The novel was originally available as a pre-order bonus for Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut. On December 22, 2014, Eidos made the novel available for free download here
Tropes:
- Ace Pilot: Malik is smart enough to keep the VTOL flying through a storm after it was struck by lightning, dispatch the security leader who dispatched to arrest (and presumably execute) her by taking off and going into a steep climb that causes him to fall out of the cargo bay and outwit several military drones through sheer flying ability.
- Badass Boast: "You think you've got me? You haven't got me."
- Badass Normal: Malik establishes herself as a VTOL pilot, but repeatedly walks away from incidents that should have killed her, including using a wingsuit to dive into the open cargo bay of an airplane and taking out one of the drones that were implicitly said to be top-of-the-line Belltower technology and were trying to destroy her.
- Bad Boss: Cheng, who sends his enforcer to detain and execute Malik after he finds out that she discovered Belltower's secret practice of kidnapping scientists.
- Better than Sex: Evelyn and Malik talk about the latter's daredevil antics in the opening chapter, and reference this trope by name.
- Break the Cutie: Evelyn is left devastated after Malik's apparent death, and is told that the only reason she isn't getting a worse punishment is because her boyfriend has powerful connections.
- Call-Forward:
- Evelyn and Malik's friendship (which is only discussed briefly in Human Revolution) is discussed further here. To note, their first conversation has Evelyn remarking on how she needs to call Lee Hong back, and Malik remarking on how he's a hothead prone to violence.
- It's mentioned that Malik and Evelyn's employer, Cheng, deals with the Red Arrow triad.
- Malik remarks on whether Khan was watching her through the drone's camera as she stared at it defiantly, a situation that could be repeated later in Human Revolution if she is left to die at Belltower's hands.
- Chekhov's Gun: The wingsuit, which saves Malik's life when she rams the final drone and is forced to eject from the craft.
- Defiant to the End: Discussed. Malik wonders if Khan was controlling the drone and saw her defiantly staring as she rammed the VTOL into it.
- Hellish Copter: Malik is once again at the controls of a chopper as it gets shown down by enemy forces, though unlike Human Revolution, she is merely presumed dead instead of being attacked at the crash site.
- Irony: Malik interacts with Narhari Khan, the same individual who (depending on the player's runthrough of Human Revolution) may have been the one to kill her after the VTOL crashed. In the novella, he comments that he hopes Malik is a capable pilot.
- Karma Houdini: Unlike Lee Hong (who gets his comeuppance in Human Revolution), Cheng gets away scot-free with his antics (which include knowingly participating in human trafficking and ordering Belltower to destroy Malik's aircraft).
- No One Could Survive That!: Belltower assumes that Malik is dead after she suicide-charges the last drone, even though she used her wingsuit to escape just before the impact.
- Oh, Crap!: When Malik discovers that the cargo she's been ferrying are kidnapped scientists, one of whom is executed by Khan after he complains about the situation. Later, she gets the exact same reaction when she sees Cheng using a phone and staring at her at the helipad.
- Ramming Always Works: Malik destroys the last Belltower drone by ramming it with her aircraft, which destroys it.
- Running Gag: Just like the game, Khan gets knocked down and injured in a humiliating way (here, getting a head wound after he sits in a folding chair during the flight to the Bel Canto without any safety harnesses).
- The Triads and the Tongs: Malik mentions that Cheng works for some of the local triads to ship drugs, and that they are his "elite clients".
- Wretched Hive: Hengsha.
