Charles Vine is an agent with the British Secret Service.
This is the same organization which employs James Bond; though his name is never mentioned in full, it is alluded to on more than one occassion. Vine is, according to the fellow in charge, fully qualified and ready for action though not as experienced as his more accomplished colleague.
Vine is in his late 20s when we first meet him. He had for a time considered a career in academia working in the field of Mathematics but opted for something which paid a lot better. As he explained, while he enjoyed having figures in his head, the figures in his bank account were not very good so another line of wokr was in order. How he made the transition from studying numbers to fighting foreign agents is not known.
Known, though, are his qualifications and in those he is quite well placed, making the top of his training class in hand-to-hand combat and in weaponry. He shows this several times in his adventures, firing his pistol at bad guys from all sorts of unusual angles and positions. He shows himself to be every bit as cool under pressure whether that means dealing with several nasties shooting at him or dealing with the large number of gorgeous women who find him too attractive to ignore. His "this happens to me every day" responses are quite interesting and entertaining; nothing seems to phase him.
Vine does have an attractive physique, lean lines which fill his three-piece suits perfectly, short black hair plastered to his scalp such that even when rolling about on the ground shooting his pistol or diving over cars or knocking several blokes around with his fists, his coiffure never alters. The epitome of suave.