Tom and Alice Bowin are assassins for NSA.
He works unofficially, of course, for the National Security Agency has no such power or authority, at least as far as is publicly admitted. Inside the huge organization, though, are several "black" or unspoken divisions which carry out highly clandestined operations without the citizenry having to worry about it. The division for which Bowin does not work is known as the Agency but this is just the name that though who are assigned there call it because they have to call it something and there is no true designation for something that does not exist.
The Agency is run by General Harvey Gates, a typically no-nonsense military officer who nevertheless will let his guard down on occasion and have a beer or two with Bowin. The friendship and mutual respect the two have built over the several years they have worked together allows the stern leader to relax a bit in the other man's presence. This does not stop the General from sending his friend into danger when needed; it just makes him worry a tad more while the mission is going on.
Officially, Bowin's line of work is dramatically different than his covert operations. He is the founder and owner of Bowin Laboratories, a well-respected and quite profitable research facility specializing in neurological studies. A bit of a prodigy, Bowin graduated from college at 19 and went on to earn first his medical degree, making him a licensed MD, and then proceeding on to get a Ph.D. in neurology.
He desired to stay in the academic world of research to continue his look into repairing spinal cord injuries through remapping the brain but the cost of education being what it is, he was forced to seek work in the private sector. A mentor at the university suggested he talk with a potential backer for a private grant, a Colonel Gates. The resultant meeting eventually and gradually led to a deal.
It also led, slower, of course, to a heart-to-heart talk that Gates had with Bowin in which he decided the man might a candidate for his true work, running the Agency. Bowin was himself a bit surprised that the idea of his taking part in killing his country's enemies did not bother him. As his newly created government-funded company grew in successes and he was invited to speak at more and more international symposiums, his ability to travel without suspicion worked greatly in his other occupation.
Some might call Bowin a thrill-seeker but he would rather be classified as a challenge-seeker for he had looked most of his life for ways to push himself to his limit and beyond. His most common way of doing this is free rock climbing, the going up the side of a cliff without ropes or supports. One slip and death is sure to follow. He was taught by his father as an adolescent and continues it into middle age whenever he can. The danger does not escape him for his father lost his life doing it. Bowin is undeterred.
Joining Tom Bowin in his dangerous side-job is Alice Wilson, a captain in Canada's elite Special Operations Command, a part of the Royal Canadian Army. It is in the first recorded adventure that Bowin is sent up north to help take out a particularly bad individual, working with the SOC as it was on their turf. The two hit it off immediately but then went their own way when the job was finished. It was later when a different mission took him back there that their relationship really blossumed.
Being immensely capable of taking care of herself, Alice more than held her own on the assignments and because their closeness had moved to love, she was able to handle the truth of Tom's work. She went so far as to suggest joining him.
Married in the beginning of the second book, the two work together to eliminate the ones who would seek to hurt their countries. And as others would find out the hard way, eliminate those who would harm the people close to them.