Lorne Cash and Maxine 'Max' London are agents of E.C.H.O.
That interesting acronym for an intelligence organization stands for the Emergency Count Hostilities Organization. As soon to be an ECHO agent Cash admits to London when she approaches him to help in an urgent matter, "That's catchy." She does not seem to appreciate or share his amusement with the comment but then again, she will be by far the more serious of the two when they eventually start working together.
When we first meet both of these agents, Cash is happily no longer working in the Intelligence business and is the proud owner of a very nice drinking establishment (okay, he calls it a bar) named Alibi. We learn early that his departure from his previous career as a spy, and apparently it was an eventful one despite his relatively still young age, was not voluntary but rather was the result of the end of the Cold War and thus the end of people like him. He shouldn't be called bitter about his dismissal but neither is he happy to be approached again.
London is already a member of ECHO and has been for some time and clearly enjoys her being out in the field and in the action as much as Cash pretends he is quite pleased to be long out of it. She has considerable experience in numerous activities which make her worthy of being out in the field, including a stint in the military, but she has nowhere nearly as much field training or knowledge as Cash. She is highly skilled with all manner of technologies, she is very deadly when it comes to martial arts, is practically fearless in stressful situations, and has a photographic memory. Her boss at ECHO teases she memorizes all sorts of things, "Encyclopedias, classified files, cookbooks" to which London admits, "It helps me relax."
The headquarters ECHO has in the city has a cool entryway at the end of a long alley. It is a brick wall which will only open when an approaching vehicle exceeds 100 mph. Luckily there is a grappling hook, ala aircraft carrier landings, to stop entering cars, assuming they have the proper attachment.
Meeting the head of ECHO, a man named Micah Simms whom Cash knows well enough to greet with his first name, Cash expressed his curiosity about ECHO with "Didn't we all get downsized? You must have seen it. It was in all the newspapers. The end of the Cold War. All the spies got canned. The budget got balanced. No more East. No more West. [indicating the ECHO headquarters] No more big rooms full of cool stuff."
That is when Simms explains that ECHO was created under Presidential order (and financing) because with the layoffs that Cash mentioned, a lot of now unemployed former agents were putting their talents and experience on the free market. Cash is needed to help because some of those disgruntled ex-operatives have a lot of anger and a lot of skill at expressing it.
Oh, one other interesting fact. While it did not keep Cash from getting canned when the big layoffs happened, he does seem to be quite friendly with the sitting President, good enough to have him on speed dial.
Good Line:
Said to Simms by Cash, "I tell you, Micah. I have a lot of feelings. I just can't think of one that's any of your business."