Name: Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Oliver Hawkins, Ollie to his few close friends.
Age: 41
Gender: Male
Allegiance: Ostensibly, to the North American Federation's Bureau of National Security, or BNS; in fact, Hawkins is a double agent for the United People's Front. In the final analysis, his only binding allegiance is to his own conscience.
Appearance: A relatively small man, trimly built, Hawkins doesn't stick out in a crowd. Like many white Americans of his generation, he is somewhat ethnically ambiguous: his skin is sallow from too little time spent in direct sunlight, and his hair is very dark brown, worn in a professional and slightly archaic side-part. His somber, pointed face is regular and symmetrical, but the features are too idiosyncratic to be notably handsome: deep-set dark grey eyes matched with sharp cheekbones, a nose healed crooked from a bad break, a weak jaw matched with a stubborn chin. When not undercover, Hawkins dresses professionally: plain grey and blue suits, often with a body armor vest worn under the jacket like a waistcoat. He treasures two or three genuine silk ties, which he wears regularly, and prefers black leather combat boots to dress shoes - even when he wears a suit. He carries his service weapon in a leather belt holster, with his backup in an ankle rig. He has no visible augmentations.
Physique: 180 centimeters (5'9'') in height, 77 kilograms (169 lbs) in weight: on the whole, Hawkins is noticeably smaller than average for a man of his generation and social class. He is trimly built, neither skinny nor obviously muscular, but clearly carrying very little fat; a closer look reveals a gymnast's wiry but powerful musculature beneath the skin. But he is distinctively fast; there is no wasted movement or effort when Hawkins acts, and this can cause even his ordinary movements to seem subtly tigerish.
Augmentations: SSA Hawkins has the standard - and proprietary - augmentation suite for a BNS agent. This includes:
- BNS Database Uplink: Interfaces with other augmentations to provide the agent with real-time access to all BNS records, allowing agents in the field to identify individuals, scan medical and criminal records, access live surveillance footage, run ballistics projections, and much more. The uplink is operated by a direct neural interface and primarily displays information on the agent's retinal augment. It also ordinarily tracks the agent's movements and database usage; SSA Hawkins has had his uplink illegally modified by Anastasia Mane to avoid this, which has caused unpredictable but sporadic negative consequences for his other augments.
- BNS Retinal/Electro-optical System: Provides for vision in the infrared and ultraviolet spectra, and for live digital image intensification for low-light vision. Also displays most data retrieved from the agent's BNS uplink, and interfaces with the agent's service weapon to assist in targeting. Among other things, allows the agent to visually assess an individual's body temperature and heart rate, assisting in interrogation.
- BNS Communications Suite: Serves two purposes. First, provides neurally-controlled, triple-encrypted tightbeam transmissions of the agent's spoken or subvocal words via a subdermal antenna implanted in the left index finger; these transmissions allow agents in the field to communicate with each other and with headquarters. Second, allows the agent to remote-override and utilize any nearby digital speakers or amplification systems, providing for an ad hoc public-address capability.
- BNS Stimulus Management System: Bionetic augmentation to the agent's endocrine system, providing for unconsciously-triggered artificial increases in the production of epinephrine and various endorphins, allowing for improved reflexes, decreased pain response, and other advantages. The system is beyond the agent's conscious control in order to prevent its recreational use.
- BNS Infomatic Interface System: Interfaces with the agent's uplink to allow direct interface with computers through a USB system contained in a subdermal sheath in the agent's right index finger. Uses proprietary BNS software to automatically override and control civilian operating systems, ensuring that the system can be used by agents without any specialized training in hacking.
Equipment: SSA Hawkins has access to the full armory and inventory of the Bureau of National Security. In addition to standard forensic and cyberenforcement equipment, he typically uses the following items:
- R.M.I. P85-G Pistol: The standard-issue sidearm of every BNS agent: a .50-caliber, inertia-compensated, electronically-fired, palmprint-coded handgun. It uses 18-round caseless magazines, and can fire a variety of nonlethal, antimaterial, or antipersonnel ammunition. The P85-G (for "government") is designed to synch directly to the agent's BNS retinal system for targeting.
- R.M.I. "Patriot Shield" Body Armor: The standard-issue body armor of every BNS agent: a sturdy vest, slim enough to be worn beneath a jacket but too bulky to go beneath a shirt, that provides good resistance against high-caliber firearms and military-grade energy weapons. Based on the use of magnetorheological fluid, ultrahard ceramics, and pressurized-hydrogen ablative protection. Matt-black in appearance, except for the letters "BNS" on the front.
Skills: SSA Hawkins is a fully qualified BNS special agent with an outstanding service record. He has been noted as particularly effective in the following fields:
- Criminal Investigation: SSA Hawkins is certified in basic crime-scene forensics and has demonstrated a high level of natural vigilance; coworkers describe him as meticulous and detail-oriented. Critically, he is highly skilled at the process of logical induction and inference that is required to built a solid criminal case, and he possesses the capacity to make imaginative leaps that often evade other investigators. He has built his career primarily on cracking cases that others cannot.
