Frank Ryder is an agent with the Omega Unit.
The Omega Unit is a hush-hush division in MI-6, covertly performing its missions because those missions were almost invariably potentially illegal. "To academia, Omega referred to the last letter of the Greek alphabet, but to the Establishment, the last resort. Only the Chief of SIS and a handful of others were aware of its very existence. Omega had evolved within the folds of the Secret Intelligence Service more from necessity than from design to primarily combat the ever increasing terrorist threat without the constraints of the law." The simple concept was that killing was "the only thing understood by fanatical terrorism and wayward government-sponsored criminal activities. Quasi-international justice and legal niceties could not be allowed to stand in the way when protecting the Realm".
Obviously that meant that the members of the Omega Unit were while doing their jobs actually breaking the law. "Ryder knew the risks and fully understood the legal consequences of his role. Should he get caught, the Establishment would deny all knowledge of his existence."
Now at 28 years of age when we first meet Ryder, he is pleased to be a part of the Omega Unit as one of its few agents. He came to the organization via his several years in the British Army, first with the 1st Battalion Parachute Regiment and then, a couple years later, with the 22nd SAS. Ryder joined the army at 18 even though he could have headed to university considering his "aptitude for languages and sport". "The army, however, gave him the opportunity to discover his full potential; it gave him discipline and purpose. He learned to channel his newfound energy and knowledge into an effective fighting machine. The SAS gave him the independence he had always craved and, strangely enough, satisfaction despite the fact that killing other humans was part of the job."