Zack Jones is a part-time agent for the IIC.
The Interdepartmental Intelligence Committee, more commonly called Eyesis by everyone, is a small bureau that has no full-time agents of its own, only clerks. It is an information clearinghouse, a place that takes raw data from the various larger agencies, collates it, and then polishes it up for dissemination to the various governmental departments needing it. It is very good at what it does and it does it all under the direction of one man, John Allan Baker.
Jones is a former FBI agent who does work for Eyesis. Raised in L.A.'s own version of Hell's Kitchen, trained as a kid to use anything handy as a weapon against knives and guns, he was able to handle himself in virtually any fight even before the military taught him to be an expert in Judo and Karate.
He joined the Army at 17 just as WWII was starting to end. He joined Patton's Third Army as it made its push towards Berlin and saw considerable action, earning a field promotion from enlisted to Lieutenant and then to Captain while still just 20. When the war ended, he knew that to stay in the military he would have to improve himself. He took two years of classes at the University of Berlin while still fulfilling his obligations with the Occupying Forces.
At one point he tried to join the OSS as it began its transition to becoming the CIA but his CO insisted he stay with Military Intelligence and concentrate on counter-espionage. During the next several years his knowledge of spies and defectors and traitors and smugglers and the like improved considerably.
Then the Korean War came and a return to combat duty combined with his covert skills. On a mission behind the lines in North Korea, he was gravely wounded with shrapnel and ended up in an enemy hospital. Infection set in and he nearly died from it before being traded in a prisoner exchange. Long months of recovery and physical therapy followed.
And so did another career change. He left the military and returned to university, going into law school. He got a degree and an offer from both the Treasury and the FBI. He chose the latter. He also met and fell in love with a woman and got married. After a couple of years, they had a son. Life was good. Then illness took his wife and left him alone with his boy. He resigned from the Bureau to be with him and took a simpler job as head of security at a research facility for a lot more money and a short work week.
As the series starts, Jones is asked to take an assignment to help the IIC and would then become the lone operative for that agency. His cover is a new law practice in D.C., handed cases to pay his way. And he takes an odd assignment from the IIC when it becomes necessary and to keep from getting too bored.