Registry of the Non-Evolved Database
File #14 Nov 2008 23:10
Name |
Rami Lasul Hollingwood |
Aliases |
|
Status |
Unregistered Non-Evolved |
|
|
Gender |
Male |
Race/Eth. |
Arabic |
Birthdate |
November 11, 1973 |
Age |
36 |
Height |
6' |
Build |
Athletic |
Eyes |
Brown |
Hair |
Dark |
Profile |
Rami was killed during a raid on the Company's Primatech facility.
|
|
portrayed by
Alexander Siddig |
Rami Hollingwood knows very little of his Arabic heritage. In fact, he's not sure which country his roots go back to. That's because both he and his sister were put up for adoption when he was four and Nalani was two. The speculation was that their biological parents were refugees or illegal immigrants who could not care for their children or wished to break them out of a cycle of poverty and thus gave them up. That is certainly a happier story than parents simply not wanting to be burdened with them. He and his sister grew up in London with their adoptive parents, Alana and Martin Hollingwood. Martin worked as a police officer while Alana ran a daycare out of her home. The couple were preparing to have their own children when Martin heard about the brother and sister's plight through another officer whose sister worked at the orphanage they were left at. At first they were going to take just Nalani, but after witnessing the closeness between brother and sister, they decided to take Rami in too.
Rami grew up in a neighborhood full of immigrants, so he never felt too out of place. There was of course confusion when his parents showed up for school meetings or to pick him up from sports. Unlike some children of adoptive parents, the Hollingwood couple never pretended that their children were biological.
His childhood was confusing and lower middle class. Rami and Nalani grew closer as they aged, each other the only connection with their true origins. When Rami was fifteen, he made an attempt to locate their biological parents, but he had even less luck than the social workers who attempted to find them when the children were first abandoned.
As he aged, Rami began to grow bitter both at his biological parents and his British parents too. They made little effort to teach their children about their Arabic history. He didn't even know what a Muslim was until he met a boy named Ismet. The two boys weren't friends for long, but it was long enough to fill in gaps in his knowledge and to start him studying Arabic.
When Nalani was sixteen, she was discovered and offered a modelling contract that involved moving to New York. It took a great deal of work, but Rami managed to convince his parents that it was a huge opportunity for his sister, that he would go with her to make sure she was taken care of and he would get an education while there. He sent out applications and was accepted to pre-law at Cornell.
So brother and sister moved to New York. He was used to cities, but this was something different altogether. He began firearms training to protect his sister and it turned out he had a knack for it. Through a series of circumstances and the convenient meeting of the right people, he ended up trained as a bodyguard and often protected Nalani and her model friends between classes.
It was during this employment that Rami came to the attention of some men in suits. At first he thought it was the colour of his skin that got their attention - and he was partially right. The men were members of the CIA and his ability to handle a firearm, bodyguard training and clear knack for picking out signs of trouble had put him on their radar.
Rami was whisked away and given an extensive background check and subjected to psychological screening. It turned out he was picked up as part of an initiative to recruit men and women of Arab descent (or who could pass as Arab) to work in counterterrorism. He was sent to The Farm for intensive training. They also fast-tracked his American citizenship.
After hie completed training, he was sent off on several clandestine missions, some at home and some abroad. The more he worked, the more respect he gained and trust as well. He turned out to be an exceptional shot, to the point where he did a year at The Farm training rookies in firearm use. While there he also taught classes in creating and maintaining a contact and how to keep a cover.
After the events of September 11th, Rami's role became that much more important. In the years directly following the event, he worked almost nonstop at diffusing terrorism cells within the country. In this role, he began to work closer and closer with the newly dubbed Homeland Security.
There came a point when Rami's face was too well-known in terrorism circles to continue going undercover. It pained him and made him extremely restless, but he had to retire from field work for his own safety.
It was during the months of desk jockeying following his field retirement that he was approached by a sharp-eyed Company agent who had contacts in the CIA and had heard of him. After years of being put on missions for the colour of his skin, he was relieved to be offered a position based on his skills rather than his appearance. His experience with covert tactics, creating contacts, firearm skills and general reputation for being able to get the job done were seen as an asset to the Company.
Rami has spent five years now working on the tagging and categorization of Evolved. In the post-bomb world, his experience with urban warfare and guerilla tactics have proven invaluable.
Appendices
Rami Hollingwood is in many ways a man who doesn't really know who he is. The first two decades of his life were shaped by his English parents with only the faintest knowledge of his Arab heritage. After that he only had a brief period on his own (which was defined by protecting his sister) and then the CIA molded him into the man they wanted him to be. In the years between he spent months and months in assumed identities all over the world and within the United States. He's never had any 'down time' with which to reflect on himself. He has become defined by his job, and that isn't something that has been changed by his time with the Company.
