Dihl

Agent Dihl

Code Name: Dihl (Apache for "blood") 
Affiliation: Medical Department, The Ranch 
Titles & Awards: Chief Medtech 
Birth name: Nalin Iyaaye Chanzee (m. Bryant) 
Ethnicity: Lipan Apache 
Born: Mescalero Apache Reservation, Mescalero, NM
Year of birth: Unknown
Age at time of induction into Agency: Unknown
Current age: Unknown
Height: 5' 8"
Weight: 132lb.
Hair: Black
Eye: Brown
Degrees: BS in Nursing; PhD in Clinical Nursing (universities unknown)

Bio:
Nalin Iyaaye Chanzee met James Robert Bryant in college, and the pair fell in love and married, moving to James' family ranch outside Ozona, Texas. There, they had a single son, Alexander Ian Bryant, who later became Agent Echo after James' death in a ranching accident. Thinking she had lost son and husband within a couple years of each other, Nalin sold the ranch to a holding company run by the Division One Agency and retired to the reservation where she was born and raised. There she became a full-time nurse practitioner and Native healer. She also picked up a doctorate in Clinical Nursing. Subsequently she obtained specialties in gynecology and obstetrics, emergency medicine, and general practice.

It was on the reservation where Agent Omega, Echo's third and final partner, found she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Coordinating with Director Fox and the medlab without telling Echo, who only knew his mother was dying, Omega arranged to have Nalin brought to Headquarters and placed in a regeneration pod while the medlab worked to reverse the cancer and heal Echo's mother. The procedure proved more difficult than expected, as several previously unknown conditions, such as a cardiac irregularity, complicated the process.

Upon successful regeneration, Nalin appeared to be no more than a few years older than her son. Fox offered to make her a medtech for the Agency, and she accepted, becoming Agent Dihl. Eventually she was promoted to the chief medtech at Headquarters, as well as returning to the family land holdings, a functioning 'guest ranch' known simply as The Ranch, which the Agency was keeping in trust for Echo's retirement. She split her time between working as the lead medtech at Headquarters and the medic at The Ranch.

Initially she stayed in the master suite in the main house of The Ranch, but found it brought back too many memories, so one of the family jack-and-jill bedroom complexes was remodeled to be a living suite for her.

Description:
During illness:
"There, in the hospital bed, was a frail older woman. She had high, wide cheekbones, a slightly aquiline nose, and generally strong facial structure—the same structure she had bequeathed to her handsome son—under a deep bronze complexion, slightly weather-beaten skin, and silver-gray hair. Piercing chocolate-brown eyes, so like her son’s, gazed at Omega under a prominent, high brow. This was a woman who had been beautiful before cancer struck; now she was wasting away rapidly.
"The thick, straight gray hair was long and formerly lush, now somewhat dry and straw-like, reaching partway down her back and at that moment, loose, though the woman’s thin hands were endeavoring to braid it with only limited success.
"She was relatively tall for a woman, close to but not quite Omega’s height, she adjudged; but the ill woman was considerably under weight for her height, a condition Omega presumed to be due to her disease."

After regeneration:
“There you are,” a smiling Zebra said, coming out of her office into the main reception area. Behind her were two others—Zarnix in his usual black scrubs and lab coat, and a smiling woman in black medlab scrubs who appeared to be around 40 years of age, her glossy dark hair neatly pulled back and fastened in a long braid, her smooth skin a lovely golden bronze, chocolate brown eyes twinkling. “Echo, I’ve got someone here that you might just remember.”

~Stephanie Osborn, Division One book 6, Texas Rangers