This chapter was a bit longer to write. I had a lot to do but here we go !
I recently read the Deus Ex Bible... Really interesting stuff that contains a lot of interesting informations... And I'm pretty sure the creators of Mankind Divided will use it for some plot twists in the game ! I'm really curious about how everything will turn out to be...
Anyway. Back to this fanfiction.

First time in months I slept properly.

It was the first thing Adam thought when waking up. And it was true.
Since he couldn't do anything and couldn't even stand up, the only thing he could do was sleep. And he had slept all the way through the night...

It was 10 am when an Infolink call finally woke him up. Vega and Stanley were on their way...

And now, all he had to do was wait. For long minutes he just stayed laid down, not even knowing what to think about.

The white door opened slowly after some times. Hellen shyly checked on him by sliding her head through the opening.

"You're awake ? I heard you talking an hour ago."

Already an hour... Time surely flied by...

"I'll be leaving soon" answered Jensen. "It's a matter of minutes now."

Hellen approached, noticing that Adam didn't seem to object about her presence in the room. She sat on one of the arm of the couch, next to Adam's dead feet.

"You'll try to find the runaway guy ?"
"If we don't want him to cause anymore trouble out there, we have to."
"Well. From what I saw, he looks like the killing machine type... You really think he would blow up non-Aug places ? What's the point ?"
"Claiming. Forced attention, and forced claiming."
"Interpol will never abdicate. These kind of things never worked in the past, why would they now ?"

Adam sighed. This girl was down-to-earth. And sharp.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures..."

Slowly moving one of his stumps, he went on :

"I think I know it "first-hand"."

Hellen looked at him with a puzzled expression. Strangely, she seemed really affected by his well-being. There was something about her eyes, about her posture... Sincerity. It emanated from her all persona...

Then, the door rang...

"They're here..."

I knew I shouldn't get involved. But I'd been thinking about it all night. And while opening the door, I kept wondering...

In front of me stood a woman and a man. Both were dressed with heavy plastic suits and hoods. Fortunately for them, it was pouring rain outside, so they didn't really attract attention while coming here.
The woman, brown hair with blond strips, tall and slim, looked at me with severe eyes. Coldly, she said :

"You're cousine is already there, is he ? I have brought him a gift..."

She tapped a metal suitcase with her hand.
Definitely the rescue team... I waved at them, they entered my home.

As soon as I closed the door, the woman turned back and tackled me against the wall. My heart went crazy. What was she doing ?!

"Not a word. To anyone. You hear me ? If anyone knows we are here, I swear I'll..."
"VEGA. DROP THE ACT. NOW."

Jensen's husky voice came out of the guest room. A moment of cold silence fell between us, just before she bitterly let me go... What a wild specimen she was...

"I didn't tell anyone and I don't intend to" I say while massaging my head. "I know what Jensen did last night. I owe him. We all do. People around us don't even know that, and they never will. This is my way of repaying the debt... Do whatever you have to, but you don't have to threaten me like that."

Vega stared at me with wide opened eyes. I think I could understand what she was thinking right now...
Non Augs didn't say that kind of thing. Not anymore. The last few months had been living nightmares for Augs. A few hours after the Panchaea incident, people had been already captured and segregated into camps all over the world. During the incident, I had been at the hospital with my mother, just before she would have been transfered to the retirement home. We had barricated ourselves in her room, away from nurses and patients that had been running wild. We had heard them screaming nonsense and punching walls and doors all around us. It had been beyond crazy. It had lasted one or two hours at most. When we had opened the door again, there had been blood spattered everywhere...

Some of my best friends were Augs. They had suffered the hallucinations. They had hurt themselves and others. I had come to see them with apprehension through the barriers of the detention camps. And there they had been, begging, crying, asking for forgiveness. I knew them. I knew they were sincere. And it had broken my heart. I had known at the time that I would never see them again. They would be put in these segregated places...
Even Marilyn was there. She had suffered for years of brittle bone disease. When Sarif Industries had been at its best, she had had most of her skeleton removed and replaced with augmentations. She had been treated as a freak all of her childhood. She had finally managed to overcome that. And now, it was all over her again... She was a "Clank", an "Augshit"... How horrible...

