Mission 4:
Claiming Jurisdiction
Adam walks into a front business and takes a hidden elevator down to the TF29 offices. Alex calls him on the way down and asks him to plant the whisper-chip she gave him at Prazicka Station on the motherboard in the NSN Server Room.
On his way in, he runs into TF29's quartermaster, Aria Argento, who expresses relief that he's alright and wants to talk with him later. She gives him a card for the shooting range before leaving. Adam gets into the server room and plants the whisper-chip successfully.
Adam also takes the time to visit MacReady in his office and ask about the identity of the extremists who hit them in Dubai. Though MacReady believes that they were just another dime-a-dozen jihadist groups, Adam is suspicious and says that heavy augmentation would go against Muslim beliefs. MacReady acts dismissive and chides Jensen for overstepping his bounds before leaving.
Miller pages Adam to his office, and asks if everything's alright with his augs. Adam affirms that he's alright and won't cause a problem. Miller says that the state police are trying to push them out of the Ruzicka Station bombing investigation, and orders him to go to the station and meet with TF29's crime scene technician, Fletcher. Alex also radios him covertly and says that she got him information from the server and will need time to decrypt it.
While heading out, Adam finds Peter Chang, the organization's cybercrime specialist. Chang tells him that he's getting paranoid because an unknown party is investigating the front company, Praha Dovoz, and asks him to check out a signal from a nearby building. When Adam does so, he discovers that it's coming from a group of journalists from the Samizdat newspaper. Upon meeting with them and learning their motives, Adam negotiates with them to stop investigating Praha Dovoz in exchange for some classified information on Picus Television.
Adam reaches the station and Miller calls in a favor so that he can get a private subway car to Ruzicka Station. When Adam arrives, he finds Fletcher, who expresses anger at being stalled out of the process and being accused of tampering with evidence by the police. Adam offers to help, and Fletcher says that he found something that will be able to break the case wide open but needs to get the portable drive the info was stored on. Adam decides to sneak in through the maintenance shafts, and past several heavily-armed policemen.
He eventually finds the portable drive and sneaks back out. Miller radios to inform him that they've got a new lead in the case and are planning an operation in the aug ghetto called Utulek Station, a.k.a. "Golem City". Miller asks that Adam meet with TF29's psychologist, Dr. Auzenne, before he's cleared for full duty.
At the TF29 headquarters, Alex says that she had the data decrypted and wants to speak with him in person later. Adam goes to the office of Dr. Auzenne, who offers to give him Neuropyzyne for the pain. Adam points out that his body doesn't reject augs, leading Auzenne to laugh it off and say he can believe whatever he wants. When she asks him a series of psychological questions, she points out that ARC's actions may make officials and citizens look down on him, despite being a member of the task force. Adam reaffirms his commitment to the job and protecting innocents before leaving.
He goes to meet Alex at a bombed-out LIMB clinic a short distance away from the office. Upon arriving, Alex shows him audio evidence of Miller talking with a higher-up, who is ordering him to officially claim that all of the bombings were the Augmented Rights Council's fault, even though he doesn't have concrete information. Adam says that Miller is just doing his job, and is more interested in his superiors. He realizes that the Illuminati are setting up ARC and pledges to get to the bottom of it.
Miller orders him to a nearby airpad. When he arrives, Miller tells him that his mission is to go to Golem City and find and bring in ARC's leader, Talos Rucker, for questioning. Though Adam pointedly tells him that it seems suspicious that ARC would be behind all the bombings, Miller tells him there's no way to be sure until they find and extract him. He also officially introduces him to TF29's Ace Pilot, Elias Chikane, who comes out in person. After Miller leaves, Chikane gets annoyed by Adam's questioning and insinuates that he has no interest in becoming an aug, despite sporting a prior leg industry.
With that, Adam climbs onboard Chikane's VTOL as they head off to Golem City...
Tropes:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The sewers are not only huge, but cultivate entire communities living in them. It's also the spot where the Samzidat journalists run their underground newspaper. Various storage spaces can also be seen throughout the system.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Dr. Auzenne refuses to believe that Adam doesn't suffer any rejection systems from his augs. However, Adam is telling the truth, as a key part of the previous game was his unique biology (which caused Megan to take his DNA samples in the first place). When Auzenne tries to give him Neuropozyne, he acts dismissive of it.
