Karen Bowman is the name of the CIA officer who was assigned as the lead contact for the Ghost Recon team in Operation Kingslayer in 2019. At the time, she had posed in her role as an international aid worker known as Karen Bowman in Bolivia for five years.
She had previously briefed Lt. Colonel Scott Mitchell on ties between the Santa Blanca Drug Cartel and the Free State Amazonas, telling him they may have need of his operators as a last resort.
Her previous experience when she was 33 years old included working in Moscow at the time of the 2008 coup, where it was rumored that the Ghosts had intervened.
She was the lead agent for Ricky Sandoval, and sought revenge after he was killed by the Santa Blanca cartel.
She's being highly recommented by Daniel Sykes to the Ghosts, when it came to black operations.
She worked as a liaison between the Ghosts and the rebels, and interrogated all the buchons that they captured.
Notes
- She goes undercover to Bolivia posing as an aid worker for Hands Over Bolivia.
If the player completes only two of the operations before finishing the game, then they will see an alternate ending.
As they confront El Sueño in his mausoleum, she receives a call from her superiors ordering her to cooperate with him - he had cut a deal with the Department of Justice; in exchange for immunity, he will turn in other cartel heads. Unwilling to accept him getting away with being a criminal, she apologizes to Nomad and then shoots El Sueño in the back with her M9. As a result of her actions, she is publicly disavowed and sentenced to 45 years to life in a federal penitentiary, but she indicates she would not change anything.
However, an alternative ending, which is unlocked for destabilizing the cartel 100% before taking on El Sueño reveals that she in fact accepts the deal and this ends up causing many drug empires across the globe to be taken out thanks to his information. Bowman reveals that once all of the cartels were taken out, he would be sent to prison where she believed he would eventually escape from and start up another cartel just like Santa Blanca in a different country.
She continues to act as the contact in Fallen Ghosts, although the team loses contact with her after crashing, suggesting the ending in which Sueño survives is canon.
Behind the scenes
- Players who use the Ghost Recon network app can step into her role as she starts the Kataris 26 rebels.
- She is played by Austin Highsmith in War Within the Cartel, while she is voiced by Jane Perry in the game.
- As revealed in Operation Watchman, Karen Bowman is simply a cover name and her real first name may be Linda.
- In Special Operation 2, it is revealed she stays in contact with Team Rainbow operative Valkyrie, and she asked Nomad's team to assist when Caveira went "off the reservation" in Bolivia.