THE PIRANHA

In 2003, Chuck caught his college roommate, Bryce Larkin, trying to plant test answers under his dorm bed. Three months later, Chuck understood why when, the day after his graduation, he was recruited into the CIA. At first, it had seemed like an opportunity to do some good and, at first, he hadn’t understood by Bryce had wanted to keep him away from that life. Then they put a gun in his hand, they told him that they wanted him for a top secret program, the Intersect, but first he had to prove that he was a real agent. They told him he’d go to a city he’d always dreamed of seeing, and given him a photo of his target. On the eve of his Red Test, Chuck hacked into the CIA mainframe and erased his records. On the day that he was meant to murder a young woman, Chuck Bartowski ceased to exist.

His name is Charles Carmichael now. Amongst hackers, though, he goes by the ‘Piranha’. Chuck joined the CIA because he thought that meant that he’d be putting the dangerous and corrupt behind bars. Even before they’d asked him to kill a nameless woman who, for all he knew, might have been entirely innocent, might have been someone’s love, someone’s wife, he’d begun to think they were corrupt. So he’d went into business for himself, taking down the evil and dangerous on his own and hitting the rich and powerful where it hurt - in their pockets. He likes to think that he inspired the show Leverage. He didn’t.