- Psychological Insight: SSA Hawkins has an advanced degree in criminal psychology. He has a remarkable capacity for empathy across vast experiential gaps, which allows him to make strikingly accurate predictions about individuals' behavior. He is also adept at shaping his own affect - words, accent, body language, etc. - to fit into a subject's psychological framework in such a way as to cause a particular outcome. In layman's terms, he is exceptionally skilled at deceit and manipulation, and is therefore - among other things - a very accomplished interrogator and undercover operator.
- Hand-to-Hand Control Techniques: SSA Hawkins has consistently placed near the top of every hand-to-hand training course he has undergone. While not especially strong, he is exceptionally fast and ruthless, and fights by a simple but very effective rule: he gains the initiative immediately, and does not relinquish it for a moment until the subject is in handcuffs.
- Tactical Operations: SSA Hawkins spent several years as a member of a BNS tactical team before being transferred, and he remains substantially more qualified for tactical operations than the average special agent: his skills at CQB and hostage-rescue, while somewhat rusty, remain adequate to pass regular Bureau recertification, and his preternaturally swift decisiveness under pressure is an ideal trait in a tactical agent.
Personality: Personality assessments consistently indicate that SSA Hawkins is an extremely highly intelligent, highly motivated, and highly functional man. He is known to have had some difficulty in working with other agents, who report that Hawkins is impatient with coworkers who fail to meet his own demanding standards and that he is allergic to the idea of being micromanaged. He drinks moderately-to-heavily and smokes heavily. He is known to have had relatively few serious romantic entanglements, has no living family, and has few close friends. Due to his upbringing as a ward of the Federation, he is thought to lack any strong sense of connection to particular places or communities. His identity, the Bureau believes, is rooted primarily in his work: he sees himself as a protector of society, and he defines himself largely by his skill at what he does.
They're wrong about that. Mostly, anyway. I do take pride in being good at what I do. But I'm not rootless. I remember my parents. I remember what they died for. I remember what the Feds did to me afterwards, to make me who they wanted me to be. And maybe for a while that's who I was - but not anymore. I still have a conscience, hidden where no one else can find it; I still know right from wrong. My integrity, however secret, is the only reason I deserve to be alive. It's all that I can offer anyone. And so that's why I do what I do, as terrifying as every moment of it is. I don't think I'm changing the world. But the Bureau is right about one thing: I am a protector of society. I'm just protecting society from them.
Backstory:
- 2/15/2049: Born to Arturo and Claire Hawkins, professors of economics and political science at New York University. Raised in a secure middle-class household strongly influenced by subversive ideas common on the university campus, and of which the Hawkinses were prominent advocates. Excelled in school; doted on by parents as an only child. Thought to have been highly precocious.
I remember our house: clean and bright and beautiful, full of books and art. I remember my parents reading to me, talking to me about ideas, demanding that I think for myself, loving me for the mistakes I made and what I learned from them. The doctors thought they made me forget, but I didn't. I was too young to understand the courage of it all then, but I understand it now. I wish I could see my mom and dad, one last time, just to tell them how proud I am of what they did. Of how they died.
- 12/26/2058: Became a ward of the Federation after parents were arrested and subsequently executed for their subversive activities. Assigned to reeducation at Cramer Institute, Ithaca NY. Initially highly resistant to accepting parents' culpability, but ultimately proved susceptible to pharmacological therapy. Reintegrated into secondary public education at the elite Forsythe Academy, at taxpayer expense, as an investment in a promising candidate for future public service.
I screamed when they took me away. And then I shut down, in that godawful place, in that paper gown, where they told me that I was sick and that my parents had made me sick. I watched and I listened and I learned what they wanted to hear, so when they strapped me down and put the needle in my arm, I would know what to tell them. They believed me, because the drugs kept me from lying, and yet I said the words - because I had made myself believe that they were true, and deep inside I remembered the sound of my father's laugh, and nothing more.
- 5/10/2067: Received public-service scholarship to attend University of Michigan in exchange for guaranteed service, in some capacity, in the Federation Department of National Security. Majored in criminology, with specialization in the "social technology" (hierarchies, ideologies, techniques of concealment, etc.) of organized crime and subversive organizations. Object of one investigation into his association with suspected campus radicals, but cleared of wrongdoing.
I was always smart, and the teachers were always stupid, because they were only allowed to think in certain ways and to say certain things. I forgot, I think, a lot of what my parents had taught me. I forgot it because it was easier that way. But I never lost the way they taught me to think, and that was why the teachers always seemed so stupid. It changed a little at university; not much. I found a few other students who reminded me of my parents, but I noticed that they were being watched, and so I left them alone. I had survived this long, I thought: survived the institute, and the drugs. I wasn't going to throw it all away now.
- 3/5/2072: Graduated from BNS Qualification Course, Quantico VA, with top scores from all instructors. Assigned to Northeast Sector 84 Branch Office, narcotics division. Proved instrumental in three-year Operation Hayride, which led to the arrest of hundreds of members of the Portsmouth Cartel; showed a particular aptitude for interrogation. Requested transfer to tactical training.
