She delivers Valkyr to the Punchinello Crime Family, one of the largest Mafia families in New York, and allows the mobsters to promote the substance as the newest designer drug for the drug addicts. Over the next three years, Horne becomes a more and more influential figure. Max kills the test subjects, whom were believed to be drug abusers addicted to Valkyr and, after his family's funeral, transfers to the Drug Enforcement Administration to solve the Valkyr Case. Horne personally phones the Payne Residence and Max responds to her call, but Horne closes the line, saying that she cannot help Max. In August 1998, the psychotic test subjects murder Michelle and her infant daughter, Rose Payne, while Max, Michelle's husband and a detective in the New York City Police Department, arrives too late to save his family. Three test subjects were injected with high dosages of Valkyr and sent to the Payne residence in New Jersey. Officially, she authorized a field test to observe and study the Project Valhalla test subjects in an urban setting. However, Horne found out that the project was compromised and decided to silence Michelle by eliminating her and her family. Michelle did not realize that the documents were extremely sensitive, assuming that the dossier was 'a mix-up at the courier service'. 'Is this the Payne residence?' ―Nicole Horne phones Max Payne.Ī part-time employee of the District Attorney's office named Michelle Payne received an army dossier on Project Valhalla on her desk.

The Valkyr Case Main article: Valkyr Case Payne residence massacre However, Horne continued the research unauthorized and took control of the Deep Six facility. In 1995, four years later, the results were considered 'unsatisfactory' and Project Valhalla was officially cancelled by the military. The scientific research in Deep Six, a military bunker located under a steel foundry known as Cold Steel, manufactured the hallucinogenic agent Valkyr, but the experiments proved that Valkyr turned test subjects into homicidal psychotic killers with no sense of reality. Woden and the Inner Circle were also involved in the project. She was once a member of the secret Inner Circle, along with Alfred Woden, but at some point prior to 1991, she left the group, becoming an enemy to the group.ĭuring 1991, Nicole Horne became involved in Project Valhalla, a research program conducted by the United States Army, to develop a chemical substance to enhance human stamina in order to improve soldiers with superior endurance and morale. How she became involved with the government and the project was never revealed. Nicole was born in 1948, but nothing else is known about her life prior to Project Valhalla.

Max payne 3 voice actors