Section 20
| Character | Actor | Series appearances | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| John Porter | Richard Armitage | 1–2 | |||
 John Porter is the main protagonist of the first series who is a Sergeant in the British SAS. In 2003 he took part in a botched operation to rescue Kenneth Bratton, a weapons contractor held hostage in Iraq on the eve of the American-led invasion, where two soldiers were killed and a third left in a persistent vegetative state. Porter was blamed as they suspected the killer was a 13-year-old hostile, As'ad, and Porter failed to kill him. As a result, he resigned a disgraced operator, he could not find suitable employment, and became estranged from his wife and daughter. [3] Seven years later, he is drafted back into service to work for Section 20. He ultimately learns that the boy, was not the killer, [4] but his new superior Hugh Collinson. [5] In the second series, Project Dawn , Porter worked to capture terrorist Latif in Pakistan, who is planning the eponymous operation. Instead, Porter gets captured, and later executed. It is later revealed that Porter was exposed by Pakistani intelligence and to a lesser extent, Eleanor Grant, Collinson's successor. Armitage dropped out of the role after the first series to play Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit film trilogy. [6]
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| Hugh Collinson | Andrew Lincoln | 1 | |||
 Major Hugh Collinson is the head of Section 20 in the first series. Collinson was a military intelligence officer who worked with Porter in the SAS mission to rescue Kenneth Bratton. When enemy re-enforcements arrived Collinson accidentally killed two SAS soldiers. However, Porter was given the blame. Later, Collinson is promoted to lead Section 20. [3] In 2010, journalist Katie Dartmouth is kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq, among them is As'ad, who is the only witness to Collinson's shooting. Collinson covers his tracks by refusing to aid As'ad, likely leading to his death. [4] The truth is later discovered by Layla, after the third soldier dies after seven-years in a coma, and ballistics evidence matches Collinson's gun. Collinson is later forced to help Porter in Afghanistan, after he sells the latter out by the American government to kill him. Collinson is shot several times by the Taliban while helping Porter escape, and in his dying moments uses a grenade to kill them. [5]
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| Danni Prendiville | Shelley Conn | 1 | |||
 Danni Prendiville is an officer in Section 20. In the first series, Prendiville oversees Porter's training after he joins the unit, and then has sex with him. [3] The two later have an affair. [7] Her status since the end of the first series is unknown.
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| Layla Thompson | Jodhi May | 1 | |||
Layla Thompson is a Lieutenant in military intelligence and works alongside Collinson in Section 20. Throughout the first series her demeanor towards Porter's employment in the section changes. At first she comes to resent Porter, [3] [4] but as time goes by an opens up to him. [8] She later becomes aware of the truth behind the botched 2003 operation and ultimately learns it was Collinson who killed the soldiers. She then confronts Collinson and blackmails him into aiding Porter in Afghanistan or she will report her findings to Collinson's superiors. [5] Her status since the end of the first series is unknown.
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| Michael Stonebridge | Philip Winchester | 2–6 | |||
 Colour Sergeant Michael Stonebridge is one of the two series protagonists, alongside Damien Scott, from Project Dawn to Legacy. In the series, Stonebridge is a Royal Marine Commando turned SBS operator working for Section 20, and is married to his wife Kerry. Despite this, Stonebridge has an affair with Section 20 officer Kate Marshall. In Project Dawn, Stonebridge is assigned to collect Damien Scott to identify Latif, a mysterious terrorist. Their working relationship begins somewhat rocky due to the duo's polarising views on tactics. He ends his affair with Kate, but soon afterwards, Kate is killed in a bomb, and Stonebridge temporarily loses focus on his job. When Kerry announces she is pregnant, the wife pressures Stonebridge to leave Section 20. After foiling Latif's Project Dawn, Stonebridge decides to resign. In Vengeance , Stonebridge trains British special operation recruits, but during a live-ammunition training exercise, he is forced to kill a recruit when he breaks down and threatens the other recruits. He briefly rejoins Section 20 to rescue Scott in Somalia, but then rejoins full-time after the dead recruit's brother, Craig Hanson, avenges his death by killing Kerry. Stonebridge becomes fixated on killing Hanson, who is now working for Conrad