Our hero, Cyrus Cymple, has been a CIA agent for about 15 years. He is 38 years old. He fought in WWII, having joined the Marines. Cyrus had distinguished himself early on as someone who was resourceful in battle. He was quickly moved into the Marine's Top Secret Special Forces Unit. By 1946, Cyrus had gotten the attention of the CIA. Much of Cyrus' Special Forces Operations put him in close contact with the Russians and the Germans under the assumed identity of Mikhael Yurichev, the son of a fictional Russian industrialist. At the end of the war, Cyrus was able to leverage his relationship with the Russians into a position as an advisor to the Russian General, Demetri Vlasyankov. General Demetri was prone to use Mikhael (Cyrus) as his personal spy. This made Cyrus Cymple one of the CIA's top double agents.