Alex Mason

''This article is for the playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops. For the squad commander in Call of Duty: World at War: Final Fronts, see Sgt. Mason.'' "I just keep hearing the fucking numbers!"

- Mason being tortured

Alex Mason is a Studies and Observation Group (SOG) operator and the main playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Early Military Career
Born and raised on June 6 1933, Alaska, the geographical proximity of his home state to Communist Russia brought the threat of the Cold War that much closer to his doorstep than most Americans. This was a key contributor to his fervent anti-Communist ideals and eventually led to his enlistment in the USMC. He spent his youth hunting elk and grizzlies in the Alaskan wilderness with his father (a WWII veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart for wounds received during action at the Makin Atoll); as such, he is adept in cold weather environments and is an excellent sniper (at the age of 20 he became the youngest Wimbledon Cup winner in the history of the marksmanship competition). He was recruited to SAD/SOG at the age of 25 after an exemplary term of service with the Marines. Having served with distinction since joining the Agency, Mason has a long standing friendship with many of his fellow Agency colleagues and shows a particular kinship with operative Frank Woods. Always itching for action, Mason's tendency towards impulsiveness is the one trait that may not have been completely "trained out of him." However, his close friend Woods is well aware of this, and knows exactly when and how to rein him in.

Service in Afghanistan

 * The information presented in the following section only appears in Call of Duty: Black Ops (Nintendo DS)

Prior to joining the CIA, Mason served as a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan. On November 29, 1957, Mason is pinned down in a village by Afghan soldiers during routine patrol, with seemingly no escape. Here, he encounters Soviet defector Yuri Raslov, who assists him in escaping the village in a stolen truck, and arrive in an allied camp. Shortly after these events, Mason is recruited into the CIA.

Operation Zapata
In 1961, Mason is a member of a CIA task force known as Operation 40. Mason and fellow Operation 40 members Joseph Bowman and Frank Woods infiltrate Cuba prior to the Bay of Pigs invasion to carry out Operation Zapata, the assassination of Fidel Castro. Using the distraction caused by the Bay of Pigs invasion, Mason, Bowman, and Woods raid a compound where Castro is reportedly living. Mason and Woods encounter Castro with a mistress in his bedroom; Mason shoots and kills Castro. During their escape, Cuban military forces rapidly turn the tables on the U.S.-supported Cuban rebels and swarm the airfield where Op 40's escape plane is located. While Mason, Bowman, and Woods make it to the plane, Mason bails out just before takeoff to clear the runway of Cuban military vehicles. Mason is subdued and captured by Cuban troops. Regaining consciousness, Mason watches as Fidel Castro, alive and well (the "Castro" Mason shot was a double), turns him over to Soviet General Nikita Dragovich as a "gift".

Imprisonment at Vorkuta
Mason is transported to a Soviet labor camp at Vorkuta, Russia. There, Dragovich had Friedrich Steiner brainwash Mason; Mason is implanted with the knowledge to interpret the outgoing broadcasts from Dragovich's numbers station, and is also programmed to become a Soviet sleeper agent with the primary purpose of assassinating U.S. President John F. Kennedy. However, Mason's willpower resisted the programming, but they eventually succeeded. Then, Viktor Reznov, a former hero of the Red Army from Call of Duty: World at War who was betrayed by Dragovich and his underling Colonel Lev Kravchenko, successfully sabotages Mason's brainwash, programming him to also kill Steiner, Kravchenko, and Dragovich out of revenge, but this caused Mason to repress the meaning of the numbers broadcast and lose gaps in his memory, specifically the time periods when he was under Dragovich. By Mason's account, it was 6–7 weeks after his arrival of Vorkuta then he was thrown into the labor force proper, there it didn't take long for him to clash with prisoners loyal to Reznov. The fights got both Mason and Reznov spent 1 month solitary confinement, and both became fast friends after that. Sometime later, Mason and Reznov plot their escape from Vorkuta. On October 6, 1963, the breakout succeeds and Mason escapes back to the U.S.; Mason at that moment was unaware he was ever brainwashed.

Operation Flashpoint
Upon his return to the USA, Mason is escorted by his new handler Jason Hudson and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to the Pentagon, where he is given direct orders from President Kennedy to begin Operation Flashpoint: Mason and his team must locate and kill Dragovich and sabotage the Soviet space program. Throughout the meeting, Mason hears the numbers, causing him to experience everything as though it was a dream; when speaking with Kennedy, Mason hallucinates taking a pistol and pointing it at Kennedy, meaning he was at least partially under Dragovitch's control, although resisting it

On November 17, 1963, Mason and the CIA infiltrate a Soviet Cosmodrome in Baikonur, Kazakhstan per Operation Flashpoint. The Soviets were already aware of this attack by capturing of Grigori Weaver, a CIA double agent who was compromised by Kravchenko. Mason and his team are able to rescue Weaver and fight their way to the control bunker for the Soyuz 2 rocket, but are unable to abort the launch. Mason uses a Valkyrie Rocket to destroy Soyuz 2 in mid-air, then the Operation 40 squad begins a sweep of the facility to eliminate the surviving members of the Ascension group, a group of former Nazi scientists who had been collaborating with the Soviets, and to hunt down Dragovich. They corner Dragovich in his limousine and destroy it, but rather than verify Dragovich's death, Mason decides to move on after being told by Woods that the explosion wouldn't have left anything recognizable. Operation 40 assumes Dragovich is dead, but this is later proven to be far from the truth.

