Matthew Reilly Wiki
Matthew Reilly Wiki
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"No code is unbreakable."
—Fairfax's maxim

David Theodore Fairfax is a cryptanalyst working for the Defense Intelligence Agency, and is a good friend and ally of Shane Schofield's.

History[]

Early History[]

In 1996, David Fairfax was a brilliant mathematician, and yet a nobody, at the Defense Intelligence Agency, until he managed to crack a supposedly unbreakable code known as PGP, which had been causing the government great concerns.

Following his success with the PGP crisis, Fairfax was added to the Space Agency department in the Pentagon and given a small pay rise, but because he had to maintain the secret about his cracking of PGP, Fairfax was unable to talk about it.

Area 7[]

One day, Fairfax was deciphering several tapped encrypted phone calls from inside Area 7. He soon decoded the messages, most of which related to the South African Reconnaissance Commandos who are talking about extracting a vaccine from the Air Force base. However, because the remaining messages were unrelated, he dug deeper and realised that there is a rogue 7th Squadron unit, Echo, which also intended to take the vaccine to a bio-weapons facility in China.

After explaining the situation to his superiors, Fairfax then learned that Echo unit intended to be extracted by escaping in an X-38 to a Chinese space shuttle to avoid being captured. While scanning for transmissions out of Areas 7 and 8, Fairfax interrupted Nicholas Tate's cell phone call and spoke with the U.S. Marine Shane Schofield and the President, warning them about the rogue Echo unit's plans. Fairfax soon supplied Schofield the codes preventing Area 7's self-destruct sequence, and after the incident was presented a medal of bravery by the President at the White House.

Scarecrow[]

Sixteen months later, Schofield contacted Fairfax, asking him to look into things surrounding a bounty on his head, including the Black Knight's history. Schofield sends him to locate Thompson Oliphant, a former USAMRMC scientist on the bounty list, and is berated by his superior, Wendel Hogg for apparent insubordination before he leaves.

As he arrives, another bounty hunter called the Zulu appears and attacks Oliphant, and Fairfax attempts to escape with Oliphant in an ambulance. However the Zulu keeps up with them, and Fairfax manages to kill the Zulu by releasing the ambulance's gurney so that he fell to the ground beneath the teetering vehicle. Oliphant begins explaining that he was being targeted for his work on the CincLock-VII security system before he is killed by another bounty hunter, the Ice Queen. However, she is intrigued by Fairfax's loyalty to Schofield, so she decides to let him live, although warns that she would kill him if they ran into each other again while he was protecting his friend.

After returning to the Pentagon, Hogg threatened to fire Fairfax for the trouble he had caused him, but was collected by Andrew Trent, who had orders from the President to take him to San Francisco to provide Schofield with a satellite up-link so that he can disarm the CincLock-VII guarding a Chameleon missile, since Fairfax being one of the few people Schofield trusts. On the way there, he also figures out the disarm code for Schofield, and Trent reassures him not to be nervous. They manage to do the job despite his lack of field experience and the enemy African forces working for Jonathan Killian, successfully getting the uplink activated for Schofield.

Fairfax later shares his stories with Mother and Book II at a barbecue.

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves[]

While Schofield was assigned to a research team up in the Arctic, Fairfax sent him a message informing him of a French assassin known as Renard who asked to follow up on the bounty laid by the French government.

Later Schofield sends Fairfax an email describing his team's assignment to stop a militia group known as the Army of Thieves at a former Soviet installation known as Dragon Island, asking Fairfax to dig up any information he could.

He meets with Marianne Retter, who has been studying the Army since they first came to light, and they are both suspicious that an irregular army such as the Army of Thieves would be able to carry out a string of attacks against high-value targets to arm themselves. Fairfax realises that the car that would take Retter to a meeting with the President on the matter is a fake, and the two flee.

Taking momentary refuge at an internet café, their suspicions are confirmed when they access a file written by a CIA operative named Marius Calderon was writing about Dragon Island before the Soviet Union actually built anything there. Fairfax and Retter realise that the Army of Thieves' leader is actually Calderon, who predicted the rise of China as an economic superpower by 2010 as early as 1982 and leaked to the Soviet Union the plans to the Tesla weapon the Army of Thieves is preparing. Realising the catastrophe that would occur to Russia, China and India, both Fairfax and Retter send the file to Schofield, and try to figure a way to get Retter to her meeting with the President.

Finding the White House under CIA surveillance, Fairfax drives their car into the front gate, allowing him and Retter to be picked up by Secret Servicemen, who lead them to the Situation Room. During this, Schofield contacted the crisis team, having averted the Tesla weapon's activation, and mentioned that he thought Fairfax deserved a promotion.

Along with Schofield and his surviving team-mates, Fairfax received many medals for his part in stopping the Army of Thieves.

Personality[]

He is portrayed as laid back, evident when he is always portrayed as wearing jeans and sneakers to work.

Skills[]

  • Genius-Level Intellect: He was able to decode the PGP at age 25, and breach top-secret government information.
    • Master Computer Specialist / Hacker: Fairfax is a highly skilled code-breaker and hacker.
    • Expert Mathematician: Fairfax is able to solve complex mathematics problems, such as Mersenne Primes.

Equipment[]

Vehicles[]

  • Ambulance: To Be Added.

Other Equipment[]

To Be Added.

Trivia[]

  • Fairfax is stated to have been 25 in 1996, so his age at the time of Area 7 was likely 31.
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