Johnathan Todd 'Jon' Deats is an agent with the NSA.
More accurately, he is "a freelance agent for the SDI, the Security and Domestic Intelligence branch of the far ranging National Security Agency", as we are told shortly into the first recorded adventure. "Their association had lasted ten years now and Deats admitted to himself only the high pay and adventurous assignments kept them together. The pay allowed him the luxury of the Bonanza, a cabin in these mountains and frequent trips to his favorite spot on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The assignments kept his mind off Amy's death and gave him material for the real short stories he hoped to one day publish. Deats was a restless man still searching for meaning in his life. He kept telling himself the Agency was only filling a temporary gap, but the years kept rolling by...too fast".
The history on this man is also given us. It was in college that he decided on a job with the U.S. Navy as a pilot. He flew "fighters off carriers in the Middle East" for a couple years until his plane was shot down in the Gulf. After a stint in recovery he was transferred to Naval Intelligence where he worked until his tour of duty was over. Rather than be sent back to the States to "shuffle paper", he elected to leave the Service.
Deats got a job as a flight engineer for a short while before meeting and falling for Amy, a new flight attendant. A year of dating made sporatic by their schedules and they got married and planned on starting a family. Then a poor decision by an airline captain put the airline she was working into the ground and Deats was alone again. That was when Deats bought the cabin in the mountains of North Carolina and decided to become a writer, complete with a typewriter and a few cases of booze.
That is when his CO from his Intelligence days came calling. Jeremy Grant was now the Director of SDI with the NSA and wanted a new agent. He wanted Deats.
Now the 6' 180 lbs. Deats earns a good deal of money taking on the 'occasional' mission for Grant, the quotes indicating that the missions are far more often than once in a while. Deats, now 38 years old, is a very experienced, capable operative who still loves the excitement and the danger his work provides.