Dick Thornby is an agent with the Subsidiary.
If you haven't heard of that organization, you should consider yourself lucky. The Subsidiary is considered, by the very few who know of its existence, "the most secret of all the secret espionage agencies in the world". Heading the outfit is Dee Tammany, a tough-as-nails former agent herself who could hold her own with most even considering she had reached an age where most field agents considered retirement.
You might have heard of Catalyst Crisis Consulting, the legitimate front for the group, a management consulting company which "provided an extensive menu of analytical and security services to companies, governments, and wealthy individuals around the world". Being a real for-profit business, it had true reasons for sending personnel all over the globe which in turn meant it had actual, verifiable covers for its agents.
Thornby is one of those agents and to the outside world, that means he goes who knows where at a moment's notice to help solve an emergency. The types of troubles he actually confronts, however, are far from what normal people would imagine. Instead of handling a stalled negotiation or a broken remote sanitation system, Thornby and his fellow agents deal with international terrorism and dangers that could bring down governments. He has been doing it for a lot of years and he is very good at his job, if you overlook his perceived inclination to blow things up a lot.
But for all his successes and his experience, one thing Thornby is not is someone you might think of as a super-spy. He is not glamorous or dashing or casting off rejected lovers right and left while sipping an exotic drink at a casino. He looks and acts like an average guy which is one of the ways he has been able to live and work as long as he has.
In keeping with being average, Thornby has a wife named Melanie whom he still loves and who he hopes still loves him though that relationship has soured a good deal over the years thanks to his sudden departures. He has a teenage son, Seth, who, as a young boy, thought the world of his dad but now that he has moved past puberty is pulling further and further away and Thornby has no idea how to deal with it. Having a family provides him an added incentive to do what he does but also weighs on him knowing that each mission draws him that much more out of their lives.