The RED Spy

Birthname: Raphaël Maigret.
Date of birth: 25 December 1927
Place of birth: France, close to the Spanish border.
Timeline:
1927: Born in Roussillon region of France and lived there. (0-2 years old)
1930: Moved to the Spain. (3-6 years old)
1934: Moved to Paris. (7 years old)
1935: Taken to Germany. Spent 8 years learning to be a Spy before escaping. (8 - 16 years old)
1943: Free-lanced around the world for ten years. During this time, met BLU Scout mum. (17 - 27 years old)
1953: Worked with the French Government. Worked there for 13 years, before he received an offer to work for the Administrator in exchange for information. (28 - 41 years old)


Personal history:


Born on the 25th of December, 1927, Raphael Margiet, known to his team mates only as the RED Spy, is the son of a French spy and the German head of Counter-intelligence. The story behind his birth revolves around a cat-and-mouse game between his parents, as his father strove to prove that his mother was not just your normal singer, but a cunning and deceptive agent. She on the other hand found herself matched in every way by this man who, while he could never prove that it was her, had thwarted a few of her attempts at soliciting information from his colleagues. Matching wits and skill, it was his mother who eventually won out in the end, finally convincing his father that she was really just who she said she was. It probably helped her as well that he had, in some strange twist of fate, fallen in love with her. A passionate one night stand ended on a sour note as she took advantage of him, obtaining vital information from his own room which she passed to her handler. Unfortunately he wasn't as good as she was at covering his tracks, and her identity was exposed. Infuriated, humiliated and hurt by her deceit, Spy's father launched a massive hunt for her, combing every inch of the city. It took all of her contacts (many who were found out and killed) and a lucky snow storm that helped her get away. It was too risky for her to get back into contact with the French government, so she left without a trace and decided to lay low in a quiet village at the Roussillon region. It was on the journey there that she discovered that she had taken more than documents that night.

For Raphael's sake, she decided to put her spying on a hold. For 3 years they lived in that remote village, she passing herself off as a widow who's husband had died in a horrible accident on the way there. There was always a bit of fear at the back of her mind that her estranged ex-lover was still looking out for her, and now she had not only herself, but her son to take care off as well. Her suspicions were proven true when one night an intruder came into her house to search for clues regarding her real identity. Thankfully the intruder was just an amateur; he was good, but not good enough. Without dirtying her hands, she alerted the rest of the village to his presence, and she allowed herself a smug smile as the man was carted away by the angry villagers. From then on though, she knew that they were no longer safe, so she quickly booked a ticket to Spain for the two of them. For another four years they lived as a normal mother and child. However, by Spy's seventh birthday, she knew she was not happy with her life. She wanted to go back to spying, to the adventure, the thrill, but she could not do so with a young boy in tow. There was still also the matter of Spy's father; she never fully let down her guard about him, and she was certain that he was still searching for her. For both their sakes, it would be better for them to live the rest of their lives in seclusion. However, as Spy's seventh birthday approached, the siren call grew louder and louder.

Eventually, on the day itself, she was contacted by an old partner of hers; the French government needed her services again. While he guaranteed both their safety, she knew better than to trust him. But she could no longer deny that she wanted to get back to work; the life of a mother was not meant for her. It was in 1934 that she and Spy moved to Paris again. For a whole year, everything seemed normal, or as normal as a spy's occupation could be. She even heard through the spy grapevine that the man she feared was busy with something in Russia, and had stopped looking for her. And while Raphael was confused by his mother's late nights at work, she did her best to never neglect him. It seemed that things would be ok.

The illusion shattered on Spy's eighth birthday, when his father showed up at the house.

Spy was never sure of what happened. All he knew was that when he got back from playing with his friends, there was a man in the kitchen wearing a dark overcoat. His mother had a very serious expression on her face, and the moment he stepped through the door she told him to go up to his room. Thirty minutes later, his mother came up and told him that he was going away with his father. She told him that she loved him very much, and that she was very sorry. She shared once last hug with him, and then she let him go.