Knox, the season's antagonist, and hence loses focus again. By the end of the series, Stonebridge fulfils his revenge, but decides to forgive Hanson also. In Shadow Warfare , he and Scott are ordered to capture Kamali, a lieutenant of elusive terrorist al-Zuhari, in Colombia, and kill Viktor Ulyanov of the Russian mafia in the process. This action results in a hit his and Scott's life as his father Arkady is a high-ranking mob boss. In the third episode, Stonebridge is unknowingly contaminated with a chemical weapon leaked from outdated missiles in a warehouse. As a result, he suffers episodes of impaired visions, affecting his combat abilities. He is not made aware of his condition until episode seven, where he has only days to live. He is later given the antidote and manages to survive to fight again, while also having the bounty lifted when Arkady is killed. During the events of Legacy, Stonebridge begins to seriously contemplate his life when he is forced to confront the idea that his government would consent to having him killed if it would fulfil a political end. He expresses the hope that he will die as a soldier because he has always been a soldier and has no identity outside it. After surviving pursuit by a CIA assassination squad, Stonebridge is officially the only survivor of Section 20. He faces an uncertain future as he tries to adjust to civilian life, but chooses to join Scott and his son on a road trip to Las Vegas. Stonebridge makes a guest appearance in Retribution , partnering with Scott to aid the reformed Section 20. Since the events of Legacy they have become "independent contractors" carrying out sensitive and dangerous intelligence operations on behalf of the British government, giving Whitehall plausible deniability.
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| Damien Scott | Sullivan Stapleton | 2–6 | |||
 First Sergeant Damien Scott is one of the two series protagonists, alongside Michael Stonebridge, from Project Dawn to Legacy. Scott was a member of the US Army Rangers before joining Delta Force working to investigate possible weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. When he began questioning mysterious WMD intelligence, he found himself dishonorably discharged when two pounds of opium were planted in his possession. He was considered so unorthodox in his methods, that even private military companies would not hire him. He is first seen in Malaysia entering fighting contests for income. He is brought in by Section 20 to identify Latif, though Scott later admits he never actually saw him. Scott later becomes a member of Section 20. Throughout the series he realises that he was set up by Eleanor Grant as part of a mission to plant weapons in Iraq. He acquires the file that would exonerate him, but he decides to burn the file instead. In Vengeance Scott is captured while on a rescue mission in Somalia, but later rescued by Stonebridge. While working to recover four stolen nuclear triggers, he is reacquainted with Christy Bryant. It is revealed that after his dishonourable discharge, he and Christy worked together to kill numerous targets around the world that posed a threat to the United States, but stopped in 2005 when he killed the son of a target in a car bomb in Ecuador. By the end of the series, Scott reluctantly partners up with her once more to stop Conrad Knox from selling and detonating four nuclear weapons. In Shadow Warfare he and Stonebridge are wanted by the Russian mafia for killing the son of mob boss Arkady Ulyanov during a mission to capture Kamali. Over the course of the series, Scott learns that he fathered a son, Finn, from one of his past relationships while in the States. He acquires a bag of diamonds from one of the missions, and decides to give it to his son's mother Rebecca. By the end of the series, Scott begins a relationship with Julia Richmond. In Legacy, Finn finds himself in trouble at home and runs to Bangkok to meet his father. Initially believing Scott to be an IT consultant, the two are attacked by the Yakuza and Scott finds himself acting as a father for the first time. When he and Stonebridge infiltrate North Korea, Scott surrenders upon learning that the North Koreans have abducted Finn and even confesses to committing an act of war to protect him. Once the three escape North Korea, Scott begins contemplating life after Section 20 having previously admitted that he expects to die in action. When he and Stonebridge evade a CIA-sanctioned hit squad, Scott stages his own death, allowing him to return to the United States and be a father to Finn. Scott makes a guest appearance in Retribution , partnering with Stonebridge to aid the reformed Section 20. Since the events of Legacy they have become "independent contractors" carrying out sensitive and dangerous intelligence operations on behalf of the British government, giving Whitehall plausible deniability.
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| Eleanor Grant | Amanda Mealing | 2 | |||
Colonel Eleanor Grant is the head of Section 20 following the demise of Hugh Collinson, in Project Dawn. Her main assignment was to stop Latif, who killed Porter. She reluctantly takes in Scott as an operative. By the end of the series, it is revealed that she took part in "Operation Trojan Horse", a project to plant VX nerve gas in Iraq to prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction there. Though the operation was abandoned, she was ashamed of her actions (having indirectly caused the events of Project Dawn), and in her attempt to cover up her involvement, she framed Scott's possession charges and indirectly exposed Porter leading to his death. In the climax, Grant forces Latif to shoot an explosive canister under her jacket, killing Latif and herself. In Vengeance she would be replaced by Rachel Dalton as head of the section.
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| Kate Marshall | Eva Birthistle | 2 | |||
 Captain Kate Marshall is a Section 20 officer in Project Dawn. Originally from Ireland, Marshall oversees the personnel in the section, as well as having an affair with Michael Stonebridge, which he later breaks off. In the fourth episode, Marshall is captured by Daniel Connolly, later revealed to be strapped with a bomb as insurance should he be captured. Connolly refuses to disarm the bomb, and Kate dies in the explosion.
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| Oliver Sinclair | Rhashan Stone | 2–3 | |||
Major Oliver Sinclair is Section 20's second-in-command, behind Grant in Project Dawn. In Vengeance, following Grant's death, Sinclair takes provisional command until Dalton is promoted. Though little is known about his personal life, he is revealed to have children in Vengeance. In the season's seventh episode he and the rest of Section 20 (sans Scott and Stonebridge) were arrested by corrupt South African officials and sent to a prison. Sinclair realises that the officials intend to kill them. Sinclair manages to warn the rest of his team before he is executed by mercenaries.
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| Julia Richmond | Michelle Lukes | 2–5 | |||
 Sergeant Julia Richmond is introduced in Project Dawn as one of the section's newest recruits. She begins the series mostly as a technical officer, but takes a more active role in the field beginning in Vengeance, starting by rescuing Scott from capture by Somalis with Stonebridge. Throughout the series, Scott attempts to flirt with her on numerous occasions. The two later become, and by the end of Shadow Warfare, they have sex and begin a relationship that lasts as of the beginning of Legacy. Richmond is shot and killed by Mei Foster in episode four of Legacy.
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| Rachel Dalton | Rhona Mitra | 3–4 | |||
 Major Rachel Dalton (formerly Captain) is a military intelligence officer. She is introduced in Vengeance as "Rachel McMillan", junior attaché to British Diplomat Patrick Burton. She is later revealed to be undercover to intercept four nuclear triggers, which end up in the wrong hands. Whitehall later appoint her to command Section 20, replacing Grant, to hunt the nuclear triggers, which are later in the hands of philanthropist Conrad Knox. Due to Knox's influence with the South African government, Dalton has Section 20 go dark in order to stop him. By the end, she gets the co-operation with the South Africans again, and they work together to stop Knox. When the team succeed, Knox shoots Dalton, but she survives. In Shadow Warfare, Dalton becomes addicted to morphine, and begins to act more erratically. Her drug use would later result in her suspension by Philip Locke. Despite this she captures the wife of al-Zuhari and has her released so she could follow her to al-Zuhari. Instead, Dalton finds Mairead McKenna of the Real Irish Republican Army (IRA) and is shot to death. After her death it is revealed that Dalton had a son.
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| Liam Baxter | Liam Garrigan | 3–4 | |||
Sergeant Liam Baxter is a field operative introduced in Vengeance, working for Rachel Dalton to find four nuclear triggers. In Shadow Warfare, he is working undercover as a journalist to find al-Zuhari, but is exposed and captured by the terrorists. He is swiflty executed by the terrorists when they realise his true identity. Dalton fails to save him as she is out of ammunition.
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| Philip Locke | Robson Green | 4–5 | |||
 Colonel Philip Locke begins as an official in Whitehall. According to Stonebridge, Locke was an SAS legend who worked several missions against the IRA in the 1980s. At one point the IRA attempted to kill him with a car bomb, but instead the bomb killed his son and left his wife in a persistent vegetative state. The bomber was never caught. In Shadow Warfare, Locke suspends Dalton and effectively takes charge of Section 20 from then on. When the IRA are revealed to be working with al-Zuhari's cell, Locke is briefly held captive by them. After he is rescued, Locke later manages to capture Mairead McKenna and forces her to divulge the identity of the bomber. When McKenna instead tries to shoot him—but is killed by Kamali before she can—Locke is forced to accept that he will never find his son's killer. However, during the events of Legacy, he encounters a freelance bombmaker who he identifies as the man who called him moments before his son's death. The bombmaker, Desmond, claims that it was the British government and not the IRA who arranged for the bombing which was intended to kill Locke himself. Locke subsequently executes Desmond. Locke is later killed during a prisoner transfer when a CIA assassination squad ambush Section 20.
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| Kim Martinez | Milauna Jackson | 4–5 | |||
Kim Martinez is an American DEA Special Agent and former Marine. Stationed in Colombia, she is introduced in Shadow Warfare to aid Section 20 in capturing Kamali, after which she helps Section 20 for the rest of the season. In the finale she is infected with weaponised smallpox, but is given the vaccine before she started to display symptoms. She continues working for Section 20 in Legacy until she is recalled by the DEA. Martinez chooses to obey the order as she struggles with her guilt over Richmond's death.
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| Thomas McAllister | Warren Brown | 6–8 | |||
Sergeant Thomas "Mac" McAllister is one of the three series protagonists, alongside Samuel Wyatt and Gracie Novin, from Retribution to Vendetta. McAllister is a soldier in the UKSF who had a promising career until he assaulted a senior officer. The only survivor of a disastrous mission to render the terrorist Omair Idrisi, he was due to be court martialled for striking a senior officer until the revived Section 20 reassigned him. He is initially partnered with Wyatt, whom he initially finds to be irritating, but the two gradually develop camaraderie. McAllister is promoted to team leader in Revolution, much to Wyatt's amusement. He proves to be a capable leader but struggles to follow orders that clash with his sense of right and wrong. He is temporarily demoted when he deliberately defies a direct order and risks compromising the entire mission. During the events of Vendetta, Coltrane nominates MacAllister for officer training. He initially refuses until Coltrane points out that his career has few other options. Despite this, MacAllister has a crisis of conscience: he unwittingly detains and then the terrorist Zayef, defies orders and surrenders Zayef's brother Mahir to save his team, and believes he is responsible for the death of an Israeli police officer that he was cultivating as a source. When Zayef sets off a bomb in Münich, MacAllister pursues him alone and is shot in the neck. He dies despite Section 20's efforts to save him. He has an hallucination of an alternative life where he survived, retired and started a family. Struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, he revisits an incident in Afghanistan where he had to accept the help of a Taliban sniper to survive. MacAllister realises that his willingness to follow his conscience rather than his orders is what made him a good soldier and he accepts his death. It is implied that his hallucination of life as a civilian becomes his afterlife.
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| Samuel Wyatt | Daniel MacPherson | 6–8 | |||
 Sergeant Samuel Wyatt is one of the three series protagonists, alongside Thomas McAllister and Gracie Novin, from Retribution to Vendetta. He is an American Marine and JSOC operative working undercover in Libya to track Omar Idrisi who is recruited to Section 20 for his knowledge of Idrisi's operations. He has a reputation for working alone and often encounters friction with other members of Section 20. American intelligence agencies refuse to work with him because of his abrasive personality and insubordinate streak, and it is implied that a failed mission saw him disavowed after it resulted in civilian casualties. Revolution reveals that he was the only survivor of Task Force 18, a special operations unit in Iraq that was ambushed in a roadside attack. Believing that locals were harbouring the insurgents responsible, the survivors started to massacre them and only stopped when Wyatt turned his weapon on his squadmates. With no-one to corroborate his story, Wyatt was disavowed and reassigned to high-risk assignments in the hopes that he would be killed before the massacre could be revealed. He briefly retires during the events of Revolution, but finds himself unable to stay out of the field and rejoins the team. He later admits that he struggled to adjust to civilian life as a found the local supermarket more terrifying than any war zone. He inherits the callsign "Bravo One" after MacAllister's death, but finds the burden of leadership challenging as he feels he cannot make the moral judgements with the same confidence as MacAllister. Wyatt ultimately feels that it is increasingly difficult to justify his actions, especially when Section 20 is disavowed. Despite having their identities reinststed, Wyatt decides to return to civilian life. A running gag has Wyatt showing a lack of tact, often revealing personal information at inopportune moments, such as discussing his imminent divorce with McAllister—who was not aware Wyatt was married—in the middle of a fire fight.
