Rick Godwin is an agent with MI5.
We are given a terrific introductory paragraph into the man in the second paragraph of the first recorded adventure; this coming just after being told that "it was the fifty-first minute of the joint MI5-MI6 operation when Rick Godwin knew he had blood on his hands".
"Thirty years old and a would-be professional runner who switched from competitive sport to intelligence, Rick Godwin had never liked MI6. His duties in MI5 were cerebral and all based on immediate concerns in the UK. Whether he was getting close to the wife of a rogue diplomat, pouring over thousands of witness statements in the wake of a terrorist attack or spending six months in a Neo-Nazi cell run out of a Midlands pub, he enjoyed the sense of putting effort into a task and immediately seeing results. Working on home soil also meant that he was restricted by laws that seemed to disappear when one worked in overseas intelligence. For most, this would be an inconvenience but Rick enjoyed the fetters."
Some of the operatives Godwin will work with, both in those joint operations with MI6 and those solely with MI5, become annoyed at his reticence to shirk the rulebook but Godwin has found following the guidelines to be usually the best way to avoid the terrible guilt he occasionally feels when a fellow agent loses his life on duty. We are told how he felt it necessary to take a month off when such a death occurred on an assignment.
This might make Godwin appear stodgy and at times I think the claim justified but there are times when he is asked to go undercover and he has found such occasions to be "risky, deadly and every second brought new danger, but they were exciting and from the moment he began a mission, adrenalin exploded through his veins. He knew this rush often stopped him from being objective, but it meant that he was one of the agency's most effective operatives". The dichotomy of that with Godwin is fascinating.
!!Good Lines:
- Regarding many of Godwin's superiors at MI5: "Most of whom were only ever seen when they went out for lunch".