Deus Ex Diaries Part Thirty-Four (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.

Although I had grabbed the neural hub from the morgue, I was busy doing a favour for a former colleague…

I had to find a way into Derelict Row without being seen, and would have to remain unseen until I left. From my track record so far, I had miniscule hopes. Nonetheless, I headed up a fire escape and jumped from the roof to land on the opposite fire escape. Upstairs, there was a wall that I suspected could have been punched through - if I had the augmentation. Since I didn’t, I headed down and carefully made my way to a door at the rear.

Moving through the passageway, I found a gang member on his own and knocked him out. There were two at the end of the tunnel I found myself in, so I snuck under a wooden floor to avoid them, and out through a partially-opened sliding door. Outside, I stuck close to some cement bollards and shipping containers to avoid being spotted by the handful of gang members.

Almost blundering into two men talking about having to keep an eye on the weapons stash, I waited for them to split up. I tranq’d one of them, then knocked out the other, barely getting away without being spotted by a third man. From there, it was a simple case of going around a corner, under a broken fence, and into a hole in the wall. The weapon stash now located, I stole a weapon mod for ammo and applied it to my pistol.

There was a handy manhole cover nearby, though I doubted it would be clear sailing through there, so I went down cautiously. I only had three tranquilizer darts, so I was annoyed to find five gang members. I shot three and knocked out the fourth, all somehow without being spotted, and waited for the fifth to move away from the barrier he was on the other side of. Once he did, it was a simple matter of hopping over and knocking him out!

With the coast clear, except for some homeless people, I climbed out of the sewer through the only other manhole cover. I was threatened by some gang members, but swiftly left the area, and they quickly forgot about me. Detective Jenny Alexander was opposite Derelict Row, so I spoke to her and handed over the evidence and crossbow. Apparently O’Malley was at his apartment now, so I offered to go and arrest him - presumably Alexander thought she’d be shot if she went.

When I arrived back at O’Malley’s apartment, he finally recognised who I was. I asked him to come quietly, but he pulled a gun on me when I wouldn’t listen to his counter-offer, so I punched his lights out. Returning to Alexander, who was waiting just outside, I made a joke about him sleeping now. She thanked me and gave me a weapon mod - and it was finally time to head home. First though, I gave myself the “punch through walls” augmentation for future use.

Of course, as I arrived at the apartment building, Mrs Reed was waiting for me. She was glad to know that she wasn’t crazy in thinking that something was wrong, and I assured her that I’d seek justice for her daughter. After giving her the bracelet that I’d found, I told her bluntly how Megan had died, then headed up to my apartment.

Pritchard called while I was in the elevator, annoyed at how long it was taking me. He had access to my computer, so just needed me to plug in the neural hub. I had a brief look around at the many boxes of cereal scattered around before heading into the bedroom and plugging in the hub. Pritchard was shocked to discover that the hacker wasn’t working alone, and likely being controlled by an outside source due to the wetware attached to the hub. More, he knew where the other person probably had been: Highland Park.

Much to my surprise, Jensen wanted to check it out and see if they were still there. I found that unlikely, as it had been several hours since the hacker had pulled the trigger. Before logging off of the PC, I took a look at my emails. One from the building association telling me to be patient for my second replacement mirror, one apologising for putting my dog down while I was comatose, and one from Athene Margoulis saying that my rent was paid for the year.

I used the code in that final email to open up the secret space behind my TV, and installed the mod from inside onto my pistol, as well as the mod that Alexander had given me. I also grabbed the credits and ammo before leaving. Sarif had given me a call, telling me that I needed to get into Derelict Row to shut down the backdoor into our system. Or, rather, back into Derelict Row…

Before I could head over, I got another call from Pritchard about a note that someone had left on my office door. It said to meet someone in an alley off of Bagley Avenue, so I went there first. Zeke Sanders was waiting for me, and wanted to repay me for letting him leave that whole terrorist situation. He handed over a pocket secretary with access codes on, that the hacker had left behind.

I left Sanders and went to Derelict Row. I decided to go upstairs to that wall I had noticed previously, and punched through it. It turned out that there were two gang members there, one of whom I took out by smashing my way through the wall. The other came over to investigate, so I knocked him out.

I was annoyed to find that the only way down to ground level was to drop, but I managed to get down with some careful navigation of the metal wall support bars. Once safely down, I snuck to the door and exited into the alley. Unfortunately, I hadn’t taken the strength augmentation to lift heavy objects, so I was unable to get inside of a vent that I could see behind a large box. I hid next to a wall, hoping that the one gang member walking my way wouldn’t spot me - but he did.

After several minutes and quite a bit of ammunition, all of the gang members were dead except for one who I knocked out. I explored a little to find loot, then headed inside a building which my target was on top of. There were three men on the ground floor, one of whom I knocked out, then I shot the other two as they watched television. Climbing up a couple of ladders, I spotted some proximity mines, so I grabbed a nearby barrel and chucked it over. The mines dealt with, I went around and shot the two men who were up there with me, and went out onto the roof.

Since I had the code for the security terminal, I easily switched off the antennae. Sarif told Faridah Malik to pick me up, so it was a good thing that I was next to a helipad. I had to assume that the gang would have attacked the approaching aircraft, but since they were all dead I climbed aboard without incident. We were off to find our hacker’s friend…