Tamara Dunleavy

"*Tamara Dunleavy, who collaborated with Felix Hammerstrom to create Project Osiris and then backed out at the last minute for reasons nobody knows. The only person outside Serenity who will understand who we are and how we came to be.*"
—Eli Frieden, *Criminal Destiny*

## Tamara Dunleavy

### Aliases

Tamara
Ms. Dunleavy
Aunt Tammy (by Blake Upton)

### Relatives

Eli Frieden (clone)
Blake Upton (great-nephew)
Jonas Dunleavy (younger brother)

### Affiliation

Eli Frieden
Amber Laska
Malik Bruder
Tori Pritel
Hector Amani
Robbie Miers
Ben Stastny
Freddie Cinta
Penelope Sonas
Margaret Rauha
Aldwin Wo

## Physical description

### Hair

White (most likely dark brown when she was younger)

**Tamara Dunleavy** is an internet billionaire and the founder of the computer company VistaNet. Tamara worked alongside social scientist Felix Hammerstrom to create Project Osiris, a scientific experiment created to determine if a person is born evil or becomes evil throughout their life. However, she quit after realizing how unethical the project was. She also unknowingly provided the DNA that created Eli Frieden.

Dunleavy made a fortune based on the idea that almost everything can be done over the Internet. Her successful company, VistaNet, earned billions of dollars improving people's lives in this way.

Shortly after quitting Project Osiris, Dunleavy went into retirement and moved to a mansion on a ranch outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Then, after Hammerstrom's death, Dunleavy adopted all eleven Osiris clones and took care of them in her mansion.

## Biography

Tamara Dunleavy was born sometime in 1952. Before building VistaNet, Tamara was one of the worst hackers, although brilliant, and designed viruses that led to injury and possibly death. Afterward, she realized her errors and attempted to make up for it by donating to charities. VistaNet was created with the goal of improving the lives of others through the internet.

Tamara also met social scientist Felix Hammerstrom, and they became friends. Before 1999, her younger brother, Jonas Dunleavy, was arrested and killed in prison, greatly affecting Tamara. She and Hammerstrom came up with the idea to prove that prisons should provide guidance rather than punishment, forming what was known as Project Osiris. Tamara, along with Hammerstrom, visited several criminals for cloning, including Bartholomew Glen and Gus Alabaster. However, in 1999, Tamara dropped out after realizing how unethical the experiment was and withdrew the financial backing, assuming that it would be canceled after she quit. However, unbeknownst to her, Hammerstrom dropped out of sight and continued the project in Serenity, even cloning Tamara herself for the experiment.

Before *Criminal Destiny* took place, Tamara retired and went to live in seclusion on a ranch outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

### *Criminal Destiny*

Eli Frieden, Tori Pritel, Malik Bruder and Amber Laska first met Tamara after she emerges from a charity meeting in the Jackson Convention Charity. Tori first called her name, turning her attention towards the kids, and Tamara instantly recognized Eli as her own clone. However, Tamara refused to admit that she had any idea about Project Osiris, eventually walking away.

Soon after the clones extracted the computer chip at the base of their necks that they had noticed due to Tamara's staring, Tamara sent a man in sunglasses towards them to give them money, as she had felt guilty. The man was then knocked out by Amber, and Tamara's Bentley was driven away by Malik.

### *Payback*

When Eli Frieden and Tori Pritel were helping others with groceries in Amarillo, Texas, Tamara sent two men in a dark sedan in an attempt to capture and bring them to her. However, it failed because the two kids managed to steal the sedan and drive away with it.

After Eli stepped out of the Noranda State Penitentiary, having just learned that he was Tamara's clone, he returned to Atomic Studios to find Tori being kidnapped by two men Tamara had sent. The two kids were tossed in the back of a truck and driven to a parking garage, where they reunited with Tamara, Amber Laska and Malik Bruder, who had also been brought there by the police after Gus Alabaster's death. It was in Tamara's private jet that she finally told them the truth and offered to take care of them in her own home in Jackson Hole, which the clones eventually agreed to.

While staying in the mansion, Tamara hired a firm of private investigators to search for the remaining clones, as well as helped Eli design a bot to further look for hints of them. It succeeded when he found out that there had been a hair follicle belonging to Freddie Cinta found in Poseidon Resort and Water Park, and while Tamara was skeptical at first, she eventually agreed to investigate. When the investigators sent back photos of the clones as proof, Tamara refused to help take them back without reaching out to Felix Hammerstrom.

