Jenna Throne is a mechanically augmented agent of the Illuminati. She is the main antagonist in the novel Deus Ex: Black Light.
Biography[]
Thorne is described as having distinctive pale skin, henna-red hair, and an air of haughty coldness. She claims to be an agent of the United States Department of Homeland Security, a role that serves as a cover for her work with the Illuminati.
Interrogating Adam Jensen[]
In late 2028, Thorne is stationed in Facility 451 in Alaska. There, she interrogates Adam Jensen, who had recently awoken from a coma at the facility. Thorne is interested in what Jensen was doing at Panchaea on the day of the Aug Incident. Thorne informs Jensen that she is aware that he was in the core of Panchaea just prior to the collapse of its structural protection systems, and asks Jensen about the details of what he saw and how he got out, among other events that occurred during that day. Suspecting that Thorne is an Illuminati agent, Jensen refuses to give any detailed answers.
Unimpressed with Jensen's lack of cooperation, Thorne turns the other residents of Facility 451 against Adam by informing them that Adam was involved in triggering the Aug Incident. To gain additional leverage over Jensen, Thorne also orders Stacks, a resident of the facility who had recently befriended Jensen, to be sent to the segregation block. However, Jensen and Stacks escape the facility and head to Detroit.
Operations in Detroit[]
In early 2029, Thorne, like Jensen, is also in Detroit. Her assignment for the Illuminati is to extract prototype military-grade augmentations out of the city so that the Illuminati can deploy the augmentations in Europe. To accomplish this task, Thorne utilizes three proxies: Don Wilder (an ex-Sarif Industries employee and local operative based in Detroit), Magnet (the leader of the Motor City Bangers), and the arms dealer Sheppard.
Don Wilder's role is to provide a keycard, once belonging to Adam Jensen, that can be used for accessing Sarif facilities. Thorne makes a deal with Wilder to obtain the key card, while also providing Wilder with a voice synthesizer that could imitate Jensen's voice to unlock the voice code on the key card. Using the key card provided by Wilder, the Motor city Bangers (MCBs) raid and loot Sarif facilities in the area, including the abandoned Milwaukee Junction manufacturing plant. Jensen and Stacks intervene and destroy the manufacturing plant by detonating explosives. The destruction of the plant prevents further looting, but the MCBs have already managed to load a large shipping container with stolen augments.
Thorne's plan is to have Sheppard airlift the augmentations looted by the MCBs out of the city. In the event that the airlift fails and the augmentations are taken by Task Force 29, who have recently deployed in Detroit to hunt down Sheppard, the contingency plan is to directly seize the augmentations from TF29.
After Jensen discovers that his old key card was used by the MCBs, Jensen tracks down and confronts Wilder. Wilder captures Jensen but is given a no-kill order by Thorne, leaving Jensen for pick-up by local police. Wilder later meets with Thorne in a hotel and complains about being ordered not to kill Jensen. Thorne explains that the no-kill order was part of her instructions, saying in a way that shows that she wasn't happy with the order either. Throne then tells Wilder that she is dissatisfied with his performance because he complicated the task by interfering with local gang members and causing collateral damage. Wilder is angry and demands that he gets his payment. When Wilder tries to draw his weapon, he is shot dead by Thorne.
Later, Sheppard arrives at the Detroit airport with a cargo jet and is greeted by Magnet and his MCBs, who have brought the shipping container to the airport to be be airlifted out of the city. However, the airlift fails as a result of Jensen's and TF29's intervention. Earlier, TF29 had managed to rescue Jensen before he could fall into the custody of local police.
In wake of the failed airlift, Lucius DeBeers informs Thorne that her assignment remains incomplete. Thorne complains that the failure to extract the augmentations was due to the interference of Jensen. In response, DeBeers tells her that Jensen is not her concern, and that she is not the only asset in play. Since the augmentations are now being shipped by train to a military base for disposal, DeBeers instructs her to proceed to recover the augmentations by attacking the train with an elite strike force.
Battling TF29 and confronting Jensen[]
Thorne joins with the Illuminati strike force, which includes Gunther Hermann, and boards the train. The strike force easily dispatches the TF29 personnel on the train, but their operation is interrupted by the arrival of Jensen. Thorne points a gun at Jensen, but Gunther rebukes her, saying that killing Jensen is contrary to the original orders that they received. Thorne nonetheless intends to open fire; however, Jensen manages to flee to another part of the train with the help of Raye Vande, the last surviving TF29 operative on the train. Thorne orders Gunther to pursue Jensen. Gunther hesitantly complies, after telling Thorne that she will be held responsible for her actions in defying the orders to leave Jensen alive. Gunther injures Jensen, but Jensen turns the train into a runaway, forcing Gunther to flee.
Meanwhile, Throne is exasperated at the fact that her superiors consider Jensen to be an asset that is worth keeping alive, for reasons that she could not comprehend. Feeling defiant of her superiors' orders, Thorne fully intends to kill Jensen herself. After killing Raye Vande using the thorn-like protrusions of her arm augmentation, Throne is once again confronted by Jensen, heavily wounded due to his encounter with Gunther. Thorne taunts Jensen, angrily telling him that he is alive only because of the blood in his veins. However, Thorne is defeated by Jensen's Typhoon augmentation. Jensen escapes the train, leaving Thorne dying onboard the train as it is about to derail and crash. Thorne is presumably killed by the crash, although her fate is never explicitly confirmed.
Augmentations[]
Thorne is equipped with an assortment of augmentations, including neural implants, a CASIE social enhancer, cybernetic arms, and a reflex booster. Thorne's cybernetic arms have the unique feature of protrudable thorn-like barbs made of a synthetic diamond analog. When the barbs are fully extended, her arms resemble a rose stem lined with thorns, fitting for her name.
Quotes[]
- "You're only alive because of the blood in your veins! If it wasn’t for that, you’d be decaying at the bottom of the ocean." (To Adam Jensen on the train).