- Bus Crash: It's implied that Ben Saxon (the protagonist of Icarus Effect and The Fall) died sometime in the interim between Human Revolution and Mankind Divided. Alex's dialogue in the LIMB clinic suggests that something bad happened during her mission to take down Belltower in Australia, and implies that The Man Behind the Man is a lot more powerful than she realized. Like the previous references, this appears to be a nod to the Sequel Hook that was set up at the end of The Fall.
- Call-Forward:
- Like the Sarif Industries theme from Human Revolution, the leitmotif for Task Force 29's headquarters is similar to the UNATCO theme from the original game.
- The crime board has a number of references and shout-outs to future groups in the Deus Ex universe, including a logo for what will eventually become the New Sons of Freedom (NSF).
- An email found on TF29 investigator Robert Allen's computer mentions a link between Janus and Juan Lebedev (a major character in the original game), along with a mention of Anna Kelso.
- Chekhov's Gun: If the player disabled the terrorist's comms system in the prologue mission, Agent Singh's cover is maintained. MacReady thanks Jensen and says that Singh will be able to get them more intel in the near future.
- Continuity Nod:
- Adam points out to Dr. Auzenne that his body doesn't create rejection systems because of his augs, a key part of Megan Reed's research on him from the previous game.
- Adam learns from Alex that there was a fictitious break-in at Versalife, and reasons that the Illuminati are behind it and the other aug attacks.
- Some newspapers have an article on Panchaea, with the author questioning why it blew up on the same day that the Aug Incident happened.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: The front business for the TF29 offices is a import company called Praha Dovoz. One of the side-missions is to throw off a group of journalists inquiring about the company itself.
- Fatal Flaw: Though Aria is TF29's quartermaster and has the aptitude to become a qualified field agent, she is hamstrung by her high stress levels and higher-than-normal neuropozyne requirements to function normally. She laments this fact and says she wishes she could be out on the front lines investigating the case with Adam.
- Intrepid Reporter: The staff at Samizdat are Properly Paranoid and write about government corruption and the tendency of the news media to obfuscate the facts. Depending on the player's interaction with them, Adam can either reason with their leader, K, and trade confidential information on Picus for a guarantee not to investigate Praha Dovoz, or kill all the staff because They Know Too Much.
- Justified Tutorial: The shooting range acts as a primer for the weapon customization and crafting system.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The goons who wear heavy Exo-Suit armor can't be taken down with combat moves without being first stunned, despite a prompt claiming otherwise.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Miller states that the head of the United Security Council is stonewalling TF29's investigation of the bombing, under the claim that it falls under "homegrown" terrorism. This is what leads him to send Adam out to recover the evidence for Fletcher.
- Only Known By His Nickname: Fletcher is normally referred to by almost everyone (including Adam) as "Smiley".
- The Only One: Lampshaded. Aria tells Adam that due to most of the Task Force either being busy with the Dubai investigation or being up for 36 hours straight, Adam is the only active field agent available.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Despite the ability to push back against his commands, Jim Miller is a very fair and by-the-book leader, who appears to be getting pushed by higher-ups to steer the Dubai investigation a certain way. In a conversation with Alex, Adam can choose to blame The Man Behind the Man instead of Miller for the stonewalling.
- Shout-Out:
- The TF29 quartermaster, Aria Argento, is a shout-out to actress Asia Argento. Both women were born in Italy.
- The memorial wall in TF29's headquarters include the names "L.A. Wachowski" (a reference to the Wachowski twins, who directed The Matrix) and Nic Pizzolatto (the creator of True Detective).
- One of the items hanging in TF29's cubicles is Aiden Pierce's jacket, boots and hat.
- Space Base: In the "Samizdat" side mission. When Adam meets the journalists in the sewer, they ask if he's inquiring about "the clones at the moonbase". This may also be a Continuity Nod to Human Revolution's "Missing Link" DLC, which had a holographic image of a place called "Moon Base Omega".
- Spotting the Thread: Jensen figures out immediately that the terrorists in Dubai were not Muslim because heavy augmentation goes against their beliefs. However, MacReady refuses to believe him and tells him to stay off the case.