Vietnam, Laos and Kravchenko
Almost five years later, in 1968, Mason joined the SOG unit led by Frank Woods and was sent to Vietnam for the purpose of searching for covert Russian operations in Vietnam and Laos. After landing at Khe Sanh to meet up with Woods and the rest of his old unit, the hill of Khe Sanh comes under attack by NVA forces. Mason, Woods, and Special Agent Hudson repel the beginning of the attack before the SOG leaves for its mission.

In Hue City, they attempt to pick up a Soviet defector with vital information of Soviet involvement in the war. Inside a safe room, Mason believes he is reunited with Reznov, "the defector", although "Reznov" is a figment of his imagination and the real one died after Mason got on the train from Vorkuta (as though what Mason is seeing is Reznov's ghost acting as Mason's guardian angel who has been guiding and possessing Mason to carry on with his deeds). After collecting the intel, the team leaves Hue.

While heading north into Communist territory, Mason's helicopter is shot down but, spurred on by a hallucinated image of Reznov, he escapes the wreckage. Mason and the rest of the team silently enter a village where they sabotage Vietcong equipment. Afterwards, Mason clears out a "rat tunnel" and retrieve a Soviet operations book from Kravchenko's office. The tunnel begins to collapse and Mason barely escapes with his life.

The intel leads them to a Soviet cargo plane downed in Laos which was believed to be carrying some sort of biological weapon. Mason remembers stories Reznov had told him about a nerve gas called Nova 6, originally developed by Nazi scientist Friedrich Steiner, but commandeered by General Dragovich and reproduced by Daniel Clarke. After combat up the river to the crash site, the SOG team is set upon by both VC and Spetsnaz before making their way into the plane. There, they find the Soviets have already retrieved the cargo and were waiting for them to arrive in the valley below. After an explosive fight, the plane wreckage tumbles down a cliff and the team is taken prisoner by the Spetsnaz.

At a VC compound, Mason, Woods, and Bowman are forced to play Russian Roulette. Bowman defiantly insults his captors, prompting their Russian contact to club him to death with a pipe. Woods plays, choosing an empty chamber, whispering to Mason that the next one is loaded. Mason shoots the VC leader in the throat and takes his pistol, fighting out of the compound and killing the Russian. Woods and Mason commandeer a Hind and fly it to Kravchenko's compound, where they battle to his office along with Reznov and attack him. Mason is overpowered and Kravchenko begins to repeatedly kick him in the face, before being stabbed by Woods. In his dying breath, Kravchenko pulls the pins on his grenades, before Woods throws Kravchenko and himself out of the office window, leaving Mason the only survivor of his SOG team, the imaginary Reznov notwithstanding.

Hunting Steiner with "Reznov"
A letter in Kravchenko's office shows Steiner is overseeing Nova 6 operations on Rebirth Island in the Aral Sea. Mason infiltrates the island with imaginary Reznov at his side, stowing away in an empty crate being handled on the island. When the crane carrying the crate sets it down, they exit the crate and proceed with making their way to the labs, Mason kills a worker with his own Tomahawk and proceeds to hide in the shadow with Reznov to avoid a spotlight from an Mi-8 Hip, the pair move on until they see an armed soldier patrolling the area, Mason kills him with the Tomahawk after a brief struggle and takes his weapon. After proceeding some more, the 2 attempt to climb up the lab building via ladder, during which Mason dispatches of an enemy that looks down the ladder by pulling him down and taking his KS-23. They attempt to access the labs through the rooftops, when suddenly an explosion in the distance occurs, with the base going to full-alert. Mason tells Reznov that it is the CIA assaulting the island to take Steiner alive, the two pick up their pace to get to Steiner first, going down an elevator shaft, and breach the laboratories from there, carving through troops and scientists alike to get to Steiner. They eventually clear the facility out, and enter Steiner's lab. Steiner is contacting Hudson, desperately asking them to hurry up and extract him from the island, as Dragovich's men are executing personnel on the island, Mason then confronts Steiner, who is shocked that Mason has managed to reach him, Reznov than begins to beat and execute Steiner. Hudson and Weaver manage to make it to the lab, and try entering the lab from a window by shooting it, but it is bulletproof, forcing the pair to break it with a crate, but by the time they enter the lab, they are too late, as Mason witnesses Reznov shoot Steiner. After witnessing the events from Hudson's perspective, it is finally revealed that Reznov is a figment of Mason's imagination, and he is the one actually executing Steiner. As stated above, they break the bulletproof glass and enter the room too late, as Mason shoots Steiner in the head, and then he shoots Weaver in the arm when Weaver tries to apprehend him. Hudson then tackles and disarms Mason, Mason punches Hudson in the face, forcing Hudson to pistol-whip Mason, rendering him unconscious. With Steiner dead, they leave the island with Mason as their only link to the numbers, leading to his interrogation.

