Rex Dalton is an agent with CRC.
That stands for the Crisis Response Consultancy which is a top-secret black ops American private military contractor owned and run by a man named Brandt. The company got its start with the decline in productivity by the American alphabet intelligence agencies where, bogged down by more and more red tape from Congress, had morphed into proactive agents to reactive bureaucrats. To get done what needed doing meant going to the private sector and Brandt was there with a solution.
Dalton is one of the highly trained and experienced operatives that CRC had working for it.
Dalton was a young man just recently graduated from college with a double major in history and linguistics. He was ready to start his Masters program with the intent of a lifetime in the US Foreign Service, something his fluency in Spanish, French, Italian and German would make seem a certainty. He was in love with a young woman and was planning to ask her to marry him as the two, plus Dalton's parents and brother and sister, enjoyed a vacation in Spain in 2003. That was the time that terrorists, wanting to get Spain out of the War on Terror, exploded a bomb at a train station killing scores. Among the dead was Dalton's parents and siblings. It was only a fluke that he and his girl friend were far enough away to survive.
Dalton spent nearly a year in grief, finding little solace in alcohol but trying anyways. Then a decision to strike back at the sort of people who would do such a thing resulted in enlistment into the Marines, an act that cost him his girl friend but one he did not regret. After a year in the Marines, he was given the chance to join the ultra-elite Delta Force. Training was brutal and many did not make it through but Dalton was one of the few who did.
But life would take him a different road and he soon found himself a civilian and a member of CRC and whole different life than he could ever have imagined.
Dalton is described as "5'11, with penetrating dark eyes, black hair, tan skin, the physique of a gymnast, and a stern-looking face." He is accompanied by his CRC partner, Digger, a "Dutch Shepard, a big black son of a bitch weighing sixty-six pounds and standing over two feet tall at the shoulders when on all fours".
One fascinating point on the relationship between Dalton and Digger, one that is intensely close and loving, is that when he first met Digger, Dalton knew in his heart that "he was scared out of his wits by dogs". Luckily for them both, that would change, at least as far as Digger is concerned.