Harley Filben

Harley Filben is a street informant that JC Denton encounters periodically in New York in Deus Ex. During the NSF raid on Liberty Island, Harley Filben is brought to the north docks with the help of a drifter woman to serve as an informant for UNATCO on NSF activity on the island. Afterwards, Filben relocates to the subway station at Battery Park and then later to the Underworld Tavern in Hell's Kitchen. 
== Biography==
A New Yorker to the bone, Filben is the son of a Liberty Island tour guide, and as a result he knows the Island, the Statue, and its history like the back of his hand.Harley Filben: " About time you showed up."
JC Denton: " Iron and copper. The statue is copper on an iron frame, right?"
Harley Filben: " Password's enough, pal. Don't think you know something about the Lady I don't. My dad did tours out here."
JC Denton: " I heard that you can get me inside."
Harley Filben: " Depends. You get your man out, take back the Statue, whatever, but I know the commander and I don't want to see him get hurt."
Harley Filben: " Here's a picture so you don't make a mistake." He still remembers the times before the bombing and UNATCO deployment, how the Island was jam-packed with tourists from around the world, speaking every tongue known to man.Harley Filben: " It used to be wall-to-wall people out here from all over the world. Everywhere some other language you can't understand." He's less enthusiastic about the job he once had picking up trash after them, however.Harley Filben: " I worked here one summer picking up people's trash. Rotten job." Eventually, Filben took up a position as an informant, avoiding siding with any of the factions vying for power overtly. Much of his philosophy comes from his father, who used to say "If copper can get old and green and need repairs, the same with our liberty." That was before the UN gained a standing army.Harley Filben: " My dad used to say, "If copper can get old and green and need repairs, the same with our liberty." Funny, and that was before the United Nations even had an army."
By 2052, he's one of the best informed people in the city, though his unassuming, bum-like appearance might say otherwise. He hangs out with sick former soldiers, bums, prostitutes, NSF guards, and pieces together information to sell to the highest bidder.Deus Ex official strategy guide: "Everybody knows Harley, and Harley knows everybody. That's his job: knowing things. He's the man on the streets, the guy on the inside, the one who looks like he just crawled out of a sewer, but who's just as likely to have been in some general's office.
Don't get the wrong idea. Harley isn't someone who lives in a penthouse and goes slumming for info. He's the real thing. He knows the people who live in the tunnels because that's where he spends his time. He hangs with the ex-soldiers who have gray death, and he learns everything they know... and they know a lot. He chats up local hookers, bums smokes off the NSF guards, does odd jobs in the down-and-out bars, and in general, lives real life up to the grimy, crusty hilt. You can trust that his information will be accurate, for the right price." That means typically working for UNATCO, delivering intel on the National Secessionist Forces. Filben typically explains dealing with UN's private army, infamous for extrajudicial executions and occupying U.S. soil, as a result of his circumstances: He's broke and has a child to look after. He leverages his main contact at the NSF, Col. Leo Gold, using him to gather information,
Harley Filben: " Don't even LOOK at me, because I QUIT!"
JC Denton: " I don't understand."
Harley Filben: " I was BROKE, okay? I have a kid, and UNATCO's got the money, but if you think you can go around and just execute anyone you want..."
JC Denton: " Slow down. Execute who?"
Harley Filben: " You killed my contact at the NSF, the commander inside the statue, and that's gonna cost me business."
JC Denton: " Sorry. He didn't cooperate."
Harley Filben: " At least you know you're a thug and you're honest about it. So anyway, how about some business? The phone booth down here goes to the NSF underground hideout. I'll tell you where to get the code for 500."
Harley Filben: " I was BROKE, okay? I have a kid, and UNATCO's got the money, but if you're going to flat-out LIE --"
JC Denton: " What'd I do?"
Harley Filben: " You PROMISED not to kill my contact at the NSF, the commander inside the statue."
JC Denton: " Yeah, well, when you stand toe-to-toe with a terrorist..."
Harley Filben: " Killing people without a trial and taking over the city -- that's not what I'm about."