Rami is a no-nonsense, detail oriented perfectionist. He craves order and stability and seeks to bring it about with the muzzle of his gun. He is fiercely intelligent, analytical and a very quick thinker. He reads people like books and is especially acute at figuring out peoples' wants and motivations. While in another life this might have been used in counselling or artistic endeavors, he's spent years learning how to use it to manipulate people.
Rami expects perfection of the people he works with as he was taught any sloppiness leads to death. The Evolved are a chaotic influence that need to be brought under control and he will continue to try and fulfill that mission as long as his assignment lasts. The best way to describe him is a very intelligent bulldozer. He ploughs forward, but with carefully considered movements.
The only person Rami has ever made a real connection with is his sister. In many ways he does what he does to protect her. She knows very little about her brother's secret life. Even though they don't see each other much, they remain close.
Skills:
Rami is a master marksman and skilled at many different types of combat weapons, from the newest and finest in military equipment down to the types of weapons used in the mountains of Afghanistan. He also has experience as a firearms instructor and is a firm, but effective teacher.
As part of his CIA training and through several years in the field, Rami has become highly trained in hand to hand combat. He knows how to use improvised weapons, disarm and incapacitate. He has very fast reflexes that have been honed through years int the field.
Rami spent several years in many short and long term covert ops missions. More often than not he was posing as a terrorist or someone who wished to join a terrorist cell. He is a chameleon and uses his ability to read people to help him in this endeavor.
Rami is a smooth talker, a verbal magician, able to convince, mislead, misdirect, charm or provoke as the situation warrants.
Rami is a highly skilled tactician in all sorts of environments. Urban landscapes are his strongest point. He is skilled at organizing precision strikes with a group of people or with just himself.
Rami speaks English, Arabic (several dialects), Hindi, French, German and Spanish.
Again, as part of his CIA training, Rami is especially effective at tailing people. He knows how to do it while arousing the least amount of suspicion.
Rami is a fully trained interrogator and has a knack for getting information out of a subject in a non-confrontational way.
Although not his strong point, Rami is skilled in the use of field equipment, electronic devices and knows how to cover his tracks after accessing something.
Rami's hobby is studying strange, unseen and possibly extinct creatures.
Timeline:
November 2008
Nov 16: Spies Like Us, Prospective Pet Parent
Nov 18: Of Footlongs and Terrorists Rami and his partner Guy Mahoney have lunch.
Nov 23: The Plate Spinners Felix and Rami have been acquaintances for years. They meet for, uh, lunch.
Nov 24: Every Confidence No lunch this time. Just tea in the Company breakroom with Mohinder.
Nov 27: The Cat's Cradle Rami is undercover and meets Tamara.
Dec 5th: Undercurrents Rami runs into Tamara again, but perhaps more significantly, a cop with dogs who find his concealed weapon. Things get a bit…tense.
Dec 6th: Knock Knock The badass multiracial mafia comes for Magnes and then later, in Lollerskates he's interviewed and gives up the source of his power.
Dec 16th: Like Brother, Like Sister Rami catches up with his sister Nalani. They banter over dinner.
Dec 18th: Shifting Winds Rami comes to bring coffee to his sister while she's on a shoot. There he runs into the familiar and enigmatic Tamara once again, and Magnes calls him Wolverine. Because, you know, he's short, foul mouthed and Canadian.
Dec 24th: Different Kind of Christmas Dinner Rami, Nalani and Mohinder eat a Christmas Eve dinner of curry.
Dec 29th: Lunchtime Interruptions Rami has another run-in with the enigmatic Tamara and meets a flying woman named Maria
Jan 1st: Trust the Illusion and trust that Tamara really is a precog and not simply crazy.
Memorable Quotes:
"It's a hazard of the job. You see very few rings on the fingers of senior agents, and even fewer that remain longer than a handful of years. It's understandable. When it is your job to be guarded, to put up barriers. Well. It doesn't precisely say 'emotionally present.'"
"Those who wish to live their lives are of course, not the problem. But as always, the vocal minority are the ones most heard. And the ones that the rest of the population look to for representations of the Evolved. So we have a problem there. The average person only hears reports of this mayhem. This death of children. Bombings. Murders. The ones who do this not only damage society, but their own reputations as well. They must be brought under control, as much for their own sakes and ours, as for the sake of their fellow Evolved."
Trivia and Notes:
The new recruits, either in the CIA or the Company, tend to imagine they're the first ones to ever think of calling him 'Bollywood.' He has, over the years, made it a point to exact creative revenge on anyone who does, to the point where there's years worth of greenhorns with their own so-called 'Bollywood Story.' These revenge tactics are more inconveniencing pranks than anything. But there is a rumour that he once failed the firearms certification for a certain uppity junior CIA agent who wouldn't stop making off-colour remarks.
Gallery: