Dr. Perseus Friend is a major antagonist of the Young Bond novel series, serving as the secondary antagonist of SilverFin and the main antagonist of By Royal Command. He is a cold and cruel Nazi biologist who was infamous for producing biological weapons, and working under Randolph Hellebore's command.
Biography[]
Background[]
Perseus Friend was the son of Professor Friend and an unnamed mother, of Irish and Russian origins. During the Great War, Professor Friend developed toxic gasses for the war. After the war, Professor Friend's research was banned, and he traveled around the world until he settled in Russia. Perseus works with his father to create biological weapons for the Soviet government. They both eventually accepted a job offer from Lord Randolph Hellebore, but in order to keep them from telling their secrets, the Soviet government gassed the scientists to death. However, only Perseus survived and his father was killed. He moved to Scotland afterwards.
SilverFin[]
Perseus works on the SilverFin project alongside Hellebore, an serum which enhance the human's strength and stamina. They were able to synthesize it in pill form, but it had a side effect of increasing aggression and decreasing intelligence. Furthermore, experimentations with injectable serum were less successful, resulting in Algar Hellebore, Hellebore's brother and one of the test subjects, being turn into a hideous mutant.
Perseus had no interest in anything but his research and National Socialism, whose views on eugenics he found tantalizing. Perseus would use a local boy named Alfie Kelly as his guinea pig of his experiments. However, he quickly died when it was injected for a little while. At Easter, James Bond was looking for Kelly and was captured, Hellebore and Perseus decided to experiment on him. However, this would backfire when Bond used his stamina to escape from the cell. He returned alongside George Hellebore, Hellebore's son, and destroyed the lab. Perseus is last seen running to his room and recover his work.
By Royal Command[]
Perseus was disfigured by the fire, but he survived by taking the remaining SilverFin serum. He fled to Iceland first, then Norway, eventually Switzerland where he went under treatment for months. During his time, he met fellow National Socialist spy Vladimir Wrangel, who sought out the doctor due to his working ties with Soviets, Germans and British.
Perseus made his way to the top German intelligence apparatus, and he participated in Operation Snow-Blind. It was a plot to inspire the British people into revolting against their leaders with a Communist Front, assassinating King George V and installs the fascistic King Edward VIII on the throne, in order to start a war with Russia and convert the continent to the cause of Adolf Hitler. To do so, Friend goes under the alias "Obsidian" and attempt to get close to the prince with replacing Graf von Schlick, his distant relative.
Perseus had von Schlick killed and took his identity, then killed von Schlick's wife to prevent her from blowing his cover. He visits Langton-Herring estate where Bond and Edward met. Bond failed to recognize Friend, but the operation failed when Bond disarmed the fertilizer bomb, and escaped along with Roan across Europe. However, Roan betrayed him by leading him to Friend's ambush and both were captured. In revenge for their past encounter, Perseus planned to skin Bond alive while forcing Roan to watch. However, Bond escaped the cells by the windows and confronted Perseus in the surgery room. Bond gets the upper hand by stabbing Perseus with numerous tools, and escaped the castle as it fell apart.
In the last stand, Perseus aims from a distance and shot Bond, but before he could finish him, Perseus was shot and killed by Colonel Irina Sedova.