Deus Ex: The Conspiracy
Authors Note: I do not own Deus Ex, or Ion Storm. A rather sad fact, really ( Well, we've reached chapter ten, and we're still going strong at over 40,000 words! Keep up the reviews, they always get me off my lazy ass and write!
Chapter Ten: UNATCO Escape
Seven minutes earlier.
Decker looked over the corner of the enterance to Level Three. A lone trooper stood guard. Come to think of it, he wasn't EVEN standing guard, more like lounging. He was standing over a small water cooler, a plastic cup held in his hand. He wasn't even facing the enterance. He was an easy enough target. But then, the delimma came that always plauged him when he was faced with this sort of situation. To kill him, or not to kill him. It would be simple to just raise his silenced pistol, and shoot him in the head. But...the water cooler, the little plastic cup..the fact that he wasn't even doing anything remotely like guarding...it would of been so much easier on him if the young man was simply holding a weapon.
He swore to himself for being so sensitive, and began to creep up on his target, readying himself to knock the soldier unconscious. When he was within five feet of him, the PA system crackled.
"All personal return to your office or lounging area immeadiatly. A lights out drill is about to begin. All bystanders will be relieved of duty. That is all."
"Shit." the trooper said. He tossed the plastic cup into the garbage can, and, without so much as glancing in Decker's direction, ran off to an office, or rec room, or whatever the hell he was going.
Thanks.. Decker thought to himself. He vaugely wondered who it was that he was actually thanking. If it had been ten years ago, perhaps it would of been God. Not anymore. He'd lost faith in religion long ago.
He slowly advanced up the gun metal ramp, and into the medical office. Three operating tables came into view, accompanied by several patient bed's. Four of the bed's were occupied by sleeping soldiers, and two body bags resided on the operating tables. He tip-toed across the room, and hoped the nearby medical bot' wouldn't try to win him over with statistics on how experts rated medbot's more effective than human doctors blah, blah, blah.
The plan was simple, stay in the med area, and make contact with JC after he'd met up with Paul. At that moment he heard a hoarse cough from the other end of the office. Jaime Reyes stepped into view, probably looking for cough medicine. Decker had no chance to move before Jaime spotted him. At that moment, all the lights went out.
"Hello!" the doctor called out. He quickly ran into the other office, and shut the door behind him. Decker came up to the door, and softly tried to open it. It creaked open. Jaime sat at the far side of the room, on the computer, probably trying to hail Manderley. Decker quickly shot the keyboard with his pistol.
"Calm down Jaime, I'm on your side."
Jaime went into his lab coat and retrieved a small pistol. He fumbled at it, obviously inexperianced. Decker quickly snatched the gun away, and placed it into his pocket. Accepting defeat, he backed away into the corner holding his hands above his head. Decker rolled his eyes.
"You're overreacting, doctor. I'm Decker Parkes, I'm with the NSF."
"So I've noticed." Jaime said dryly.
"It's a long story, but to make it short, I'm helping JC Denton escape. You don't mind do you?" He asked. It sounded almost silly coming from him, as if trying to reason with a five year old.
"Oh..." Jaime said. He smiled a bit, but quickly narrowed his eyes. "If you want me to defect-"
"Oh cut the crap, I'm just helping him escape, ok?" He thought about the doctors word's for a moment. "You'd consider defecting?"
"Only if JC or Paul asked me. I'd trust them. If Paul asked, I would do it in a heart beat though, and not just because we go back." Paul and the doctor were great friends, Paul had always had a joke or two to tell that he'd heard from this man.
"What else would change your mind?" Decker asked. He slowly put down the weapon, all the tension from the confrontation having passed.
"To tell you the truth, I just haven't been agreeing with the Coalitions tactics. I don't think any of us have. We''ve become more..." he stumbled around the words. "Brutal...distrusting. The Coalition wasn't always like this, you know...get down. I hear something. "
Both of them hudled together, in the darkness they could hear pounding footsteps. Multiple even. The culprits came through the med center, nearly going inside the office, and proceeded to Level Four. As soon as they were out of earshot the lights came back on.
