Deus Ex: The Conspiracy.
Authors note: Thanks for the reviews, I'm very open to constructive criticisim, and I'll do my best to please you all.
Chapter 2: Hells Kitchen.
Location: New York. Battery Park.
It didnt take long for the speedboat to reach the Battery Park, JC Dentons first objective in Hell's Kitchen. The boat was one of the newest grades in seafaring technology, breaking speeds that elite pilots from the 1990's would of envyed. The boat docked along the side of a picnic ground near Castle Clinton. Castle Clinton was an old Revolutionary fort that was renovated as a landmark, and now it apparently served as a hideout to terrorists. JC and Anna steped off the boat. Anna turned to JC and spoke up.
"Alright lets go, the terrorists are in a fighting retreat and a few of them barricaded themselves inside Castle Clinton." she said, again repeating the breifing he'd recieved in the boat.
"Lead the way." JC said.
"Our orders are to locate a barrel of Ambrosia that the terrorists are hiding inside. But...."she said this with a new gleam in her eyes, "we will exterminate the terrorists in the castle first."
"Exterminate?" JC asked.
"A precious opportunity we cannot neglect..."
Weirdo. JC thought. He wondered if she was like this in all combat situations."What about the rest of the shipment?" JC asked.
"That is your brothers problem. Our current one is the the Ambrosia thats HERE. After this objective you will take the subway to Hell's Kitchen and meet him there. He will brief you." Anna told him.
"Ok, are we going in the front or is there another way?"
"A secondary entrence would be usefull, but, I am aware of no such thing."
Anna looked in the direction of the castle and started to run there. Not looking back. JC was about to go after her when he heard a small cough. He looked around and saw a kid walk out of the darkness, he looked about 10 or 13.
"You ok?" JC asked.
'I'm starving,"the kid said, and it did indeed look that way."do you have anything to eat?"
JC fished around in his rather large pockets and produced a small candy bar. "How bout' this?"
The kid smiled, "Your cool." He took the candy bar and began to eat it.
If JC could smile, he would, "Glad I can help, hey, you must know the surronding area, what can you tell about it?"
"You must want to get inside Castle Clinton, I can tell your a cop. Anyway, I saw some of those terrorists earlier go in through the secret passage." the kid said, finishing his candy.
Bingo, JC thought."Yeah?"
"Yeah, its right behind you. The code is 9183."
The kid walked away at that point, JC looked at the soda machine and decided that this was the passage. He looked to the right of the machine and saw a small maitenance panel, JC went over to it and pryed it open, inside was a small keypad. JC inputed the code the kid had told him and the soda machine hissed and retracted to the side, revealing a hollow room inside. JC went inside the room and looked around, a passage led out of the room to the right and to the left lay a small pool of water. JC looked behind some barrels; no Ambrosia. He went down the corridor to the right and looked around quickly, no terrorist, he heard a beepeing noise, he looked up to see a camera's lens staring at him. It clicked, and the lens went red, setting off several alarms. JC looked to his left and saw a ventilation shaft, he unhinged it and crawled through, he stayed there and waited, several terrorists came rushing through the corridor.
"Theres nothing here. Jake, are you sure you saw someone?"
"Positive. Black trench coat, the works."
JC breathed in.
"Hm? In the rafters!"
A terrorist unhinged the covering and stood back, two terrorists ducked down and started shooting with pistols. JC crawled his way down the shaft, thanking god these guys had such horrible aim. He went past a corner and was safe for now.
"He went around the other way, get him from there!"
JC unhinged the covering of the nearest shaft opening, and rolled out just as two terrorists came down the corridor.
"Fire! Die pig!"
The terrorists opened fire on JC, JC rolled behind a crate to avoid the sailing bullets, he waited for the terrorists to stop, when they did, he rolled back out and fired a shot at the first terrorist, the bullet smacked into his chest and he collapsed in a heap, the life seemingly sucked out of him.
"Fascist!"
The other terrorist fired at him, and missed. The terrorist aimed squarely at JC's head for another shot. The gun clicked empty.
"No, please do-"
JC shot him in the leg, the terrorist wobbled and JC proded him, the terrorist fell to the floor, unconcious. JC sighed and ran down the other way, he came into a medium sized room with another camera. It was already red, the alarms still going off. JC looked to the left and saw another dock area. He went inside and was rewarded by seeing a barrel of greenlike liquid. The Ambrosia. JC recieved a transmission from Alex.
"Good work JC, objective complete, Agent Navarre will describe you're next objective."
Anna Navarre waited 10 minutes for JC to arrive. No such luck. It wasnt really that hard to follow someone from point A to point B now was it? Nevertheless, she arrived first and ordered the execution of every terrorist in sight. Herself and a team of UNATCO troops stormed into the castle and killed every terrorist on the spot, now they had to wait for JC to arrive, so she could scold him. Unexpectedly however, JC arrived from within the complex two minutes of the battle on the surface.
"What the-?" Anna exclaimed.
"There was a secret passage at the entry point. I found the Ambrosia inside. Its near the entrance." JC told her.
Anna nodded at her team of troops, they rushed into the castle, and down a hatch. Clever.
"I must say that I am-impressed Agent Denton. How did you do it?"
"A kid told me." JC said simply.
Anna didnt know whether to be happy for this, or mad. The UNATCO troops came back up with a barrel of Ambrosia.
"We found some bodies down there, way to go Denton."
Again, Anna was suprised. "You are not afraid to kill. The last thing I'd expect from the brother of Paul."
"I'm learning as I go." JC said.
"You just passed lesson one. Lesson two, is how we deal with the terrorists in the subway station." Anna told him.
"Just tell me where to go."
"This will not be easy, the terrorists have wired the platform with explosives, and we've been informed that they put in hostages. Get the hostages out if you can, but make sure that the NSF knows that human sheilds will not work against UNATCO." Anna told him.
JC thought the situation over, "Nothing we cant handle with a few EMP grenades."
Anna was pleased. "We are thinking the same thought. Take these two grenades."
Anna handed him the grenades, and dismissed him. Anna watched him leave and decided that she may enjoy working with him after all...
JC made his way over to the shanty town west of Castle Clinton, when he got there he saw that there wer several UNATCO troops getting ready to storm the area. Half way there a fight started and the troops flooded the perimeter, the NSF were all dead when he got there.
"They've got hostages in the subway Agent Denton." one of the troops said to him.
JC nodded and went over to the mouth of the subway entrance, NSF were posted around it. Going through there would be a threat to him and the hostages, so he looked to the left and saw a maintenance door. Inside he found a small steamy room, that held an entrance to the rafters that lead around the platform. He unhinged the covering and crawled through. After navigateing a few dark shafts, he came upon a covering and peered through it, he was right behind the hostages. An idea formed in his head, he thought he could probably get them out if he spoke quietly and got the hostages on the train before anyone noticed. It was bound to go wrong, but it was better than opening up a can of augmented whup-ass on the NSF and in the process get the hostages killed. He quietly unhinged the shaft covering, a hostage looked in his direction and gasped. JC threw her a dirty look, one that said "If you want to live be fucking quiet." Too late. An terrorist approached her.
"What's wrong?",he asked.
"Um, a spider, I have arachniphobia.",she said quickly.
The terrorist looked at her and then looked at the shaft. He turned back to her."Well where is it? I'll kill it."
"It left."
The terrorist sighed in agitation and left back to his post. JC came back through the shaft, he steped out of the shaft and the hosatges looked at him, one male, one female, and a child. JC made a crude display useing his hands on what he wanted them to do. The hostages nodded silently, JC made a gesture with three fingers, then two, then one. He quickly pressed a button on the train car nearest to them, and the hostages rushed into the train followed quickly by JC. All the terrorists on the platform turned and gasped simutaniously, they quickly unholstered their guns and started fireing through the windows.
