Shamryke 'Sham' Odell is an agent with the FIA.
That is the Federation Intelligence Arm, the main security organization for the interstellar government known as the Federation. Exactly how many star systems and individual planets make up this collection is not specified but enough is spoken of it that it is obviously quite large and extremely powerful. Being large, encompassing likely thousands of planets, there is an abundance of malcontents running individual worlds which cause trouble needing specialized, albeit covert attention; not to mention a considerable number of planets outside their jurisdiction or at the fringe, called the Rim, enough to be more free-thinking. This attention falls within the purview of the FIA and its many operatives, about the best of which is Sham Odell.
One more thing about the FIA: it is controlled by "The Head. A totally organic computer housed in the top three stories of the headquarters building of the Federation Intelligence Arm. A brain that had been constructed or grown under carefully controlled conditions-an organism that when completed took over for itself the operation of its life-sustaining functions. Fed continuing streams of information by FIA controls, the Head absorbed all, made its own correlations and conclusions, and then issued its orders unbidden."
While the Federation is made up of a sizeable number of different species of intelligent life, Odell himself is human, hailing from New Earth. He has been an operative with the FIA for a good number of years, enough to have earned a high reputation with The Head as well as his fellow agents and a good amount of enemies throughout the many worlds he has visited over the years.
Odell describes himself as being "elegant enough in stature - a well-muscled one-ninety wrapped neatly around a six-foot two-inch frame - but whose sun-bronzed head was completely hairless except for eyebrows and lashes, which are permafalse additions. The trim body was a result of a good metabolism and exercise - not the health club type, but the kind I got in my normal daily work. The lack of hair was the residue of a more serious mishap also connected with my work-namely a sudden lack of face, real sudden but, due to careful rebuilding, not permanent. Except for the hair."
One other thing that Odell lets us know about himself is that he is a lady's man who greatly enjoys the comfort of the females throughout a good number of the worlds in the Federation. Work, of course, has his highest priority but when the work is done, Odell's priorities change direction quickly.