Ryan Quinn is an agent with the ERC.
Not really. Not at first, anyways.
At first, Ryan Quinn is a school kid.
That's not a job, of course, since he doesn't get paid but it is his full-time occupation. He does it in a school in New York City, new to him as he has only been there for two months. New to him in that at least up to the time of the first recorded adventure, he had yet to get in trouble for fighting. Fighting is something he does quite well. Getting in trouble is something he is even better at.
Not that he is a bad kid, mind you. Most of the fighting comes when he stands up to bullies, often on behalf of other kids. The previous year he had several run-ins. While living with his parents in Ghana for a few months, he stopped two tourist kids who were throwing rocks and teasing native kids. Quinn just wanted them to stop but as seemed to be the normal case, things escalated and the fighting started. One boy got a broken nose. The other ended up with his arm in a sling. Like I indicated, Quinn is pretty good at fighting.
Which will become important as his life will undergo some pretty drastic changes right after we meet him.
First his father will disappear. That will be disturbing to say the least.
Then his mother will get kidnapped. Even worse.
It is around this time that Quinn, naturally curious why his dad vanished and especially curious why someone wanted to snatch up his mother, learns that his pretty staid folks were really secret agents. I mean, come on! They're mom and dad! Spies?
And that is also the moment that Quinn will realize that in order help save them he needs to take action. And he realizes that all his life his parents have been gradually training him, teaching him their tradecraft without letting on what they were doing.
Which is where the ERC, the Emergency Rescue Committee, the organization for which Quinn's parents work and for whom Quinn will become, in his own way, an agent, comes in. The ERC is "an underground organization that has performed dangerous rescue missions since World War II". Seeing as how he will have to come to the rescue of both of his parents, that seems reasonable.
While Quinn is a novice, he kinda already knows quite a bit. Which is good because he's going to need to.