from under him.

I asked about Megan Reed, but she had gone to San Francisco to work for Versalife. Frank Pritchard had remained in Detroit doing computer security on a freelance basis.

Moving on to why Sarif was heading to London, as he’d mentioned in his message, it turned out that he was meeting with Santeau Group, an entity headed by Nathaniel Brown. They were the ones behind the Aug-only city of Rabi’ah, which the news had said was going ahead in Tanzania. They were also behind the Aug ghetto in Prague, the Utulek Complex. Sarif used the term “arcology” to describe Rabi’ah, which I recalled hearing when Alex Denton went to Cairo in 2072. Self-sufficient cities that could be created anywhere on Earth, built by the Augmented for the Augmented.

Finally, we reached the reason for this call out of the blue. Sarif needed Jensen to sign some paperwork so that Sarif could finish filing for bankruptcy. I didn’t really understand, but Sarif said it was “some kind of bureaucratic mix-up caused by you [Jensen] being declared legally dead for a year. The apartment in Detroit was leased in your name, even though we paid for it.” Jensen agreed and they said their goodbyes.

Before leaving the apartment I had another look around using my Smart Vision, and noticed something in the floor of the bedroom. It was a secret compartment with a welcome package from the Juggernaut Collective, including an e-book from Pritchard containing quotes from books and reports, and a bundle of papers. There was also a pocket secretary which appeared to be from the man I knew as Quinn back on Rifleman Bank Station, as they used the term “bratán” which they’d been fond of saying and the email address was “no1”. It basically welcomed me to the Juggernaut Collective, and told me that Alex Vega was my point of contact.

After grabbing a tool from the safe behind a painting, I left the apartment to check out the immediate area. Jensen checked in with Miller to confirm that he was heading to the office after someone had repaired his augmentations. He then called Vaclav Koller, the doctor that he needed to see, and said that he was on his way. Koller confirmed that now was a great time — a really great time unless sooner was possible. Dvali gangster types were in his bookshop, so maybe I should avoid the front door.

First, however, I checked out some of the other apartments in my building. A television played an interview between Eliza Casan and Talos Rucker, the apparent leader of A.R.C. — not that I knew what that was yet. I couldn’t hear the interview itself as two people were talking outside and it drowned out the TV. Down a flight of stairs I spotted a ventilation shaft which took me into a drug dealer’s apartment. I didn’t know that right away, of course; I found the drugs (called Neon) after I’d knocked him out since his apartment was red on my mini-map.

On the same floor was a black market arms dealer named Tars so I stopped by to sell some alcohol I’d grabbed from my neighbours. Unfortunately, I couldn’t afford one of the Praxis Kits he had for sale, so I left and headed to the ground floor.

Now out on the street I avoided some police officers and made my way to the book shop. Or, I tried to before some Dvali turned me away. I spotted a scissor lift and used it to jump up onto a roof, then across to an apartment with a balcony. I went in through the window and entered a ventilation shaft which exited into a maintenance area. I grabbed some credit chips from a box before reading a pocket secretary which mentioned that this was all of the money some people could scrape together to get out of Prague. Whoops!

Another shaft led out onto a roof and I checked out the area below. There were multiple hostiles, so I knocked out the two who had turned me away before attempting to take down the rest quietly. This failed, and I had to shoot them all dead. Inside was a similar matter with the final three, but once the coast was clear I was able to loot to my heart’s content. I found a couple of hidden areas, but given my limited inventory I wasn’t able to grab everything that I wanted indiscriminately.

Upon entering Koller’s office he called me and reminded me how to find his hidden dungeon, so I pulled the red book on the bookcase behind me which opened the secret door and allowed me to use the elevator. Miller called to ask where I was, but I accidentally cut him off mid-sentence by moving too far forward and activating a cutscene.

Koller was happy to see me and brushed me off with some vague excuse why the Dvali were after him. He had me sit in his chair to fix me up and rendered me unconscious to do his work. I woke after some time with Koller freaking out — he had tried connecting up some strange implants, but my system had begun to melt down and in a panic Koller reset me. It turned out that there weren’t just the Sarif Industries parts but some newer ones, presumably installed after the Panchaea explosion without Jensen’s knowledge. Activating even one of the experimental augmentations would cause my system to become unstable, but luckily Koller had a solution. All I would have to do was shut down one of my other implants and it would be fine.

While giving me some Praxis Kits as an apology, Koller mentioned that if he had a Neuroplasticity Calibrator he would be able to cure my overheating. Unfortunately, it was with the rest of his shipment which the Dvali had seized. The second in command of the Dvali, Otar Botkoveli, had issues with Koller and was the one who had the shipment. I needed to go to the casino in the Čistá District and get it so that I could be all that I could be.

I decided to use some of the Praxis Kits and upgraded my Carry Capacity twice to give me more room in my pockets. I still had 10 Praxis points left, but decided to use them on an as-required basis.

Leaving the dungeon via a tunnel and manhole cover, Miller called again asking for an ETA. He had to be content with a “when I get there” and I had to decide what I wanted more: to please my boss, or to grab the Neuroplasticity Calibrator for Koller…