"Get down!", JC cried. The hostages quickly layed themselves flat on the floor, the child was screaming. JC crouched as bullets sailed over the area he had been standing in. He stood up and fired some blank shots at the terrorists, all hit nothing but the wall behind the assaulting terrorists, but the blasts caused the terrorists to roll into cover. JC looked franaticly for an emergency window shutter switch. All modern trains came equiped with these systems in situations like this. He spotted one at the far end, he got up again and ran for the switch. The terrorists got out from behind their cover and fired again, the bullets filling the train car. JC dived to avoid being made into a lead pincushion. He put his gun up and fired some blank shots, to his suprise he heard a cry of pain, he looked up to see that he hit a terrorist in the gut, his weak form groaning in pain. The other terrorists went behind cover again, JC got up and lifted the glass covering that contained the shutter switch, the terrorists got back out and fired as JC fliped the switch, The windows of the train instanly became covered with a mesh of steel. JC sighed in relief. He looked at the hostages, the female was getting up.
"Keep down, theres still potential danger."
JC went over to the door of the train car, it was unlocked, and he didnt know if there was a mechanisim that could lock it. He decided on getting out as soon as possible instead of fighting the terrorists when they came in. He rushed into the next car and was greeted by two terrorists, apparently trying to suprise him by going into the adjacent car, and from there ambushing him and the hostages. JC reacted first and fired a shot at the lead terrorist, the bullet entered his forehead and the terrorist collapsed, spasming in pain. The other terrorist rushed over to him to try and suprise him with meele combat, JC rushed to him as well and punched him in the gut, the terrorist howled in pain, JC took this time to pick up the thug and ejected him out of a window, and on to the adjacent tracks. JC poked his head back in the hostage's car. No enemies. He turned back ran through the cars, eventually reaching the conductors cabin, he blindly threw a switch and decided that today might be his lucky day. The train hummed with life and and started a quick descent on the track ways. He went back to the car where he left the hostages, there was a terrorists limp body lying on the floor, still breathing. The male hostage looked sweaty.
"I've had some basic self defense training sir." he said in between gasps.
"Good thing." JC said.
"You saved us, thank you." the female said.
"Just doing my job ma'am." JC said.
"Thank you mister." the child said in a sqeaky voice.
Again, JC wished he had the ability to smile,"No problem kid. We should arrive in about ten minutes, don't get comfortable. Theres alot of fighting going on in Hells Kitchen I've heard."
The hostages nodded, and the child and mother fell asleep. The ordeal must of been exhausting. JC looked out at the darkness rushing past the car, and wondered what awaited him in Hells Kitchen.
"CLEAR!"
Paul crouched behind a burnt out car as a UNATCO trooper tossed an explode-on-impact lam. The lam sailed through the air and landed the midst of the enemies posistion. The explosion creating a defeaning boom that devastated everything in its radius. A short silence followed the blast, Paul and his squad of UN "peacekeepers" looked out and saw that the small group of NSF that had been there were complety erradicated.
"Nice work Johanson", Paul said, doing his best not to ring the guys throat out right there.,"lets move foward now."
The fighting in Hells Kitchen was quite intense, the whole thing seemed more like a war then a terrrorist clean-up. He'd done his best to "convienantly" get separated from the squad, but all attempts failed. It seemed like he would have to go ahead with the warehouse raid afterall. Damn. Nevertheless, he would find a way to put the cards in the NSF's favor. Somehow. It looked like the fighting in this part of the city had died down, it was time to go meet JC at the subway. He felt terrible about all this, actively working with UNATCO, his actions had doomed several of his friends. But it was all to work out for the best. One must be sacrificed for the good of the whole. He hoped they'd understand.
"Okay, this areas secure. I want a garrison left here immeadeatly." Paul announced to the squad.
"Yes sir!"
Paul handed them gas grenades, suppresing a laugh. "These are good crowd control, use em."
"....Yes sir."
