Crawford POV
In an undisclosed location on the opposite end of the earth, a man decided on what he should do next. The reason, one of this man's many secret identities and alias' is that of Max Crawford, actively serving as the top CIA agent that it's ever produced. Crawford was at the ripe old age of 59 but possessed the energy and vigor of a teenager. His methods are rigorous and thorough to the point that he's been nicknamed "the Microscope".
Standing 6'6'', weighing 250 lbs. of pure unadulterated muscle, Crawford was in tiptop shape. And in spite of his age, Crawford looked to be a man in his forties and was exceedingly handsome, with flat, black hair sprinkled with shades of gray spots and possessed deep set hazel eyes.
Born without a real name or knowledge of his real parents, Crawford was born in a covert international facility in Siberia operated by the lead governmental intelligence agencies the world over, as part of the PSP, the Perfect Soldier Project of the 1950s. The PSP was designed by a man everyone only ever referred to as 'the Director', to produce the perfect soldier, by taking newborn baby boys from families who would otherwise give them up. Max Crawford was not given a name at birth but a birth designation and his was Project-516. From day 1, along with very advanced schooling in every field of mathematics and science, Crawford and other children were trained in every form of martial arts and fighting style known to man by the world's top instructors, in every form of athletic competition, the history of every inch of land and gallon of water on the entire planet.
By the time they became toddlers, the children were incredibly physically fit, and begun being trained in extremely intense military training, which combined methods of every military force in the world. By ten years old, Project-516 or Max Crawford, knew how to shoot any form of weaponry and artillery from basic to advanced, he could man all types of aircraft, watercraft, automobile and even operate a tank. Crawford and his fellow project children were able to learn all these things at such an early age was because once the birth parents give over it over, each baby was injected with a special serum which allowed the children to use 100 percent of their brain capacity. They were also taught in the art of tactical strategizing by way of countless hours playing games of chess.
Not only did the people operating the PSP training the children to become perfect soldiers on the battlefield but also part of becoming the perfect soldier was being the perfect spy and detective. Crawford learned the importance of keeping secret identities and alias', knowing when and when not be seen or heard and always have a contingency plan for every contingency plan. One of the reasons PSP was located in Siberia was so the project children could learn to deal with any terrain, which they were taught quite extensively. By eight years of age, Crawford and his kin knew to speak, write, type, read, sign, and read the Braille of every form of communication; extinct or non-extinct; including how to handle and communicate with every creature of the animal kingdom. Crawford learned the pertinence of knowing what is happening in the world beyond without having actually being involved in the world itself. He needed to know how to lead and be lead. The project children were meant to remain in the facility, unless they died beforehand, until they were eighteen. Crawford also became a very superb at multitasking.
However, there was a great catch to all this, Crawford and the other project children had to do exactly to the T of what they were told. These boys were born without proper names because they were not supposed to have identities of their own or have personalities. The kids were not to be friends with each other but they were to be either allies or enemies. If an instructor felt the slightest insubordination, the child was severely beaten and punished, could have gone days without eating or sleeping. It was not uncommon for a child to be tortured to the point of their death. The PSP were only looking for the absolute greatest of the absolute greatest, anything short of that was severely attended to immediately.
There was one thing the wardens, guards, trainers and instructors of the PSP Siberia facility did not account for, with all of their no-nonsense acumen, they did not think that if you make children smart enough and you push them against the wall that eventually they will begin to retaliate. When he was twelve, Crawford and his closest friend, Project-517 or later known as Omar Abdullah, led the other boys in a revolt against the PSP staff and faculty. The children fought their way to freedom, but not without many casualties from both sides. Only Crawford and Abdullah, made it out alive, while the rest were either captured or killed. To this day, this event remains Crawford's most horrific and dreadful memory. Siberia's snow laden landscape was covered with a deep crimson sheet. There were bodies and body parts of children and men sprawled as far as the eye could see.
Because they how to operate a boat, Crawford and Abdullah found the working vessel they could find, an Arctic Mariner, as they were violently pursued by the remaining facility personnel. While dodging tremendous gunfire and in their panic stricken escape, the two boys jumped on the boat and started it up immediately, as they were trained. However, as the Mariner left port, the front most two rifle toting guards leaped on the boat and a vicious struggle ensued in mid-stream. Because of their advanced training, Crawford and Abdullah quickly overtook their adversaries and killed them on the spot.
After their fight was over, Crawford and Abdullah searched the bodies of the men they just murdered. In one, Project-517 found an Arabian driver's license, which they both spoke fluently; the man's name was Omar Abdullah. Project-516, also found a driver's license on the other body, but the address on this one was located in Portland, Oregon and the name was Maxwell Crawford. It was at that point, that these two boys decided that these two names, Omar Abdullah and Maxwell Crawford, would be their respective names from then on. Also at that point, Crawford made the first of his two vows that he's held to himself to keep until he dies. Max Crawford vowed that such a travesty that happened that day would never ever happen again and made it his mission in life to rid the world of the evil that wrought the vile massacre on that ill-fated day.
As was usual when he found interest a certain case, Crawford does his digging and his methods were a great deal more painstakingly meticulous than all of the world intelligence organizations combined. Through his forty-plus years as a one man, independent super-soldier-spy conglomerate, Max Crawford has gained access to every known database on the planet. Crawford is able to access every record of every human being who's ever lived on planet earth, not to mention, the thousands of different methods that he himself has invented.