"That can't be good." Decker said. It was probably a strike team sent in to eliminate JC. He hoped he could survive, and turned back to talk with Jaime.
JC Denton came through the threshold to Level Three, and looked around. He was near Jaimes office, recognizing the gun metal ramp that led up to it. No soldiers were in sight. JC lowered his magnum and shot a glance behind him. There were probably other commandos inside Level Four, including the UNATCO agent. He quickly activated his muscle augmentation and ripped the nearby retinal scanner out of its electrical outlet. The remnants of the scanner crackled, and failed to show life.
That oughta stall them for at least few minutes. JC thought. He continued up the ramp, and noted the presence of several sleeping soldiers. He looked over to Jaime Reyes office. At that same moment, Decker peaked his head out, and nearly banged his head into the wall behind him.
"Get in here quick, their about to send a patrol here." he said.
JC followed him into the office and spotted Jaime at the end of the office, looking on the computer.
"JC!" Jaime smiled, "From what your friend here was telling me, I was thinking that you weren't gonna make it! Good to see you."
"I forgot to give Manderley my resignation." JC said.
Jaime looked down, "I heard they killed Paul."
"MIB's raided the apartment, but he survived. Don't worry about him."
"Oh, thank god." Jaime said, breathing in. It would of really hurt him if Paul had died, they were great friends. His eyes darkened, "Manderley's a snake. He told me that neither of you would be in danger...ah, your friend here was talking to me about your little resistance..."
"Yeah, Paul told me to do some recruiting up here. How about it?" JC asked.
Jaime thought for a moment. "Of course I will. I haven't been too hot with the Coalition anyway, what can I do?"
JC thought for a moment, a plan formulating in his head. "I'm heading to Hong Kong next, why don't you meet us there? There's already gonna be a large rendevous. I'll do more recruiting, and Decker will escort all of you to Hong Kong. Is that ok, Decker?"
"Yeah, I'll stay here with Jaime."
Jaime fished around in his pocket, and brought out a small vial. "It's an augmentation module, a shipment from Versa Life." JC took the vial, "It's got regeneration nanites inside."
"Thanks, your bot's can do the installation right?"
"Absolutely...it was supposed to be your welcome-aboard present..."
"Guess it will have to be a retirement gift." JC turned to Decker. "Follow me, when we've cleared the facility, go back and collect all of the recruits."
"Right." Decker said quietly.
He turned to Jaime. "Stay here, Decker will come for you soon."
"Alright, JC."
JC and Decker turned and left the office, leaving Jaime to wonder if he was getting way over his head.
"Attention all personal. Major security breach has been detected near the Level Four enterance. We know we've been having security isues over the last few hours, but stay on your toes, and be alert. Patrols are being established at Level Three right away. Thank you for your time, and paitence."
As if on cue, several soldiers ran past Private Newman, including Corporal Collins, and Sergeant Berry. Kaplan would of been among them, if he hadn't been killed just four hours earlier. Thinking this made Newman lower his eyes toward the ground. They'd been great friends, though Kaplan was a bit on the pushy side. He still couldn't get over the fact that he was dead.
He'd been pretty torn up about it, three hours ago, but he'd calmed himself down recently. They told him that Agent Denton had killed him, after his defection. He vowed to kill him, but they told him it was silly, and he told HIMSELF that such thoughts were silly. They were already going to execute him, the bastard knew full well what happened to traitors. But now it looked as if something had gone wrong.
Must of escaped the prison. He thought. Even if he did though, he didn't see how one man could hope to stand up to a full squad of soldiers. He finished this one thought just as the shooting started.
As soon as the troopers came down the stairs, they instantly saw JC and Decker and began to fire. JC quickly activated balistic protection and drew their fire away from Decker as he dived into cover. They were near the bathrooms on Level Three. Decker hid behind a couch as JC deactivated the energy draining augmentation and went into womens room.
Sergeant Berry quickly called out orders. "You three into the bathroom, we'll deal with the rebel!"
After that he heard an exchange of gunfire, and the sounds of someone running toward the prison block. "Get after him!" Berry ordered. Another rush of footsteps, leaving three troopers behind. He heard Corporal Collins among them, "Move!"