Not wanting to listen, Eli, Tori, Amber and Malik took matters into their own hands and set out for Poseidon themselves after stealing Tamara's credit card and hacking into her security system. Tamara attempted to call and persuade them to return, but was denied; however, she didn't give up and revoked their clearance to land on West Cay (where Poseidon is located) while the kids were mid-flight, so that they weren't able to fly directly there.

Later, after the clones had successfully grouped up in Poseidon and Hammerstrom had been killed, Tamara arrived at the rear of a group of Poseidon security personnel, having resolved not to abandon the kids. Upon spotting Eli, she ran across the slippery floor of the lobby, not stopping until she threw her arms around him. Tamara paid for the repairs that needed to be made to the Poseidon lobby and had the clones fly back to Jackson Hole in her private jet, forgiving them for their actions. She also offered to take them in and care for them, even though it meant the adults of Project Osiris would get away scot-free.

## Personality and traits

Tamara Dunleavy is stubborn, but caring (Tori Pritel describes her as treating them very motherly, as she took in all eleven of the Osiris clones), highly intelligent and energetic. She shares many of the same personality traits as Eli Frieden, such as being intelligent and a whiz with computers, seeing as they share the same DNA.

Despite these traits, Dunleavy used to be one of the worst hackers around, attempting to "knock governments and big corporations down a peg", leading to her injuring and possibly killing several people with her viruses. She tries to make up for this by donating to as many charities as she can.

## Physical description

In *Criminal Destiny*, she is described to be tall, have gray/white hair, a face that looks surprisingly youthful, and eyes that are a brilliant shade of blue. Tamara is always wearing white sneakers, no matter how dressed up she is. She is also seen wearing large, diamond-studded earrings, and when the clones first met her, Tamara was dressed in "an enormous orange muumuu".

## Relationships

### Family

#### Eli Frieden

As stated before, Tamara and Eli share the same DNA despite being different genders. They first met each other in *Criminal Destiny* while in Jackson Hole. Although Tamara instantly recognized Eli for what he was, she attempted to deny any references he made towards Project Osiris. She later sent her driver to sneak five hundred dollars into the clones' backpacks to help them.

In *Payback*, Tamara sent two men in a dark sedan to Eli and Tori's location in Amarillo, Texas, to try to capture and bring them to her. However, it failed because the two kids managed to steal the sedan and drive away with it. Later, the same two men arrived at Bungalow 149 in Atomic Studios, where Eli and Tori were staying, successfully managing to capture and drive them to Tamara's private jet and bringing Malik Bruder and Amber Laska to the same place not long later.

Tamara clearly has a motherly bond with Eli, as she ran across a slippery floor to hug Eli because she was relieved he was okay. Eli calls them "two computer nerds in a pod" and thought of her as a parent, believing that there would never be a better person to share DNA with.

#### Blake Upton

Not much is said about the relationship between Blake and Tamara, other than the fact that Tamara is Blake's dad's aunt and that he calls her "Aunt Tammy".

### Friends

#### Felix Hammerstrom

"*Same old Felix. He's a little older, but I have to say he's barely changed. All the arrogance is still there, the belief that he knows what's best for everyone.*"
—Tamara Dunleavy after seeing a photo of Hammerstrom, *Payback*

Tamara Dunleavy had always been close to Felix Hammerstrom. The two of them worked together on Project Osiris after the death of Tamara's brother, Jonas Dunleavy, although Hammerstrom continued it and made it a reality even after she quit. They were close friends before Tamara abandoned Project Osiris. She always believed Hammerstrom to be a brilliant scientist, stating him to be highly intelligent.

Tamara wanted to contact Hammerstrom after they found out that the Osiris subjects had moved to Poseidon Resort and Water Park, thinking that he would recognize when he was out of options, and was planning on offering him money to stop the project.

#### Osiris subjects

Tamara Dunleavy adopted all eleven clones after Project Osiris ended: Eli Frieden, Tori Pritel, Amber Laska, Hector Amani, Malik Bruder, Robbie Miers, Freddie Cinta, Ben Stastny, Penelope Sonas, Margaret Rauha and Aldwin Wo.

She forgave Eli Tori, Amber and Malik for sneaking away to Poseidon without her permission and was willing to do whatever it took to give them a future, having them all live on her estate together. The clones were even given fake birth certificates and passports with their real names and ages, but with different places of birth around Wyoming.

## Trivia

* Tamara drives a Bentley with the license plate "VISTA", short for VistaNet.
* She owns a private Gulfstream jet and a gigantic mansion (big enough to comfortably house at least twelve people).
* Tamara was stated to be sixty-three in *Criminal Destiny*, and as the trilogy takes place in 2015, she was born around 1952.
* According to Eli in Payback Tamara goes to sleep at around 11:00pm.