That was the last time Spy ever saw his mother. With the mysterious man now identified as his long lost father, he was terrified, confused and very alone. His father did not breath a single word to him during the trip to Germany, not till they were back in his father's house, located in the middle of the Black Forest. It was there that his father finally addressed him, inviting his son to play a 'game' with him. He was free to go back to his mother...if he could do it without getting caught. Until then, he was to stay with his father. What sounded like a simply condition turned into 8 years of hard work and dedication. Spy was caught many times, over and over again. Each time he was caught, his father would make him go through his mistakes, highlighting where he had done wrong, how he could improve, and where he could try next. Spy was pushed very hard by his father to excel in the art of espionage; days were spent learning how to fight, learning how to disguise one's self, languages, geography, politics, everything a good spy needed to know in order to survive. Spy did it all, aware that his father was giving him the tools he needed to escape, while at the same time ensuring that his son inherited all his skills.

His life with his father was distant, but not abusive. His father never needed to hit him, he just needed to use words related to his failures to hurt his son deeply. Occasionally, his father would drop news of his mother every few months; very brief notes that Spy was hungry for. But likewise, questions were never answered; if he wanted answers, he was going to have to find them out instead. Spy was caught many times in his father's study, and each time his father punished him, never with force, but with words and psychological stress. Spy himself never knew much about his father; the man kept very much to himself, and only engaged with his son when it came to studies.

Eventually though, Spy had enough of his father's games. And when he was 16, he finally broke free from his father, fleeing Germany for the first time in eight years. Like his mother before him, he engaged in a delicate game of hide and seek with his father as, against his better judgement, he headed to Paris to seek out news about his mother. It was also during this time period that Spy killed his first man, another young agent seeking to impress his father by bringing him back single-handedly. When Spy saw that he had no other choice but to kill him, as setting him free would compromise his position, he murdered the man in cold blood and dumped the body in the Seine. After he watched the body sink, he was shocked to discover that his father had been watching him from across the river. Impassive, his father merely gave him a nod and walked off. It was not to say that that was the last agent that his father sent after him, but it was certainly the last time Spy saw his father. The German spies got better and better, as did Spy, and eventually after seven months in Paris, he finally got into touch with his mother's old partner, the same man who had invited her back to Paris. From him, he learned that his mother had accepted a job with the Resistance, but she had completely disappeared a year ago. The older man advised his friend's son to let go and accept that if she did not want to be found by him, than she either had a very hard job, or that she was dead, and that Spy needed to move on as Paris was becoming increasingly dangerous. As a final favour, he helped the young Spy escape Vichy France, as well as a list of contacts that might be interested in a man of his abilities.

Spy spent the next ten years working free-lance. His work took him all around the world through different continents. With nothing else left to him but his skills, he worked hard at each job, slowly building up a reputation as a reliable spy-for-hire. However, learning from his mother's fate, he knew that he had to be the best Spy, but not the most well-known. As such, he made sure to never take too many high-profile jobs, and it was always under false aliases. It was during one of his most successful jobs that he met the woman of his dreams in America. A whirlwind romance that left Spy breathless and his heart jumping out of his chest every time he saw her, he knew that she was the woman he really loved more than anything else in the world. He had never felt anything akin to this before, and he could not even understand, but he had really fallen head over heels in love with her. However, when the job ended he realised that although he loved her, he could not leave his job. Staying with her while he continued his chosen occupation was too dangerous for her, and he did not feel ready to leave the world he had grown up in. In a way, he was afraid of leaving, as spying was the only thing he knew how to do, the one thing that motivated him and kept him going throughout all those years. Without it, he was unsure of what he was to do with his life. He wanted to spend it with her, but he could not just leave behind all everything he had known. In a fit of cowardice that he has come to regret to this day, he broke up with her and returned back to Europe.

