The Covert-One series is a sequence of thriller novels written by several authors after the death of Robert Ludlum, presumably according to some of his ideas. The books feature a team of political and technical experts, belonging to a top-secret U.S. agency called Covert-One, who fight corruption, conspiracy, and bioweaponry at the highest levels of society. List of books The Hades Factor (with Gayle Lynds) (2000) The Cassandra Compact (with Phillip Shelby) (2001) The Paris Option (with Gayle Lynds) (2002) The Altman Code (with Gayle Lynds) (2003) The Lazarus Vendetta (with Patrick Larkin) (2004) The Moscow Vector (with Patrick Larkin) (2005) The Arctic Event (by James H. Cobb) (2007) The Ares Decision (by Kyle Mills) (2011) The Janus Reprisal (by Jamie Freveletti) (2012) The Utopia Experiment (by Kyle Mills) (2013) The Geneva Strategy (by Jamie Freveletti) (2015) The Patriot Attack (by Kyle Mills) (2015) Characters Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Jonathan 'Jon' Jackson Smith, M.D.: Jon Smith was born and raised in Council Bluffs, Iowa, graduated from the University of Iowa, and attended medical school at the University of California at Los Angeles. His career is varied—a military doctor in MASH units, operative in military intelligence, and a troop commander. During the First Gulf War, he was a battlefield surgeon, and he served a short time in Somalia. In the opening book of the series, The Hades Factor, he is a research scientist with USAMRIID, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, located at Fort Detrick, Maryland. During his time there, he became engaged to another research scientist, Sophia Russell. At the end of the first novel, he's approached to join a brand-new, independent, highly secret agency called Covert-One. Randi Russell: Randi is the younger sister of Dr. Sophia Russell, Smith's fiancée who dies in The Hades Factor by a lethal injection. She is a skilled operative working for the CIA, and is often seconded by Covert-One to assist Smith in his endeavors. In many cases, it is by simple chance that she encounters Jon Smith. She is known to resent Smith for his failure to save her fiancé, a major in the U.S. Army, and also for failing to save her sister Sophia. In The Arctic Event, the head of Covert-One flags Randi as a possible recruit for his agency, finally taking her in during The Ares Decision. Martin 'Marty' Joseph Zellerbach: Marty is a computer expert with Asperger