Deus Ex series developed by Ion Storm, Eidos Montreal, N-Fusion Interactive, Square Enix Montreal. Published by Eidos Interactive, Square Enix.
The violent winds shook the VTOL.
Ben Saxon and Sam Duarte sat side by side, grasping at their seats and the security rails above them.
"This Quinn, guy." Duarte spoke through gritted teeth. "Couldn't he pick a better time to call for extraction?"
"Things picked pace a little too suddenly." Alex Vega's voice came from the cockpit. "Janus estimates we have a 20 to 30 minutes window before Interpol shows up."
Sitting across the men, Anna Kelso's mouth twitched. Her knuckles were white from holding to the edge of her seat. She was starting to share Saxon and Duarte's dislike for flying.
The VTOL shook violently again as Vega manoeuvred to land on the former oil rig.
The hatch opened. The cold wind and rain cut into Anna's face.
"Move it." Barked Saxon. "Anna cover our backs."
They moved towards the main complex. Anna's smart vision showed her two figures by the door. One of them holding a gun.
"Quinn we are going in. Don't fucking shoot us." Anna InfoLinked through the team comm channel.
"Jesús fue aceptado como pupilo en el templo de Jagannath," Was the reply she got.
Duarte quickly followed up with the second half of the password. "…y allí aprendió los Vedas y las leyes mánicas."
A heavy steel door cracked open, and a middle aged man with circular scars across his face stood out.
Saxon held his gun aimed at the man. "Garvin Quinn?"
The scarred man simply turned and gestured towards the door. A brown haired woman wearing a lab coat came out. "And the one and only Tiffany Kavanagh."
Saxon's brow furrowed. "I thought we were only picking you up. And Interpol would handle the rest."
The woman clutched to a disorganised mess of folders and pocket secretaries. "I must leave with you." She begged. "If you want me to make what was done here public, I must leave with you. Burke… I heard him talk with the others. They have people everywhere. They will kill me."
"And where is this Burke?"
"I took care of him." Quinn replied coldly. "His men think he is still in charge, though. I have been giving them orders as him, the other prisoners will be fine until Interpol arrives."
Saxon didn't get a chance to comment on this, as Vega's voice blasted through everyone's InfoLinks.
"We got company!"
"Interpol is early?" Asked Duarte.
"NO." Vega replied. "Interpol's latest reported ETA is 5 minutes. No idea who the black helicopter belongs to. And I don't want to find out."
"If it's the Tyrants…" Saxon began. "Five minutes will be more than enough to vanish any trace of what has been going on here. We have to hold them back until Interpol arrives."
Quinn grinned. "Dr Kavanagh has all the evidence…"
"Anna, you and Quinn get the Dr on board the VTOL. Tell Vega to be ready for take off."
Anna nodded, then grabbed the woman from an arm and pulled. "Move."
Anna finished securing Kavanagh on the back of the VTOL. She turned to the open hatch and spotted Saxon and Duarte in the distance.
They had been right in that the Illuminati had sent a clean up team. Not the Tyrants, though.
Anna spotted Sam and Ben in the distance.
Well, no. Anna only knew who was who because Duarte had deployed his pulverized iron shield, which turned him into a black humanoid blob, and was mowing down through the attackers.
And then he wasn't.
Duarte collapsed suddenly, his shield dissolving into thin air.
An EMP blast.
Anna shoved a gun to Quinn. "Shoot anything that's not us."
She broke into a run towards Sam.
Sixty seconds. It was what it would take his augmentations to enter a reboot cycle.
Sixty seconds was more than enough for his attackers to kill him.
Two of the men advancing towards Duarte fell to Saxon's fire. But Ben had closer enemies to worry about.
Anna shot two times. Two head shots.
A last man took cover out of her field of vision. She couldn't see Duarte either.
She climbed on top of a crate and spotted the last assailant advancing towards Duarte, who laid inert on the ground.
Anna sprang from the edge of the crate and onto the assailant. Her legs locked around his neck and they fell together on the ground.
Anna pressed her knee to the man's neck, and she heard him gasp for air.
She caught a silvery flash out of the corner of her eyes, and barely managed to avoid the stiletto knife the man attempted to stab her leg with.
Anna rolled away, letting go of her opponent.
The man stood up, illuminated by the lightning exploding behind him, Anna could make out he was larger than her. He also seemed completely unaugmented.
Anna aimed her gun and pulled the trigger, but the bullet hammered. She let out a feral snarl and threw the gun at her opponent.
The man easily dodged it and slayed at Anna.
She charged, sliding on the wet floor between the man's legs. His hands grabbed at her hair, but her fingers managed to grasp a pipe. She swung it violently against the man's knee.
He let out a cry of pain, and fell to the floor. Anna turned around and hit him on the head. He fell flat on his back.
Before Anna could deliver a final blow, Vega's voice blasted through the comm channel. "Interpol has the rig in sight. We gotta move, NOW!"
Anna dropped the pipe and rushed to Duarte's side.
He was just recovering the mobility of his limbs, and Anna wrapped an arm around his shoulders to help him stand up.
Soon after she felt the weight on her back lessen, and saw Saxon had taken Duarte's other arm.
Quinn was kicking a last the dead man out of the VTOL, when Saxon, Kelso and Duarte arrived.
"About time." He said, tilting his head to the sky behind them.
Coming, barely visible between the rain and lightning, Anna distinguished a VTOL similar to their own.
"Are we sure it's Interpol?" She asked.
"As sure as we can be." Replied Quinn. "Janus has been tapping their comm channel."
Anna took in a deep breath. "Fine then, let's get the hell out of here."
Notes:
The password Quinn and Duarte use is a extract from "The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ."
The word Juggernaut comes from the Sanskrit Jagannath.