JC searched around for a place to conceal himself. The stalls were far too obvious, something else would be needed. He spotted a ventilation shaft on the ceiling, and took out his crowbar. He pryed the grating from the ceiling, and jumped in using his speed aug, with the grating still in his hands. Hanging from an alcove in the rafters, he replaced the grating and waited for the troopers. Two seconds later, they kicked the door down. Collins came in with an assault shotgun and sprayed the entire room with buckshot, leaving much of the bathroom filled with concrete chippings, and both stall doors on their hinges.
"Move!" Collins ordered. The other soldiers quickly filed in and stood at both stalls. Collins signaled for them to kick the doors down, and both troops filled the stalls with bullet holes. After the bullets stopped, they cocked their heads in confusion.
"What is it?" Collins asked.
"Er, he's not here, sir." the first one admitted.
"Same." the other troop said.
Without signaling to the troops, Collins looked up and fired a buckshot round into the grating, destroying it. Taken by surprise, JC lost his handling on the alcove and fell to the floor below. With seconds to spare, he activated his speed aug and backfliped inside the room to avoid the first storm of bullets. While in mid air he went into his trench coat and brought out the first thing that came into his hands, the crowbar. JC sweared out loud as his flip came to it's end behind the two UNATCO troops. He activated his strength and ballistic augs and quickly swung the crowbar into the face of the closest troop. A sickening crunch erupted from the soldiers skull as it tore through the skin and bone, settleing at the back of his head.
Blood splattered into JC's aviators as he released his hold on the end of the crowbar and tackled the other trooper into the nearest stall. The trooper yelped as he fell into the toilet, the momentem causing it to shatter painfully into his back. JC snatched up a piece of the toilet and ripped the soldiers helmet off. He stabbed the object into the top of the soldiers head, killing him. Without a breath, he unholstered his magnum and rolled out the stall to face Collins, several buckshot casings fell off of his trench coat. Collins had shot him several times as he dispatched both troopers, a process that took less than ten seconds. Pain suddenly shot up JC's spinal cord, releasing all the adrenaline from his system. He let out a low scream, and quickly shot Collins. The bullet penetrated his leg, causing him to fall to the floor, grimicing in pain.
JC quickly kicked him in the chest, knocking him unconscious. JC went over to the first trooper and ripped the crowbar out his face, carrying parts of his broken skull along with it. Then he sat down, and mended the wounds in his back with a few medkits. After that, he threw up. Then, as if nothing happened, he calmly left the room, without looking at the bloodied bodies.
"Goddamn terrorist!" a soldier spat at Decker as he ran into the prison block. Two troopers waited for him in there, apparently unaware of the chase. The first one looked at Decker in confusion before being shot in the head. The other soldier fell out of his chair after the other troopers body was flung backwards. Decker relocated his aim to the other trooper and fired for the head, and hit the chest instead. The trooper let out an agonized scream and crawled away behind the chair, bleeding horribly.
"Int-t-tru-." Decker heard the soldier gasp into the intercom. He rounded the desk and shot the soldier twice at point blank. Both bullets tore through the soldiers head. Decker stared at both bodies and quickly wiped a tear from his eyes. He despised it when he was forced to kill people, which was why a tranquilzer bow was his prefered weapon. He couldn't remember a time where he hadn't teared up after killing. He quickly hid behind the desk as his pursurers charged in.
"Oh, god."
"Two casualties, sir."
Their sergeant came in, "Okay, fan out."
Gunshots erupted from far away. He hoped JC was alright. He brought up his handgunan H&K-VP for better rate of fireand did his best to keep his hands steady. The first troop came into view, his assault gun held to his eyes. His eyes settled on Decker, and he opened his mouth to shout to his team mates, but Decker pulled the trigger twice. Two bullets slammed one after the other into the soldiers chest, first dazing the trooper, then the second bullet knocked the life out of him.
