Adam Knight is an agent with the CIA.
More specifically, he is the star operative for very little known department inside Langley known only as the Penumbra Division.
In a blurb for the first recorded adventure we are given this informative statement: "In the shadowy world of espionage, the U.S. government has a secret weapon: Penumbra Division-a covert bureau where the line between right and wrong blurs in the name of national security. At the forefront is Adam Knight, its most skilled contractor."
Knight describes himself as an 'off-the-books' operative. He is definitely that when we join him for the initial time as he is on an assignment in Atlantic City - considering he is associated with the CIA and they cannot legally operate in the States. It is a simple mission he is given as he is only a short time back home in America having been shot on his last mission when things went sideways in Belarus.
Knight answers to a woman "in the dawn of her forties" named Naidu who has an unusually chilly attitude towards him at times, something that annoys Knight as his attempts to influence her with his personality always seems to fail. "The dismissal of his charm irked him. He hated the way she viewed him as a blunt instrument rather than a thinking, feeling human being." They do have a long history together, though, and there is no animosity whatsoever - Knight just cannot break her icy barrier and that annoys him.
It was Naidu who recruited Knight while he was still a member of the elite Delta Force and she had recognized something in him that made him perfect for the kind of missions that Penumbra was given: "doing the dirty deeds that official agencies could not-or would not-take on. All of it executed so that it ensured no link could be traced back to any formal directive from the US government. Penumbra Division did not have a motto as far as he knew, but if they did, it would be something along the lines of 'Plausible deniability at all costs'."
One important fact about this highly capable operative is that he was not always Adam Knight. As we learn somewhat at the end of the first full-length adventure but find more fully explained in the shorter novella, he was born Nathan Perry, heir to a huge fortune via the Perry Oil empire which he inherited when he was orphaned at age 12. How he transitioned from young very rich pre-teen to the not-so-rich lethal killer is interesting.
Good Lines:
- Said by Knight to three men holding guns on him, "It's unfortunate, really. At four against one, you might have had a chance."