LOUISE BECKETT is a former US Army pilot who currently serves as the Deputy Director of the NSA, and heads a special ops team with Jake Foley at its core. Her direct superior is a man named James Skerrit, whom she calls "Jim." Lou can at times be somewhat ruthless, a fact which at times shocks those who work under her (particularly Kyle, Diane, and Jake). She is not above exploiting any opportunity presented to her if that means getting the job done--whether it's Kyle's relationship with a Chinese double-agent, Jake's love for his brother, or Diane's relationship with Jake.

She is in the difficult position of running a special ops team based around a rookie agent with minimal training and almost no field experience, and often must serve as a buffer between Jake and her superiors. In the past, Lou has come down on Jake for insubordinate behaviour, should she believe it places him, the project, the NSA, or the security of the United States at risk. At the same time, she will break procedure when she deems it necessary, bending or breaking rules to protect the team.

While her initial reaction to Jake's plight was merely opportunist (she was more than willing to study Jake for as long as he survives, seemingly unconcerned that he was being treated as little more than a lab rat) such as offering Jake an opportunity to leave the NSA despite the fact that she would have to answer for $500 million worth of nanotech research disappearing with him. When she believes it is right, she will side with her team over Skerrit and his boss, Executive Director Valerie Warner.

FACTS

• Served in the first Gulf War under General Wesley Freewalt
  
  
• Piloted a Blackhawk helicopter
  
  
• Earned the nickname "Tankbuster" during the Gulf War. "Tank" was a man who piloted a Blackhawk in your Lou's outfit and had no end of crap to give her about being black, being female, being attractive. You name it, he had a slur.Beckett put up with everything, until Tank bugged out on a hostile encounter a little faster than he should have and left Beckett all alone to weather the firestorm. But one night, Tank went to the CO, begged to be taken off the flight rotation, confessed he acted in a cowardly fashion and spent the rest of the war behind a desk. And he never said a mean thing about anybody ever again. No one knows what Lou did to him, but from that point onward, she was called "Tankbuster."
  
  
• Absolutely lethal with a rocket launcher
  
  
• Joined the NSA because the Wolf pack doesn't take women
  
  
• Freewald trusted Lou with his life, and regarded her as someone you did not let down without serious consequences.
  
  
• Kyle professed his love for Lou when she had Jake smuggle beer into Kyle's hospital room