Ted Brooks is the head of the spy agency Black Vault.
When we first meet Brooks he is just ending an eight-year employment as a very covert operative working directly for President Truman. The year is 1953, Eisenhower is being sworn in as the newest Chief Executive and with Truman's departure, Brooks' tenure as the Man's go-to guy for highly sensitive work has come to an end. His newest career is just starting, however, when a man he worked with on occasion during that period, William Fletcher, hands him control of Core Agents.
That is very small private intelligence organization doing work often for the U.S. government but having other eggs to fry at the same time. Fletcher was retiring and needed someone of Brooks' experience to assume control and Brooks, just being out of a job, accepted.
According to one of the few operatives working for Core Agents, that company was "the most top-secret espionage agency in existence. With the exception of a handful of contacts, no one knows about this organization". Right about then Brooks informed the crew that obviously someone knew of it because right after passing control to him, Fletcher had been assassinated by a sniper sent by a person or group called Vexa. He also told them he was changing the name of their organization to Black Vault.
So, from the moment he starts his new career, Brooks has a challenge. He is in charge of a group who know nothing about him and have no reason to trust him. He knows one of them has to be a mole for Vexa because someone had to give away the meeting place and identity of Fletcher. And he knows Vexa, whatever that is, is a very dangerous enemy to go up against.
Heck of a first day.