Deus Ex: Black Light

Deus Ex: Black Light is the second full novel set in the Deus Ex universe. It is written by James Swallow, and follows Adam Jensen and Francis Pritchard after the Aug Incident and the destruction of Panchaea. Black Light was released on August 23, 2016, along with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

"Back text"
"The year is 2028, and the shining promise of a new age of human augmentation is in ruins in the wake of the devastating ‘Aug Incident’ – a horrific catastrophe triggered by a cabal of shadowy power brokers, where millions of cybernetically-enhanced people suffered a forced psychotic break.

Awakening in the aftermath of a changed world, with gaps in his memories and suspicion on all sides, augmented ex-cop and former security operative Adam Jensen struggles to piece his life back together, in a new reality where ‘Augs’ have become the targets of hatred, fear and violent discrimination.

Now the dark forces behind the Incident are gathering once again, reaching out to manipulate the course of global events through terror and intimidation. To find the answers that he seeks and the people who destroyed everything he knew, Jensen must return to the ashes of the past, reconnect with old allies, and risk all to expose a deadly conspiracy – but in a world shattered by secrets, can the truth be brought into the light?"

Plot
Adam Jensen wakes up in Facility 451, run by World Health Organization in Alaska, Kenai Peninsula. Doctors Rafiq and Mcfadden state he just woke up from coma. At the facility, Jensen befriends with Harrison ”Stacks” Stacker, an ex-steeplejack from Seattle.

After six days, Agent Jenna Thorne from Homeland Security interrogates Adam about his part of the Aug Incident when Panchaea collapsed. He admits vaguely he was in Panchaea and tried to stop Hugh Darrow but refuses to answer concretely because he doesn't trust Thorne.

Thorne discloses Adam's presence in Panchaea at the time of Incident to other augmented residents of facility which goads them to start fight with Adam (and break Stacks's nose). With help of Stacks they manage to fend off others before the facility guards intervene the fight. Adam realizing things will get only worse for him and Stacks in the facility, he spontaneously escapes with Stacks and steal a truck.

Adam and Stacks drive to an abandoned gas station in Soldotna. Adam contacts Francis Pritchard there out of facility 451's signal jamming range. Because Adam was listed dead as presumably missing after the destruction of Panchaea, Pritchard is hesitant to trust the caller. After Adam exchanges some snide comments and also some facts of Pritchard, the hacker agrees to help them steal another truck at the station. Adam then orders it to be driven to Detroit.

After they arrive in Detroit Pritchard meets with them. He takes a DNA sample of Adam, which confirms his identity. Pritchard tells David Sarif got away from Panchaea but his submersible was damaged causing him severe nitrogen narcosis. He was put in a coma ”sleeping through most of everything that came after”. Sarif Industries declared for bankruptcy Tai Yong Medical buying it up. Pritchard does not know Sarif's current whereabouts but knows that he did not take the news well. Pritchard also tells he has had to accept hacking gigs to earn his living since SI bankrupted.

After the monorail ride, Pritchard leads Adam and Stacks into the Rialto movie theatre which now functions as Pritchard's living quarters. It also becomes apparent Motor City Bangers now dominate those turfs. A banger called Cali tells Pritchard that his hacking skills have been noted and MCB leader Magnet craves more favors. Adam and Stacks intervene making Cali retreat. Inside the theatre, Stacks suffers symptoms from Darrow Deficiency Syndrome. Adam decides they three will break into ex-Sarif HQ towers in hope of finding neuropozyne for Stacks, who previously gave his last cup of Neuropozyne to an augmented person in the Detroit aug-ghetto camp. For Adam, it's also about catching up with the recent past.

At the same time, in the US division of Task Force 29 in California, Jim Miller informs Christian Jarreau and Raye Vande about military-grade augmentations that are about to leave US soil from Detroit. He suspects they will end up in hands of John ”Sheppard” Trent.

The three break in through the underground car park connecting to Sarif Towers with Adam destroying a Boxguard in process which distress signal TF29 notices in their base of Detroit operations and the recording prior to Boxguard's destruction. Pritchard explains Tai Yong left only robots to guard the building. After they get into the Testing and Quality control department, Stacks gets a post-traumatic stress reaction after seeing loose leg and arm augments. Adam calms him down and they get Stacks some Neuropozyne. Adam then scans himself and finds a foreign chip in his augmented right arm, plucks it out and crushes it. Scavengers and homeless people then enter into their position. Adam orders Pritchard to open rest of the storages to let the scavengers take the rest relenting them. A homeless person then informs Adam about armed thugs at Milwaukee Junction, ex-manufacturing plant of Sarif Industries. They turn out later to be Motor City Bangers.

Back at the Rialto theatre, Pritchard discloses to Adam explaining he's noticed an organized pattern raiding and looting Sarif facilities implicating something else is going on. Adam realizes military-grade not-for-sale augmentations may end up in wrong hands and determines to make it stop. Despite Pritchard's warnings he takes Stacks with him to Milwaukee Junction.

