Foster Hunnicutt
- "Maybe I'm not a bunny-hugger. Maybe I kill game, but, goddammit, I eat what I kill. I don't kill things just to watch 'em die - well not game animals anyway. But there's a lot of ignorant-ass people I wouldn't mind popping"
— Foster Hunnicutt
Foster Hunnicutt is a character that appears in the Rainbow Six novel.
Biography
Foster Hunnicutt was a geologist for the Exxon Corporation who was tasked with finding oil reserves around the world. While looking outside his window on a return flight from Paris, Foster noticed a brown cloud of air pollution. This made him realize that he was helping the problem and led him to quit his job a week later. Foster then took his stock options and cashed them in for half a million dollars to buy a ranch in the Montana Bitterroot Mountains. Foster mostly kept to himself but was regularly issued citations by a local game warden for breaking hunting laws. Foster grew tired of this and killed the game warden in retaliation. The remoteness of the Bitterroot Mountains allowed Foster to dispose of the body with ease. While the body was never found, many locals believed that Foster was behind the game warden's disappearance. He later discovered gold on his property but did not want to mine it due to the damage to the environment.
Rainbow Six
In 1999, Foster wrote a book about the effects of oil products on the environment. This book attracted the attention of Mark Waterhouse who was recruiting environmentalists to become the "chosen few" that would help rebuild the world after the Horizon Corporation unleashed the Shiva virus. In 1999, Mark met Foster at his cabin with the intention of recruiting him. During the meeting, Foster told Mark a bit about himself and gifted him a gold nugget from his land. Convinced that Foster was perfect for "The Project", Mark told him that Horizon was working to end pollution once and for all. Intrigued, Foster accepted and was taken to Horizon's secret OLYMPUS facility in Kansas.
While at the facility, Foster helped set up the security perimeter around the compound and later met John Killgore, Kirk Maclean, and Dmitriy Popov. During his inital meeting with Popov, Foster was surprised to learn that he had worked directly for the head of The Project, John Brightling. After Popov departed, Maclean told Foster of Popov's role in orchestrating terrorist attacks across Europe in order to secure Bill Henriksen's security contract at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney to release the Shiva virus. Afterwards, Foster joined all three men in horseback riding around the compound over the next few days. During this time, Foster told Popov of his past job as a geologist and strongly hinted to killing the game warden in Montana. This horrified Popov who began to question what kind of people Horizon was recruiting into "The Project".
The next day, Foster asked about Popov's background as a KGB officer and told him that he did not have an issue with his past actions. While on the way to the stables, Foster showed off his Colt Revolver to Popov and explained that he never rode anywhere without it. A short time later, Foster learned that Popov had only been riding a horse for a little over a week and that he desired to become a better rider. Foster offered to ride with Popov again later that night which Popov agreed to.
That night, both men rode their horses around the compound and began talking about horse breeds and the gold Foster had found on his property. This eventually led Foster to reveal the true purpose of The Project to Popov who had been left in the dark up until this point. Foster told him about Shiva and how it would be distributed on the last day of the Olympics and subsequently wipe out humanity. He also praised Popov by explaining how his actions helped Bill Henriksen secure the security contract for the Olympics and made their plan a reality. He also told Popov of a second Project facility in Brazil. Foster went on to explain their reasonings for wiping out humanity which Popov seemed to agree with. Afterwards, Popov asked Foster to hold his revolver and fired a test shot at a nearby ground stake. Foster was then surprised as Popov turned the revolver and shot him in the chest, killing him. Popov then made his escape from the compound to warn the outside world. The next day, Foster's body was found by Kirk Maclean as it was being eaten by buzzards. Maclean returned with Bill Henriksen and John Killgore who brought his body back to the Project's main facility and had Killgore conduct an autopsy on it.
Legacy
As a result of Foster revealing the true plans of The Project, Popov managed to escape the compound and warned Rainbow Director John Clark of the bioweapon threat before it could be unleashed. Popov also gave Rainbow the location of the OLYMPUS compound as well as the one in Brazil he had been told about by Foster. Brightling and the other Project members were then subsequently arrested, killed, or left for dead in the Brazilian Rainforest. Popov later bought Foster's land in Montana from his estate and mined the gold he had been told about by Foster.
Trivia
- Foster's horse is an eight year old blanket Appaloosa named Jeremiah that he had purchased from a Nez Percé Native American. Foster stated that he used the horse for hunting and that it had helped him find gold on his land before it was brought to the OLYMPIS facility in Kansas.