CHASE FULTON

Chase Fulton is an agent of an unnamed American intelligence agency.

If you could call what seems to be an unaffiliated group of old-timers, each with their own specialty and history and immense number of contacts, an agency. They have no set headquarters and it looks like no real supervision but they take insane jobs and find a way to get it done and along the way eliminate a lot of enemies of America. As one of them explains to Fulton when he is first learning of the group, "There are people on this Earth who would take your freedom and that of every American and piss on it before breakfast every day if the opportunity presented itself. Those are the people we extinguish. Those are the ideologies we erase."

Fulton is told when being recruited, "You'll be working for the American people. You'll be paid mostly by the U.S. Government out of funds that are set aside for, well, let's say less-than-usual situations. Occasionally, there are international pots of money floating around that need a place to land. A few especially interesting jobs pay a little more than others. You'll never really know, and honestly, it doesn't really matter." Further, "As far as a boss is concerned, you'll be what most people call a contractor. You'll be asked to do certain unthinkable things from time to time by people you'll never meet. You'll do those things and shortly thereafter, you'll be paid very handsomely. It's as simple as that."

Fulton comes to the group by way of University of Georgia where he was a baseball phenom as a catcher having learned "how to crouch behind home plate and sit relatively still while another human threw baseballs at [him] as hard as he could." A freak accident during a collision with a runner from third severely injured his throwing hand and though it was repaired, it would never be able to do what it used it so his planned MLB career was sidetracked.

Enter one of his college instructors, Dr. Richter, a man who had been monitoring and sculpting Fulton for the job for a couple of years before explaining himself. Fulton, an orphan since he was a little boy, would learn that his parents had been American agents who died in the line of duty and now Fulton, whom Richter felt inherited their innate skillsets, was invited to play.

Also very important to the adventures, and to the life of Fulton, are two quite different females, both of whom are interesting to watch. Penny Thomas is a young woman that Fulton meets in the third adventure who will over the next couple of stories become extremely important in his personal and professional life. And Anya Burinkova, fellow operative, who will prove several times over that there is no one else quite like Anya.

As you can tell by the number of adventures that Chase Fulton has (a good number as of this initial writing and then several more since then), Fulton is a very, very busy man.

I liked Fulton from the beginning. He is interesting, fun, lethal, and fallible. He will go through some pretty amazing changes over the course of his career and I really salute the author for letting a primary character like him go through them.

I also liked very much Penny and how she will stick around, well, for as long as Fulton does.

And then there is Anya. Oh, Anya. What better way of describing her than her simple statement to Fulton upon their first meeting, "I have questions before killing you". That and soon thereafter, she invites him with "Take me to bed, Chase. For now, I will trust you. But only for now". I like her!