Agents of Monarch

By H.R.C. Stanley


Mark Russell

Date of Birth: 17th September 1965

Nationality: United States

Monarch Activation: 5th April 2007

Occupation: Senior anthrozoologist

Areas of Expertise: Wildlife behavioural science, zoomusicology, biocommunication, apex predation

Education: George Walton Academy, Georgia; University of California, Berkeley - MS ethology; and PHD biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - PHD Bioacoustics

Next of Kin: George Russell [Father], Emma Russell [Wife - missing], Andrew Russell [Son - deceased], and Madison Russell [Daughter]

Background:

Mark Russell was always better at listening than talking. His lifelong fascination with the sounds made by the animal kingdom began as a small boy born in Buffalo, New York and raised mostly in Warren Valley, Ohio, holding endless conversations with his family's beloved German Shepherd, convinced he could understand every noise she made. Growing into a highly-respected, multi-discipline expert in the fields of animal behaviour and communication, he was the happiest in the company of the wild.

He first came to Monarch's attention as co-lead on Project ORCA along with his wife, Doctor Emma Russell. Falling in love to the music of nature, the hotshot MIT post-grad duo had together become one of the leading authorities in the field of bioacoustics, jokingly nicknaming their sonic lab the "Planet of Sound" in honour of their shared passion for the Massachusetts band Pixies. The ORCA represented an evolutionary leap in inter-species communication. Initially developed to keep whales and dolphins away from shorelines, poachers and predators, the crowning achievement of the device was an ultrasonic wave map that could detect, transmit and translate audio at any frequency with remarkable speed and accuracy. When they first activated the prototype, Monarch immediately detected the signal and converged on the lab to investigate, ultimately giving Mark and Emma the opportunity to answer their true calling.

As an avid outdoorsman, Mark always preferred pure field work over the political machinations of Monarch and its remit to find a way for humanity to coexist with monsters. Nevertheless, he followed the dream he shared with his wife to communicate with nature at its most extraordinary, even if he feared that some aspects of the natural world should always remain beyond our understanding. However, because of the loss of Andrew in the San Francisco battle of 2014, Mark resigned from Monarch and separated with his wife. While his relationship with his daughter could be described as distant at best, he does maintain limited communication with Madison, who primarily lived with her mother.


To be continued...