Ayesha Khan is an agent with MI6.
She is, more specifically, a member of Spectrum. This is described at the very beginning of the first recorded adventure as: "Spectrum, nastiest scalpel on MI6's tray. Spectrum, immortal codename for a series of female wetwork agents dating back to the Second World War. Sex and violence combined in a neat little package that ticked a bit before exploding. Spectrum was everywhere. She could be right behind you at any moment."
By wetwork, of course, we are talking bloody work as in find and eliminate whoever the target was deemed to be. Do it in whatever way was prescribed be it as an accident with no evidence at all of foul play or messy as in a warning to others who might anger Her Majesty's government. To accomplish this the women who were chosen to be in line to be a Spectrum were trained and then re-trained and then sent in for even more instruction until they were the ultimate in killing weapons.
Over the years, members of the Spectrum team are said to be "quiet scalpels working for HM's government". Ayesha Khan nowadays is best described as a "rusting chainsaw".
That might make a reader think she is old and out of practice. That is definitely not the case. The real meaning is that while most of the operations that a Spectrum might perfom were clean and sharp and razor-thin in their application, Khan is more likely to approach things with less of a concern for neatness. In one of the blurbs for an adventure it is put that she "enjoys her license to kill enemies of the state and the odd pedestrian". While I have not seen quite that amount of calousness, I can point to a purse-snatcher early on in her first mission who could not be laid to rest with all parts accounted for.
Khan's chance to become the active Spectrum comes when the previous holder accidentally dropped, literally, into the path of a bullet. With some reluctance her boss, Sheila Kennedy, was ordered to put a new Spectrum in the field immediately and the only person she had even semi-ready is Khan. While Kennedy was greatly concerned about the level of violence likely to ensue, Khan was not the least bit put out. Mayhem was what she was good at.
Good Lines:
- Regarding her boss, Sheila Kennedy, Khan noted that "she spoke the way a chihuahua yipped at the postman from safely behind the front door".
- Advice to people in her profession: "Clutch the pillow tight. You never knew whose face you might have to hold it against before you shot them."