Deagan Knox was Mechanical’s leader, killed during the attack on IT and remembered by Juliette and the workers he led.
Deagan Knox headed Mechanical, where he had earlier served as a shift manager. A very large man with a thick beard, he worried about Juliette working too many extra shifts, welcomed her home with a hug, and helped pass her computer material to Scottie and Walker. When she was arrested, he asked what she wanted him to do and later apologized for failing to act.
After Walker’s revelation, Knox challenged the election and the secrecy imposed on Mechanical. He admitted that trust and fear had led him to let a worker be taken for cleaning, then sought an alliance with Supply, prepared food, water and defenses, and left Jenkins responsible for operations below. He hoped to expose IT’s secrets and achieve a bloodless transfer of power, but carried a gun and bombs and accepted that weapons might be used. He regarded both his mechanics and the Supply volunteers as his responsibility and feared leading good people to slaughter. During the ascent he sent Shirly and Courtnee to help farmers with a clandestine power connection.
Knox threw a bomb into IT and died in the attack. Jenkins took over; Shirly later imagined how his leadership might have changed the fighting, and Juliette mourned him on her return. His memory remains part of her life below: watching work on the generator recalls him, and she remembers his account of how the temple on ninety-nine arose during his father’s childhood. Juliette specifically remembers the IT level as the place where he died.
He was a very large man with a thick beard.
He was Mechanical’s leader and led its armed expedition with Supply; his death left Jenkins to take over.
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