Chapter 21: Chapter 21
A/N: Hey, I was asked once to give the links to the Deus Ex videos I made and posted on youtube. This site doesn't really allow links to show up in the story, but these videos can be found by searching for the youtube username OneDayWeAreFree. They are titled "David Sarif Deus Ex Music Video" for the serious one, and the silly, absurd, kind of throw-away one is "Adam Jensen Call Me Maybe Deus Ex Music Video."
Dinner that night was quiet. Pritchard couldn't quite bring himself to savor what could be their last moments, his morose thoughts getting the better of him. The security-guard's attempts to lighten the mood were met with one-word answers, and, eventually, he stopped trying. As much as Adam wanted to be annoyed with the way Francis was acting, he understood the fears.
Not until they had settled in for bed that night did Frank put a voice to his thoughts.
"This may not be the right thing to say, but I can't help thinking that it's highly unlikely your DNA is only at this one location of Page Industries. If anyone in the organization has half of a brain, they've sent it, and any information uncovered, to several different places. Maybe this mission will tell you what they're working on, but I don't think there's a way for you to ever really be satisfied that your genes will never be misused. I think it's hopeless."
Adam rolled over to face the hacker, his expression unreadable. "At least I'll be able to find out what they're doing. See if they're going to come after us."
"You really want to risk your life for that? Either they do or they don't. They have what they wanted, and unless they see us as a threat, which they will after your little escapade, it would be prudent to just leave us alone."
That was a good point, but... "I'll take this last dangerous mission, and then I promise I won't take any others as long as we're together."
"Alright, Jensen," the computer technician felt himself nestle in the grooves of old patterns- probably a subconscious way to distance himself from feeling- as he spoke over the infolink. "I'll be here if there's anything I can help with."
"Thanks, Francis." What, was he trying to be playful? Pritchard could hear the smile in the ex-cop's voice.
Resting his head on his desk, ponytail falling to drape over his arm, the hacker sighed. He tried not to think about what was happening right now, and hoped that Adam would follow through with what he'd promised last night. It was time for both of them to be out of danger; they'd had enough impending demises to last a lifetime.
As a distraction, Frank pulled up his work-in-progress: a word file with a television show script that Picus just had to accept. They hadn't been interested in a hacker, but a hacker who helped a hard-ass cop solve crimes? That would have enough action to satisfy them.
Here he was, crouching behind boxes yet again. It got old and it was so tedious. The cyborg had been running around for two hours copying files onto his USB drive, and he was looking forward to getting this over with.
He turned around. "Damn. Now this is just cliche."