Deus Ex: Icarus Effect

Deus Ex: Icarus Effect is a science fiction novel written by James Swallow. Set in the Deus Ex universe, it serves as an introduction into the Deus Ex: Human Revolution game. The book was published in the United States by the Del Rey division of Random House Inc and was released on Febuary 22nd, 2011. This is the first Deus Ex novel.

Summary
Deus Ex: Icarus Effect follows two protagonists: Secret Service agent Anna Kelso and former SAS officer Ben Saxon. Through the events of the novel, they both take on the forces behind a massive conspiracy bent on influencing the evolution of the human race.

Anna Kelso is a recovering stimm addict, working for the United States Secret Service. She credits fellow Secret Service Agent Matt Ryan for saving her from her addiction and keeping her career. At the opening of the novel, she is on a VIP protection mission to guard a meeting between Senator Jane Skyler and Garret Dansky, CEO of Caidin Global (a major augmentation manufacturer). The two are meeting to discuss U.S. policy towards augmentations, but before the meeting can begin, the group is attacked by a black-clad special ops team. Matt Ryan is killed, and the assailiants make sure to shoot Dansky in the head and kill him, though they let Senator Skyler live. Anna manages to kill a single assassin, shortly before being shot in the gut and nearly dying. The assailants dont execute her for an unknown reason, and she faints.

Ben Saxon is a former member of the United Kingdom's Special Air Service, retired from the military and working for Belltower Associates Incorporated, a private military contractor corporation. At the opening of the novel, Saxon is team leader for Strike Six, an elite commando force within Belltower. Strike Six is taking part in "Operation Rainbird," supposedly a quick strike against rival forces in Austrailia's civil war. Even though Bell Tower has assured them that the mission will be entirely safe, the transport plane is suddenly attacked by a drone aircraft. Saxon's team is wiped out in the crash, save for Duarte, whom is killed by the drone as it doubles back over the site. Saxon manages to down the craft with a G-87 shortly before stumbling off a cliff into a shallow river.

Kelso recovers from her injuries, and rejects the official explanation that the Senator's meeting was attacked by Red Arrow gangsters, and tries to tell her superiors that the true target was Dansky. Her investigation is shut down by Ron Temple of the Secret Service. Kelso decides that she must find the information herself.

Meanwhile, Saxon is recovering from his injuries in a SAF hospital when he is approached by Jaron Namir to join The Tyrants, an independent special operations team that doesnt follow the rigidity of more official groups. After he promises to help find the people responsible for Team Six's deaths, Saxon agrees to join.

Kelso ventures to the decaying USS Intrepid, a decommissioned Aircraft Carrier now used for drug and information trade in New York to find information about the Assassins. Undercover, she meets Widow, an information trafficker, to learn more. Widow is not able to find much, but does confirm that they were named the Tyrants. NYPD has followed Kelso to the carrier, and seige the inhabitants she can learn more. She is knocked out by a SWAT team and awakens in an interrogation cell. Ron Temple arrives to discharge her from prison, though he also suspends her on "Medical Leave" to keep the government (namely Florida governor Philip Mead) out of the Secret Service's affairs.

Saxon works for the Tyrants for a few months, getting to know each member: Jaron Namir, Lawrence Barrett, Yelena Fedorova, Gunther Hermann, and Scott Hardesty, a former CIA operative who somewhat clashes with Saxon. He believes Ben and Gunther are both too inexperienced to be trusted. In their first major operation, they are asked to kill Mikhail Kontarsky, an administrator of the Russian committe on Human Augmentation, in the Hotel Novoe Rostov in Moscow. Namir tells Saxon that Kontarsky associates with the Juggernaut Collective, a cyberterrorism cell, and also has done business with the people responsible for Operation Rainbird's failure. After fighting through several gaurds, the Tyrants finally find Kontarsky in a secret room, speaking to a mysterious figure, "Janus" through audio/video communication. Janus mentions something of a "Killing Floor", then asks Saxon if he is sure who he is working for or of his loyalty. Before he can interrogate either of them, Hardesty kills Kontarsky from a sniper perch across the street. Saxon becomes increasingly skeptic about the Tyrants, and on board their private plane, Hermann and Saxon are both tazed and knocked out.

