Mortimer Hayes

Mortimer Hayes is a member of the Council of Nine who was left alive after Whitney Frost took control.

Biography[]

Council of Nine[]

Mortimer Hayes, who controlled every major newspaper west of the Mississippi River, was a member of the Council of Nine.^[1] As a member of the Council, Hayes used his influence to have two Los Angeles Tribune newspapers preprinted that described reasons for the resignation of Representative Anderson from the race for the Senate.^[2]

New Leadership[]

Hayes gathered with the Council when an emergency meeting was called by Calvin Chadwick; the Council chose to meet in the MacArthur Grand Hotel upstairs from the Congressional fundraising party that Chadwick was having below. Earlier, Hayes danced with a woman like the other party guests, giving the bodyguards time to scan the room to assure that it was safe.

Hayes sat beside Hugh Jones and listened as Chadwick opened the floor of the meeting to his wife, Whitney Frost. Frost tried to explain that,^[1] though the Council had decided not to work with Zero Matter,^[3] she felt that its potential was too great to be ignored. He watched as Frost opened a container which held a rat, changed the creature into Zero Matter, and absorb it into herself. He, like the other members, was astonished by the feat.

Hayes, like the other members of the Council, had already decided prior to the meeting that Frost was to be captured, so, after the display of power, Hayes watched as Frost was captured by two bodyguards who put nooses around her neck and were warned not to touch her. Frost struggled until she sent Zero Matter through the floor towards the bodyguards, changed, and absorbed them. Suddenly, Frost looked toward the table where Hayes, Jones, Thomas Gloucester, and the other six sat; she transformed and killed five of the members, but left Hayes alive, before turning her power on Chadwick.

Frost took control of the Council and told the living members that she spared them because she saw use in them. Frost wanted Hayes to use his influence to create in the newspapers a cover story for the death of the other members. When Jones asked to speak, Hayes begged him not to do such a bold thing; Jones complimented Frost. Hayes left with the other living members when the meeting was adjourned.^[1] The next morning, Frost had a major press conference outside Anvil Studios saying her husband and the others died in a boating accident.^[4]