Deus Ex Diaries Part Forty Three (Human Revolution)

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. I continue Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Hot on the trail of Sandoval, who could lead me to Megan Reed, I had been stopped by a cop to find a bomber named Jacob White…

There were three places to check; the alley next to the police station, the metro tunnel, and the sewers. The perp was apparently quite loud, so I would need to keep an ear out — and try to take him alive if possible. I decided to head into the sewers, as that’s where I would plant a bomb. However, as I passed by a billboard, I noticed that it had a ladder attached to it and headed up. Hacking a locked door, I went through a hallway to an open window overlooking the top of the petrol station housing the arms merchant.

Dropping down safely, thanks to my Icarus augmentation, I noticed a ventilation shaft so climbed inside. Right near the entrance was a sniper rifle, ammo and a pocket secretary. To my surprise, it was from “Owl” to “Redwing”, telling the latter to fire a shot at the ground between the police and protestors to kick off a riot. It also said if a riot happened naturally to walk away, they were being paid regardless of how it started. Since the weapon was still here, I had to assume that “Redwing” had left it alone after the riot began.

Grabbing the rifle, I fell down into the arms merchant’s “store” and sold it, as well as a machine pistol. I left after buying some ammo, heading through the alleyways and back to the storage locker I’d visited in Part Forty Two. There was a manhole cover which I used to enter the sewers.

There was a punchable wall nearby, so I smashed it open and found a bunch of ammo which I took. Dropping down a nearby ladder, I set off a motion-activated mine, though it didn’t injure me. I could see some more flashing, so while taking care to avoid some electrified water, I followed the tunnel around to a box. Curiously, I kept being told “bad grab” when trying to move the box out of my way, so I went around it and was hit in the face by an exploding mine.

The marker I had been following on my HUD started to move, clearly coming to investigate the explosion, so I hid behind the still-intact box while I recovered health. When I was at full health, I snuck around to find White. He spotted me, but before he had finished asking “Who’s there?” I had shot him with my stun gun, and he dropped. He had a pocket secretary on him with a short manifesto, but nothing else.

Around the corner, I spotted a turret, so I waited for it to look away before I grabbed it and put it in a corner out of the way. A second turret began firing at me from further down the tunnel, but I managed to avoid it and enter a nearby passageway where I found a security computer. I hacked it and disabled the turrets, which I would find a third of on my way to disable White’s bomb.

I cleared the sewer of more mines, and found another wall that I could punch through. It was ammo and documents, which a pocket secretary told me were cold cases. The police were using the sewer for document storage…

Returning to officer Nick at the convention centre, he confirmed that officers were enroute, as well as the bomb squad. For not killing White, he gave me 1,000 credits and a silencer. It turned out that I had no weapons that I could put the silencer on, so I went back to the arms dealer to sell it as well as White’s heavy rifle which I’d grabbed.

I finally headed over to Sandoval’s apartment, which was close to my own. I entered the building via the fire escape, and headed downstairs where I overheard two people arguing about securing the place. Once they wandered off, I went to the apartment and opened the door, finding a dead cop. He was laid partially on a Praxis kit, so I grabbed it — causing a mine to go off, rebooting my augmentations!

Coming under attack from someone in the next room, I ducked into the kitchen area and shot him with my stun gun. As they dropped, I recognised Zeke Sanders! I didn’t have time to think about it, however, as the two men who had left actually returned. However, they were lousy shots and I stunned them easily.

With some time to think, I looted all three men, finding a pocket secretary with a note from Sandoval with a safe code of 5463. I looked around the apartment. In the bedroom, some boxes clumsily hid a door into the bathroom, and some more boxes hid a switch which activated a hidden door. A nearby punchable wall gave me an alternate way down, but it also alerted the two men down below. I dropped down and stunned one, then knocked out the other without being spotted.

There was a lot of ammunition in various lockers, so I stocked up before remembering the safe code that I had found. Returning to the bedroom, I moved the framed painting and opened the safe hidden behind it. There was more ammo and some credits which I happily took.

Back downstairs, a shipping container disguised a ladder down into the sewers, so I cautiously moved down the passageway to almost get spotted by a guard. I knocked him out while some more men nearby argued about disturbing Sandoval, given “the state he’s in”. There was a crawl space which led to a second crawl space, allowing me to bypass the men — but there was a laser grid blocking my way no matter which way I went.

I managed to stun three of the four remaining men, but couldn’t get to the last one. So, I went back through the crawl spaces and stunned him from behind. One of them had a pocket secretary with a code for the laser grid, so using that on a nearby terminal allowed me to deactivate it. Unfortunately, there were motion detecting mines all over the place, so I shot them all to clear the way to the door Sandoval was hiding behind.

As I entered the room, he was watching a televised speech by Bill Taggart, calling for The Humanity Front — and specifically Sandoval — to stand down. Given the fact that he was called out on live television, Sandoval resolved to atone for his crimes by shooting himself dead. Jensen, obviously needing him alive for information, wasn’t too keen on that idea. On the plus side, Sandoval said that he hadn’t removed the locators from the kidnapped scientists, simply changed their frequency.

Sandoval explained that if he killed himself, at least Taggart couldn’t use him again, the way he had pinned every negative thing on him so far. I tried to Inspire him, saying that he should tell his side of the story since every camera in the country would be watching his trial. He was unconvinced, angry that Taggart already controlled the narrative. I tried some Tough Love next, telling him that sure he was going to jail, but he’d never find redemption that way. At least alive he would still be able to help people. This pepped him up, but he feared no longer being able to look his family in the eye. So, I Empathized with him, saying that his wife would understand that we all have something to atone for in some way, because she would rather he be alive in prison than dead.

Sandoval put the gun down, finally being persuaded. So, I grabbed the gun while Jensen reported in to Pritchard, telling him about the locators. He complained that he didn’t have the equipment to search for them, but that I should head back to my apartment building and get Faridah Malik to fly me over to Sarif Industries. Heading out through a door, I followed a passageway past a punchable wall (which contained ammo & credits) to a locked gate. After hacking it, I left the sewers and returned to my apartment building, reaching the roof just before Malik.

Climbing aboard the aircraft, we flew to Sarif Industries. Malik told me that Pritchard had asked her to relay that he wasn’t there, so I should go and see David Sarif. Before I went up, however, I had some offices that were locked and I hadn’t broken into yet. While doing that and stealing so many credits, I overheard several staff members complaining that they were being kept inside by the rioters outside.

Once I had read all of the emails and grabbed everything from peoples desks, I was ready to go and see Sarif…