Keshav Bose is an agent with India's Special Branch.
From its description in the first recorded adventure, this organization has an interesting relationship with its controlling agency, the Intelligence Bureau is that "special agents did not need to track expenses, log hours, or clock in for desk duty at HQ. In large part, the IB did not track Special Branch's activity as closely as the rank-and-file because it didn't want to know, officially, what it was doing."
This anonymity extends to Bose's Director and even that man's secretary; neither name was known to Bose or his fellow agents as they were considered "closely guarded state secrets". Visitors to head man's officer had to heed the light above the door as trying to enter without it being lit would bring guards with guns at the ready.
When we encounter Bose initially, he is just back from what sounds like a painful and "nasty" mission in the Khyber Pass which has resulted in several weeks of recovery. While his daily routine consists for some time of painful healing, he at least has a gorgeous place in which to do it seeing as his 38th floor apartment, paid for by the Special Branch, gave him a panoramic view of greater Delhi, not to mention a "grand spa-style jacuzzi tub located at the center of his vaulted master bath".
Bose has been an operative for more than a few years by the time we catch up with him and he enjoys his work immensely even taking the more than occasional pain and suffering as just another cost of doing business. While it might not be possible to say that he was the Special Branch's key agent - such information would never be forthcoming from that group - he was definitely held in very high esteem and when he is sent on a mission, it is confident that he would prevail, assuming he survived.
Bose is unmarried and quite unconcerned with that condition. This allows him freedom in pursuing the attentions of more than a few beautiful women and his bronzed athletic build and glib, easy-going manners as well as his apparently handsome looks has his getting very close indeed to those he pays attention to.
Good Lines:
- Said by a fellow agent to Keshav Bose about another operative, "The connections we make in this work are fleeting at best and tragic at worst".