DESCRIPTION:
"You're a ghost...a fuckin' tragedy...everything you touch...everything that touches you...dies." A dying Brent Radford told Jensen during the "Acquaintances Forgotten" mission of Human Revolution.

This music was written for the following in-game cinematic scenario for a hypothetical Human Revolution Sequel.

After discovering a reference to White Helix Labs in the Seattle VersaLife Facility earlier in the game, Adam visited Michelle Walthers one more time in a vain attempt to gain more information about his mysterious past. But Michelle only mentioned the location of the old White Helix labs in Detroit. The building itself is burned to the ground, but an underground portion may have survived, and older locals might have memories of the White Helix labs.

This cinematic picks up at the end of that mission investigating the old White Helix labs and the surrounding town and locals.

(0:00) Having finished his investigation Jensen emerges on a rooftop helipad to meet his pilot. He has learned some bits and pieces about his parents and the events at White Helix. The music is haunting, reaching through time, the melody on the haunting woodwind is strangely warm and intimate for the Deus Ex series. This is a personal story.

Jensen's pilot asks him if he found what he was looking for, and Jensen replies with "Enough...I guess...for now." A repeating percussive rhythm underpins the music, adding a layer of tension to the haunting music.

The pilot tells Adam that Pritchard seems to have lost contact with the Sarif security detail assigned to Michelle Walthers apartment. Hearing this Jensen gets on board and the chopper takes off (0:50) heading back to downtown Detroit.

The camera cuts to the inside of the chopper (0:59) as Jensen gets in touch with Pritchard. Pritchard informs Adam that one of the guards seem to have managed to send a distress code back to Sarif Security. On hearing this Jensen tells his pilot to take him to Michelle's apartment complex and to hurry (0:19). The camera cuts back to the outside of the aircraft as it breaks away and speeds up heading towards its destination over the night time Detroit skyline (1:22-1:27). A twist on Michael McCann's Icarus theme ostinato can be heard on strings as the music ratchets up here. The camera cuts back to a worried Adam one last time (1:29-1:35) before it fades to the face of a dead Sarif employee (1:36). The camera pans over as we see Michelle standing frightened as men in suits step over dead Sarif guards (1:41-1:49). She holds in her hand a piece of paper. This segment has no words...no sound effects...it is just a montage of video and music.

The camera cuts to the paper in her hand and slowly zooms in...a photo of a baby Adam, her younger self, and a man and woman, all dressed in lab attire. All the while a piece of the original Alexander Brandon Deus Ex theme emerges (1:49). The people in this photo. Michelle who is holding the photo. They help bring about the events that we know as Deus Ex. But the Deus Ex theme doesn't continue or end the way we would expect, it grows tense and final (1:56-2:00), until the hand clasping the photo lets go with the pluck of a gentle, human harp. (2:02). The synthesizers have disappeared.

There is silence. The photo is now on the floor. A man in wearing a black suit picks up the photo and walks away as ominous chords on string-like synths return (2:06)...ending the piece and the cinematic with the familiar cold and ominous feeling we've come to know and love in Deus Ex.