"Shit! Baker's down!" an unseen soldier yelled. Decker knocked the desk over, taking the two troopers behind it off guard. He quickly punched the first one in the gut, and used his assault rifle to gun the other one down. He quickly jabbed his neck, knocking him unconscious. The sergeant put his rifle to his hip and fired dozens of bullets at him. Decker rolled out of the way of the trail of bullets, barely avoiding them. The sergeant raised his rifle and drove into a blind charge at Decker. Decker took his left arm, used his attackers momentum against him, and smashed him into the wall. He aimed the VP down at his head and fired. Blood splattered the back of the young man's helmet.
JC ran into the prison block to see Decker standing over Sergeant Berry's body. It looked like he was crying. JC quickly cleared his throat, causing Decker to jump and point the pistol he was holding loosely at him. He smiled feebly at him, and quickly wiped his eyes. JC opened his mouth to speak, maybe to say something sympathetic, not like it would be any help, he was terrible at that sort of thing. Before he got a chance to however, the PA inside Level Three came to life. "Squad Alpha, please respond."
JC ran over to Decker, "Why don't you go back to Jaime, I can take care of things."
"Yeah, ok." Decker said. Not even a fuss. He quickly ran out. JC gathered ammo from the fallen troopers. After doing this, his infolink buzzed in. It was the robotic voice again. "These distractions must cease. Please exit to the helipad. Potential encounters on Level Two include Janice Reed, Joseph Manderley, and Anna Navarre." JC stopped, and now took the time to actually contemplate this voice. It was something called Daedalus, and obviously wanted JC to escape, but for what reasons he could not fathom. This line of thought suddenly made him think of Alex Jacobson. He was the hacker, and him going under an alias like this made sense. He quickly ran out of the prison block, and stopped at Anna Navarres computer, remembering the killphrase. He wasn't much of a hacker, and couldn't guess her password. He would make Alex do it, he decided. He walked into the communications hub, and saw Alex at the far end of the room, with a pair of headphones on. No wonder he couldn't hear all the gunshots. He walked and tapped his shoulder. Alex yelped and fell out of his chair, quickly looking up. JC ripped the headphones off.
"Hello...Daedalus." he said, circling Alex. "I hope my escape was entertaining to watch."
"What the fu-"Alex began before perking up when hearing about Daedalus. "Daedalus? What-"
"You haven't been contacting me under an alias?"
Alex looked thoroughly confused. JC offered him a hand and helped him back up. He dusted himself off, and turned back to JC. "Well, the link went down. At first I thought they'd executed you."
Well this fucks things up. JC thought. "Someone cut power to detention, who else would have access?"
Alex sat back down at the computer and hit several keys, brining up the security moniter. "Well, the log here shows no unauthorized transmissions, but then again, the security has been in shambles lately. But you know, I installed the security myself, it's unbeatable...normally. Your're starting to scare me."
JC removed his sunglasses and rubbed his bright blue eyes, "Not as much as you're scaring me...Why would this guy want to rescue me?"
He laughed, "A better hacker than I. A trick like thatwell, it crossed my mind, I have to admit. I'm pretty disgusted with the agency right nowbut I would've been caught."
"No, you wouldn't take that chance.." JC said.
"I won't just sit down and watch..I'd give you the key to the front door, but Anna is on patrol on Level Two, you'd have to take her down first."
"No small feat...you sound sincere, you should quit the Coaltion"
Alex laughed out loud as if he were joking, then saw that he was serious. "Er, and do what?"
"Track me down in Hong Kong, there's already gonna be a big rendevous there. Decker will pick you up once I'm done."
"Whoa there, whoes Decker?"
"A terrorist."
"Oh, great." Alex rolled his eyes. "And what will happen after that?"
"Just find a way, I'm sure you can all think of something."
"Ok, just take out Anna before hand."
Remebering the computer problem, JC said, "Can you give me the password to Anna's computer?"
"Yeah, sure. It's Scryspc."
"Spell it out." JC said.
"S-C-R-Y-S-P-C" Alex said.
JC wrote it down on his datapad, "And Manderleys?"
"Knight underscore killer, all together."