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| Gracie Novin | Alin Sumarwata | 6–8 | |||
| Lance Corporal Gracie Novin is one of the three series protagonists, alongside Thomas McAllister and Samuel Wyatt, from Retribution to Vendetta. She is an engineer in the Australian army who is recruited to Section 20 at the last minute to extract MacAllister and Wyatt from Libya. She is the only member of the reformed Section 20 team who was not disgraced prior to joining the team. Novin most frequently takes on the role of driver for her squadmates, but is also a crack shot. While she is a professional soldier, she is often flippant towards other members of Section 20. Novin is less quick to resort to shooting than her squadmates. She has a casual relationship with Will Jensen, and while she rebuffs his interest in making their relationship more serious, she is distraught after his death and shows little concern for her own wellbeing. During the events of Revolution, Novin admits to feeling survivor's guilt and puts herself in dangerous situations to punish herself. She is temporarily promoted to team leader when MacAllister defies orders, but rejects the role of an officer. Coltrane sees potential in her as a leader and suggests that her story of trying to escape "a small town with a small future" is an act as her skills and training are an over-compensation. Revolution sees her take on the role of linguist as she is fluent in Arabic and Russian, can carry out conversations in Mandarin and Cantonese and has a working knowledge of Indonesian, but claims that most of what she knows is swearing. She accidentally kills a civilian during the events of Vendetta when trying to prevent an Albanian gangster from stealing a biological weapon. She later admits that her first kill was during Section 20's mission to stop Idrisi in Libya during Retribution. Novin continues to struggle with survivor's guilt when she breaks under torture to save herself. She later admits that she enlisted in the Army when she was nineteen and that her whole life was influenced by a choice she made as a teenager. She retires to become a civilian.
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| Natalie Reynolds | Roxanne McKee | 6 | |||
 Captain Natalie Reynolds is the ranking member of Section 20 in the field. She was recruited to the revived Section 20 from the British SRR and often works ahead of the rest of the team gathering intelligence. Reynolds claims to be the exception to Donovan's rule about recruiting "dangerous soldiers for dangerous missions", but it is strongly implied that she was involved in a cover-up by the armed forces as Donovan claims that her career was over before Reynolds met her. Reynolds is forced to kill Donovan when her role in the Project Tenebrae conspiracy was revealed. The events of Revolution reveal that Reynolds was held most responsible for Donovan's death and that she was assigned to guard Non-governmental organizations in Sudan as punishment.
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| Adeena Donovan | Nina Sosanya | 6 | |||
Colonel Adeena Donovan is the commanding officer of Section 20. She revived the Section Initiative as a response to the threat posed by Omar Idrisi, albeit in a much smaller capacity than previous iterations. In recruiting operatives for the revived Section 20, she admits that she "likes the wild ones". She frequently comes to conflict with Reynolds, who questions her leadership and her withholding of intelligence from the team. Donovan oversaw "Project Tenebrae", a disavowed intelligence operation that tried to infiltrate terror groups, and was responsible for training Idrisi's wife Jane Lowry. Her desperation to cover up her involvement sees her murder Will Jensen when he uncovers evidence of her involvement in Project Tenebrae. Donovan is killed by Reynolds when Reynolds uncovers the extent of Project Tenebrae and Section 20's role in covering it up. Revolution strongly implies that the revival of the Section Initiative was not sanctioned by the British Government and that Donovan's operation was illegal.
