Josephine 'Jo' Modeen is an agent with NatSec.
That is the Australian National Security. It is a rather covert part of that country's intelligence community, one that while not being totally obscure is still low-key enough to stay off the radar of most public channels. According to one of its leaders, Ben Logan, NatSec "plans, funds and executes covert operations". It is well resourced and Logan has the luxury of choosy the missions his people handle. Those typically include "rescues, protection and security services, intel gathering ... that sort of thing. NatSec is usually called in when diplomacy and other methods fail".
Modeen's first thought of the group was that they were "glorified assassins", something that Logan, who was also one of her old CO's and mentors, admitted that "some might call us that" but insists that "we don't whack anyone that doesn't deserve whacking". This discussion occured when Logan first approached Modeen to become part of the group and Modeen, recently out of the military and wondering what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, decided that her "old hunger for adventure" was too strong to say no.
Modeen is the "only child of wealthy, controlling parents". "High court magistrate John Modeen and wife Freda, the daughter of a wealthy South African plantation owner, had emigrated to Australia in the early 1970s to settle in Sydney. When their defiantly tomboyish daughter announced her intention to enlist in the Australian Army, the well-to-do couple was none too pleased, to say the least."
Her father was even less happy when she had chosen to be "first female to try out for, and be accepted into, the elite Special Air Services Regiment" and even if she had been allowed to tell him some of the very impressive missions she had performed while in the SAS, he would have still looked down his nose at them because they were not what he would have chosen for her path. Unless she chose to become the first female General in those ranks, it was beneath her. Luckily, her mother was quietly supportive.
But parental support was not what Modeen sought. She was out for the action, the excitement, and the knowledge that what she did really made a difference.