Agent 47

Agent 47 is a highly skilled assassin employed by the International Contract Agency.

Origins
Agent 47 is a genetically enhanced human being, his DNA is the culmination of decades of secret research into gene augmentation. His creation was funded by five criminal masterminds who donated their own DNA to the project.

In the 1950's, five men of various nationalities began serving in the same unit of the French Foreign Legion, namely, Otto Wolfgang Ort-Meyer, Lee Hong, Pablo Belisario Ochoa, Frantz Fuchs, and Arkadij Jegorov. After finishing their service, Ort-Meyer started up a mental institution in Romania as a cover for genetic experiments, while all the other four became major crime lords and terrorists. In exchange for research funding, Ort-Meyer decided to provide his former comrades with donor organs harvested from clone bodies, which could extend their longevity. Therefore, even in all of the terrorists' 60s, they looked much younger.

Dr. Ort-Meyer's goal was to create "perfect assassins" who could be as physically fit as humanly possible and were capable of obeying orders with devotion and unquestioning loyalty. Dr. Ort-Meyer tried to make his discoveries public before the 47 clone was created, however, he is discredited as a scientist by his peers as they thought that Ort-Meyer's radical theories were insane.

Infancy and Tube
Agent 47 was created on September 5, 1964, in Ort-Meyer's asylum in Romania. He had the numbers "640509-040147" tattooed on the back of his head ("64-05-09" is the date of creation, "04" marks he is part of Series IV, "01" marks that he is the first, and "47" is to represent that he is the 47th), followed several years later by a Universal Product Code. Dr. Ort-Meyer saw 47 as his first genetically complete success and gave him slightly more attention, even though he had other specimens to consider.

From ages five to seven, 47 was quiet and showed little social interaction. His only display of affection was towards a runaway laboratory rabbit he adopted on August 21, 1970, displeasing Dr. Ort-Meyer.[3] However, it died on May 2, 1972. Ort-Meyer noticed 47 crying and was surprised, as he'd never seen any of his clones do so before. Five years later, he also showed affection to a pet mouse. He cared for the mouse for about a month, until it was killed by a fellow clone as a cruel prank.

Subsequently, after (or during) 47's creation, five more 47 clones were made.

ICA
According to 47's ICA file from the Hitman: Absolution trailers, the International Contract Agency first took an interest in 47's activities in 1998 and enrolled him in 2000.

Birth of the Hitman portrays an incident in late 1999, when multiple contracts were out on the life of Bricolage Technology founder Franklin Marchand - publicly known as a producer of satellite technology, he had a side business producing chemical weapons in Afghanistan, and a leak at one of his secret plants killed at least 500 people in the immediate area. He was set to make a rare public appearance at Place de la Concorde in Paris to announce a relief fund for impoverished people in Afghanistan; 47's unknown client insisted that Marchand die in an apparent accident, telling him "No other circumstances tolerated. If Marchand dies any other way, he'll be propped up as a martyr." Meanwhile, someone else had hired the ICA to do away with Marchand, and they sent a four-member team to gun him down. 47 subdued the ICA team in rapid succession, then held a cab driver at gun point to make him run down Marchand with his car. Afterwards, Diana met with 47 in a bar and delivered ICA's offer to audition him, and strongly recommended to the ICA that they hire him.

The prologue of HITMAN portrays 47's audition for the ICA, conducted by training director Erich Soders and handler Diana Burnwood at a top-secret facility in a remote, snowy region. 47 went through rigorous training programs, psychological evaluations, and a thorough background check, although they found very little about 47's previous life. While Burnwood believed that 47 would be an invaluable asset to the ICA, Erich Soders was very reluctant to recruit 47 because of how little they knew about him, telling Diana, "Frankly, it's as if the earth just spat him out." Soders suspected 47 of lying about coming from a Romanian asylum, ironically because 47 covered his tracks perfectly. Soders grew displeased with this lack of information on Agent 47's background, as there was nothing from 47's past that the ICA could use as leverage against him, and administered the strictest possible tests on 47 in hopes of being able to reject him. Learning of this plot Diana also chose to "bend the rules" and helped 47 to pass his audition. 47 was then made a full agent of ICA and Diana Burnwood was assigned to him as his handler.