"Thanks alot, I'll get back to you after dealing with Navarre." He quickly left the office and headed for the armoury. Upon coming in, Carter quickly held a gun to his chest, and sighed in relief. He lowered the gun.
"General Carter.." JC began, and quickly winced at himself. Sam hated being called his former rank.
He didn't even allow a smile, and turned towards the iron door. "We've been through that soldier," he said. It was almost hypocritical, Sam not allowing him to call the man "General" when Sam himself refered to JC as "soldier" all the time. "Just Carter."
JC quickly cut to the chase, "I've discovered some things about UNATCO.."
"I don't want to hear it. I'll unlock the armory, there should be enough munitions to let you escape without a fuss." he said, and did just that. He calmly walked inside, and turned on his computer. JC was almsot amazed at the mans lack of intrest. Something was holding him back, and he intended to find it.
"Walton Simons, and Manderley, they-"
"Load up, that's an order, soldier." Carter said dismissivly.
JC gave up and finished quickly. "I'm going to the other side, you should join me."
Carter let out a depressed sigh, and rubbed his left eye, the only good one. "Let's get one thing straight. We've got our fair share of crooked bureaucratsfactbut this is UNATCO, and by and large the people here ARE twenty four carat gold."
He doesn't even suspect the conspiracy, does he? JC thought."What good is an honest soldier if he can be ordered to behave like a terrorist?"
"Huh" Sam said, "The trump card. Well, the way I see it is that if the good people stay, the agency will turn out fine. We'll get this place back on track, you have my word on that Agent." he turned back to his computer and made no attempts to argue with JC when he tried to coax him over to the other side as he loaded up on ammo.
"What happens if you're wrong, General?" JC asked.
He turned back to JC, and stared at him with his one good eye, "Then we've lost all hope, soldier."
JC left, leaving Carter alone, with his computer. He turned back to the email, and shuddered.
...we appreciate your help in this endeavour, and of course, any attempt to replicate or track this email will not be succesful.
Sincerely, The Minister of True Lies...
Walton Simons lit up yet another cigarette, burned through it quickly, and tossed the butt to the floor, away from the holographic image to where Manderley would never see it. His foot breifly disapeared for a moment as he stamped it's light out. He was the biggest chain smoker he'd ever seen, he couldn't last an hour without going through a pack it seemed.
How he retains his physic is beyond me...Manderley thought. Manderley himself was pudgy, and hardly worth a match in a physical fight. He remembered the old days, when he was just a cadet, and UNATCO was still young...Those were the days. And Simons, he looked like he could lift three hundred pounds, hardly the physic of a bureaucrat. Of course, he knew what Simons truly was, and was not permited to speak of it.
That train of thought led him to one he'd been dreading. This meeting was not about how they could make up for the horrendous loss their two best agents, it was about firing him for it. That was only part of it though, no, they would go the extra mile to ensure their secrecy. He could almost invision it now. Him, sleeping a restless sleep in his own home as an assassin crept up on him wearing thermoptic camo...
He had to find a loophole. Had to find someway around the inevitable. He realized he was sweating profusely, so he took out a handkercheif and wiped his face. Walton looked breifly amused, for a man who was incapable of smiling. They continued from where they had left off.
Walton uttered the words that sealed his fate, "I think you'll be much happier at the Library of Congress."
Manderley stamped at the floor, and silently cursed himself for doing it. It made him seem like a five year old. "I can't control a mans mind!" he stammered.
Walton brushed dust off the sleave of his trench coat, a self conscious act, to busy himself with a small matter for a fraction of a second. He turned back up to him, "Despite whatever illusions you may have deluded yourself in, you're not a commander, hell, you were barely a soldier. We hoped you'd give UNATCO an urbane and diplomatic face, that's all. We screwed up our priorities." his eyes trailed to the corner of the room, then quickly back to Manderley, "We'll be sure to put a bigger man in next time."
"I-I refuse to do this! I WON'T do this!" he was screaming now, red in the face.
Walton looked back to the corner, and lit another cigarette. He took a long drag on it, and looked back toward Manderley, "Actually, I very much doubt that will be happening now."
