AIR TRANSIT CORRIDOR – MICHIGAN – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Jensen stared across the VTOL’s enclosed cabin at Quinn, watching the other man scrutinize a handheld repeater screen. Over his shoulder, a narrow hatchway revealed the cramped virtual cockpit beyond, where Jensen could see Alex Vega’s hands in constant motion as she guided the aircraft over the dark countryside. They were flying low, nap-of-the-earth, skimming treetops and following the line of the terrain to stay off local ATC radar.

Vega was humming absently to herself, lost in the work of piloting. She’s good, Jensen thought, military or merc trained, I’ll bet.

Being in an aircraft like this, heading into an unknown situation – it was an old, familiar state of affairs for him. He closed his eyes and for a moment he was in a different time, a different place.

“Got the train on my scope,” Vega said, breaking off from her tune to look over her shoulder. “Five minutes out, fellas.” She flipped a switch and the cabin interior lighting switched to dim crimson tones – not that Jensen’s augmented eyes needed time to become night-adapted.

For a moment, Jensen expected to see Faridah Malik’s face looking back at him from the cockpit, and he frowned. As competent as Vega appeared to be, it would have put him at ease to have somebody he had complete trust in on the stick. As Sarif Industries’ senior pilot, Malik had been there to get Jensen into and out of a lot of dangerous situations in the past, and her absence here and now was keenly felt. He let out a sigh. Thoughts of tracking down Malik’s whereabouts threatened to split his focus and he shut that away, returning to Quinn.

“How deep has Juggernaut been on this thing with the illegal augs?” he asked. “And for how long?”

The other man gave a shrug. “I’m not in charge, Jensen. I don’t set the targets and the missions. We’re a collective, remember? The clue’s in the name. Juggernaut is a gathering of people who operate in concert. Decisions get made by the whole, not by one person.”

“Not even Janus?”

He smiled thinly. “Janus brings a lot to the table, for sure. Valuable intel, access that the rest of us can only dream of… So maybe his voice carries a little more weight, but at the end of the day we strive toward a shared goal.”

“Destroying the Illuminati.”

Quinn nodded. “That’s the big one. A work in progress, you might rightly say. Maybe a chess game would be a better analogy…” He paused, considering his own words. “They move, we counter them. We blockade, disrupt and generally mess with their shit in every way possible.” He chuckled. “And we do it pretty well. Their organization is old and big and hidebound, it reacts like a bloody supertanker trying to make a turn. Sloooow.” He sounded out the word. “Despite the name, Juggernaut is more agile, and we’re always there to get in their way. See, they think they have inevitability on their side, that they’re the irresistible force. But the Collective is the immovable object.”

“Cute speech,” said Jensen, as the VTOL bounced through a patch of clear-air turbulence. “Practice it much?”

“Little bit,” Quinn admitted. “Did you like it?”

“Still waiting for you to answer my first damn question,” he shot back. Jensen looked away, using the time to take inventory of the gear he was carrying. He checked the actions on the Hurricane machine pistol and the Zenith semi-automatic Quinn had supplied him with, counting spare magazines by touch in the pouches on his tactical rig.

“You’ve had the pleasure of Task Force 29’s company,” said the other man. “They’re a special operations unit under the aegis of Interpol, or so their mission statement goes. Working internationally to stamp out terrorism and crime in the wake of the incident.” He made air quotes with his fingers. “Good cops dealing with bad things.”

“All that I know.”

Quinn’s smile turned sly. “But what if I told you the Juggernaut Collective believes that TF29 are tied to the activities of the Illuminati? Most likely through co-opted assets distributed through Interpol and the active Task Force units around the world.”

Jensen shook his head. “If that’s true, why are Jarreau and his people working so hard to bring down this smuggling network? Supplying combat augmentations to terror groups has the stink of those shadowy bastards all over it.”

That got him another shrug. “Janus says there are factions within the Illuminati. Opposed elements working to different agendas.”

“Janus says?” repeated Jensen. “You ever wonder how he knows that?”

“All the time. But I trust him.” Quinn’s cocky manner faded, and Jensen got the sense the man was recalling a buried personal truth that would never be revealed. “And that’s all I’m going to say about that.”

Jensen wondered what burden Janus had lifted to get Quinn to become a loyal part of Juggernaut, filing the thought away for later consideration.

The other man went on. “I know you used to be police, so you think you get where TF29 are coming from… only you don’t.” Quinn gestured. “Lift up your head and look away from the moment, Jensen. The Task Force was formed to fight a surge in criminal and terrorist activity, and so on… But those circumstances have only come to a head because of the Aug Incident! The Task Force is a direct result of a situation the Illuminati invented! You know this, you were there, for crying out loud…” He became more animated as he warmed to the subject. “It’s the thin end of the wedge, bratán. Today, the Task Force is a bunch of small units scattered around the world, doing the tough jobs so decent folks can sleep soundly in their beds… but tomorrow? They’ll grow into an army with soldiers in every city and every nation. Answerable to no government, acting without oversight, all to keep us safe from the specter of techno-terror. The Illuminati manufactured the reason for the Task Force so they could sow the seeds of a New World Order military.”

Anyone who hadn’t lived through what Adam Jensen had experienced, anyone who hadn’t seen what he had seen, might have dismissed Quinn’s words out of hand as tinfoil-hat levels of conspiracy theory. But for Jensen, there was a troubling sense of the possible in it all. He sat back against the inside of the VTOL’s cabin. “Let’s say Janus is right. That Task Force 29 is being manipulated by an insider. What do you want to do about it?”

“Go in there and root around,” offered Vega, who had been listening to the conversation from the start. “Juggernaut wants a face that fits, get it? Only none of us on the roster meet the bill.”

“Alex puts it better than I could,” said Quinn. “We want to penetrate TF29’s organization and find proof positive that the group has been compromised.”

“And then we’ll burn it to the ground,” added Vega.

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