Anna Kelso is recovering at her home when she recieves a call from a mysterious figure who wishes to meet her. He arranges a meeting at a nearby Humanity Front rally, and warns her that he is her only chances of finding more about the Tyrants. She arrives at a skybox overlooking the rally, and gets to know D-Bar, a Juggernaut hacker and teenager. He explains that the tyrants are only an arm of an ancient, powerful organization with near limitless authority.

Saxon wakes up on the ground of a cramped room with the other tyrants watching. Jaron explains that one of the new recruits, either Ben or Gunther, is not loyal to the group and the two must fight to the death to determine which. He throws a handgun with a single round and the two fight over it. Ben eventually gets the pistol, but he refuses to kill Gunther. Jaron says that the fight was just a test between the two, and that the round was a blank. They exit the small room into Jaron's home, and he learns that Jaron leads a double life, both as a ruthless killer abroad and a family man at home. Ben grows increasingly unhappy with the Tyrants.

D-Bar explains the "Icarus Effect" to Anna, a social phenomenon where society subliminally pulls down individuals who exhibit excellence to maintain stability. The Tyrants are little more than a more rapid form of Icarus Effect, a weapon that prevents change by cutting down those who "Fly too high". Dansky, CEO of a major augmentation firm, was one of those people who risked radical social change. He also tells anna that the Secret Service has a bug for this group itself, most likely how her team was compromised. She begrudgingly agrees to help him, and the two head for her old office.

Ben is enjoying the benefits of being a Tyrant, living in a luxurious resort in London. as he watches the sky, an automated advertisement blimb begins showing messages on its screens from Janus, asking him again if he is sure where his loyalties are. Federova enters his apartment, and the two have sex.

Kelso sneaks into the SS headquarters in DC, hoping to find information related to the bug who exposed her team to the Tyrants. She manages to download the information from a terminal onto a flash drive, learning that Temple was the bug all along, though not before she is caught by her former coworkers Tyler and Drake.

The Tyrants return to their base of operations, Romeo Airport in Michigan. The Tyrants are planning an attack on the Sarif Industries Headquarters in Detroit, to stop them from developing the Typhoon Explosive System, and experimental augmentation, and also to kill the leaders before they can meet with the National Science Board. They express slight worry about a security expert gaurding the facility, Adam Jensen.

Anna is taken to the Prison cells under the Secret Service HQ, and is interrogated by Ron Temple. Ron explains that he had to do what he did, as his superiors threatened to kill his ex-wife and children. He explains that he tried to keep her from getting involved, but now she needs to face the consequences of her investigation, and she will be taken to a remote holding facility for the rest of her life. As she is being driven to this facility by van, an automated transport semi crashes into the van, wrecking it and stunning Tyler. D-Bar manages to break her out of the van, but she still does not trust him after abandoning him at the Secret Service building. She steals his car and drives off to an unknown location.

Although he wishes to participate, Saxon is informed at the last moment that he, Hardesty, and Hermann have been given a different assignment. They will be flown to Virginia for an as of yet unknown job. As they arrive, Hardesty explains that they have been sent to kill Scott Temple and anyone currently in his house. As they prepare to leave, Hardesty makes Saxon stay behind, as he thinks Saxon is too weak to handle the operation.

Anna arrives at a suburb and exits her car. As she jumps the fence, she sees two people leaving Temple's house, and are shot in his front yard. After the scene clears, she sneaks into his house. Ron was holding some sort party at his home before the attack occurred, amd it appears that all of his guests have been killed by the Tyrants. As she investigates, she learns that the tyrants are still in the home, searching for any survivors. She ducks into the basement to hide, and meets Ron, who is also hiding out. They hear the Tyrants leave, and sneak back onto the first floor. An incendiary grenade rolls into the room, and Anna narrowly escapes the blast. Ron is caught in the explosion, and she makes a run for the fence.

As he is sitting in the Helicopter, Saxon notices a woman running for the fence. Seeing this as his only shot at redemption, he aims at her, only to let her go, as he still lacks the ability to shoot helpless civilians. Hardesty and Hermann return from Ron Temple's House, and Hardesty chides Saxon for letting the woman get away. Nevertheless, he says that the media will spin the events to their benefit, and the group return to Romeo Airport. At the base, Ben meets up with Barrett and Namir, who strangely seems uneasy about the events at Sarif. Namir says that they are planning another major operation in Europe, and that Yelena is currently handing a job of her own.