Another five years of free-lancing, and to his surprise he was contacted again by his mother's old partner, who was now the head of Intelligence in France. The older man offered Spy a job with the government that not only paid well, but, according to the man, may shed light on what had happened to his mother. Spy jumped at the chance to find closure, and started working under him. Again, following his MO to be the best, but not the most known, he always made sure that in hard cases the most of the credit went to his partners. He carved out a niche for himself as a great support player, to his own amusement as Spy himself preferred to work alone.

True to the Head's word, he found a few clues that seemed to hint at his mother's final fate. His mother had really covered her trail well, and it took Spy a lot of work to slowly uncover the truth. He discovered that his mother had been in contact with a company from America to discuss weapons for the Resistance, and that was where the trail ended. He quickly came to the conclusion that if he wanted to know more, he would need to travel to this company, TFi, and learn it himself. As luck would have it, an opportunity came when the French government, wanting to learn more, issues a call for a spy to infiltrate the company and spy on it. Originally a low-level job that was meant just for amateur spies, Spy pulled enough strings to ensure he got the job under a fake alias, and he soon found himself hired by the Administrator. A few short conversations with the shrewd woman though was enough to leave an impression on Spy, and he offered to act as a double agent for her in exchange for information on TFi from WW2. In return, he would feed harmless information back to the French government and never reveal that TFi had been supplying weaponry to both sides of the war during WW2. He was also to act as her eyes and ears among the REDs; the moment anything came up, he was to let her know. It was he who exposed his fellow RED Demoman's friendship with the BLU Soldier, and while he had been amused with the Director, he had played along enough to seal his part as yet another pawn in the Administrator's game. While he will never deny that he isn't a piece, he's firmly assured that he is at least a knight on the chess board.

Fate dealt him another blow though, when he was transferred to a new base, Sawmill, under orders to monitor a RED Sniper who had been having problems with other REDs. For among the BLUs he spotted a young man who looked too much like a woman he had once known in his youth. In that one moment, he knew that he was being tested by the Admininistrator, and that perhaps, just maybe, he wasn't as on top of things as he'd like to believe.


Misc. info:

a) Spy and smoking:
Spy is a smoker, however he is not a heavy one. Cigarette smoke smells can set in and give his position away, so if he is out there going solo without his team mates wreaking havoc he will not smoke on the job. He does get irritated if he hasn't had a smoke at least once a day, but it's not too bad an addiction. Spy does not like the idea of something having power over him, and nicotine addiction is one of them.

b) Hobbies:
Spy is a quintessential Frenchman: he likes his suits, he likes his wine, and he likes his outdoor cafes near the Seine. His workaholic nature prevents him from having much free time, but he does appreciate music. He has a special fondness for pre-WW2 music, and his favourite singer is Edith Piaf. This stems from his mother, who used to go undercover as a singer who sang in that particular style. Spy has a collection of records in his room that he will occasionally dust off and listen to. While he unfortunately did not inherit his mother's talent at singing, he does play a little saxophone as well. Card games are alright with him, and he does enjoy taking quiet strolls down the city or in the country.

However, he dedicates most of his free time to work matters, choosing instead to compile information about notable individuals and his team mates, so it is very rare indeed for them to catch him relaxing, if they can even find him at all.

c) Spy and his parents:
He has a very complicated relationship with his parents. There is, of course, a sense of hurt, distrust and anger towards his father, but he also feels resentful to his mother; if she had not gone back to Paris for the job, they might never have been separated. He knows his mother had chosen her profession over their relationship, that she could not resist it, and to this day he does feel slightly hurt about it. His feelings for his father are mainly negative, but there is no one else that Spy respects more than him. Spy recognizes that his mother's betrayal had really burned his father badly, and perhaps that had bled into his father's treatment of him. Spy inherited his father's professionalism and seriousness in regard to work, but he inherited his mother's kindness and love. However, he knows that such affections never end well in the Spy world, and thus he has learned to bury a lot of his feelings underneath his veneer of professionalism.

To be continued.