Stacks and Adam plan to destroy the Junction with a gas leak and remote-detonating explosives. At their way of getting out Stacks gets another stress reaction when entering a room full of augmented limbs alerting nearest MCB members. Bangers then wound Stacks lethally who confesses at his last moments he killed his family at the time of Incident leaving only their limbs left when Darrow's signal stopped broadcasting explaining the stress reaction at Sarif HQ. Adam then runs when he smells stench of the gas. Stacks detonates the explosives before he dies. Angered at Stacks's death Jensen chases down Magnet on the roof who refuses to give tangible answers about who he is working for (Pritchard noticed Magnet used Infolink to get orders from somewhere else). Magnet escapes as Jensen is distracted by the sounds of TF29 closing in. Pritchard creates another distraction allowing Adam to escape through sewers.

Back at the Rialto theater Adam meets with Alejandra Vega who held Pritchard at gunpoint before Adam arrived and Garvin Quinn. They offer Jensen information in exchange for Juggernaut Collective co-operation. Pritchard is suspicious but Adam is listening. At this time TF29 has been able identify the person they chased on the roof and the destroyer of the boxguard at Sarif HQ as Adam Jensen. They are unsure what to think about Jensen but they intend to interrogate him when given the chance.

Adam then heads to Spector's Tavern after learning from Pritchard his pass card has been used in raiding Sarif facilities. He confronts an ex-Sarif Security guard Henry Kellman about this who reveals Donald Wilder, another ex-Sarif Security employee as his boss. Soon Cali and two other Bangers storm the Tavern killing other customers, bartender Jake and Henry. Adam kills the other bangers and tears away with his nanoblades all Cali's four augmented limbs before Pritchard locates Wilder and leaves before the police arrives.

Adam breaks in Wilder's apartment without setting off alarms. At gunpoint, Wilder admits he helped Bangers to steal the mil-spec augments but he then turns the tables by shooting a P.E.P.S. pulse from his augmented arm towards Adam triggering the EMP mine immobilizing him. As he is about to kill Adam, Wilder gets a call ordering him not to kill Adam. He then calls the police impersonating Adam before knocking him unconscious. TF29 captures Adam before Detroit Police is able to do the same. Agent Vande tells their technicians noticed the caller used a voice-changer device so they know it was not Adam. At the interrogation he agrees to co-operate with TF29.

Jenna Thorne meets with Don Wilder in Yukon Hotel. Thorne is displeased the way Wilder handled with Kellman stating the mission might be compromised. She then shoots Wilder with a silenced pistol before he even gets a grip of his revolver. Thorne then warns Magnet and Elizabeth DuClare about the changed situation.

Adam comes to the airport initially as an observer with rest of the TF29. He is able to recognize Magnet from the crowd. John Trent is recognized as the primary target. As Vande's team reaches the jet and kills a Banger, Sheppard activates an autocannon shooting agent Lund who was dragging an EMP to disable the jet and any other person near the aircraft. Adam then takes a jeep and starts driving it towards the jet. Magnet attacks Adam and grips from the hood. Adam dispatches him quickly and then reaches jet's rear part and releases the cargo hold while the jet is on air and falls to the ground going unconscious on hit.

Adam eventually recovers and Jarreau tells he has potential to be employed by Task Force 29. The augments are planned to be moved to a military base where they will be destroyed. Pritchard contacts Adam about Wilder's corpse which is to be taken to a furnace as “infectious material” according to Detroit Police department. Adam suspects something valuable is on the corpse. Pritchard hacks into traffic grid which allows Adam carjack the vehicle carrying the corpse. On a safe position assisted by Pritchard he accesses Wilder's eye augment and its last recording learning in horror that Illuminati is about to hit the train carrying the augments.

Adam hides himself into Lucky Dot convenience store. Soon Quinn hacks into the service robot telling he can help Adam from his dead end. Janus has found out the train's course and Alex can fly him to it. Adam gets to Alex's VTOL.

Before Adam gets to the train Thorne's team is already inside and has killed several TF29 members. After Adam clears his way towards Vande, he kills the train's controls pushing it into overdrive, which will cause the train to explode when it crosses the state border. A trooper bearing heavy resemblance to Gunther Hermann who just cornered Adam weighs his options and opts to flee instead of continuing to fight Jensen and get caught in the explosion. From an earlier Thorne's gunshot already near-to-death Raye Vande is finished by Thorne slicing her throat. Adam in turn kills Thorne with his Typhoon augmentation and jumps off the train before it explodes.

Task Force finds Adam from South of Granger, Indiana confirming as only survivor that Thorne's team ambushed TF29. Jarreau tells Adam it was Vande who sold them out with new upcoming evidence about it. Adam knows already it is not true because he witnessed her saving his life and attacking Thorne and also not showing any marks of lying on his CASIE augmentation but knows also there is nothing he can do to repeal the set-up of Vande.

Later, Adam decides to join the Juggernaut Collective stating he's had enough of innocent lives cut short by Illuminati. Adam also meets one last time with Pritchard in the Rialto who gives him a pocket secretary where he has gathered all the data for two years what he and Adam have experienced and gone through. The book closes with Pritchard responding to Adam's mission statement of stopping Illuminati as “You make it sound like the end of the world.” which Adam replies: ”Not yet, but you can see it from here.”

Trivia

 * The book title "Black Light" comes from a White Helix file with the same name. It seems to contain a dead male person.

ru:Deus Ex: Black Light