Finding Isaias Sandoval

Chapter 12 - Peeling Back the Curtain Jensen returned to Detroit, intending to confront Sarif and track down Eliza's second lead. But tensions between normal and augmented humans had reached a flashpoint: riots had erupted in several cities, and the U.N was being urged to intervene. Sarif admitted that the scientists were taken by the Illuminati, probably because of research they'd been conducting. Then He urged Jensen to get his people back, handing him a ticket to a Humanity Front convention...

M2 - Finding Isaias Sandoval is a mission in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

Go to the convention center and obtain Sandoval's location from Taggart
Having talked to Sarif and received your mission, it's time to head to the Detroit Convention Center and have a chat with William Taggart.

Since you received a V.I.P. Pass Card (from Sarif at the beginning of the mission) you can enter the convention center unhindered. Make your way upstairs by either turning left and going up the broken escalator (taking you through the Meeting Hall) or going to the right, through the Main Hall.

Having made it upstairs you have a choice to make. Either turn right and confront Taggart directly by going to the room where he is giving his talk (Room 2005), or sneak backstage, go to his dressing room and just hack his computer for the information.

The quickest way to sneak in is by going to the bathroom with a conveniently placed air vent. Head up the vent and directly to his dressing room. Be sure to check your map before dropping down, since there are three vent exists, one of which drop you directly in front of some body guards.

Technically, there's an alternative route to the dressing room via a back stairwell. The door leading there is to the left of the bathrooms, as you first enter the convention center hallway from the tunnel. Unfortunately, this way is blocked off by a metal security roll-up barrier.

If you sneak in quietly and hack his computer you will have a brief dialogue with Sarif. He will ask you to frame Taggart by uploading the recording of Sandoval onto his computer. If you agree, you will receive up to 1500 XP, plus the possible "Ghost" and "Smooth Operator" bonuses for a max total of 2250 XP.

If you are going for "Ghost", you only have to sneak past the bodyguards, not the police.

Otherwise, you can go straight to the press conference and confront Taggart directly. If you have the C.A.S.I.E. Social Enhancer aug you can use it to skip out of the conversation early, but it is not required. Completing this encounter correctly will grant you a private audience with Taggart in his dressing room where he will reveal the location of Sandoval. Going this route will get you 1000 XP to start with an additional 750 XP (excluding a possible "Smooth Operator" bonus of 250 XP) after the encounter in the dressing room. You WILL NOT get the "Ghost" bonus (500XP), however, therefore the sneaking approach is more rewarding XP-wise.

There is a unique eBook in the room leading to his dressing room (where three bodyguards are watching TV). It's located on a table to the left of the TV.

Get inside Sandoval's apartment
Now that you know where to locate Sandoval, it's time to find him and get the information you need. His apartment building can be found directly across the street from yours. Climb up the fire escape and enter the building. There are two guards walking down the stairs that you can either take out or avoid altogether.

Enter Sandoval's apartment. If Zeke Sanders survived the encounter in Highland Park, then he will be waiting in the back room and in the main room will be a Praxis kit next to a dead guard. The Praxis kit is booby trapped. Taking it will trigger two EMP mines hidden under the dead guard and cause Sanders to storm into the room. To get the kit, move the guard's body (this will not trigger the mines), disarm the mines, then take the kit. Deal with Sanders however you like. (generally speaking the best Deus Ex strategy is "clear the area first". This is certainly true here. You can open the door, and sneakily deal with Sanders FIRST, rather than having him assault you as soon as you grab the Praxis kit).

Alternatively, if Sanders did not survive, the apartment will be empty and there will be no Praxis kit. Behind the picture is a wall safe with a good amount of loot; the code (5463) is in a personal secretary on Sanders' body.

To proceed, move into the bedroom, move the boxes blocking the bathroom door, then enter the bathroom. If you have the Punch Through Wall augmentation you can make a hole in the bathroom wall and open a shaft through which you can drop down to the next room. Otherwise, move the additional boxes stacked inside the bathroom door to reveal a switch. Hitting the switch will cause a hidden door in the bedroom to slide open and reveal a staircase leading down.

Your next objective is the shipping container in this room. You can sneak around the guards or, if you have the Instant Take-Down upgrade, drop from the girders above and take both of them out at once. Search the lockers for some goodies, after which proceed into the shipping container.

Find and confront Sandoval
Once you are in the sewers you will have a total of 5 enemies to contend with. The first one will be patrolling the first hallway you come to. Three more are in the room to the right, with another patrolling the hallway leading out of that room. Getting silent take-downs on all of them is relatively easy, but you can also opt to just bypass them completely by exploring a bit. There is a crawlspace just to the left of the first tunnel you come to which will allow you to bypass the first 4 guards. Getting around the 5th guard can be done by either taking him out silently when he has shut off the laser grid, or hacking the terminal while he is turned away and walking through unnoticed. Or... just grab the passcode from him after you take him down.... or use cloak to walk right through them.

In the next room there are no enemies, but there are a lot of mines. Be warned that no matter how slow you move, the drop from a ledge into the water is fast enough to trigger the mines. So if you want to disarm them, get into the water while you are well clear of any of them.

Finally, having made it through the mine area, it's time to confront Sandoval. If you got William Taggart to admit in public Sandoval's possible involvement in the plot involving the kidnapped scientists, or having snuck into Taggart's dressing room, you took Sarif's advice and planted incriminating evidence on Taggart's computer, you will find Sandoval holed up in his room preparing to shoot himself. It's your job to talk him out of it. If you have the Social Enhancer it'll be pretty easy, but otherwise you'll need to talk him through it. If you fail, he shoots himself and you lose out on the 1000 XP Silver Tongue and The Last Straw achievement. To talk him down, you will need to give him some Tough Love the first time, but the rest of the conversation is randomized.

If you took the sneaky route when finding Sandoval's location and did not plant the evidence on Taggart's computer, or sometimes if you used the CASIE Augment to shorten the public confrontation with Taggart, Sandoval will not be suicidal and he will immediately attack the player instead. Sandoval uses a revolver but is fairly slow so is easy to stop.

Either way, once the encounter is done, make sure to search the room. There is an unique eBook on Sandoval's desk. Proceed out through the unoccupied sewers.
 * If you have the Cloaking system and silent movement augmentations, you can enable them both as soon as you finish talking with Sandoval. This way if you do it quick enough you can simply sneak up to him and perform a takedown, meaning you can still receive the Ghost bonus. Or, headshot him with a tranq after the cloak.

Meet Malik on the roof of my apartment building
Having finished the conversation, Pritchard will contact you and tell you to head back to HQ. With the riots, however, you can't get there directly, so it's time to head back to your apartment and meet up with Faridah Malik.