JC Denton: " The goal of UNATCO is not conquest. It's the safety of ordinary people like yourself."
Harley Filben: " I know an army when I see one. Anyway, from now on you pay double. The phone booth down here goes to the NSF underground hideout. I'll tell you where to get the code, but it's a thousand. Not a credit less."
 and pays off lower ranking members with credits.
JC Denton: " You with Filben?"
Drifter woman: " I get a cut for bringing him over."
JC Denton: " Tell me what you know about the NSF operation."
Drifter woman: " I'm not that high-level. The more elite troops -- they're the ones that took over the ship and unloaded it into speedboats. I think we're supposed to be a diversion."
Drifter woman: " Filben said I'd get 200 for this. He better not jerk me around."
He draws the line at information that might lead to mass executions of NSF fighters,Harley Filben: " I don't rat the NSF when it's going to be a UNATCO slaughter. I thought I made that clear." believing that as long as UNATCO and NSF are at each other's throats they won't be able to harm ordinary people too much.
JC Denton: " A real patriot."
Harley Filben: " I see it like this. It all balances out. UNATCO's just as much gun freaks as the militias, and if everybody's gonna shoot it out, fine, so long as neither side wins and takes over the whole country."
JC Denton: " The goal of UNATCO is not conquest. It's the safety of ordinary people like yourself."
Harley Filben: " I know an army when I see one. Look, I'll be blunt -- got any cash? There's a secret passage behind that phone booth over there. For 500, I'll tell you where to get the code."
 He also freely discusses the possibility of the Statue bombing being a deliberate operation by the government, to slander the NSF as terrorists.
JC Denton: " How do you know so much about the commander?"
Harley Filben: " He's my main contact in the NSF. I need him alive and out on bail."
JC Denton: " UNATCO will probably keep him in custody."
Harley Filben: " At least he has a chance if he's alive. I warned him, you know. I said right to his face, "Don't take weapons into the Lady. That makes you as bad as UNATCO.""
JC Denton: " Don't forget that it was the NSF that C-4'ed the Statue in the first place. UNATCO's here to put the pieces back together."
Harley Filben: " Ask me, I think the government did it. They want people to think the NSF are terrorists."
In reality, he's a triple agent, informing on the NSF for UNATCO, except he's actually working for the NSF in that capacity, and ultimately reporting to Stanton Dowd, one of the Illuminati.
Harley Filben: " UNATCO's put a price on your head. What're you doing in the city?"
JC Denton: " I didn't expect the Kitchen to be under martial law."
Harley Filben: " People know the government has a vaccine. Riots everywhere."
JC Denton: " You still on the dole at UNATCO?"
Harley Filben: " I never mentioned... I've been working for the NSF all along -- and the Illuminati. I'm on your side."
JC Denton: " Right, the Illuminati... I need to find one of their leaders, Stanton Dowd. A load of plague virus is on its way to New York."
 He's responsible for setting up the meetings with Dowd, who's notoriously averse to direct contact,
TracerTong to JCDenton : " No time to waste. You need to get to the Underworld Tavern and make contact with Harley Filben. He is one of Dowd's aides and he will set up the meeting. Follow his instructions."
 and maintaining a degree of security, especially by rooting out spies for UNATCOHarley Filben: " Virus? You mean the Gray Death? What's Dowd got to do with it?"
JC Denton: " The same corporation that makes Ambrosia also manufactures the virus. Quite convenient. The virus came over in a superfreighter previously owned by Dowd."
Harley Filben: " Yeah, most of Majestic 12 is just hand-me-downs from the Illuminati. Huh. We knew about Ambrosia, but the virus... that's news. They're infecting people on purpose, huh?"
JC Denton: " I was hoping Dowd could tell me where the freighter would unload."
Harley Filben: " I'll contact him. Go to the burnt-up storefront of Osgood and Sons, over where the tunnels connect to the warehouse district -- you know, where the NSF had the generator. I'll try to get him to meet you there."
JC Denton: " Osgood and Sons..."
Harley Filben: " Yeah. And, JC... Be careful who you mention the Illuminati to... like Joe Greene. He's a spy for UNATCO."
