James Hunter is an agent with an unnamed American Intelligence organization.
In truth to call it an organization is to give it far more gravitas than it really deserves. It was the brainchild of a high-ranking government official whose identity was kept extremely hush-hush, so much so that I am only assuming he was in the government.
What we know is from a telephone conversation shown each week at the start of an adventure, relating how a General Baker received a call from this enigmatic individual with the following dialogue:
- Voice: "Baker, I want you to establish a special force of six agents, accountable to you only."
- Baker: "There's one man I want for this job. He's running a bookstore in Santa Barbara. His name is James Hunter. He's strictly civilian now but he's one of the best agents we had."
- Voice: "Advise him that all missions will be so covert that once assigned, an agent will be entirely on his own, no matter what the consequences. Get to him immediately."
- Baker: "I'll call him right now."
- Voice: "To ensure complete secrecy, these agents will operate the normal channels of your community."
Immediately thereafter, we observe a call to Hunter from the General with the simple, "This is Baker. I think it's time that we talked."
As the General stated, James Hunter, when we first meet him, indeed does run a bookstore in Santa Barbara and has for several years. This handsome, blond-haired man is in his early 40s and remains in exceptionally good shape considering his now rather sedentary vocation.
He was not always a bookseller, however, as the General told us. Eight years before that first adventure, he has been an operative with 'the Agency', a department whose identity is never stated but likely was the CIA. Back then he was attached to a division called the 'K Group' which apparently was run by Baker, considering his familiarity with Hunter.
Hunter is said to have gotten upset with the way that the group was being run, or with the sort of work they were tasked with doing, and quit, this happening in 1969. Now it is 1977, the General has been given the directive to start a new group, and he calls Hunter. Surprisingly, considering the fact that he had left due to unhappiness with his occupation, Hunter agrees to the new offer.
Now Hunter is one of the half dozen agents working under the control of the General at the behest of that mystery void. He will be tasked with taking on an assortment of missions going up against traitors, enemy agents, rogue operatives, and occasionally organized crime.
Marty Shaw
One of the other six operatives is the beautiful and extremely capable Marty Shaw. Unlike Hunter whose "cover" identity (in quotes since that was his occupation before joining the group) which would seem to ground him more than help him, Shaw is a renown international model. For her to go any place for any reason could be made to seem normal and legitimate. On the other hand, if anonymity is called for, her fame and beauty would be problematic.
While it was made clear to the General by the covert leader that each agent would acting 'entirely on his own', several of the missions we are shown of Hunter also include Shaw in them, something that proves beneficial to both.
The relationship between the two is one of considerable closeness as evidenced on several occasions, including one instance where, in a hotel restaurant, Hunter was commenting that he should get back to Santa Barbara when Shaw informs him that her plane did not leave for a few hours. When Hunter offers with some humor to stick around, Shaw leads him away for some obvious alone time.