Vincent Duran

Overview
Vincent Duran was an enigmatic and widely unknown industrial spy which served as a secondary and quite often main antagonist character from Chapter IV " Apollyon" (1991) to Chapter X "Neptune" (1995).

Duran was a professional and competent hacker expert, strongly recognised by the industrial and corporative world as one of the finest to be found, therefore usually hired for clandestine cyber operations. His coldness, ruthless and flanboyant but rather odd nature towards his job was certainly recognised and often valued.

It is not known for sure if "Vincent Duran" was his real name, although it was hinted during the Novel that several names were created for his persona. Nonetheless, he was nicknamed "Mot" by the Saṃsāra Circle and was quite often called like this during their respective clandestine meetings and encoded text dialogues.

During an unknown timeframe, Vincent Duran was secretly working as a corporate agent and spy for one of the world's largest defense contractors, SORINCO, which was a Chinese state-owned defense corporation that manufactured a diverse range of military assets.

It was later revealed during Chapter IX "Uroborous" (1994), that Duran also secretly worked for the Saṃsāra Circle as an Agent called "Mot" and quite often followed direct orders from the organization against specific targets, including corporate lawyer Veronica Albion and Helena Mårtensson, respectively.

It was hinted that Duran was not being paid for his services by the Saṃsāra Circle, but rather "complemented" with other more "valuable assets" during the lenght of his services.

He was considered, alongside Helena Mårtensson and Irma Lorenz, the Prime Evil by Veronica Albion, a Cluster of recognized "professional obstacles" to her personal endeavours.

Personality and traits
Although extremely reserved and cold-headed, Duran has demonstrated a dry sense of humor, quite often serving as a comic-relief for several particular and complex situations.

Duran & Albion connection.
At some point during 1991, Vincent Duran was secretly instructed by China South Industries Group Corporation Limited (SORINCO) to gather corporate information from Aberdeen-based Lewis & Clark, specifically regarding the Shiva-class supercomputer, a complex AI set that functioned as the main cybersecurity and data archiving systems for Lewis & Clark. Nonetheless, several spyware malwares were eventually detected by informatic engineer, Kenneth Neill, which eventually actived a Surya-class Defense Firewall, a programme that once activated, blocks all external access to the Shiva-class supercomputer for a total of 172,800 seconds‬ (48 hours).

By the time of the incursion, an emergency meeting was summoned by Golden Conclave and consequently corporate lawyer Veronica Albion was assigned to monitor the situation, prompting her to instruct Kenneth Neill to find the author of the cyberstrike, which was later proved to be Duran himself as the sole protagonist of this event. As a result, a long-standing legal conflict was sparked between SORINCO and Lewis & Clark (SORINCO vs Lewis & Clark), triggering SORINCO to order Vincent Duran to stalk and carefuly monitor Veronica Albion by an undertermined period of time.

Duran showed respect and quite often admiration for Albion, which he ocassionally expressed to her by rather odd expresions and references. Furthermore, Veronica Albion herself considered him an ocassional ally rather an enemy, therefore this interpersonal relationship might be considered as some sort of a love-hate friendship.

Regardless of his praise and admiration, Duran considered Albion as an extremely naive person that was often confined to a conventional environment, which proven to be a limitation. As Vincent Duran managed sensitive confidential information and was extremely involved in the criminal underwold, he self-evaluated himself way above the law and conventional structures of control, managing to use as an extraordinary advantage against friends and foes, including Veronica.

When it was finally revealed that Duran worked solely for the Saṃsāra Circle for unknown purposes, an strange but rather enigmatic Neptune's Statue was given to Veronica Albion as a sign of friendship and respect; nonetheless, it was widely believed by Veronica to be an encoded message in order to prevent further consequences regarding the Saṃsāra Circle's final operation against her.

Appearances

 * Chapter IV " Apollyon" (1991) - First appearance.


 * Chapter V "Naamah" (1991) Mentioned only
 * Chapter VI "Pluto" (1993) -
 * Chapter VII "Phobos" (1994)
 * Chapter VIII "Deimos" (1994)
 * Chapter IX "Uroborous" (1994) Mentioned only
 * Chapter X "Neptune" (1995) - Final appearence.

Curiosities

 * Duran's name, Vincent, was inspired by American horror-genre film actor Vincent Price.
 * Vincent's surname, Duran, was inspired by American real-time strategy video-game Starcraft character Samir Duran, an enigmatic and mysterious special operative.
 * Vincent Duran shares some personality traits with G-Man from the Half-life video-game series, including a similar mystery approach and rather odd language.
 * Vincent Duran is the only Eight Ball's character to had a completely unknown background and rather odd ending at the end of the novel.
 * The Neptune's Statue, which was given as a gift to Veronica Albion by Duran at the end of Chapter IX "Uroborous", includes an encoded message.
 * "Mot", a nickname given to Duran by the Samsara Circle, was defined as the ancient Canaanite god of death and the Underworld.
 * The song "One" from American heavy metal band Metallica was quoted and singed several times by the character, therefore being considered as his signature song.