From criminal backgrounds, dental records, birth and death certificates, hospital records bank statements, credit card bills, insurance claims and automobile accidents to school report cards, personal achievements like awards or trophies won, romantic courtships, relocation of person(s) in question, physical description(s), likes, dislikes, friends, family, genealogy and basically anything and everything that's possible to find out. Once his gatherer all his research, Crawford studies them intently, and gleaned what type of person they are. Through other of his many varying sources, Crawford learned the measure of the persons character; was he or she moral, kind, respectful, etc. or not?
After Crawford and Abdullah escaped from the PSP facility, the two were separated and at the age of fourteen, Crawford found his way to Portland, Oregon, where the original Maxwell Crawford was from. Crawford confronted the original Crawford's family, whom he learned was excommunicated from his family due to his involvement in PSP. Upon hearing of his calamity, the estranged family of the first Maxwell Crawford welcomed the new Maxwell Crawford into their home and officially became Maxwell Roland when Sr.'s wife, Samantha and new husband, Lionel Roland.
For three years, Maxwell, or just 'Max' as he was later dubbed, was part of a real family and lived the life of any average American young boy. Crawford also had three siblings Mark and Katie, whom were eight and six, respectively, when Crawford met them and both were biologically the children of Samantha and Max, Sr. While Crawford lived with them, the Roland's' gave birth to a handsome baby boy, Moses.
Nevertheless, tragedy struck Crawford's life once more. As Crawford was living the American dream with the Roland's', little did he know the people of the PSP that he broke out of in Siberia had been hunting for him. When he was seventeen, Crawford was enjoying a nice cold, mid-December Portland supper with his adopted family when there was a knock at the door. It was Lionel who answered the door, but Crawford saw from a distance, the two men who were standing at the threshold bore the unmistakable and shocking insignia of the PSP above the lapel of their matching dark blue sport jackets. Crawford remembered becoming extremely apprehensive when he saw those men. After the men prodded the Roland's' as to Crawford's whereabouts for several minutes, the men pushed Lionel and Samantha aside, forcing themselves in the house. Crawford took baby Moses led Mark and Katie upstairs at Lionel's command.
"We know you're here, Five Sixteen!" One of them shouted with a strong French drawl, "As does the Lord!"
"You've hell to pay!" The other yelled, also accented, but this was more Hispanic sounding. "The Director sent us to have you brought to him for what you did three years ago. It took that long to find you."
"We're not the people you're l-" Lionel started to yell at the men but was cut short when Crawford heard from upstairs a loud gunshot and Samantha's frightened shriek. Crawford knew that one of the men had shot Lionel in the face and he fell on the floor from the impact.
Crawford heard Samantha screaming hysterically at the men. The two men, Alfonzo Martinez, IV and Jon-Luc La Roux, were terrorizing the Roland's'. Martinez, a tall but portly Mexican man in his early sixties, hoisted Samantha up on his shoulders dragged her into the guest room and proceeded to beat and rape her.
Crawford took the children, who were wailing uncontrollably, and locked them in the windowless attic and ran downstairs. As soon as he came down the stairs, Crawford was met with a sharp boot to the nose, courtesy of La Roux, a tall and wiry but very skilled Frenchman. Crawford was bleeding profusely from his nostrils. Crawford's own abilities had been dormant during his stay with the Roland's' but that kick to the face, the sounds of the only mother he'd ever known screaming and the dead body of his father were like an automatic switch that was ignited into hyper drive.
Crawford's rage and reignited abilities drove him to fight La Rue tooth and nail all around the house. Crawford was so high on anger and adrenaline that he completely forgot about everything, including the children. Crawford beat La Rue within an inch of his life, but once his wits returned to him, the chaos had become stronger.
Apparently, Samantha was able to somehow fight through Martinez and get to the door, pants half-ripped off, and screamed, "Max! Takes your siblings and get the fuck out of here!" Crawford had never once heard Samantha use such language. "The other one's going after the children!" she continued.
Just then, however, a bazooka was fired from outside the house and it went up in flames. The smoke and all the commotion caused Crawford to black out. When Crawford woke up, it was morning but to his utter shock, he found Samantha lying dead. Crawford went to what remained of the upstairs and the sight caused him to hurl violently, it was the small, severed appendages of Katie and Mark, splayed across the second floor hallway. He found no trace of La Rue or Martinez, but the one glimmer of home Crawford found was the desperate cry of baby Moses.
Crawford took baby Moses and brought him under the care of Samantha's parents, Theodor and Raquel, who had blamed Crawford for the tragedy. They never understood why Samantha and Lionel had taken him in the first place and thus; forebode Crawford from ever trying to contact them or Moses ever again. Crawford wanted to distance himself from baby Moses and his grandparents for their own safety own safety.
It was then that Crawford made his second vow to which he held to the present day, he would do whatever he can in his power to make sure that no one, especially a child, should witness such a gruesome horror.
From that day forward, Crawford had dedicated his life to hunting down the people of the PSP. Every employee killed, every would-be child project taken to a proper family, every project plan thwarted, every potential facility destroyed. Before Crawford had joined any official agency.
However, that was in 1963 through 1968, this was 2010, and Crawford required concentration for whatever mission that was to come...
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