The Attack on William Rawlins was an failed assassination attempt on William Rawlins by the Punisher.
Background[]
- "Agent Orange knew we would go after Bennett next, and they were waiting for us. They set a trap, but we saw it coming. They think they out-thought us. It's the other way around. You understand that? If he calls anyone or moves, we're gonna know it."
- ―Micro to Punisher[src]
Seeking any intel on Agent Orange, Punisher approached Gunner Henderson who served with him in Cerberus Squad and leaked the footage of Ahmad Zubair's execution to Micro. Henderson informed him that during the Operation Cerberus, Agent Orange ran a secret heroin trafficking using the dead bodies of U.S. soldiers, and it was overseen by Morty Bennett. At that moment, Rawlins dispatched a group of Anvil agents to Kentucky to eliminate Henderson, but they were met with opposition from both him and Punisher. During the firefight, Punisher and Henderson were able to kill all Anvil agents, although Henderson did not survive, while Rawlins found out that Frank Castle was still alive.[2]
Punisher attacks Morty Bennett
Punisher and Micro then worked on a plan to get to Bennett, so Micro could hack into his phone and use it to find Agent Orange. Now knowing that Castle was alive, Rawlins was convinced that Bennett would be Castle's next target and decided to keep him in the dark, knowing that Bennett is cowardly enough to either run away or speak. Punisher successfully infilitrated into Fort Bryon and attacked Bennett, while Billy Russo and his men were waiting to ambush him. He kept Bennett alive and while Micro was hacking into his phone, Punisher engaged with Russo and his men, but as he did not know who they were and thought they were the soldiers, he did not kill anybody.
Once Micro successfully gained access to Bennett's phone, Punisher incapacitated Russo and rush to flee from the facility, having to shoot one soldier non-lethally. Meanwhile, Russo brought Bennett to CIA Safe House and Bennett realized that he and Rawlins knew about Castle hunting for him and was furious that they used him as a bait. As Bennett told him that he did not say anything to Castle, Rawlins arranged for Bennett to escape from the United States under new identity so he would be save from Castle's rampage. In reality, Rawlins ordered Russo to get rid of Bennett as he proved himself to be too much of a liability and knew too much about Operation Cerberus, which Russo carried out.[1]
Attack[]
Punisher locks on William Rawlins
Micro was able to locate Morty Bennett's phone signal that he left with William Rawlins and found out that he was at CIA Safe House. Arriving at the location, Punisher took the position outside with a sniper rifle, watching the windows until he saw Rawlins, who was receiving a call from Billy Russo that Bennett has been dealt with. Punisher recited One Batch, Two Batch, preparing to finally kill a man who was responsible for the deaths of his family, before taking a shot. However, despite Rawlins being in his line of fire, the bullet did not reach him due to the safehouse having bulletproof windows that saved Rawlins' life. Before Punisher could do anything, the alarm was sound, so he had to escape despite Rawlins still surviving him.[1]
Aftermath[]
Micro identifies William Rawlins
- "I've been running the image from your scope. Found him."
"Holy shit. Yeah, you did."
"William "Bill" Rawlins III. He's the Director of Covert Operations for the CIA. Now it's starting to make sense." - ―Micro and Frank Castle[src]
Back at their hideout, Micro analyzed the picture from Frank Castle's sniper scope and after running several searches, he found about that Agent Orange was actually William Rawlins. Micro became concerned that Rawlins was anticipating them looking for him and he could have accidentally blown their cover by searching up Rawlins' file, but as Castle pointed out no one came after them, meaning Rawlins had to keep a low profile. Micro searched up the recent news and found out that the Fort Bryon incident was not reported, although New York Bulletin wrote an article on Morty Bennett, whose body was discovered recently.[3]
Micro later proposed to give Rawlins' name to Dinah Madani, so the Homeland Security could handle him and Micro could finally reunite with his family. Castle was initially against the idea, as he wanted Rawlins dead and not in jail, but eventually accepted Micro's offer. However, Madani was off the work after the failed sting operation that took the life of Sam Stein, and Castle went after Lewis Wilson who had become a terrorist and threatened Karen Page. As Castle was preoccupied with Wilson, Micro personally approached Madani and gave her the information on Rawlins as a man in charge of Operation Cerberus who was responsible for Ahmad Zubair's death.[4]