Paul turned and ran for the subway station east of his position. He had time to think about this, he'd failed at being "missing in action.", so he had to try a new plan to hinder UNATCO's efforts at recovering the Ambrosia, being a double agent isnt as easy as it seems. He passed a riot police blockade, they all gave him nods. He'd have to go by helicopter, if he could find a nice radio he could radio the NSF of the copters' position, though he ran the risk of it being shot down, and coincidentaly, killing him. He'd have to rely on luck for this. They just needed two more hours to ship the Ambrosia to La Gruardia. Just two more hours of lies and sabotage. He activated his speed augmentation and became a blurr. He was at the subway in no time. He went through the entrance to the subway and went down to the platform, where several civilans had taken cover during the fighting. He watched a subway train stop at the platform, the doors opened and his brother JC Denton and three other people walked out of the train car. JC spotted Paul and rushed over to him, he looked beat.
"Whats the situation here?" JC asked.
"You're taking over, I need to get my team ready to raid the warehouse." Paul told him
"What about the EMP generator?" JC asked him
Paul felt a pang of guilt when he mentioned it, he didnt plan on JC putting down that field, he gave the troops at the warehouse orders to kill whoever looked UNATCO. "Still in place. You're primary objective will be to locate and destory its power source."
"I'll question some of the locals."
"I ordered the civilians to take cover in the Underworld tavern and Tendorloin Clinic." Paul told JC
"Why'd you have to clear the streets?"
"Theres still a heavy NSF presence on the streets. We're taking some fire, you're help would be appreciated."
"I'll do what I can."
"If you need some extra supplies, my commander center in my room is still active. Take what you need. Remember? The keypads behind the painting." Paul told JC, Paul had his small but resourcefull data area installed a few years back, with its own computer and a cache of weapons. Gilbert Renton had installed it for him. Paul handed him his room key.
"Just like the movies", JC joked, "second floor right?"
"Right. Good luck JC."
JC ran up the stairs and left. Paul entered the train, he went up to the conductors cabin and started it up and the train took off into the darkness of the subway tunnel. Paul wondered how this would all turn out.
JC walked up to street level and looked around, in the distance he could see a police blockade along with bodies strewn out all over the place. There were bomb craters, shell casings, bodies everywhere. Machine gun fire could be heard all around, he guessed that some places might be more intense then the area he was in. Two UNATCO troopers came up to him.
"There's a standoff in the park Agent Denton, we could use your support."
"Lead the way."
The troopers turned and ran down the street toward the park, JC passed the Ton' hotel, a run down hotel, it earned it's name by the leters H, I, L in the word Hilton that werent opperating, leaving the letters T, O, N. A catchy name. And the owner of the hotel was Gilbert Renton, a great guy. Paul stayed at his hotel for years. JC passed the it and was greeted by the sounds of explosions and gunfire in the park. The standoff came to its climax. UNATCO troops rushed the perimeter of the park, the NSF occupied the middle of it, and fought fiercely. JC took cover and fired rounds of pistol shots at the terrorists, the other UNATCO troops took cover and fired wildly at the NSF, there were under twenty terrorists, it wasnt long before they turned tail and ran, then they were cut off by another blockade of UNATCO troops. JC relaxed. Slightly. UNATCO troops entered the area and took enemy munitions. Two NSF terrorists survived the assault, and were towed off. Three UNATCO troops died in the assault. Most of the UNATCO troops looked pretty down over the loss of one particular troop. One of them was even crying.
"We lost Jones, great guy, he was friendly with everyone, and one hell of a shot." One of the troops said.
At that point the infolink came online, it was Alex, "We're getting reports of a hostage situation in the ton' hotel. When you stayed with Paul did you meet Mr. Renton and his daughter Sandra? We think one of them is still inside the hotel."
JC walked over to the 'Ton and looked around, going through the front would be too obvious, he'd have to find another way in. He made his way toward the back of the hotel, and went around the side. There was a fire escape, exactly how he remembered. Paul's window was always open. He went up several ladders and went through the window. He heard hushed talking and sharp orders being issued. He drawed his pistol and looked around Pauls room. It was clear. He looked toward the book shelf and decided to wait on looking in Pauls little secret room for now. He walked quietly over to the doorway that led to the hall way, and creaked it open a bit. He kept this up untill he could see two hostages, one male, one female. There were two terrorists guarding them, no sign of Sandra or Gilbert Renton.