I joined the Bureau because it was the only way to go to college, and because I had been helpless my whole life, ever since they took me screaming from my mother's arms, and dragged her away to die. I liked the idea of having power, that total impunity that the BNS has to destroy lives like mine had been destroyed. I thought that power would make me safe. And then I found that I was good at it: putting the pieces together, finding my way into the minds of the bad guys, thinking through the problem until the solution became apparent with the still clarity of pure water. I liked the hard work, physical and mental. And for a while, I forgot about the rest of it.
- 11/12/2076: Graduated Tactical Operations Course and assigned to North-Central Sector 19 Strategic Response Unit. Participated in 14 major raids, hostage rescues, and VIP protection operations. Decorated for heroism in action. Regarded as team's de facto second-in-command. Seriously wounded in raid on Liberty Union safehouse and requested educational leave while convalescing.
I went to Tactical because my SSA in Boston told me that I had a bright future waiting in the Bureau, and that Tactical would look good on my resume. I was reinventing myself, learning to see the Bureau as my life, and so that was enough for me at that moment. It ended up being rewarding in some ways: learning to control the rush of adrenaline, to make decisions in microseconds, to trust my instincts absolutely. But in other ways it was boring: there was no thrill of discovery, no sense of intellectual achievement. And then, of course, I got shot.
- 5/12/2081: Received master's degree in criminal psychology from Johns Hopkins University, with specialization in techniques of deception and detection. Briefly investigated by Bureau Internal Affairs for contacts with subversive groups; SA Hawkins voluntarily identified these contacts as necessary for his research, which caused the investigation to be suspended indefinitely.
When I got shot, I thought I saw my mother. I thought I was going to be with her again, and I was happy. And in that moment, when I let go of everything, I remembered my parents. I remembered what they'd taught me, when I was too young to understand what it meant. So I asked for educational leave, and got it, and studied criminal psychology, which was the only way I could learn about what my parents had believed. I read everything I could lay my hands on, under the guise of knowing my enemy; everything from Jefferson to Marx to Chomsky, and a lot of it I thought was silly, but some of it I knew was true. And when I went back to the Bureau, I was looking for the chance to betray it.
- 5/30/2081: Assigned to Northeast Sector 19 Branch Office, counterintelligence division. Spent most of three years undercover infiltrating Silver League organization in Cleveland Industrial District. Ultimately resulted in the arrest of 59 Silver League members, including many who had worked their way into influential positions in local business, politics, and law enforcement. Slated for promotion, but passed over after he named several prominent R.M.I. executives of membership in the Silver League as well; no charges were ever brought against the gentlemen named.
I went to CI wanting to find a way to contact the underground, and instead they sent me undercover with the fucking fascists. But it was an education, if nothing else. I learned how thoroughly the League had infiltrated us: the Bureau, the corps, the military, everybody. I learned to get really good at lying, at letting myself believe the League's monstrosities, at holding on only to the memory of what was really true, so that I could come back to it like a stranger when it was safe. And I as I learned how much I truly hated the League, I also learned how little distinguished them from the people I'd served for more than a decade. That was why my work only put the little fish away; the big guys never saw the inside of a courtroom. And for me - seeing what these people had done, what they still intended to do - that was the last straw.
- 10/22/2085: Reassigned to Northeast Sector 19 Priority Cases Unit, a special taskforce with overriding jurisdiction assigned to crack down on increased subversive activity in the sector. Was instrumental, both as an undercover agent and then as an operational coordinator, in running Operation Clean Slate, which seized several million dollars' worth of military hardware from UPF subversives, but unfortunately resulted in no arrests.
I'd named the wrong people, so they couldn't promote me, so they sent me to Priority Cases - which was better than a promotion. I went undercover again, this time with the UPF. For four months, I tried to get the courage to reveal myself, to switch sides - and couldn't. I was paralyzed at the thought of throwing my whole life away - corrupt as it was, wasted as it was. I felt like if I opened my mouth, I'd go back to the institute, back to my childhood, and they'd never let me out until I had lost everything that kept me sane. So in the end I let myself screw up instead, and when they caught me I told them everything, because I had no choice. I cried, for the first time in twenty years. Caroline Hestia gave me a second chance, that day: the chance I'd spent my whole life yearning after. I've been trying to repay that gift ever since.
- 7/18/2088: Promoted to supervisory special agent and placed as second-in-command of Northeast Sector 19 Priority Cases Unit. Has since been responsible for several significant arrests of Silver League leaders, seizure of more than ten million dollars worth of black-market drugs and currency, and identification of key local UPF leaders. Regarded as a promising agent beginning his climb up the chain of command to positions of higher authority.
The trick is to give the Bureau just enough that they don't suspect anything, but not so much that it really hurts the Front. So we give them a bunch of guns, because Anastasia can always make more. I plant some breadcrumbs that turns an investigation toward the Silver League instead of Liberty Union. Clues that would point to the Front end up pointing to organized crime instead, and no one complains because we still get to make a few dozen arrests. I make contact by dead drop and take my orders directly from Hestia, and the Front knows every move the Bureau makes before we make it. And so far no one has caught me, because the guy whose job it would be to catch me - is me. It can't last forever; I know that. But it's good work. And when I see my parents again, at least I know that they'll be proud.