Arriving at her home, Anna is uneasy about what to do next. She turns on her television, only to find out that she has been blamed for the killings at Ron Temple's house, and is now a wanted criminal. She receives a package from Juggernaut, containing only a flash drive, an EMP grenade, and directions to a clandestine location in Canada. Shortly after opening the package, she notices that her back window is open. She is attacked by Yelena, and the two briefly fight. Kelso manages to get the upper hand, and throws the grenade, crippling both her visual augs and Yelena's leg and cloaking augs. She runs until she reaches a distant highway.

Ben Saxon is resting near the Tyrant Jet when he overhears Hardesty and Namir speaking. Hardesty warns him that Ben is a liability, too sympathetic to be useful in their operations. Namir reminds him that Saxon is experienced enough to be useful regardless, and that everyone on the team is expendable if necessary. With his doubts confirmed, Ben finally calls Janus, who explains that Jaron keeps a private terminal (and access point to the Killing Floor) aboard the Tyrant Jet, and that Jaron's deceased sister is his most likely password. The Tyrants, sans Yelena, leave for their Target in Europe.

Anna Kelso rides several trains by coach to avoid being caught. At one irregular stop, she suspects a possible police raid, and breaks out of a window in the rear car rather than take chances. After fumbling through the darkness, she is found by D-Bar and a small group of thugs.

Aboard the tyrant plane, Ben waits for the others to go to sleep before leaving for Namirs terminal. After logging on, he learns that the Tyrants superiors kill close contacts before recruiting new members, mostly to prevent distraction, and usually stage it as an accident.

Kelso and D-Bar return to the Juggernaut HQ, an electromagnetically shielded hangar in a port. Anna gets to meet Juan Lebedev, a major investor in the New Sons of Freedom, itself a group of freedom fighters that closely resemble the National Secessionist Forces 25 years later, and Powell, leader of a small NSF platoon. They explain to Anna that the Tyrants actually work for the Illuminati, an ancient society that vies for indirect world control and is often featured in Conspiracy Theories. She is skeptical of this explanation, and returns to her own cabin out of frustration.

While Ben is reading the Killing Floor, Jaron enters the office and admits that he was responsible for Strike Team Six's failure. Saxon, armed only with a stun gun, shoots the terminal, causing a power failure and starting several fire alarms. He manages to escape, and heads to the weapons storage area, where he finds Gunther Hermann. The two fight briefly, but Saxon manages to break several of Gunthers ribs and sternum, then shoots him in the eye with his stun gun. The German appears dead, and Saxon heads for the cockpit, where he finds Hardesty, armed with a Widowmaker TX shotgun loaded with nonlethal "Crowd buster" rounds. He blinds the man with a fire extinguisher and heads to the cargo bay, where a VTOL is located. In the bay, he is attacked by Barrett, who nearly kills Saxon, although he manages to detonate a belt of grenades, scarring him badly. With no other choice, Ben opens the cargo bay doors and jumps out into the sky above the Atlantic Ocean. At the last moment he triggers his Icarus Landing System, an aug that negates high falls, and manages to land in the water and only fracture his augmented legs. Some form of machine emerges from the depths and consumes him.

Characters
This is a list that contains most of the characters present in the book. Spoilers may be present.
 * Main Protagonists
 * Anna Kelso
 * Ben Saxon
 * Main Antogonists
 * Jaron Namir
 * Lawrence Barrett
 * Yelena Federova
 * Scott Hardesty
 * Gunther Hermann
 * Other Important Characters
 * Matt Ryan
 * Senator Skyler
 * Sam Duarte
 * Ron Temple
 * Hank Bradley
 * D-Bar
 * Janus
 * Juan Ivanovich Lebedev

Trivia

 * In an early portion of the book, Gunther Hermann takes a careful sip from a can of orange soda before asking Saxon a question.
 * A scene in the book shows Ben Saxon and the Tyrants discussing the attack on Sarif Industries; the same attack featured at the start of the game, Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Saxon is worried about one of the security cops, Adam Jensen, and advises precaution.
 * Later in the book, Lebedev mentions a small coalition of independent militia groups called the New Sons of Freedom, hinting at the start of the NSF, as known in the first Deus Ex game.