"Do we honestly have to do this? We were all told to minimize civilain casulties.",one of the terrorists said.
"We've no choice, if you have to fight your enemy effectivly, you must become like him.",the other replied.
"Shit philosophy."
"You're all insane", said the female hostage.
"I told you to shut up!"
"Go to hell."
JC dived out of the room and fired two shots at the terrorists, the hostages turned and ran down the other hallway, one of the terrorists recieved a shot to the leg and hobbled away, the other stood his ground and fired franaticly. JC sidesteped and shot the terrorist in the chest. The man droped to the ground, death's grip ensnareing him. JC rushed over to the other terrorist and hit with the but of his handgun. A quick check of his surronding's suggested no more terrorists in the upstairs region. JC holstered his pistol and approached the male hostage.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you, you with the cops?",the hostage breathed.
"UNATCO."
"Huh, well, you might be intrested in what I heard those psychoes talking about. They said something about how they had just put in a generator in a warehouse several blocks away from here.",the man said.
"Really, did you catch the name of the street?"
"No, but I heard them discussing their security set up."
"Anything intresting?",JC asked
"It sounded like there was an underground access, they're useing the word "righteous" as some kind of password."
"That's very helpful, thanks."
"No problem."
JC gave a nod to the female hostage, who was busy trying to stop crying. So, JC thought, Underground access, secret warehouse generator. It all added up, but he needed more clues. He walked slowly down the stairs and into the main lobby, he looked around carefully; no terrorists in sight. He looked over to the reception desk and saw Gilbert Renton standing there, he's face a pasty white. JC walked casually over to him.
"You alright Mr Renton?"
"Uh, yes. Fine.",Gilbert quickly said. He had no poker face to speak of.
"You better get out of here, terrorists have seized the hotel."
"Ahhh.....can't, uh, leave the desk unattended."
"You'll be caught in the crossfire, I have to order you to leave the building.....Now." JC told him.
Mr. Renton's eyes trailed over to his side, they did so twice in quick succesion. "Yes, of course, I'll close up in a second...."
JC saw what was happening. Without another word he walked back a few steps, dove over the desk and seized an NSF terrorists neck.
"Gah! Please, mercy!"
JC punched him in the face, the terrorist dropped like a sack full of hammers. He turned to the sweating hotel owner. "You alright NOW?"
"Fine. I think that's all of them, you get the guys upstairs?" Gilbert said with a sigh.
"Yeah."
"You uh, did'nt happen to see Sandra anywhere recently did you?"
"No, I have'nt."
"She ran out on me a few days ago, I try not to think about it." Mr. Renton said sadly. Sandra was, by heart, a pretty nice young woman, but recently she had gotten mixed up in the wrong kind of business and was rapidly putting off her relationship with her father before she ran away. Was'nt the first time too. "If you see her......tell her, I don't care about what she's been doing, she can come home, no arguments, no question's asked."
"I'll tell her that she can trust you."
"I should probably go find her....Oh, I don't know..."
"I'll see you later." JC said.
JC walked out of the hotel, and met with a UNATCO trooper by the entrance.
"I hear shooting in there, are the hostages alright?" the grunt asked.
"They're all safe." JC assured him.
"Phew, now we don't have to put in for that specialist we were gonna hire. Good job Agent Denton." the trooper congratulated.
"All in a days work."
"You might wanna stop by the Underworld tavern, down the block, the patrons might have an idea of where this generator thingie is."
"I'll do that."
A short while later, JC was walking down the hall that led into the main bar area in the Underworld tavern. Inside, he found, alot of people had taken shealter in bar. Mostly patrons, but here and there he'd see a grouping of people with blankets huddled in a corner. He decided on business first. A beer. He went over to the counter. The bartender strode over to him, she was heavy in old style bio mechanical augmentation.
