Profile

Background

Decisions. Each decision made in a crossroads of Michael’s life led to a different direction. Michael’s job in Naval Intelligence stationed in Iraq was literally life or death decisions. His decision to bring his family, wife Elizabeth and daughter Hayley, with him to the base in the Middle East rather than keep them stateside. Another decision of Michael’s was to work closely with a snitch, Kasim Tariq, that was a friendly and feeding information to him about Al-Qaeda. Both of those decisions led him down an unexpected journey, or unexpected if you weren’t Percy, head of a Black Ops Government sanctioned program called Division. Kasim Tariq was an operative, sent to ‘mold’ Michael into what Division needed and it worked perfectly. Michael watched as his family died in a planted car bomb, his soul dying with them, along with his will to live. Until Percy visited him in the hospital and pushed the right buttons to get him to turn everything dead inside toward focusing on revenge. Duty to country and revenge for his family all in one neat package and Michael took that carrot.

He became the perfect soldier, never deviating from his focus, as he became Percy’s Second in Command. That was until Nikita entered Operations, another decision that would change Michael’s life in unexpected ways. He has her handler, taught her most of what she knew until Nikita became a rogue agent. Because he was the best for the job, Percy sent him to capture her by any means necessary. Only this time Percy’s decision pushed Michael into a different path. He was no longer the automaton that his family’s death had made him. He listened to Nikita and doubts began to make small fissures in his loyalty to Division and Percy; but it wasn’t until he learned the truth about Kasim that Michael broke free of Division and joined Nikita in her quest to bring it down.

Personality
For Michael family is everything. It began as Esprit De Corps in the Navy, then with his wife and daughter, that bond transferred to Division and the operatives, next was his son Max and finally the deep bond with Nikita, Birkhoff and Alex as they take down Percy.

Focus. Concentration. It was ingrained in Michael at the Naval Academy and at the Navy and Marine Corps Intelligence Training Center. That ability was transferred to the goal of revenge for Elizabeth and Hayley’s deaths. It was honed to razor sharpness when he learned the truth about Percy. That drive had a momentary lapse when later, Michael learned that he had a son named Max. The child was the result of doing deep undercover work years earlier and once known, it prompted him to re-think his life. That knowledge about Max conflicted with his need and obligation to bring down Percy for Elizabeth and Hayley. In the end, he knew that the only way to keep Max safe was to never let it be known that he had a son.

The motto of the Navy is non sibi sed patriae. Not self but country. For Michael, it’s not self but family. His deceased family, his son Max, Nikita, Birkhoff and Alex and the operatives that will be left hanging after they take Division down. They’re all his family and they all come first.