Deus Ex Diaries Part Sixty-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.

Back in Prague not an hour and I had already discovered a dead body and some kind of conspiracy against me…

I left the dead Dr. Orlov and headed to Jim Miller’s apartment building. It happened to be in the same unit as a merchant, so I hit him up first to lighten my inventory a bit, selling my booze and unrequired ammo. I also bought some hypostims, as it wouldn’t hurt to have plenty of those.

Heading across to Miller’s apartment, I hacked the door and went inside. Alex Vega told me that I probably wouldn’t find it easy to find secrets, but I should keep looking until I did. A laptop was on the kitchen counter, so I hacked into it and found some personal emails about his family. His daughter needed surgery because her bones were degrading, but Miller wasn’t signing the consent form to allow it.

There was a laser targeting weapon mod on the staircase but nothing else worth noting, if I were to ignore the punching bag which opened a hidden door into a secret room! I snagged his sniper rifle and keycard, reporting to Vega that I had the latter. Hacking the secret computer in the secret room, there was an email from Rami Langosh saying that there was a report of an Augmented Rights Coalition attack in America, something they had apparently never done before. There was also an email to Lockjaw2020 asking them to look into someone’s history, as well as who assigned them to “that position”. Just for good measure, I cracked open the safe and took his gas grenade, credits, multitool, and a pocket secretary. It contained an email from Palisade bank, telling him that his account was closed and he had to empty the safe contents. Luckily, it also had a code (1363) so I now had two reasons to visit the bank, including Orlov’s keycard.

Leaving the building, Vega had asked me to meet her nearby so I went over and as luck would have it she was waiting below Orlov’s apartment. She had news about VersaLife, and how a research assistant had been found poisoned in the Roccasecca Beach facility, showing symptoms uncannily similar to Talos Rucker. The report had been found by Janus, the head of the Juggernaut Collective, despite it being blank or missing parts. Jensen was suspicious, which Vega didn’t like, so I tried to soothe her by saying she seemed to put a lot of faith in Janus’ opinions. She defended them, saying that Janus had given her purpose after Belltower had tried to kill her in Panama (and curiously not Australia), and allowed her to go after those types of people.

I suggested using the access card that I’d found to check the call logs in the NSN device in the office, to discover once and for all where Miller stood. Vega warned that it was a risk, so she wanted to be on the line when I went in. And with that, I headed for the office and went down the elevator.

My first stop was checking on Smiley to see if he’d analysed the data I’d given him yet. Luckily, he had finished and discovered parts of the bomb’s timing mechanism which used Stanek wristwatch parts. Stanek was a local brand, made in a store nearby by Nomad Stanek. Smiley also gave me Nomad’s home address, in case I got nothing from the store. Heading upstairs, I hacked into Miller’s office and accessed the NSN communications device, calling Vega as I did. She said that she’d listen in through the whisper chip I’d installed earlier, and I logged in.

 

Appearing as Miller, I found myself in a conference room with a teleporter thing hidden in the back. Using it, I was taken to another part with five data towers that I needed to hack. While I could remotely hack some server blocks that were in my way, the data towers required me to be close. After hacking the first one, I gained access to a large room with a data tower in the centre, one at the rear, and one on either side. I decided to tackle the left hand one first, avoiding a camera and raising two server blocks to hide me while I went through a ventilation shaft. Another server block hid me from a camera and I hacked the second data tower.

Moving around to the rear, I dodged some moving laser wires and climbed a couple of ladders to hack the third data tower. I then had to expose some server blocks to jump over to the left hand data tower and hack it, leaving me with the middle one which was surrounded by lasers. Luckily, there were two blocks beneath the fourth data tower, so after throwing them up to the platform I was able to use them to climb up above the final data tower, and drop in to hack it.

The call began to play from where I’d already heard — with Manderley ordering Miller to report that ARC was behind the bombings. Miller was clearly unhappy about it and logged off, but the call log continued. Manderley called Bob Page who logged in moments later. Manderley explained that Miller wanted a report about the break-in that was supposed to be happening in San Francisco, which annoyed Page, but he quickly recovered, saying that it would help him to clean up a “related incident”.

Page asked about their contact within ARC, who had apparently said that Rucker might be on to them. So Page said that it was time to “use the Orchid” to kill Rucker. Manderley was hesitant, though it would make things easier going into “Phase 2” of their plan, the rest of their council might not like it. Page wanted to push ahead, as it would force Brown to make his move, whatever that meant.

The call ended and I told Vega that I wanted to speak with Janus personally, not through her, about this and she said that she’d set it up. Upon leaving the office, I found Dr. Delara Auzenne, the psychiatrist, typing on Miller’s computer. She asked what I was doing there, so I asked her the same thing. She explained that she wanted to leave a message for Miller to find out if he’d heard from Vince Black, the head of the Organised Crime division, as he’d missed a check-in. Asked to look into it for her, I agreed as I like experience points, and she pointed me towards his office.

 

Rather than leave, I asked Auzenne about something she’d said. Apparently Lyon was waiting for her reports, did that mean she didn’t report directly to Miller? As it turned out, she was a civilian not an agent, and she answered to Joseph Manderley. Thinking it was odd that she would call him Joe, I asked how familiar she was with him, though she brushed it aside. I persisted, hoping for answers as to how Manderley got to the top, ahead of people who should probably have had the job instead. She shrugged, saying that if Manderley had help getting to his position it was likely people who shared his vision for the task force.

Auzenne bid me farewell and I went to Black’s office. I found a train ticket to Berlin for Dobromila Novakova, as well as a chat log between the two. Apparently they were meeting at the Red Queen, but Black was late. I gave Auzenne a heads-up and left the facility, but as I exited the import company office the street shook with an explosion! Car alarms rang out and people screamed, and I went running to find out what happened, discovering a burning store nearby. As it turned out, it was the Stanek store that I was going to check out. Deciding to put a pin in that for now, I headed for the red light district to look for Black.

Before entering the Red Queen, I checked out the other nearby bars; the Irish Stool, and the Cigar Lounge. Both had rooms in the basement, but only one was accessible without hacking a panel in front of people, so I didn’t check out what was below the Lounge. While looking around the Red Queen I found myself in a room where a card game was going on. On a whim I swiped the credit chips on the table in full view of everyone, and they just let me.

On the balcony on the top floor, I was approached by Dobromila Novakova who thought that I was Black. She apologised and quickly backed off, but I disclosed that I was trying to find my colleague. Novakova was trying to escape from her husband, but we couldn’t discuss it there, we had to meet elsewhere, which I agreed to. She told me to go to an area near the train station, and she would answer all of my questions.

Rather than leave like a normal person, I noticed that I could parkour along the walls and rooftops to the right, so off I went. I found my way to an apartment balcony which it turned out belonged to the bartender of Cigar Lounge. Hacking his computer I found an email suggesting that he was a gun runner, so I looted the place and left. I had a date to get to…