James Swallow: Deus Ex: Icarus Effect

He shook his head. “Job’s not done, Anna. Namir and those bastards he works for are still out there, still playing their games… I can’t look Sam’s family in the eye and know that I let Namir keep breathing after I let their son down.”

She moved closer to him. “Redemption, that’s what you want, isn’t it?” Anna sighed. “So do I, for Matt. But I want it for myself as well…”

“Yeah…” He drained the beer. “Haven’t found it yet.”

“You’re wrong.” She took his hand. “You saved my life, Ben. You came to save me when you could have just gone on with the fight. Then I did the same thing. I saved you. We… we redeemed each other.” At last, she opened her hand and showed him the brass coin, its surface blackened and scratched.

“It’s not enough…” he muttered, looking away. “After all we’ve seen, it’s not enough.” He went to the balcony. “They won, Anna. After everything we did to burn those bastards, they still won!”

She shook her head. “Not yet. Not until they silence us. This game isn’t over.” Anna followed him to the veranda. “Stay here,” she said. “Please tell me you will stay here.”

“You don’t need me,” said Saxon.

“It’s not about need,” she replied. “It’s about what’s going to happen. I don’t want you to die out there…” Anna heard the fear and pain in her own words, rising up from deep inside.

“What do you mean?”

Anna told him about what Janus had shown her, the torrent of images and sights the hacker had pulled from the depths of the Illuminati’s dark schemes; things she couldn’t comprehend, half-formed pictures that lurked in her subconscious and tainted the patterns of her dreams. She hadn’t slept well since that day; the specter of what Janus had revealed was always there when she closed her eyes.

“There’s one thing I remember very clearly,” she said. “It’s burned in my memories like a brand. An image, an impression, of every city in the world.” Anna shivered as she spoke, despite the heat of the fading day. “All of them engulfed in fire and fury. That’s what they’re planning.”

Saxon watched her carefully, struck by the strength of her certainty, and her fear. “What are you saying? There’s gonna be a war?”

She looked up at him. “A change is coming, Ben. And we can’t fight it. We can’t stop it. The wheels are already in motion. The only thing we can do is ride it out, and wait.”

“For what?”

“For a new future.” Anna took his hand again and looked up as the day passed into darkness. Out across the sky, night fell on the world they knew.

Much respect is due to the creators of the original Deus Ex games and their compelling fictional world—Warren Spector, Harvey Smith, Sheldon Pacotti, Austin Grossman, Chris Todd, and everyone who was part of the Ion Storm team.

My appreciation to my colleagues at Eidos Montreal for making my work on Deus Ex: Human Revolution such a great experience—Mary DeMarle, Taras Stasiuk, Mark Cecere, Lucien Soulban, Jean-Francois Dugas, Jonathan Jacques-Belletete, Antoine Thisdale, Francois Lapikas, Jim Murray, David Anfossi, and Stephane D’Astous; tips of the hat also to Andre Vu and Rene Valen.

Thanks to my editors, Tricia Pasternak and Michael Braff, at Del Rey Books.

Lastly, my gratitude to William C. Dietz and Karen Traviss for their advice; my fellow narrative paramedics Rhianna Pratchett and Andrew S. Walsh; and much appreciation to Chris Bateman for the nod.

JAMES SWALLOW is a writer on Deus Ex: Human Revolution— the third incarnation of the Deus Ex videogame series—and the New York Times bestselling author of more than twenty-five books, including the Scribe Award winner Day of the Vipers, Nemesis, The Flight of the Eisenstein, Jade Dragon , the Sundowners series of steampunk Westerns, The Butterfly Effect , and fiction from the worlds of Warhammer 40,000, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Stargate , and Judge Dredd . Swallow’s other credits include the critically acclaimed nonfiction work Dark Eye: The Films of David Fincher and scriptwriting for Star Trek Voyager , videogames, and audio dramas.

He lives in London, and is currently working on his next book.