Simon Turner

"Don't you love your country?"

―Simon Turner, to Indiana Jones^[src]

Simon Turner was an American patriot, World War II veteran and high-ranking CIA operative.

In 1947, Turner and Sophia Hapgood, one of his agents, moved to undercut and hijack a Soviet excavation of the Infernal Machine by Doctor Gennadi Volodnikov thought to be an effort to find something that surpassed the atomic bomb. When it became apparent that fieldwork was not the Russian's forte, the spies recruited archaeologist Indiana Jones to retrieve the missing components of the vast device.

However, Turner's sense of patriotism combined with Cold War paranoia had become dangerous to those in his orbit. He betrayed and attempted to sacrifice Hapgood for the good of the cause then convinced himself that Jones was plotting a power grab to single-handedly take over the world, leaving the archaeologist little recourse but to end the threat of Turner with a bullet.

Biography[]

US service[]

An American patriot,^[1] Simon Turner was involved with military intelligence as early as World War II when he parachuted into Nazi-occupied France and aided the resistance effort.^[2]

During the Cold War,^[1] Turner was one of the first to join the CIA upon being established by President Harry Truman^[2] and was a fervently outspoken critic of the Soviet Union,^[1] particularly as he believed no one could get rich in their socioeconomic system.^[2]

By the mid-1940s, Turner had become the superior of Sophia Hapgood in the CIA chain-of-command.^[1] Having had her own brushes with the supernatural, including once being possessed by the Atlantean god wannabe Nur-Ab-Sal in 1939,^[3] Hapgood investigated unusual Soviet activity and Turner learned of her experiences.^[1]

Cold War paranoia[]

By 1947, Simon Turner and Sophia Hapgood became aware of a Soviet excavation for the Infernal Machine in Babylon led by Doctor Gennadi Volodnikov. There, Turner realized that progress was limited by Volodnikov's inexperience out in the field and was able to stall the dig further by lifting an ancient gear out from under the Soviets. The CIA agent gave the piece to Hapgood who took it to Utah where she recruited archaeologist Indiana Jones, an old friend of hers.^[1]

Simon Turner meeting for the first time. — Simon Turner meeting Indiana Jones for the first time.

While investigating the enemy dig site back in Iraq, Jones got caught. Held at gunpoint by a Soviet soldier, Jones was saved from capture by the sudden arrival of Turner who shot the soldier dead. Turner showed further support for his fellow American by giving Jones the key to a nearby door. However, by instinct, Jones never fully trusted the Company's man.^[1]

Turner convinced Jones to retrieve a golden statuette of Marduk for him, downplaying his interest as merely being that of a passionate "art collector". When Jones discovered the first destination on a journey in search of four missing parts to the machine, scattered around the world thousands of years prior, Turner saw little wisdom in infiltrating Soviet territory, but Jones went off on his adventure anyway, eventually succeeding in collecting each component.^[1]

As he acquired the final artifact in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan while in the presence of Hapgood, Jones and Turner crossed paths again. Dr. Volodnikov also resurfaced but urged Jones to give him the machine parts as only he knew how to properly handle them. Forced to make a decision, Jones relinquished the pieces to the Americans who abandoned him and headed back to Babylon to repair the Infernal Machine.^[1]

Death[]

Simon Turner, Sophia Hapgood and Indiana Jones reunited in Babylon. There, Hapgood was beginning to question Turner's true motives, suspecting that he was being led by his own extremist ideology against the Soviet Union and might therefore recklessly use the Infernal Machine's power for personal gain. Worried about Hapgood's loyalty and Jones' defensiveness over her, coupled with his beliefs that the Earth and Babylonian god Marduk would need an "ambassador" with knowledge on spirits, Turner shoved his subordinate into the cage that acted as a portal into an alternate reality called the Aetherium due to her past experiences with Nur-Ab-Sal. He then grabbed hold of Taklit's Part of the device, which had the power to render its user invisible. Jones confronted Turner, who believed his actions were justified in order to use the machine to secure an American victory over the Soviet Union. After refusing Jones' demands to release Hapgood, Turner activated Taklit's Part and vanished. Unfortunately, Turner had installed the machine parts in the wrong sockets, forcing Jones to go about safely returning them to their correct locations within the device.^[1]

While reinstalling the parts, Jones encountered Turner in another chamber of the Infernal Machine. There, the CIA agent revealed that he was convinced that Jones was plotting to take over the world once the red menace of Communism had been dealt with and attempted to outmaneuver and incapacitate Jones using his invisibility powers and a pistol, despite Jones' remarks that the world had dealt with enough dictators by that point. Turner taunted Jones, yelling insults and discharging his weapon, while fading in and out of view. Jones drew his own pistol and, after a brief exchange, shot Turner through the heart, killing him instantly and recovering Taklit's Part from next to Turner's body.^[1]

Legacy[]

However, because of Simon Turner's actions, Sophia Hapgood was carried into the Aetherium, forcing Indiana Jones to follow her in to save her from the malevolent deity Marduk and its fusion with her, whose defeat triggered the destruction of the Infernal Machine, claiming Turner's remains in the process while Jones and Hapgood survived and met with Gennadi Volodnikov, who agreed that with the Machine's destruction, maybe there were things that men like Turner shouldn't know.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Cool and competent at his job, Simon Turner was always near the action but rarely in it. He despised all supporters of Communism, thinking no one could get rich on their system and that was why the United States of America were in need of men like him.^[2]