Solomon Reed

Solomon Reed is the tritagonist and the optional tertiary antagonist in.

Appearance
Reed is a tall, dark and masculine individual of African descent with short hair, goatee with a connected moustache (a circle beard), and visible cyberware in his temples and neck. He tends to wear a long, dark leather jacket with a red lining inside and a shirt underneath. He wears a long necklace with a circular pendant.

In 2079, Reed seemingly has more cyberware in his hands and arms; with his fingers completely replaced by chrome.

Biography
At some point during his life, Solomon Reed became an experienced NUSA Federal Intelligence Agency agent, having extreme loyalty and incredible sense of duty to his country. His countless covert intelligence missions made him an expert at uncovering spies and netrunners, information extraction, and breaking into the most secure locations.

Song So Mi caught the attention of the FIA and was shortly thereafter recruited. She became Reed's trainee and protégé. At some point, Solomon also recruited braindance actress Alex to join the FIA.

2070
In 2070, during the end the Unification War, Reed and So Mi were on active duty in Night City. Their last mission was to neutralize Murata Ozuru, an admiral of the Arasaka Corporation. Before they could proceed with their assignment, President Myers called them off and to return to the NUSA. Over the course of the dismantling of the FIA operations in Night City, three agents were murdered.

On their last day in NC, to the surprise of Reed and So Mi, Ozaru and his family were killed in an AV sabotage. Despite the circumstances, Reed decided to proceed with evacuating the last FIA agent remaining in NC, Jonas Collinson. So Mi told him that Jonas would not think twice about abandoning them, to which Reed replied not to worry about it. Before leaving, So Mi told him that if he needed anything, he should contact her before she left the city as well. She also told him to remember that honor did not exist in Night City. Reed told her she was probably right.

After confirming the location of Jonas in the No-Tell Motel, Solomon went into his room only to find his colleague tied to a chair in the bathroom. An Arasaka assassin was waiting for him right around the corner, but thanks to Jonas' muffled warnings, Solomon swiftly dealt with him, and after untying his coworker, he punched him. Solomon was convinced the death of Ozuru and his family were Jonas' doing, to which he replied that only Ozuru was supposed to be there, prompting Reed to quote that they should always gather intel and wait before proceeding with a mission, spitting out he should have left Jonas to Arasaka. The young agent admitted the blame, saying he did it only to impress Solomon. Despite Jonas' incompetence, Reed proceeded with the evacuation. At a parking lot, both agents rendezvous with the extraction vehicle, whom refused to take two passengers as they had only paid for one. Reed gave his place to Jonas, who was very grateful for his senior, stating he was a good man. With no plan to leave NC, Solomon contacted So Mi, sending her his coordinates in hopes she would find a way out. At that moment, a surveillance camera identified him. Soon after, a squad of Arasaka troops appeared, though Solomon managed to escape. Finally, So Mi answered back, providing him with an escape plan.

After finding a high vantage point, Solomon jumped onto a maglev train that was going towards Southern California, following So Mi's plan with full confidence. Once safely inside the train, Reed asked his friend about her own plans to ditch the city, to which she replied that the NUSA government was already signing the end of the war. This prompted Solomon to state with a smile that she was the President's favorite, and she deserved the easy way out of Night City since after all, she had saved his life. After a small banter about quesadillas, Solomon mentioned her there was a passenger carrying a gun, though So Mi did not answer back. Thinking he had been made out, Reed tried to exit the train car, only to find out it was shut close. Realizing So Mi's betrayal, Solomon tried to fend the attackers off on his own. He initially succeeded, but two Arasaka troopers eventually overpowered and shot him down.

By unknown means, Solomon survived the encounter, got treatment for several months and declared dead by the NUSA as a cover story, a story fed even to his closest colleagues. Reed eventually infiltrated what would become Night City's Dogtown, where he would act as a sleeper agent.

2077
Reed worked as a bouncer at the Electric Orgasm, a bar owned by Fixer Dino Dinovic, to pay for his bills, as being an FIA sleeper agent did not come with a paycheck.

After Space Force One's crash, Myers instructed mercenary V to make contact with Reed via a specialized analogue telephone located in an abandoned restaurant in Dogtown. Reed meets V for the first time in a basketball court where they would discuss about Myers' welfare.

Reed helped Myers escape Dogtown and worked with V and Alex to rescue Songbird from Hansen's grasp.

At some time during the rescue, Reed found out about Songbird's situation with regards to the Blackwall slowly taking her life, where he vowed to help Songbird with the condition that he must talk to her in person, which he suspects Songbird might not want to do as she had other plans on rescuing herself. Because of this suspicion, Reed came up with the plan to disable Songbird with a high tech ICEbreaker guaranteed to fight against a netrunner as powerful as Songbird.

Ending of Phantom Liberty

 * V decides to help Reed by using the ICEbreaker on Songbird, they successfully retrieve her after she escapes Black Sapphire, gets caught by MaxTac and hides in an abandoned underground Militech facility called Cynosure. Some time after giving her back to the FIA, Reed is relocated away from Dogtown and eventually ended up in a desk job, training new agents. In 2079, followed by V receiving their treatment thanks to Reed's help, Reed offers V a job in FIA.


 * Reed works with the NUSA to hunt down both V and So Mi. He meets his demise after trying to stop V and So Mi in Night City International and Translunar Spaceport, where they met at gunpoint.


 * Reed works with the NUSA to hunt down both V and So Mi. Reed meets them at gunpoint in Night City International and Translunar Spaceport, where they tried to escape. V changes their mind about helping So Mi and gave her back to the FIA. Some time after, Reed is relocated away from Dogtown and eventually ended up in a desk job, training new agents. In 2079, followed by V receiving their treatment thanks to Reed's help, Reed offers V a job in FIA.

Trivia

 * Solomon Reed is portrayed by and modeled after actor Idris Elba, who also provided motion capture for the character.
 * Reed working as a bouncer at Electric Orgasm is a nod to Idris Elba's work as a bouncer for a comedy club before becoming an actor.
 * Reed–Solomon is a type of code used by a variety of applications in order to correct errors in data. This type of code was also used to uncover more about the FF:06:B5 mystery.