Friday 4 December 2015

Who is who in the Knight Agency




Hello again! After my last post about the Knight Agency, here’s the promised one about the main characters. I promise to do my best not to spoil anything here. I’m also mainly going to list the team and Jane’s friends from her ‘official life.’

Jane Browne: She’s the main and viewpoint character. Jane is twenty-five and has been working as an active agent for Branch Two for five years now. She started training for her job at ten - which is pretty regular for her branch. Her specialities (specific abilities not everyone in her branch has) are breaking and entering and assassination. She already earned her nickname (not all agents gain one, it’s given to them by their peers) and is known as the Ice Queen, because of her cold-blooded and ruthless character. Jane’s official life is that of a rich heiress living apart from her father (she doesn’t really have one, she’s an orphan), she’s situated in London.

Steven Quinn: He’s Jane’s mentor, handler (meaning: general assistance), and father figure. Steven is sixty-eight and a former agent of Branch Two. He spent twenty-three years of his life teaching the future agents about assassination techniques and retired from his post as instructor when Jane went into active service, so he could become her handler. His specialities are assassination and piloting - as Jane says once: you get something airborne, he can fly it. He has a nickname which has already become legendary: the Reaper, because he killed over a thousand enemies during his active service. Steven officially lives as a retired businessman in a suburb of London.

Zackary Brock: He’s a Branch One agent, an exemplary soldier and leader. Brock is twenty-eight and proved himself in the army  before becoming a Knight Agent. His path first crossed with Jane’s during a stakeout mission. Later on he became part of a team investigating an internal threat to the Agency and has become a partner Jane can thoroughly rely on during any kind of mission. He’s also a trained and certified bodyguard. Brock has earned his nickname as well, his colleagues call him the White Knight, because he’s a born protector and always fights for what is right. Like all Branch One agents, he lives directly in the compound.

Frank Lucas: He’s a Branch Three agent with the ability to get everything everywhere (as his superior puts it once). Frank is twenty-six and worked in several companies before being recruited by the Agency. His path crossed Jane’s at the same time as Brock’s (and Liam’s), during the same stakeout mission. He was also part of the same team later on. Frank can get his hands on everything which might be needed and has a lot of contacts on the black market. He lives in the compound as well, mostly for practical reasons.

Liam Fawkes: He’s a Branch Four agents, an excellent engineer and prolific inventor. Liam is twenty-four and was recruited right out of university (which he attended early). Liam was part of the same stakeout and investigation team. He invented several useful objects for Jane already and will continue to do so, as you can’t leave him in a room with a box of trash without him making something useful out of it. He is shy towards most people, but very loyal to friends. He lives in the compound as well, mostly because he spends most of his waking hours in the R&D department anyway.

Edith Grand: She’s a Branch One agent as well, a very good and level-headed soldier. Grand is twenty-six and was recruited around the same time around which she was overlooked again as member for a special squad. She accompanied Jane on an investigation mission after Brock was injured, standing in for her colleague, and became a regular member of the team. She is an extremely good driver and can handle the large troop transports of Branch One (and every other vehicle) with unparalleled ease. She’s unusually tall and strong for a woman. Like Brock, she’s a trained and certified bodyguard. Like every Branch One agent, she lives in the compound.

Sir Frederic Powell: He’s Jane’s and Steven’s superior, head of Branch Two. Sir Frederic is sixty-eight and started training in the same year as Steven, they also went through some missions together in the past. He is not a born leader (according to Sir Howard), but leads the branch very well. Even though Jane’s briefing and debriefing usually goes through Steven, there have been many cases in which he has briefed her or the team himself - more often than not together with Sir Leonard. He lives outside London, but often spends several days completely in the compound.

Sir Leonard Adams: He’s Brock’s and Grand’s superior, head of Branch One. Sir Leonard is seventy and a highly respected former agent of his branch. He has a tight grip on his agents and soldiers and doesn’t accept any misbehaviour. He also has a weak spot for both Jane and Steven, who earned his respect the hard way. He has recently started to ‘borrow’ Jane from Sir Frederic for rescue missions or other missions which include scouting and/or ‘removing of obstacles’ (the latter usually happens with a knife). He lives in the outskirts of London, not far from the compound.

Sir Howard Blythe: He’s the current head of the Knight Agency. Sir Howard is eighty-one and a former agent himself (so far, the branch he belonged to has not been disclosed). He considers the world his chessboard and his agents the chess pieces. He is a highly accomplished chess player and an extremely experienced interrogation specialist. He considers Jane his most powerful piece on the board, because she is very versatile. As a result of this, he often gives her missions slightly outside her realm of experience to extend her abilities. He has also taken to teach both Jane and Brock chess, in order to make them more accomplished and dangerous agents. He lives in Blythe Manor right above the compound.

Cynthia Wilmington: She is Jane’s best friend and closest confidante outside the Agency. Cynthia is twenty-five and from a noble family. She is usually a very happy and hyper person with a big heart and hidden steel in her personality. Since the death of her mother, she has little contact with her father. She is in the process of taking over her mother’s company and strives to become an accomplished businesswoman. She has recently moved out of her apartment and now lives in a house she has inherited from her mother, where she employs Martin, the butler her mother hired shortly before she died. Cynthia and Martin are among the very few people outside the Agency who know Jane’s true identity.

Stacy McIntyre: She’s another of Jane’s close friends. Stacy is twenty-three and comes from ‘old money.’ She is a very flirty girl, but has started a long-term relationship recently. Even though she usually takes things day by day, she’s not as superficial as she might seem to others. She lives in her own apartment in London and is usually happy with spending her days doing whatever she fancies at that time.

Myra Featherstone (née Hooper): She’s the third of Jane’s close friends. Myra is twenty-six and considered nouveau riche by London’s high society. She’s a rather relaxed girl who likes driving fast, vegetarian food, and her steady boyfriend Aaron. Recently, she married him, but it didn’t happen without drama. Myra and Aaron now share a nice apartment in London and are building up their life together.

Rush: Agent Rush from Branch One is a steady thorn in Jane’s, Brock’s, and Grand’s collective side. He’s an arrogant and sexist agent who considers women beneath him, but also is healthily afraid of Jane - who has killed him in several messy ways in her mind over time.

These are all recurring characters (including Aaron Featherstone, who doesn’t have his own paragraph, since he’s usually a proxy to Myra), but far from the only people you will meet in the novels. I have also left out characters which not yet play their own important role in the story (although I’m pretty sure Sir Abraham and Lady Maria are going to do so soon).

If you wonder about Jane’s love interests - as she says: they don’t count. Why? You’ll have to find out about that yourself…

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