Henry Osborne Dalton

**Henry Osborne "Smoke" Dalton** is an agent on the ROSE-4 specialized task force. Upon being assigned to the unit during its inception, Dalton was tentatively reassigned to a New York City bomb squad due to travel limitations put forth by his criminal record. After two years he would be reassigned to ROSE-4 as the explosives specialist.

## Background

### Early Life

Dalton was born March 15, 1999 to a middle-class family in Souris, North Dakota. It was a farming town of about 50 people, 47 of whom were farmers; the other three were a schoolteacher, general store owner, and a postal worker. Dalton had a fairly normal childhood for the area, meaning he helped out on the farm whenever he could, and whenever he couldn’t he was sitting in the schoolhouse or sleeping. His parents did their best to teach him important lessons, such as “Your word is your reputation; value it, and never break it,” and “If you have no honor, no integrity; if you forget what good you fight for, you abandon hope of victory.” He was particularly fond of the time he got to spend with his schoolteacher. She would go across the northern border into Canada every so often and grab a few books for him, and he especially loved the subject of science. The more he studied, the more expertise he gained, and the more helpful he was around the family farm. When Dalton reached age 15, he opened a small business marketing a homemade mix of fertilizer that was particularly useful, made locally, and far cheaper than any commercial brand.

### College Career

Dalton had two options for a life beyond grade school: pick up some skill with a tractor, or prove himself intelligent enough to garner a full ride into North Dakota State. He chose the second option, desiring only to take a break from his hometown for a while. He had a good life in college, and advanced through degrees in chemistry and several types of engineering in roughly three and a half years. This was due to a combination of two factors. The first was that the farm boy, as he was known, had an indisputable knack for fixing and creating nearly everything he set his mind to. The second was that Henry Osborne Dalton proved to Homeland Security and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit just how in tune with his sense of entropy he could be when he was, shall we say, “properly motivated.” The Souris school teacher had a child, a wonderful daughter named May MacCoffee. She was a year younger than Henry, but also managed to make her way to North Dakota State in the class just below his. They were supportive of one another; first friends, then close friends, then best friends, and everyone knew them as such. Whenever May had a fever, Henry showed up at her door with hot tea, a cool ice pack, and a cozy book to read, and she did exactly the same for him whenever necessary. May had found herself a romantic partner in college as well, and Henry knew enough about him to approve. That changed when May was hospitalized after a party at her partner’s dorm because of a laced substance she had been coerced into taking there. Henry was grief-stricken and swore he wouldn’t leave her bedside, and did so for two weeks’ time. His attendance dropped, but he didn’t budge. He wasn’t present for the required labs, but he could predict their outcomes anyway, and he had made a promise he intended to keep. It was about March 14, 2019, when May’s respiratory system ceased function altogether. She suffocated in the waking hours of the morning, with Henry holding her hand.

### Homicide Incident and ROSE-4

Henry returned to college and made up for lost time and classes, but he no longer cared about his grades. He no longer felt the guidance of his parents in the back of his mind telling him to forgive and absolve, and to take the high and righteous road. Henry Osborne Dalton got to work. Dalton followed May’s former partner for some time until graduation, slowly plotting and engaging in subtle methods of torture. He managed to manipulate the bastard into a vow of sobriety until he graduated, and sold him special cocktails instead which he swore would increase not only the man’s ability to study, but also his general performance in most areas of life. Over the course of the next four weeks, May’s poisoner was himself slowly changed from the inside out via a chemical agent concocted by Dalton specifically for this occasion. The man would suffer, he would be made to apologize for May’s death; he would be made to beg. The vow of sobriety expired immediately before a long-anticipated graduation party, but Dalton convinced his victim to wait on consuming anything inebriating until he could be present for it, as evidence of their bond and of his forgiveness for May’s death. As partygoers gathered around them both at 8:32 pm in the frat house not far from campus, the man threw back a celebratory final cocktail, then a single shot of terrible vodka, and smiled. Then he broke.

As the new cocktail entered the man’s body, it came into contact with chemicals already present in his esophagus and stomach and created a noxious black gas that, due to proximity, filled his lungs and respiratory system. This gas began to heat up to an incredible degree, and upon coming into contact with the alcohol, it ignited within the victim’s body. He spontaneously combusted from the inside out, coughing up black smoke the whole time. Dalton left with the man, claiming he was being taken to the hospital for urgent treatment. Instead, he drove to his old business in Souris, still stocked with extra fertilizer. The explosion could be seen for 20 miles. Henry Osborne Dalton was picked up by the aforementioned authorities and deemed too dangerous to be allowed to remain outside of any supervision for any amount of time. He was offered a binary choice, the second he had ever come across that truly only had two options: resign himself to a life in a supermax facility along with gang bosses, serial rapists and human traffickers, or sign onto a new Interpol unit that he was told could make use of his skills in chemistry, engineering, and improvised/proper explosives on a parole basis. He chose the latter. His proper designation is “Red-5,” which he makes evident by concluding all formal paperwork with the phrase “Red 5, standing by.” His call sign is “Smoke.”

## Appearance

Dalton is a caucasian man of Dutch ancestry with long light brown hair, tan colored skin, and an athletic build. He is 6'1" tall and has a large tattoo of a carbon monoxide molecule across his back. He usually wears blue, red, black, and white clothing in some combination, often choosing nondescript, non-branded clothing as a means of blending in easily.

## Trivia

* Dalton has a more square jaw than the average person, but talks enough that it is rarely visible.
* Dalton talks a lot. About a lot of things.