A while after that, the big walls had been created. I somewhat always hoped to go passed those walls and go see my friends. It would surely never come to that... Unless...

"Hi. Stanley here. Sorry for her, she's a bit upset these days"

I came back to reality. Vega had gone passed me, and she entered the guest room. In front of me stood a tall, black guy, with a cheerful smile. Wow. That smile was unexpected, considered the situation. I shook his hands and let him go meet with Jensen too.
And now, all I could do was... Wait and see what happened ?

"Okay. That's not as bad as expected. The skin is almost intact and the nervous system is untouched, we can easily stick the arms here. A little dose of local anesthesis will do the trick. Skin has been tore off a bit but with time, everything will fall into place again."

Stanley seemed to know his deal. Strange, coming from a pilote. A bit curious - maybe too much for Vega - I asked him about it.

"Oh yeah. I did double cursus. Mecanic and surgeon. I'm a genius, girl ! Sad to see that I'll live my tremendous carrier in fucking ghettos for the rest of my life... But at least I'll have work. There's so much to do, you know."
"Of course... I imagine that clinics don't have a lot of quality material there..."
"Well, we manage. We're tough. But Neuropozyne is a problem. More than ever. Even if, well, half of the population has been decimated so... Less problem with the staff..."
"Stanley..."

Jensen grumbled. He didn't feel well enough to bear with gallows humor.

"Ah, sorry."

Stanley put on surgical gloves and took a seringe. The operation began.

"We all cope in different ways, man. It's my way of coping. Bear with it..."

"While we're at it, Jensen, I'll explain the situation. We can't lose a minute on this. And your recovery will have to be quick" said Vega.
"Don't worry about that." he answered.

Vega looked at Hellen uncomfortably again. She wanted her out of it, that was a certainty...

"She can stay. She knows already. Who we are and what we do."

... And again, Jensen felt like it was the right thing to do. Hellen had helped her, and she had hidden him all day. For several months, he had been searching for the truth behind the conspirations. Maybe it was time for him to share a bit of these secrets with someone that deserved it.

Vega shrugged, not so happy with his decision. But she went on, not even looking again at Hellen.

"Yesterday, Janus discovered something. Something valuable, thanks to Quinn - you'll know him as Troy Simon now. Troy did a bit of cleaning on his files, and entered Interpol again. When he contacted you, he was already hired. He is one of their cyber-security agents now. The thing is, Interpol is creating a new group that will be operational for the new year : the Task Force 2029. After the multiplications of terrorist attacks these last months, they officially decided to create it to prevent them from happening. They are hiring ex-augmented military. In other word, they are searching for people like you, Adam..."
"Unofficially, however, it's something else entirely... Isn't it ?"
"Definitely. We don't know what, though. But the events will be covered by Picus TV. And we know the affiliations Picus TV and Belltower have in common. And we know what a new Task Force means..."

Adam closed his eyes for a second.

"Control of population..."

"Yes..."

"Not only that", continued Stanley while stitching the second bionic arm to his shoulder "But hiring augs to fight terrorists also mean that the technology will keep advancing. There are still aug mecanics in the ghettos, and Interpol knows that they work in the shadows. And as a silenced counter-attack, they'll keep enhancing their own products. Hiring aug-soldiers means upgrading them."

"We have a Cold War II not far away..."

"Yeah, man... Definitely."

A moment of silence.
In a way, Jensen knew what it all meant. He thought about Megan again... If she had escaped in time, she was still working on augmentations, no doubt... Samples of his DNA in her pockets...

