Winston Smith

Winston Smith is a Navy SEAL who becomes known as Winner and enters the life of Remo Williams, CURE’s field operative. His story follows a failed military mission, a hidden origin, and a difficult transition from military violence to a new family life with Remo and Remo’s father Bill Roam.

At twenty, Winston is selected for a mission against the Stomique warlord Mahout Feroze Anin. The assignment uses a BEM prototype whose voice tells Winston he has made a “perfect kill” after a click. Anin survives, shoots at Winston’s position and forces him to escape. Winston later describes the episode as a failed mission, and his team calls him Winner at the pickup zone.

Winston believes Harold Smith is his uncle and only living relative. When Smith’s letter tells him that support is ending and he should never return to Folcroft, Winston goes AWOL and returns to confront him. At Folcroft, Smith claims that Winston is not his nephew but Remo’s son, and that Smith is his biological grandfather. Winston protests that his life has been a lie; Remo initially rejects the claim.

Smith’s first explanation is specific: he says he paid Folcroft nurse Deborah Dean to have Remo’s child by artificial insemination using a semen specimen taken on Remo’s first day at Folcroft. He says Winston was raised as a ward there, sent to military schools as an adolescent, then became a SEAL. Winston disputes the family account and resents the way Smith concealed his origin.

The Folcroft confrontation is mixed with disturbing perceptions. After Winston fires at Remo, he sees what may be a blur around him and questions whether Chiun is an illusion. Remo himself suspects the whole encounter could be another of the Dutchman’s illusions, then listens to heartbeats and concludes Winston is real. The scene records uncertainty in the moment rather than resolving every extraordinary experience as either dream or fact.

In Unite and Conquer, the man behind the Extinguisher mask identifies himself as Winston Smith, a former Navy member now AWOL. Other characters call him El Extinguirador and “Blaize Fury.” Winston says Winner is his real name, short for Winston.

Remo’s response changes across the books. In Identity Crisis, he flatly denies that Winston is related to him. In Unite and Conquer, he introduces Winston as his son, while acknowledging that the paternity claim rests on rumor and has not been tested by DNA. The novels therefore show Remo accepting him as family without presenting a genetic test.

During the journey with Remo and Chiun, Winston pursues Subcomandante Verapaz and grows attached to Assumpta. In the final helicopter fight, he aims his launcher at Verapaz, but unidentified hands redirect the weapon toward Assumpta, killing her. Winston is pulled from the aircraft; the loss leaves him shaken.

Remo asks Bill to give Winston the stable upbringing he never had. Bill offers him a place on the Sun On Jo reservation and teaches him its peaceful tradition. Winston says he wants a different life, accepts, and chooses to go by Winner, leaving Smith behind as an unconfirmed former name.

White Water later identifies Winner as Freya’s older brother. After Remo brings Freya to the reservation, the siblings wrestle while Remo watches and says he plans to stay with his children. Winner’s story thus continues as part of Remo’s family, even though the earlier book’s biological account remains Smith’s claim and Remo’s acceptance is not a DNA finding.

Unnatural Selection revisits Winston’s origin. Smith again says CURE took Remo’s semen without his knowledge and used it to create a contingency operative; this time he says Winston was the only child born from the sample. The later book confirms that CURE retained frozen material, but does not provide a DNA result for Winston.

The same story introduces a separate possible use of Remo’s biological material. Smith says a stored semen sample may still be viable, and Remo concludes Judith White was trying to obtain it. Later test results show both semen specimens were dead. An epilogue shows a pregnant woman describing a method using frozen blood and skin from under a fingernail. The novel does not show the birth or identify the pregnancy’s outcome, so it establishes no additional child or change to Winston’s account.