Daniel Shandon is a marketing specialist.
He is both a rookie at business and a major success at it. Shortly after graduating from the University of Houston with a degree in Business Management, and as the series just started, Shandon took a beginner position in the Marketing department of a major casino in Las Vegas, a place where he had interned during his college years. He would luck into a chance to show how good he could be and he more than made a hit, thrusting this young man into the white collar spotlight.
His foray into the shadowy world of intrigue and danger would come by way of his father, a highly trained and experienced Secret Service agent who was both great at his job and pretty lousy at being a father. There had never been any trouble in young Shandon's relationship with his father but with the elder being gone more than he was home, there was a divide.
Still, there had to have been enough during his formative years that Shandon picked up many interesting skills from his dad, one of which would be shown throughout his college years. Over those four years, Shandon was a part of the Campus Commandos, put together by a professor who was a retired Special Forces Marine. The Commandos hunted each other. Paint pellets were used to eliminate the enemy. The rules were simple and few and the "danger" constant. Shandon was the best there had been in the nearly two decades it had been going on. He had amassed a fair number of victories and had never been hit. Despite becoming a legend and therefore the prime objective of every other "operative", no one had succeeded. His ability to constantly survey his environment, spotting likely places for hidden enemies as well as ways to get out of trouble were impressive to say the least.
When his father is murdered, shortly after the first book begins and Shandon is thrust into his father's world, those skills which were used for fun and entertainment would suddenly become vital to his staying alive as he seeks who killed the senior Shandon and even more so later when called upon to take on other assignments.