Cyclone 'Cy' Reed is an archaeologist.
Well, he was. Now he is referred to as "disgraced" and more often his vocation is described as "treasure hunter".
He is not a spy nor does he work with any of the Intelligence agencies around the globe. His activities might be noticed after a while by them but he will never become part of their operations. His membership in this collection comes solely because he finds himself, several times, in fact, dealing with a person or an organization which would use things he searches for to either take over the world or see to its demise; partial or complete.
When we first meet him, he is engaging in a pasttime he enjoys immensely, mountain climbing. It is something he is very good at and which forces him to stay in extremely fit condition. He is not, though, partaking in it for amusement but to sneak into an archaeological dig site to steal from a thief. When he has an unfortunate run-in with that nasty individual, he reluctantly reaches an agreement - the return of the stolen item in exchange for his life. As Reed points out to us, the man "had no intention of letting me live. The again, I had no intention of giving him" the item. Such is the kind of life Reed lives these days.
Oh, one more point from that incident - as he was making his climb, he experienced for the umpteenth time a PTSD flashback to a very unpleasant incident in his life, one that would change him forever and put him on this path of treasure hunting rather than excavating. He will have to deal with that PTSD for some time.
History, we are told in the pages of these recorded adventures, is filled with discoveries of mammoth import, often with dangerous properties, which are craved by very dangerous people or groups wanting to use these items to further their causes. If thousands or millions of lives are risked, too bad. Reed, however, takes a dim view of that attitude and does his best to counter such activity.
He is joined in these adventures, often not by his own choosing, by the redoubtable Beverly Ginger, a woman with impressive survival skills which definitely come in handy when going into the kind of places she and Reed frequent.