Rosie Winterbourne is an agent with Firegate.
She will be, at least, starting with the second adventure and continuing on. In the first, though, she is an enlisted woman serving with distinction aboard a British Royal Navy destroyer. Her position on the HMS Windsor Castle is that of Leading Seaman and she is on track to shifting to the officer ranks. Her career will take a drastic turn, though, when she starts to experience major mental issues which will end her time in the Navy but which will, in an odd sequence, lead her to Firegate.
Winterbourne first learns of the existence of the organization known as Firegate when she is offered a chance for a job after graduating from university three years after her discharge from the Navy. The position is supposedly with a government Cabinet ministry but the interview is really for a job with Firegate, an extremely hush-hush intelligence gathering and black-ops handling group. It is run by a mature and exceptionally severe woman known only as the Housekeeper.
Winterbourne is interested in Firegate because she is craving something more in her life. It is interested in her because, as they explain to her:
1. She possesses a quick, analytical mind and high mental agility.
2. She has demonstrated several times that she is cool under pressure.
3. She has shown "a natural empathy, able to read people and respond to best effect to get what [she wants]".
4. A grasp of languages teaching herself Spanish and learning Arabic at University.
5. She has a prominent streak of independence and proven self-reliance.
6. She is "exceptionally fit with rudimentary judo skills".
7. She is "an accomplished single-handed sailor with [her] own oceangoing yacht", inherited and rebuilt by her.
Not stated in that list but vitally important is the fact that Winterbourne has a condition called hyperthemesia. That is defined as "an ability that allows people to remember nearly every event of their life with great precision".
On the one hand this phenomenon is an amazing gift for an operative with its resultant ability to recall every person ever met, every conversation ever heard. On the other, though, it is a curse with every bad decision never forgotten, each horrible event constantly lurking in her memory. It will be up to Winterbourne to prove which is the stronger outcome: blessing or curse.