Mark graduated from the US Naval Academy third in his class and graduated the Bulldog Program of the USMC Officer Candidate Course top of his group. He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy's highest honor, for extreme heroism in combat and promoted to the rank of Captain, but within a year resigned his commission and left the USMC. He ended up in Francophone Africa, where he became a mercenary soldier. He eventually ran his own private security firm of long range search-and-action commandos, patrolling the Sahara Desert in northern Chad. The civil war, however, ended his career, and his happiness as well. Without direction when he returned to the States, where he became a confidential agent, and remains on the edge of trouble.
He has a wind-up wall clock and a fantastically rare long-case clock in his office. His wristwatch is a globe of the earth that rotates in real-time. He is into Horology (the science of time) and is known to say "I'll see you in 30 degrees' rotation of the Earth" rather than just saying "I'll see you in two hours." For work, Mark drives a nondescript gray Chevy 4-door, easily lost among all the other look-alike cars on the road. For fun he drives a black Porsche 356 roadster. His office is decorated with his his Marine officer's Mameluke sword, his grandfather's 1950 Skyriter portable typewriter and a life-size replica of the Maltese Falcon.
He first appeared in "The Franklin Folio is Missing" in the Deadly Ink 2008 Short Story Collection, June 22, 2008.