Paul Blaine is an agent with COVERT.
This little-known governmental intelligence organization was established in the late 80's to handle cases that the CIA, which was receiving a large amount of undesired media attention, could not. The directive was to "fly under the radar". The new department was called Coordinating Organization for Very Energetic Response Tactics or COVERT.
The general asked by the President to put COVERT together and run it was greatly honored by being hand-selected to take on such an important mission. At least until he learned not too long afterwards that the President, being a tad absent-minded, was creating these new departments, it seemed, almost weekly. COVERT was not that special. Just another member of the alphabet soup and hardly noticed by anyone for any reason.
Not being noticed is certainly a good thing, though, no matter how it might make the department head feel, when the people in the department are not exactly the kind you would want handling a sensitive mission. Truth be told, the previous sentence could have done without the adjective 'sensitive'. No mission is something you would want being seen to by the likes of Paul Blaine. Which may be why, prior to the first recorded adventure, there had not been an assignment for three years.
Blaine works for COVERT for a living and for the excitement but, since as mentioned there had not been a mission for some time, the excitement level has not been, well, anything. But he loves the "work" and the small but nice income he earns thinking about doing it and so life is alright though how he survives being killed by his fellow employees is a mystery. Blaine is not stupid by any means but he gives pedantic a really bad name.