Deus Ex series developed by Ion Storm, Eidos Montreal, N-Fusion Interactive, Square Enix Montreal. Published by Eidos Interactive, Square Enix.
Anna Kelso looked down from the balcony.
On the streets, Lin-May Chen, formerly the High Augur of the Order Church, preached against 'Her Holiness'.
Anna smiled to herself. She had always liked Lin and had wanted to share with her the truth behind the Order Church, but she had held back, fearing Lin's reaction would reveal her her disloyalty to the new Illuminati. She had also always hoped, Lin would figure it out by herself.
None of that mattered anymore, though.
"A beautiful sight, isn't it?"
Anna instinctively tensed at the old familiar voice. She straightened up from her place leaning on the balcony's rail and turned to face the man addressing her.
Walton Simmons walked up her, resting a hand on the rail. "Had I known this was your objective all along, we might have been able to reach an agreement."
Anna looked away, towards the horizon. In the distance, a tower of blue light rose, letting thousands of millions of tiny light dots into the sky.
They were fairly far away, she thought, maybe she could still give finding an insulated refuge where to wait out the spread of the nanites a try. But she discarded the thought right away: Tong was as meticulous as intelligent when he committed to a path, he would had taken the necessary precautions to make sure the nanites infected every single person on Earth.
"You know, Miss Kelso, there is always the option of suicide."
Anna let out a frustrated sight and turned back to look at Walton. "You are welcome to try it yourself."
Simmons gave her a crooked smile. "Maybe we should try to mend our differences Miss Kelso, less sharing a single mind becomes awkward?"
Anna closed her eyes. "Maybe you could try spending your last minutes on Earth not being a jerk. Or at least allow me to spend my last minutes in peace."
"Now, please Miss Kelso. None is going to die. We will all just live forever in the singularity, ruled by its all seeing human-AI hybrid core." Walton made a pause, and took a step closer to her. "I have to confess I'm disappointed, 20 years ago you were ready to throw away your life for even the slightest chance of stopping something like this. It seems you have lost your spirit. Shame, it was your only interesting quality."
Anna averted her gaze from Walton to look back onto the streets.
"If you are so decided to perceive your integration into a collective mind as equal to death, then maybe you could spend what's left of your life with those you love so much." He took another step closer to her and nodded towards Lin-May on the streets.
Anna turned back to face Walton. "Get one step closer and you will enter the singularity blind and mute."
He grinned, but backed down the steps he had taken. "I have been keeping tabs on you Miss Kelso." He informed her. "It has been sort of fascinating, the way you have spent the last 20 years playing your allies. It has made me wonder if you wouldn't have made a fine addition to the Council."
"Walton, you wouldn't have convinced me to join your friends at the little play-God club over my own dead body." Anna bit back.
"You haven't given up." He continued. "Please, do share what you are scheming within that little head of yours. Maybe we can help each other."
Anna pulled away from the rail and gave him her back to walk off. "The devil you known might be better than the one you don't Walton… but I have had enough of both."