Alisha MacAleer is an agent with the CIA.
MacAleer had been vacationing in a village along the Red Sea, there for the scuba diving, which is how she met the American who had a peculiar small device that "look suspiciously like a wrapped condom" but was actually an underwater breathing device. After using it for a couple of hours, she was determined to have one and asked "where on earth she could get for herself" to which the man had said "Langley" while "watching Alisha with careful, honest consideration."
When we first meet her she has been a field agent with the CIA for just over a decade, having been enticed on that day at the beach by Gregory Parker who would become her CIA handler. She had a good number of successful missions to her credit and was considered an excellent operative by a very picky employer.
MacAleer is seemingly haunted by a previous relationship, one in which she almost made the very handsome, very exciting Frank Reichart, a freelance agent who "came through with often brilliant intel, well worth the prices he was paid. But he would work for anyone, as long as they met his price". She described him as "dark-haired, dark-eyed, dangerous" and admits to herself that she once fell hard for the man and almost married him. That proved to be a mistake both personally and professionally.
She will also have an interesting relationship with a computer genius named Brandon Parker who will cause her no end of troubles but who will seem to become as much as a part of her life as he is his father's. As the prodigy son of her handler, Brandon will be a foil and a nemesis and then need to come asking for her help. Like I said, an interesting relationship.
Great Line:
- A terrific opening line in the series: "The problem with being a spy was that when it was as breathlessly exciting as the movies made it look, something had gone horribly wrong."