THE RIALTO – DETROIT – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ?You sure that thing will run?” he said, as the hacker came around the front.

Jensen watched Pritchard roll the server rig off the stage and into the back of a minivan. Packed in with all the other hardware from his hideout, it barely fit, and the battered vehicle sank low on its shocks as he slammed the rear doors shut.

“You sure that thing will run?” he said, as the hacker came around the front.

“I’m abandoning the building,” Pritchard told him. “Even if I have to push this myself.” He shook his head. “You would think that the MCBs losing most of their gun hands would be a good thing for the areas outside the police-patrolled zones… but instead it’s just stirred up a different kind of anarchy. As hard as it is to believe, Magnet and his goons imposed a violent sort of order. Now every block in Downtown is picking a fight with the next.”

“Where are you gonna go?”

Pritchard eyed him. “I’ve got other places in Detroit. Better that you don’t know where, Jensen.”

“You have no idea, do you?”

He gave a rueful nod. “I have no idea.” He reached into his jacket and produced a pocket secretary, offering the slim digital pad to Jensen. “Here. You should have this.”

Jensen took the device, turning it over in his hands. “A farewell gift?” he said dryly. “Francis, I’m touched.”

Pritchard scowled back at him. “As I’ve come to realize how utterly unreasonable you can be, I know there’s no point trying to convince you to steer clear of Juggernaut.” He pointed at the pad. “So this is all I can do to stop you from getting killed too quickly. On that device is all the data I’ve gathered over the past two years about everything that we have experienced – the Aug Incident, Sarif, Humanity Front, the conspiracy, all of it. Everything from the day those mercenaries broke into Sarif Industries until right now. If you’re determined to throw your life away on this crusade, there may be something in there that can help you.”

“Thanks, Pritchard,” he said, and this time he meant it.

“Don’t get maudlin,” sneered the hacker. “I’m not doing this because we are friends. I’m doing it because I believe if anyone can hurt the people behind these acts, it’s you. I just don’t think you’ll live to tell the tale.” He shook his head, as if he were considering a puzzle that had no solution. “You’re a lot of things, Jensen, but you’re not an idiot. Think for a second, and be honest. Why are you really determined to do this?”

The answer came to him without pause. “Because someone has to take a stand. And like I told you before, I don’t have anything left to lose.” He stuffed the digital pad in his pocket. “I do nothing, and I’m complicit in it, you get that? That’s how they’ve got this far. Because too many people looked the other way.”

“They? The Illuminati?” Pritchard couldn’t say the word without sneering.

“What they call themselves isn’t important. It never was.” Jensen shook his head. “The only thing that matters is that we have to stop them. Fight them right to the bloody, bitter end. If not, then one day we wake up and we’re living in their future instead of ours.”

“You make it sound like the end of the world,” said Pritchard.

“Not yet,” Jensen told him, as he walked away, “but you can see it from here.”

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First off, my thanks must go to Mary DeMarle and Rayna Anderson for our collaboration in creating the original version of Adam Jensen’s ‘missing time’ narrative, which this novel draws from. Along with Mary and Rayna, much appreciation is also due to the rest of my colleagues at Eidos Montréal on the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided team – among them Jean-Francois Dugas, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, Jason Dozois, Rees Savidis, Taras Stasiuk, Mark Cecere, Leanne C. Taylor, Jeffery Campbell, Daniel Dick, André Vu, David Anfossi, and many more.

Thanks to my editors Alice Nightingale, Natalie Laverick and Hayley Shepherd at Titan Books for their patience and enthusiasm.

And of course, thank you to the creators of the original Deus Ex games – Warren Spector, Harvey Smith, Sheldon Pacotti, Austin Grossman, Chris Todd and the Ion Storm team – for inventing this dynamic fictional future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Swallow is a writer on Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – the latest incarnation of the blockbuster Deus Ex videogame series – and was nominated for a BAFTA award for his work on Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

He is a New York Times bestseller and the author of over forty books, including Deus Ex: Icarus Effect and Deus Ex: Fallen Angel, Nomad, the Scribe award winner Day of the Vipers, The Poisoned Chalice, Nemesis, The Flight of the Eisenstein, Jade Dragon, The Sundowners series of steampunk Westerns, The Butterfly Effect and fiction from the worlds of 24, Star Trek, Warhammer 40,000, Doctor Who, Stargate and Judge Dredd.

Swallow’s other credits include the critically acclaimed non-fiction work Dark Eye: The Films of David Fincher, scriptwriting for Star Trek Voyager, videogames and audio dramas.

He lives in London, and is currently working on his next book.

⇐ Предыдущая29303132333435363738

Поделиться: