Paul Ducharme is an officer in the U.S. Army special forces.
Evie Tolliver is the curator of Monticello, stately home of Thomas Jefferson.
Neither of these are operatives with any intelligence organization. Tolliver had been for many years an employee in excellent standing with the CIA but other interests had pulled her away from that career. Ducharme had through his many years of service dealt with and undoubtedly assisted in one way or another intelligence personnel but his job was being a soldier, not a spy.
Both Ducharme and Tolliver are in their mid-40s and while they do not know each other at the start of the first recorded adventure, they will soon meet and become very close. What brings these two together and makes the two adventures they will share spy-adjacent enough to qualify for membership in this compendium is that they will find themselves going up against a very powerful and extremely secret sect within the organization known as the Society of Cincinnati.
As we can learn by going to its website, "The Society of the Cincinnati is the nation's oldest patriotic organization, founded in 1783 by officers of the Continental Army who served together in the American Revolution. Its mission is to promote knowledge and appreciation of the achievement of American independence and to foster fellowship among its members". In that regard, the organization is public and open to scrutiny and decidedly aboveboard in its mission and activities. But, according to the things that we follow Ducharme and Tolliver on, there is a small group inside with decidedly different goals and tactics.
Colonel Ducharme - proud and highly experienced member of the Army's elite Green Berets having served proudly and more than ably for over two decades. At 6'3 and in superb conditioning, Ducharme struck an imposing and impressive figure in his Class-A uniform though he routinely found it uncomfortable and longed to be in fatigues. Keeping his hair a regulation short length, he is pleased to have retained all of it despite his age though it had long before turned white; Ducharme is by no means a vain man but he is appreciative of the truth and he works hard to keep in shape.
Evie Tolliver "was a woman of average height, but uncommon carriage; the type of body that suggests dance classes or, more likely, years of stern warnings to stand up straight. Her age would be more difficult in today's world of dermatology and expert hair coloring, but the few spots on the hands clasping the book and battered old leather briefcase suggested mid-forties-along with the self-assurance that comes with experience". Her thick dark hair had just enough silver to make it fierce. As she tells Ducharme shortly after meeting, she had worked for the Agency "once upon a time" as a "field operative. I speak Farsi, Russian and German. Spent six years overseas, two in the Middle East, two in Turkey and a year and a half in Russia".