Hale Jordan is an agent with the SRS.
Well, make that agent-in-training. He will become an operative if he survives his training which is doubtful and that would be a shame considering that young Jordan is only 12 years old when we meet him.
First, though, the acronym for the organization which is handling his training and for whom he is expected to serve for the rest of his life stands for the Sub Rosa Society. The name of the organization clearly shows how it operates as all of its activities are "done in secret" even though the private agency was "international - agents were tucked away throughout the world"; several sub-headquarters existing in different parts of the globe.
Of particular interest in learning about the SRS school for future agents is the fact that it is underground. Several floors underground, to be more precise; apparently quite a few. Jordan and his family live in this huge complex, as to the many other children being raised/trained and their parents. Throw in all the standard items expected at a training facility/school (cafeteria, gymnasium, track, classrooms, etc.) as well as the offices and storage areas and meeting rooms and laboratories that a headquarters would be expected to have, and then combine living quarters/suites for each of the families ... It obviously is big. And apparently still secret.
Now, back to Hale Jordan. To say poor Hale is out of shape would be kind. He tells us in the opening page of the first recorded adventure that when asked to do a sequence of pushups in training as a young student, he was able to do "half of one" because "I can definitely get down; I just can't push myself back up". He also laments that every week when the students are asked to run laps, "every week for the past four years of my life, I ran it. And every week, without fail, I came in last place". Jordan is not only out of shape and lacking muscles for, well, anything athletic, he is also a bit overweight. Chubby would be a nice way of putting it; fat would be more accurate.
Jordan is not a happy fellow because of all the failures and the teasing, not to mention that he really does not want to be an agent. Well, he would be willing to be to please his parents who are also agents. "My parents are known around here as 'The Team', Not 'a team' - 'The Team'. They were the first choice-sometimes the only choice - for highly dangerous missions. My mother speaks seven languages and had recently developed a new style of martial arts. My father is a master fencer and once hacked a terrorism ring's network using a calculator. They have so many awards and medals that turn up in weird places in our apartment-the linen closet, the pantry, dropped down behind the refrigerator . . ." Pretty hard to live up to that.
Good Lines:
- A very self-deprecating comment by Hale concerning being laughed at by his fellow students, "Apparently, I was the joke that kept on giving".