Nicole Horne

Evil-doer
Full Name	Nicole Horne
Alias	The Witch
Origin	Max Payne
Occupation	CEO of Aesir Corporation
Powers / Skills	Lots of Money, Extremely high intelligence, her own personal army
Hobby	Making Money by whatever means she can, killing people that get in her way
Goals	Keep her business successful, Kill Michelle Payne and her baby (succeeded), Kill Max Payne
Crimes	No information
Type of Villain	Business Villain / Big Bad / Complete Monster

“	I'm afraid I cannot help you.	„
	~ Nicole Horne

Nicole Horne is the main antagonist in the video game Max Payne. She is a cold-hearted, sadistic, and unethical psychopath businesswoman, who is responsible for not only the crisis in the game, but is directly responsible for the all the tragedy in Max Payne's life. 

Bio

Nicole is the Chief Executive Officer of the Aesir Corporation, and one of the most powerful women in New York City. As the CEO she orchestrated mass development of a hallucinogenic drug known as Valkyr. Which often times makes its users become lunatic killers. The drug was initially produced to be a performance enhancer, meant to be used by the U.S. Military, but the drug had dangerous side effects.

Before the events of the game. Max's wife Michelle, who works at DA's office, discovered information about the drug and its ties to the Aesir Corporation, and began investigating it. Infuriated, Nicole sent a group of drug addicts high on Valkyr to butcher Nicole and her family.

Max, an NYPD cop, had arrived home from work to discover his home had been broken into. Max's first encounter with Nicole happened over the phone, as Nicole calls the Payne residence and informs Max she can't help him. Max ends up killing the addicts, but his wife and infant daughter are already shot to death.

Three years later, Max starts investigated Valkyr with the DEA with his friend Alex Balder. During their undercover work, Alex is killed, and the NYPD believe Max is the killer.

Max discovers that Mafia kingpin, Don Punchinello is behind the murder and is the one attempting to frame Max. When Max raids Punchinello's home, Punchinello pleads for his life saying that he was just doing what Horne had ordered him to do. Seconds later, Horne's personal army, known as the Killer Suits, breaks in and kills Punchinello, and capture Max. Nicole injects Maw with a large dose of Valkyr in an sadistic attempt to kill him. Max survives after a strong hallucination.

Max discovers Nicole is the one pulling all the strings, manipulating the Mafia and many other officials in the New York area in order to get her way. He also discovers she is the one responsible for the murder of his wife and child.

As Max pursues Nicole on to a rooftop in the city, Nicole attempts to escape in her helicopter. Max shoots the wires holding up a massive antenna. The antenna falls onto the Chopper resulting in the end of Nicole Horne's evil empire.

Trivia

• Nicole Horne may well be one of the most evil antagonists in video game history. She will stop at nothing to keep her unethical and illegal business flourishing, even if it means killing innocent people and children. She also has no compassion for even her own minions, seeing them as simply pawns and killing them if she deems it necessary.
• Nicole Horne has many similarities to Darth Sidious, beside both being rich, sophisticated geniuses, both are sadistic monsters who have no sense of right and wrong, who manipulate and kill their underlings in order to achieve their evil goals. Both keep their own involvement hidden in their own schemes, and let their pawns take the fall when necessary. They also both have their own personal armies of completely obediant soilders.