The fourth entry in our Character Bio feature focuses on two of AVARAD's top soldiers: Commander Timothy Englewood and Lieutenant Seth Jenkovich
As mentioned in the last Character Bio feature, one of the crowning achievements of Director Bloom's early career was his ability to position AVARAD to become the militaristic arm of the AVA. This meant special operations, recon assignments, and a variety of para-military directives. To carry out these tasks, Director Bloom needed soldiers, willing participants in what essentially amounted to black ops work. To find those soldiers, he turned to Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich.
Timothy Englewood served as a General in the US Army for the majority of his military career before retiring after twenty-five years of service. Three years into retirement, he was approached by his contacts at the White House and offered a position with a new agency that was being developed. He was promised complete autonomy of his team and a chance to make a difference for the country, but what really sold him in the end was the opportunity to work out of his home in Washington DC, which would allow him to remain close to his family.
Seth Jenkovich followed a similar path to AVARAD, serving as a US Marine for over a decade before coming to work for Director Bloom. Unlike Englewood, however, Jenkovich was plucked straight from the line of duty before being established as the Commander's second-in-command. Jenkovich saw this as an opportunity to further his career, as well as his chance to do more work on the home front as opposed to overseas.
Both Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich are exceptional leaders and soldiers, but their personalities differ in a few distinct ways. As quoted in the book: While Commander Englewood was the heart and soul of the team, its emotional and intuitive leader, Lieutenant Jenkovich was its eyes and ears. He was perceptive and cunning, the kind of calculating and logical man that men felt comfortable following, even if he led them straight into darkness. The differences between the men couldn't be stated better than this. Englewood is an expert at creating team camaraderie and feeling out situations, while Jenkovich's strength lies in his tactical prowess. Each is invaluable to the team, and each has a heavy hand in the success of the team as a whole.
At the start of the book, Commander Englewood and Lieutenant Jenkovich are tasked with finding out what happened in Manhattan. Here, they come across the final character featured in this series: Cael.
