Skip Bannister
James Thomas "Skip" Bannister is a character that appears in the Rainbow Six novel. He is the father of Mary Bannister.
Biography
Skip Bannister is a resident of Gary, Indiana. He fathered a daughter named Mary Bannister with an unnamed wife who later passed away when Mary was six. As a single father, Skip was overprotective of his daughter and indulged her in any way he could. He frequently disapproved of Mary's boyfriends but kept his opinions to himself to respect his daughter. In the late 1990s, Mary accepted a job in New York City and subsequently moved there. Skip did not want her to leave due to the well-known crime within the city and what he knew of the locals. Despite this, he hoped she would make a name for herself in the city and eventually meet her future husband.
In 1999, Mary was kidnapped to be a test subject for the Shiva virus. Skip learned of her disappearance after she had failed to call him for over five days. Worried, Skip continued to call Mary at all hours of the day for a week before he finally called the police to report her missing. Unfortunately, the police refused to send officers to check up on Mary, telling Skip normal for young girls her age to go off for weeks on end without contacting anyone. Unconvinced, Skip traveled to Mary's apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City. To his dismay, he only met the building superintendent who asked him if he was going to remove her belongings because he had not seen her in weeks and the rent was coming due. Skip panicked and immediately visited the local police precinct to make a report in person and demand further action. Skip was told that he had come to the wrong place but they would be file a report. Again, however, Skip was told by a detective that there was nothing unusual about not hearing from his daughter for a few weeks and that no dead female with his daughter's description had been found. The detective went on to inform Skip that they did not have the manpower to investigate all missing-persons cases and that he should return home and wait to hear from his daughter.
Skip promptly returned to his home in Indiana and checked the messages on his answering machine and his email. To his surprise, he had received a poorly written email from Mary. In the letter, Mary told her father that she did not know where she was and that she had apparently signed a form to agree to medical tests for a "new drug". Skip was troubled further by how the email was written due to being well aware of his daughter's excellent writing skills. Skip did not know where else to turn next and decided to contact the FBI. His call was quickly routed to the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Gary Indiana field office, Chuck Ussery. Skip was told by Chuck to meet him at his office at once and arrived there twenty-five minutes later. Skip answered several questions from Chuck and showed him the email he had received from Mary. Chuck's first impression was that Mary had written the email under the influence of drugs. Skip told Chuck that she would never do any drugs, causing Chuck to draw the conclusion that she had been kidnapped. Skip was told by Chuck that Mary's case would be treated as a kidnapping investigation and would be their top priority. Supervisory Special Agent Patrick O'Connor was then called in by Chuck who explained the situation and told him that he would be leading the case. Skip then followed O'Connor to answer additional questions and gave him a recent picture of Mary. Four hours after Skip's arrival at the FBI field office, Special Agents Tom Sullivan and Frank Chatham from the New York field division visited Mary's apartment to look for clues. Skip continued to call the field office daily for updates on the investigation.
Trivia
- Skip is described as a stocky, 5'11" man in his mid-fifties.