Gabriel Vaughn is an agent with the U.S. Cyber Command.
That ultra-classified government department is headquartered in a state-of-the-art new facility every bit as fitting to the newness of its mandate as one would imagine, complete with an array of very impressive shiny domes atop its large structure, purpose of said orbs unspecified but certainly connected to its job of monitoring the cyber world.
It is run by the highly experience and tough-as-nails Lillian Strand who has more than paid her dues over the years and earned her leadership position. While some might think she is subordinate to better known intelligence agencies like the CIA, the first words we hear her speak in that initial recorded adventure puts an end to that when she tells someone on the phone clearly and succinctly, "I do not work for Langley" adding her instructions must come from "1600", i.e., the White House.
In addition to the many and varied projects that CyberCom has going to help protect the United states in the modern Internet world, she is in charge of "Clockwork", this generation's version of the Manhattan Project. As Strand explains to newcomer, Secret Service agent Riley Neal, "While other agencies have been trying to make artificial intelligence more human, we gave a human the kind of power that had previously only been found in a machine. We created a man who's the first of his kind - an advanced intelligence agent." To be more descriptive, "we connected a human being directly to the information grid - Internet, WIFI, telephone, satellite" making that agent "the most valuable piece of technology this country has ever created."
That agent/technology is Vaughn, former Delta Force, Tier One, five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. Strand tells Neal that Vaughn is a "hero"; she adds he is also reckless, unpredictable, and insubordinate and very much in need of someone qualified to "babysit him" (his words, not hers but she did not really argue).
"Gabriel Vaughn is a high-tech intelligence operative enhanced with a super-computer microchip in his brain. With this implant, Gabriel is the first human ever to be connected directly into the globalized information grid. He can get into any of its data centers and access key intel files in the fight to protect the United States from its enemies."
Vaughn is a tall, well-muscled man in peak physical condition; a blond-haired chisel-faced handsome man with very much a mind of his own and his own agenda. While he is extremely patriotic and very much wanting to serve his country yet again, he also is searching for his missing CIA-agent wife who went missing years before while infiltrating a terrorist group which would carry out a horrific attack at a hotel in Mumbai, India. Vaughn is dealing with the likelihood that she turned and willingly helped in that massacre and takes his newfound abilities to learn the truth.
The Riley Neal mentioned above is the security expert pulled from the President's protection detail to be that babysitter that Strand is certain Vaughn desperately needs. The job of this still young and quite attractive woman is to keep him alive and on track so he can do his job.
Good Lines:
-Regarding the CyberCom's penchant for abbreviations, Vaughn quips, "Nobody around here uses any more syllables than they have to."