"What can I get ya?" she asked.
"A beer please."
"There you go." she handed him a cold forty, JC payed her 5 credits, and sipped slowly at his drink, while doing this, he overheard two people talking.
"...Ambrosia from a drug dealer?" one of them said, a male.
"You would never forgive yourself if-"
"I know, I know...."
JC interjected. "Just curious, I thought I heard you say Ambrosia."
"My wife has the plauge." the male said sadly.
The other, a female, looked at JC, "He already lost his daughter."
"Sorry to hear that" JC said.
"So do I trust some neighbor-hood punk, who says he has a cure, trust HIM with my wifes life?" the male said.
"You should do what you think is right." JC said.
"I think he should do it." the female said.
"By the way," JC said, "Do you know anything about an ellicit generator plant in a warehouse near here?"
"Hmmm...well, I did some construction work on one such place a few weeks ago. Strangest thing. They wanted to keep it all hush-hush." the male said
"Can you tell me where it is?"
"Oh sure, it's just a few blocks away...but you can't probably get there with all the police activity, even though my construction team DID get there by useing rooftops. It's a little past Os' Good and Sons."
"Thank you." JC said, and went toward the other side of the counter. There was a man there with graying hair, but a lean look. He wore a black jacket. JC returned to his beer, and the man spoke up to him. "Hey, you look like the vigilante type, wanna know where you could load up on some military hardware?" the man asked him.
"Where's that?"
"Valuable information, but I'll tell you: For the price of a beer."
JC turned instantly to the augmented bartender, "Can I have another beer?"
"Here." she said, while passing one to him. JC turned back to the smileing man." Here you go."
"His name's Smuggler."the man said "You can find his hideout down the block, go down a staircase, and give the password "Bloodshot" to the intercom. Then go down the elevator, and his place will be just a short walk away. Watch out for booby traps though, he's REAL paranoid."
"I'll pay him a visit."
"I'm Brian Flaneigan, but call me Jock. Want to know something nobody else can tell you?"
"For a beer, right?"
"Bars to the left."
JC repeated the same process he'd done a few moments before, and produced a beer to Jock.
"Area 51."
"You've heard about it, right? I used to fly people over there. Big shots and the sort."
"I'm sure plenty of bureacruats fly out there." JC said."And you're a pilot? What do you fly?"
"Helicopters. I don't ask questions, which is most of the reason I'm in my current line of work."
"I see."
"They say they got aliens down there, but I never saw any flying saucers. You ask me, I think it's some sort of digging operation. I've seen alot of debris come out of that place. Mabye thats where they sent all of the Echelon system, back when they promised they were gonna stop spying on people."
"Surveilance is a very distributed technology." JC said.
"I think they did it. They want to centralize everything."
"Know anything else worth the price of a beer?" JC asked.
"This old bird's had enough. Hell, I'm about to go on duty."
"What kind of pilot starts working at midnight?" JC asked.
"Heh, your with UNATCO right?" Jock asked in return.
"...Why do you ask?"
"I'm the one that flew your brother Paul to Hong Kong. He told me to watch out for you."
JC kept his expression carefully neutral." I did'nt know UNATCO hired pilots."
"The black helicopters are run by the NSA to support various classified op's. The Pentagon use's them, the CIA, the hire me because I dont ask questions." Jock said.
"What was Paul's assignment in Hong Kong?"
"Like I said, I can keep a secret, even between brothers."
"So.....he's holding something back. The reason why he got transferred back to the States."
"Listen to your brother--JC. Respect his experience. Let's leave it at that."
Jock turned around and left the bar. Something just didnt feel right. The transfer, Paul's recent behaviour, Jock's loyalty to Paul. There was something there, something JC could'nt put his finger on. He threw out his beer.
Authors Note: Yeah, yeah, I'm leaving it at that. I wanted to just get the next chapter out before I got lynched. Third chapter should conclude this mission. And I'm sorry for the lack of updates. Writers cramp (, hope you enjoyed this chapter!