Mitch Rapp is an agent with the CIA.
He is the premiere operative in an undocumented covert division of the agency. Tasked with eliminating the country's enemies before matters get out of hand, Rapp is the best.
Rapp had no thought to espionage work while attending college, until his sweetheart was a victim of a terrorist attack. He was a student at Syracuse University on a lacrosse scholarship, studying international business. He chose that school more because the woman he loved since he was 15 wanted to go there so he followed her and his heart. When she was a passenger who died when Pan Am 103 exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, he was devastated.
It was about a year after the tragedy that he was approached by CIA agent Irene Kennedy, a woman who would eventually become Rapp's biggest backer, best friend, and Director of the Agency. The Agency was putting together a team to strike back at terrorism, a team that was outside the normal protocols and restrictions. It would be a team that was political suicide to those who started it but still vital to the security of the country.
The Orion team was not officially a part of the Agency though they got their orders from the Director. Its mission was to take the war to the enemy and while it had many excellent, tough operatives in its ranks, the very best was without a doubt Rapp. Rapp wanted justice and vengeance and he was great at getting both.
As the books progress, Rapp's life changes. He meets someone special and falls in love. He loses her when enemies strike back at him and he finds again that all the revenge in the world cannot bring back a murdered loved one but perhaps he can stop someone else from losing someone special.
Now Rapp is at the top of his game, feared by his enemies and respected by his peers. He is most definitely a man of action, not words, as his frequent scrapes with politicians repeatedly shows. He will not stop what he does because the enemies are stopping and someone has to fight back. He volunteers.