Daniel Grant is an agent with MI6.
Technically he is a former agent, as the first time we meet him, he is returning for an appointment at Thames House and he reminds the receptionist who greets him as 'Commander Grant' that 'it is just plain Mr. Grant now' and that his days as an officer with the Secret Intelligence Service is "a lifetime ago".
However, just because he has some time previously retired from that career does not mean his connection to that organization is gone. His current position more than little ties him to the covert world but in an unusual way he likely would never have considered when he joined the department many years before.
"He'd had a distinguished career as an agent. He'd survived many dangerous situations and come through it all relatively unscathed. All of that had changed after his last mission in the Middle East, however. The mission had gone sideways and although he had escaped with his life he'd received two bullet holes into the bargain. His recovery had taken a few months, after which he had been advised to take a desk job. So, eighteen months ago, he had taken on a new role for the service, far removed from foreign postings and espionage."
Now he runs Shady Fields, "a care home with a difference". Its clientele "consisted exclusively of former secret agents who were well versed in the dark arts of subterfuge, spying and counterterrorism".
Grant is forty-eight when we meet him but "everyone said he looked younger. He was an attractive man with a year-round tan; handsome, with watchful eyes. He carried the permanent hint of a smile around his mouth, and his muscular frame was well-disguised beneath an impeccably-tailored navy suit. There was a vitality about him and the way he moved; his poise and posture made him look ready for action".
He definitely needs that vitality as playing primary care-giver and bodyguard and babysitter for an assortment of people, many of whom are in different stages of senility and dementia but who retain not only the long-honed skills to disable, maim, and even kill opponents but also the wile and cunning to make sure the intended target does not see it coming.