"So, what you are saying is that..." Jensen coughed, and kept on : "... If I ever get hired - and I sure will - I'll have to comply and try any augmentation they'll want me to ?"
"The encrypted e-mails Janus managed to decode emplied that, yes" answered Vega. "Refuse bio-chips implanted in the head, though. We don't have a good memory about that."
"No, no, no. They won't do the same mistake." intervened Stanley "Even the dumbest aug soldier won't accept that ever again."
"Don't speak too soon." said Jensen."I saw a lot of dumb people doing the dumbest things ever, lately... I won't even be surprised if what you said happened in the near future."
"Well... You are no dumb guy, Dummy. If you have a bad feeling, back off. Quick. Don't ever get your body into the hands of obsessed scientists again... Anyway. Arms are attached. Wait for the anesthetic to drop off, and you'll be able to move. Now, the legs...
"You're quick, Stanley..."
"That's insane, aye ? Well, except for the augmented arms and augmented eyes, I'm a "natural". Am I ?"

He winked at Hellen, who in return cranked a smile. She used this opportunity to impose...

"When the operation is over, I want you to let me go with you."

I just let it go. I had to. I didn't look uncertain, or shy, or whatever. No, it was what I wanted...
Vega fired piercing needles through her eyes while staring at me. And I turned to her immediatly, because I knew she would be the one to be 100% against my decision.

"This situation HAS to stop. I am a Nat, yeah. I live legally, without any problems, in a fine house, yeah. But I'm not okay with the lies, the threats, the attacks perpetrated on both sides. We live in fear of each other. It has lasted for months now, and it's not bearable anymore. We can't live in constant fear. And I can't close my eyes to what is happening in front of me. I can't be the only Nat out here to think about joining your Collective, can I ? Even if it's the case, I'll be the first one and it doesn't matter. I WANT to make a difference. I want to help."

After being eye-locked on Vega for all this rant, I turned to Stanley and Jensen. The first one surprised, eyes wide open, a hand still holding Jensen's dead leg. The other one approvingly but discreetly nodding. It gave me even more confidence.

"I can be your eyes in Nat territory. The non-infiltrated mole. Hell, I don't even need hiding if I go in Aug Prague. So far, laws stipulate that we go there in our own peril."

Stanley lauged.

"Well, I don't know how long it will stay that way though."
"No one will know about my non-aug status as long as I don't get scanned. Which won't happen, because no one is scanned when going in Aug Prague. It's said to be dangerous. Even tough thugs don't try to get there to beat up on homeless augs. They do enough damage when they do that in stations..."
"That's true, girl, that's true... Fuckers."

Vega was still quiet. Arms crossed on her chest, she bit her lips. Stanley noticed that and spoke for her, in a way :

"I have to warn you, it's not easy. You put yourself at risk. And you can put everyone at risk. Not only the Collective, but every inhabitant of this god-forsaken town. If something is miscalculated, bam..." He attached the last limb to Jensen's body. Verified the articulation and tapped on the man's lap to make him understand that the deed is done. "But we don't get to refuse extra-hands. Plus, a valuable asset like you... We can't get passed that. Janus will be informed. But if you want to join, it's now. You keep the house, but you come with us for now."

Stanley took a step forward to reach me and put a hand on my shoulder. Jensen stood up slowly, still weak because of the anesthetis, and sit down on the couch.

"Laptop and phone, in your luggages too. With USB cards and so on. If you have nothing to hide, you won't mind us poking our nose in your stuffs. Each secret groups have their trust issue, you know."

I pulled a face, not really happy with his suggestion. But yeah, I had nothing to hide anyway... I shrugged and obeyed.

"Well well well. Better be quick, guys." Stanley clapped his hands. "We have to get back to HQ before 4pm. We're in time. Then, Jensen, get some sleep again, let the anesthetis drop off. And tomorrow is the big day. You'll go to Interpol HQ. They're already recruiting so... No time to waste. Hop hop hop !"

That was it, then. I was in. I couldn't really process the informations for the moment... But I was in.

A few minutes later, while rearranging my bags and checking the last things I would need, I looked up to see Jensen standing right in front of me. He looked at me with his golden and blue eyes, a stoic expression on his face. I smiled at him with as much gratitude as I could. He nodded at me silently, and activated his sunglasses augmentation, cutting the eye contact.

Deep down, I hoped it wouldn't be the last time I would see those eyes.

Next chapter will be there soon enough... The ties-in with the official trailer are coming, guys ! ...