JC Denton: " The reporter? Are you sure?"
Harley Filben: "Here's the proof. Hey... Kill Greene and you'll be doing all of us a favor. I saw him hanging around the free clinic."
JC Denton: " Already took care of him. I don't like people who ask a lot of questions."
Harley Filben: " No shit. Man, you really did change sides. Never would've thought it possible."
 and learning the reasons why they spy in the first place.Harley Filben: " Apparently they promised Greene some kind of position in Washington."
==Interactions==
Harley Filben can be encountered four times during the course of the game. However, only the fourth encounter is required: When JC returns to Hell's Kitchen from Hong Kong to find Stanton Dowd, JC learns that Filben is an aide to Dowd and might know how to contact Dowd. 
=== Liberty Island (1st Mission)===
*Filben is found on the north dock of Liberty Island and will pass information to JC regarding NSF activity on the island if given the password "Iron and Copper." Filben will also provide the key to enter the front doorway to the Statue complex, if JC promises that the NSF commander, Leo Gold, will be left alive.
*Meeting Filben is a secondary objective. Completing the primary objective before meeting him will result in a different set of dialogue when he is then encountered. He will then tell JC, "Why the hell'd I come here if no one needs my help?", to which JC will reply, "I found a back way into the Statue, but I'm sure UNATCO appreciates your dedication."
*Due to how his barks work, visiting him again after completing the mission will result in additional lines depending on JC's initial answer and Leo Gold's fate.
===Second visit to Battery Park (3rd Mission)===
*JC Denton can encounter Filben a second time in the Battery Park subway station. Here, if JC does not have the password needed to obtain the code to the phone booth, Filben will sell the password to JC for 500 credits (1000 if Leo Gold was killed).
*Filben will say that UNATCO is likely targeting Juan Lebedev, who owns a terminal at LaGuardia Airport. Filben will also tell JC that the NSF has "some of your buddies at UNATCO" on their payroll, but will not mention who specifically.
===Second visit to Hell's Kitchen (4rd Mission)===
*During the second visit to Hell's Kitchen, Filben can be found in the Underworld Tavern. He will say that UNATCO is about to raid the area.
=== Third visit to Hell's Kitchen (7th Mission)===
*When JC is is tasked with finding Stanton Dowd, he is told that Filben is an aide to Dowd and might know how to contact him. Filben is once again found in the Underworld Tavern. He reveals that he was working with the NSF all along, and confirms that he also works for the Illuminati.
*Speaking to Filben is required for mission progression and will initiate the secondary goal of killing Joe Greene. If JC kills Greene and reports back to Filben, Filben will say, "Man, you really did change sides. Never would've thought it possible."
*If Filben was never previously encountered, the initial dialogue with Filben will be different. He will know who JC is and tell JC, "I'm an agent myself, a double-agent... I report to the NSF and the Illuminati." 
==Quotes==
*"Don't take weapons into the Lady. That makes you as bad as UNATCO." (Filben recounting what he told to Leo Gold)
*"You're a man of your word. I like that."
*"How'm I supposed to get back to the city? Swim?"
*"Ah-ha-ha. You can't afford that one."
== Behind the scenes ==
* Prerelease design document v13.12 includes the following description of Filben: "...he’s an Illuminati assassin, working for Stanton Dowd, pretending to be a UNATCO stoolie by pretending to be a drunken bum. Filben appears over and over again to provide information, assist the player and generally confound expectations." His general character concept of being an out-of-place informant was largely maintained in the final game. However, the aspect of being an assassin does not explicitly appear in the final game.
* Although Harley Filben is invincible throughout the game, game data associated with the cut character Thomas Dieter imply that he was originally designed to be killable, either offscreen or by the player directly. Design document v13.12 states that "if Denton rats on him, he will find Filben DOA on subsequent missions."
==Gallery==
JC and Harley Filben.jpg|JC meeting with Harley Filben during the third visit to Hell's Kitchen
==References==
pl:Harley Filben
Category:Deus Ex characters
Category:Illuminati characters
Category:NSF characters