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| Alexander Coltrane | Jamie Bamber | 7–8 | |||
 Colonel Alexander Coltrane is the temporary commanding officer of Section 20. He is appointed to the role after Donovan's death, a position he is unhappy with given Section 20's reputation. He initially clashes with Wyatt and McAllister over their methods, but warms to them when they deliver results. Coltrane was once a promising officer in military intelligence until he suffered a breakdown and became an alcoholic. He was subsequently shuffled between desk jobs and kept out of the field and is now regarded as a cautionary tale by other soldiers. The events of Vendetta reveal that he was stationed as a peacekeeper in the former Yugoslavia during the Balkan War, where he tried to turn captured Serbian army officers into intelligence assets. One of these officers was involved in a massacre almost as soon as he was released, leading to Coltrane's breakdown. He later gives Novin a reprieve after she disobeys a direct order and confronts a friend's killer, reasoning that he can empathise with her loss; he also forgives Wyatt for trusting an unreliable source as he made the same mistake. Coltrane loses the respect of the team when he takes them rogue; while the team are comfortable with unsanctioned missions, Coltrane does not tell them, which causes tension. He has a deadpan sense of humour and most of the team cannot tell when he is joking, being sarcastic, serious or forthright. Section 20 is disbanded during Vendetta and its members disavowed. The team continue their mission regardless, thwarting a plot by Russian intelligence to take control of organised crime in Eastern Europe. Section 20 is re-establishes and Coltrane suggests they could return if they wanted to. Although Wyatt and Novin choose a civilian life, Coltrane's choice is not shown and it is implied that he stays with Section 20.
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| Katrina Zarkova | Yasemin Kay Allen | 7–8 | |||
| Captain Katrina Zarkova is a member of the Russian Spetznaz Alpha Group. She and her team are sent to Kuala Lumpur to locate a downed military transport plane carrying a nuclear weapon. Zarkova is under explicit instructions to handle the matter discreetly but she is forced to accept Section 20's help when her team is wiped out by a Triad hit squad. She has a close relationship with her handler Pavel Kugarin, and it is implied that he has an unrequited love for her until his role in the Project Kingfisher conspiracy becomes clear. Zarkova becomes increasingly conflicted, first by relying on Section 20 to aid in her mission and later by Kugarin's actions once she learns about Project Kingfisher. She is particularly troubled by her killing of an innocent security guard during the robbery of a jewellery store to raise funds for Kingfisher. Zarkova discreetly aids Section 20 by deliberately shooting to miss, revealing the locations of hostile forces she is supposedly supporting, and luring them into traps. She ultimately openly aligns herself with Section 20 once Kugarin goes off-mission. Zarkova is offered a permanent spot on the team but declines until such time as she can resolve her standing with her superior officers. Zarkova has a sexual relationship with Coltrane, ostensibly so that she can get information from the team, but it is suggested that they develop deeper feelings for one another. Zarkova returns in Vendetta, where she aids Section 20 in recovering Imperiya, a Russian cyber-weapon. She claims to have been given a medal for her role in stopping Operation Kingfisher, but she was instead branded a traitor for accepting help from Section 20 and forced to work high-risk missions alone. Her handler has orders to kill her, but she gains the upper hand and kills him instead. Knowing that the Russian intelligence agencies will now actively pursue and try to kill her, she returns to Section 20. Coltrane is given an order to kill her on a mission in Tel Aviv to cover up Section 20's operations in Israel, but instead reports her as being killed in action and gives her a new identity. Coltrane later calls her and asks her to use her contacts to locate Russian sleeper agents stationed in Croatia, despite knowing that she risks her life to do so. Zarkova agrees, but warns him that he can never contact her again, implying that she had hoped he would find her after stopping Zayef.
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| Manisha Chetri | Varada Sethu | 7–8 | |||
Lance Corporal Manisha Chetri is a British analyst on temporary secondment to Section 20. She has little field experience and is dismissive of the posting until she makes an error that places the team in danger. She begins to doubt her abilities, requiring Coltrane to manage her. Chetri becomes increasingly confident with fieldwork, and survives capture by Kuragin by offering to help him arm a nuclear device so that she can better-understand it. She is promoted to part of the team in the events of Vendetta where faces a crisis of conscience. When Section 20 learn of a conspiracy between intelligence agencies, Chetri is tasked with securing evidence while the team fend off an assault. She is separated from the group and goes rogue as she does not trust Coltrane to make the evidence public. Chetri is captured by Arianna Demachi and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, who take her to a black site in Ukraine and try to get the evidence from her. Chetri appears to break during interrogation, but tricks the Russians into deleting the evidence. Section 20 mount a rescue attempt, but are forced to watch on as Arianna executes Chetri in front of them. Novin later attempts to recover her body, but learns that the Russians destroyed it.
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