Chereads / Circle of Eden / Chapter 17 - Crowe

Chapter 17 - Crowe

Henry Crowe was Eden and Circle's former head scientist. Originally working primarily for Eden, Crowe was transferred to Circle upon its formation.

Born Heinrich Krause on the 6th of July in 1913 Germany, Crowe showed promise even from a young age. He excelled at all aspects of the academe, most especially in the field of science. He was fascinated by it. He was nine-years old when he realized that this is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

Crowe was a true scholar. He had an addiction for knowledge. And this wasn't limited to just the field of science. He wanted to learn about everything. He sees a toy car and he was more interested with the actual toy car and its existence rather than playing with it. He wants to know what it's made of, how it's made, how it works, how every piece of it works with each other. Crowe was a prodigy, a genius. Some would say to a fault.

Crowe got his education at the University of Leipzig, achieving his doctorate in 1936 for his research in organic chemistry. The young man had a bright future ahead of him.

World War II broke out a couple of years later. Crowe worked as one of the Nazi's scientists for the entirety of the war. But the young scientist didn't work under the dictatorship because he was sympathetic to the cause or wanted to contribute to the war effort. Crowe simply joined the ranks of Hitler's top minds because it was the perfect opportunity for him to get deeper and gain more knowledge in the field. He couldn't care less about what the Nazi stood for. He couldn't care less what the war was even about. He wasn't working for any one side, he was only working for himself.

After the war concluded, Eden took in a majority of the opposing forces' smartest minds. This includes Crowe who had zero reservation about "switching sides". To him, this wasn't an act of siding with the enemy. These people weren't his enemy. He didn't have a "side". From his perspective, he was simply job-hopping.

The former Nazi scientist was a large contributing factor to Eden's success post-war. The man's excellence only kept growing as time went on, eventually gaining expertise in almost all fields of science. A year prior to the Circle's creation, Crowe was already the smartest person on the planet, unbeknownst to the rest of the world. This made him the clear-cut choice to spearhead the new organization's science department.

Crowe was the primary reason for Eden's success with the application of ancient fragments in the Circle's weaponry and military capability. It took the scientist years of research and hard work before achieving success. He was extremely invaluable to Eden.

Years after this achievement, his research on the ancient never wavered. Even working on several "pet projects" alone, privately, and away from Eden's prying eyes. And the doctor had good reason for this. Most if not all of these solo projects would be deemed inhumane and morally incorrect by the organization. If they were to catch wind of this, it would put a halt to all of his experiments.

The doctor hid his ventures well, but he couldn't hide it forever.

Less than a year ago, one of his private laboratories was discovered by Eden. Located and tucked away at the foot of some mountain range, it was a former black site owned and previously decommissioned by Eden in the late 90's. The site's location was then blocked out from every Eden and Circle map, abandoned and unused. It was essentially thrown away by Eden. But as the saying goes "one man's trash is another man's treasure". Years after, Crowe transformed the abandoned site into his own private lab.

This lab was then eventually discovered by a unit of Outer Circle agents who had just come from a grueling mission near the black site turned lab. Most of the agents were injured and needed immediate shelter. Mission control advised the unit to head to a decommissioned black site for the meantime. Little did anyone know that the team would stumble upon a hidden laboratory filled with human experiments and test subjects, alive and dead.

Headquarters was immediately informed of this discovery. The owner of the gruesome lab knew of it instantly, getting ahead of Eden and immediately packing his bags.

The much respected scientist who has seemingly disappeared from the face of the Earth is now a fugitive wanted by Eden and hunted by the Circle.

"We have visual on Crowe, can you confirm?"

"Yeah, he's right here," Sebastian answers Benedict.

"Is that Mr. Alois?" the wanted scientist butts in. "Can you say 'hi' for me, Agent Isaac?"

"You can tell him yourself once I bring you in. What are you doing here? And what's with the get-up?"

"What might be the problem with my suit?" Crowe asks back, looking at his attire. "It is elegant and sophisticated, no? My associate assured me that it is."

"As for what I am doing here, the answer is this," Crowe tilts a small vial that he is holding in his left hand forwards. Sebastian immediately grabs onto his swords by instinct but stopping when he realizes that the crippled monster is being absorbed and sucked into the vial that the scientist was holding out. He knew couldn't do anything about it.

"That thing—"

"Is my creation, yes. It is admittedly still far from finished," he closes the vial, still holding onto it. "Anyway, how are you two lovebirds? Contemplating marriage, I assume? You MUST invite me to the wedding, I insist."

"You're creating monsters?"

"You—I," Crowe stuttered after what he heard, he was surprised that the agent in front of him didn't know. "You have been to my labs, no? Then how come you—"

"Ohhhh," Crowe cuts himself off. "I see."

"They did not tell you anything, did they? Typical, typical."

"You see, Mr. Alois, Kaminski – these people, you agents are simply pawns for these people. They tell you to 'go there' and 'kill that' and nothing else. A shame, really."

"Then why don't YOU start talking"

"Sebastian, take him NOW. You're wasting too much time," Benedict chimes in.

"Ahhh. I would love to, Agent Isaac but you have agents coming in and I simply do not have time," he raises his left hand up, seemingly holding a small remote-like device. He clicks on it and a large, black portal oozing mist appears beside him.

Sebastian's movements stopped after hearing what Crowe said next.

"And apparently, neither does sweet Catarina."