Christopher Keller

Background
Christopher Keller is an assassin and an agent of MI6. Before that, he had served with the British Special Air Service. In England, he was believed by everyone, including his parents, to have been killed by friendly fire in Iraq. He lived on the island of Corsica. While assisting in the search for Eamon Quinn in, he again became loyal to the United Kingdom and was reunited with his parents.

History
Keller served with the Special Air Service. During the late 1980s he was smuggled into West Belfast where he lived among Catholics and led agents in the IRA. In a farmhouse in South Armagh, his identity was revealed and he would have been interrogated and then killed but he could escape by circumstances that are still unknown. After his hasty evacuation from Northern Ireland, Keller returned to SAS-headquaters in Hereford. 1990 he was assigned to a Sabre-Unit in Western Iraq to find Saddam Hussein's deadly Scud-rackets. In the night of 29.01.1991 Keller and his Unit found a missile launcher about 100 miles northwestern from Bagdad. After they had communicated their findings, fighter-bombers from their allies appeared but due to a misunderstanding, they attacked the SAS-team and not the rackets. Keller survived without a scratch and out of rage began marching through Syria, Turkey, Greece and Italy until he reached Corsica, where Anton Orsati took him in. After he had recovered, Keller fulfilled missions for the Don for 25 years.

Anton Orsati sent Keller to kill a man. Afterward, he returned to Corsica, where he had his fortune told by the Signadora.Keller later killed Werner Müller and Emil Jacobi separately at the request of Anton Orsati. The tape he took from Jacobi's residence made him dissatisfied with the things he was doing. Orsati gave him dossiers on his next two victims, Gabriel Allon and Anna Rolfe. Keller traveled to Venice but failed to even attempt killing either Gabriel or Anna. He returned to his home on Corsica.

Three months after he failed to kill in Venice, Keller confessed his intentional failure to Anton Orsati and showed Orsati a dossier he had assembled about Otto Gessler. Keller and Orsati discussed honor and justice as distinguished from vengeance. Orsati revealed that he was the assassin who had killed for the Signadora. Keller, assisted by Orsati, killed Gessler while he was swimming.

Keller starts off in South England where he attends the Intelligence Officers New Entry Course that should prepare the new agents for their future work at the MI6. Because of his past, Christopher managed to do everything perfectly and brought a surveillance team from A4 to desperation with his abilities. On the last day when the absolvents should be driven to London, Christopher was missing. He had taken up walking to the safehouse where he met with Graham Seymour. Over dinner Seymour questioned him about his opinions of the other IONEC absolvents and proceeds to tell him about his first assignment.

Kills
Characters Killed

Aliases

 * David Mandelson
 * Claude Devereaux
 * Nicolas Carnot in House of Spies
 * Peter Marlowe in House of Spies
 * Tom Edgerton in The New Girl

Trivia

 * Christopher Keller is the only principal antagonist to survive his encounter with Gabriel Allon. He is also the only antagonist to redeem himself by killing another villain.
 * As a veteran of the Special Air Service he still holds the record for the 40 mile long baggage march
 * He received the highest score in the Killing House
 * He wore a charm in the shape of a hand made of coral that had been given to him by the Signadora
 * In his villa in Corsica he owns a huge library and a small collection of French impressionists.
 * He smokes Marlboro cigarettes.