Thank God, the man has mercy in him! Manderley silently thanked to himself. He opened his mouth to speak, but Walton quickly cut him off, while throwing a look to the corner. "Look around, you fool. Your star pupil has come back to teach a lesson to his old instructor."
No...he shifted his view, and stared at the face of JC Denton. He held a pistol magnum to his head casually. "I never had time to take the Oath of Service to the Coaltion. How bout' this one?" he held up his left hand to his head, in mock salute, just as he'd been shown for his offical intitation. "I swear to almighty god that I, JC Denton, will not rest till UNATCO is free of you and the other crooked bureaucrats who've perverted its mission. Amen." He opened his eyes again, and shifted the aim to his head.
This...this damned boy thinks he can mock me. He gave out a gruff laugh, but it came out sounding scared and nervous. He cursed silently and spoke, "Big words for a rookie." It was now or never. "You'll regret your betrayal." With those words he quickly fell to the floor while pressing the intercom. JC was caught off guard and quickly took a potshot, missing his head by inches.
"Anna, get in here quick, Anna!"
"On the way, sir!" came her voice from the other end.
Walton Simons watched calmly as Manderley pulled out a pistol and fired a shot from the cover of the desk. It missed JC by feet, and JC quickly aimed his sights toward the shaking hands as he fired again and a again.
Yes, yes. My last resort, if they kill me then at least I can die knowing I killed you, yes, diediedie- Manderley thought before a magnum round pierced his arm. He dropped the pistol with a jerk and found that he was sobbing in pain.
No, no! No-
Walton Simons watched the holo image of Manderleys room shimmer as the JC walked over to the desk, looked over, aimed the magnum and fired. Manderley's static filled screams were quickly cut short. Walton could not help but feel ecstastic, in a twisted way. He was such a fine creation... it was a shame he'd defected. He had no remorse for his enemies, such a perfect killing machine. Where had it all gone wrong? JC turned back toward the hologram and spoke in a low, almost whispering voice, "Consider THAT my resignation."
"I must say, bravo. You did our dirty work for us. But don't get cocky, you'll be dead in thirty two hours, another six billions dollars down the drain." he goaded.
"We'll see about that." JC said, before shooting the holo projector, leaving Walton alone in the darkness, the only light coming from the static of one of so many survealiance cameras. He started to laugh, a disturbing thing coming from someone like him. For the first time in his life, he wanted to smile.
JC looked back over at Manderleys body. He was surprised at how little remorse he felt after putting the bullet into his head. At the academy he'd always daydream during classes about walking down a reception in Liberty Island, to shake hands with Manderley as he told him in a speech what a great agent he was. Then of course he'd meet President Mead, and Paul would tell him that he was proud of him. Such things seemed so sureal now. He tried thinking back to that daydream, but found that he just couldn't picture such an event. He couldn't believe how ignorant he had been, how ruthlessly obvious the whole deception was now.
Why did you go into his office? You could of just avoided a confrontation all together and gotten out without anything going ary. He thought. As he passed the office, he'd planed to slowly incapacitate all of the security, and enable them to get out without raising any alarms, but he felt drawn to the office. It felt so silly, but he felt the need to set things straight with the deception of UNATCO, and killing Manderley seemed to be the only course of action. It was the first time he'd ever willingly wanted to take someones life, and the prospect has...scared him. It made him feel like he was becoming more like Anna-
"Hands up, 'agent'."came a russian accent from behind him.
You fool, why did you stick around? JC thought to no one other than himself.
JC felt the long silencer of an assault rifle press into the back of his head. Anna Navarre slowly circled toward his front, keeping her fingers on trigger.
"So...you killed him?" Anna questioned.
"Nothing gets past you, Navarre."
She slamed the silencer into his head, causing a ringing sensation in his skull. She spat in his face, "Like your good friend Lebedev, I think it is my duty to give the verdict myself...hmmm.." she said mockingly, "I know!" she said, faking enthusiasm. A smile curled on her face as she lifted the barrel of the gun to his forehead. "Guilty."
Authors Note: Yeah, yeah, I'm terrible. Sorry for the cliffhanger guys.