Interrogation and Redemption
Following his apprehension by Hudson and Weaver at Rebirth Island, Mason is interrogated ruthlessly. With Steiner's death, Mason is their only link to the numbers station and the impending Nova 6 attack by sleeper agents in the capital cities of every state in the U.S. In addition, the President was prepared to launch a full nuclear strike against the Soviet Union in retaliation. If the numbers station could not be located and neutralized before Dragovich sent the signal to attack, World War III would break out.

After forcing Mason to relive his experiences leading up to the present date, Hudson had yet to learn anything from Mason. With DEFCON 2 declared, Hudson reveals himself to Mason out of desperation and removes his restraints. Mason knocks Hudson out and makes his way through the interrogation facility, remembering his brainwashing at Vorkuta, realizing that all of his encounters with Reznov after Vorkuta were imagined, as Reznov had actually died during the breakout, and finally understanding the meaning of the numbers broadcasts. After being subdued by Hudson, Mason explains that the numbers station is on the Soviet cargo ship Rusalka, which Mason had originally seen during his first meeting with Dragovich in 1961.

Mason, Hudson, and Weaver raid the Rusalka, located in waters southwest of Cuba. In the cargo ship's hold, they discover an antenna with a tether leading into the depths of the ocean. While a U.S. Navy fleet is en route to destroy the Rusalka, Mason insists on entering the submerged numbers station to kill Dragovich once and for all. After fighting through the numbers station as it comes under fire, Mason finds the console controlling the numbers broadcasts and attempts to deactivate it, but is knocked away by Dragovich. Hudson comes to Mason's aid, distracting Dragovich and allowing Mason to pull him down. Mason strangles Dragovich, then escapes the imploding numbers station with Hudson. With the station destroyed and Dragovich dead, the crisis is averted.

Operation Charybdis
According to the unlocked Intel in the final mission, Mason never fully recovered from his brainwashing as he still hears Reznov's voice after killing Dragovich, making the CIA suspicious of Mason's actions. Weaver and Hudson became targets of suspicion as well for their association with Mason and their supposed complicity in gathering top secret information for Mason. Sometime in 1978, Mason's decision to chase an as of yet unknown lead led the CIA to deem him "burnt" and a threat to national security, along with Hudson and Weaver, who had escaped to South Africa with him. As of October 28, 1978, the CIA was making plans to form a joint task force with MI-6 in order to find and eliminate Mason, Hudson, and Weaver in what they dubbed Operation Charybdis.

Quotes

 * "I got you, Woods!" - Mason piloting the Hind in Payback.
 * "Where am I? Where's Reznov?" - Mason's first words in Black Ops.
 * "Got it, gimme' the stick." - Mason awaiting control of the helicopter.
 * "20 degrees below zero, fuckin' ice cube was in his element" - Mason referring to Jason Hudson
 * "Reznov! You nearly took a bullet!" - Mason, almost shooting Reznov when he jumped through a hole right in front of Mason in the tunnels in "Victor Charlie".
 * "Woods, you look like hammered shit!" - Mason to Woods in Vietnam.
 * "Dead." - Mason in "Victor Charlie" when Reznov asks him where Swift is.
 * "Just be cool, Woods. Wait." - Mason to Woods at the beginning of Operation 40.
 * "Fuck you!"- Mason when asked his name while getting tortured.
 * "Kiss my ass!"- Mason when asked were he was born while being tortured.
 * "My name is Viktor Reznov, and I will have my revenge!" - Mason, said before killing Steiner.
 * "I swear to God that Woods was crying but he never let us see no tears." - Mason commenting on Wood's reaction to the death of a U.S. Marine.
 * "I keep hearing the fucking numbers!"- Mason while being interrogated.
 * "You fucking son of a bitch!! I'll kill you all!" - After the Spetsnaz operative beats Bowman to death with a pipe.
 * "Payback, ya sons of bitches!" - Mason after destroying the third Hind on Payback.
 * "For Bowman." - Mason after killing the Spetsnaz Operative who clubbed Bowman to death in Payback.
 * "Today's the day we succeed." - Mason in Operation 40 in response to Woods about killing Castro.
 * "I trusted him!" - Mason in response to Hudson after being told that Reznov brainwashed him to kill Steiner, Kravchenko and Dragovich.
 * "It is simple, I'm gonna kill you!" - Mason about to kill Dragovich in Redemption.
 * "6.5 millimeter." - Mason, during the JFK archival footage at the end of the campaign, showing JFK and Jackie arriving at the airport. The quote is referring to the 6.5mm round used in the Carcano rifle that fired the fatal shot to the President's head.
 * "I remember! Ahhh! Vorkuta!" - Mason, when he realizes that he was brainwashed at Vorkuta.

Trivia
See Alex Mason/Trivia