Annie Walker is one of the youngest field operatives at the CIA when she is taken out of training early at the farm at 28. Her inaugural mission is to track down her former lover, Ben Mercer, although she does not know this is the reason for her quick ascent. But she quickly proves herself capable.She is a linguist by training and speaks seven languages. She throws herself into every mission and genuinely enjoys her work, although she sometimes finds the CIA bureaucracy stifling. She has a habit of disobeying orders in the field to follow her gut, usually with positive results. She is supported and kept in check by Joan Campbell, her boss in the Domestic Protection Division and Auggie Anderson, the blind communications whiz who always has her back and cares about her.When the series begins, Annie is living in the guest house of her sister Danielle, who is married to Michael and has two children. Annie loves spending time with her sister and nieces, but because of her job, she is not always reliable. She struggles to balance the demands of her job with her personal life and risks alienating people she cares about with the lies necessary to maintain her cover. She can be too trusting, not a good trait for a spy, but she's also good at quickly developing the relationships necessary to sell her cover.Background: When the series begins, her cover is that she works in acquisitions at the Smithsonian, which explains her frequent travel. She joined the CIA after a brief but intense love affair in Sri Lanka with the mysterious American Ben Mercer, who disappeared in the middle of the night, leaving only a note. She and Ben Mercer have matching shell bracelets that they have both kept. After Ben left her in Sri Lanka she continued traveling and went to Tibet, Angkor, Giza, Rapa Nui, and South Ossetia, where she helped to rebuild the opera house in Tskhinvali after the uprising. Annie is trained in hand-to-hand combat, but needs improvement, and did better than any woman before her on the driving course at the Farm. She attended Georgetown University and studied linguistics. She speaks Portugese, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, French, Persian and English. She is also proficient in Hebrew, Estonian, Chinese, Sinhalese and Swedish.Annie and her sister Danielle grew up as army brats, moving often. To cope with the frequent upheaval Annie would gather mementos of each place and her friends and bury them in a box in the backyard of her house. Show less «