Johnny Swift is a British diplomat.
He is not a spy, or at least he does not start out that way and he would never aspire to be one; however exciting it might seem at time, it also sounded dangerous and that is something he would naturally avoid. That might sound to some that Swift is a bit of a coward and that is not what I want to convey. On the other hand, Swift is never one to demonstrate anything one might call exceptional bravery.
If one were to search for adjectives to describe this beginner diplomatic clerk, a word like young jumps out as does brash. After only a moment more considering, additional terms like lecherous and foolhardy would pop up as well. Thinking a bit more and considering what we quickly learn of his behaviour, we would probably come across degenerate and disgraceful and duplicitous.
Those are all mostly derogatory, of course. There are some not so demeaning. Handsome, playful, carefree, glib, personable. Those are positive ways that Swift possesses just as he has the less than pleasant traits. Suave, smooth, flirtatious - those two. And resourceful. And darned lucky.
We follow the interesting 'career' (note the quotes) of Swift starting when that man is 19 years old. The century is almost that age, the activities we watch him perform starting in 1914 just before the disastrous assassination which will bring about the Great War. We get an excellent look at his considered thought processes in the very opening pages of the first recorded adventure as Swift sits at a roulette table and places another soon-to-be losing wager on 19. It almost lands there but then doesn't and Swift, seasoned gambler that he isn't, decides to redouble his bet on the same number because "statistically, he knew that his number would come up eventually". Was it good or bad that the money he had lost so far was not his but instead his supervisor's, Sir George, which he was to have deposited as he routinely did in that man's Swiss bank account?
The foolishness of his gambling, followed immediately with a daliance with Sir George's young, beautiful wife, would be just part of the reason why, when someone was needed for a dangerous undercover job infiltrating a pack of murderous, undisciplined nihilists whose recklessness might start a war, Sir George thinks of Swift.
And that is how Swift, a diplomat, becomes Swift, a clandestine operative. Believe me, it wasn't his choice.