Melanie Kraft
Melanie Kraft is a character that appears in several Tom Clancy novels. She was the former girlfriend of Campus operative Jack Ryan, Jr..
Biography
Locked On
Melanie Kraft worked as a CIA analyst in 2008. In her spare time, she compiled a memo on the Muslim Brotherhood regarding the differences they show in public, depending on whether they use the English, or a native language. When she showed the paper to her CIA superior, she ran into problems, as the memo concluded that the Brotherhood were close to Islamic terrorists. This raised the wrath of CIA deputy director Charles Sumner Alden, a politician close to Ed Kealty, who held that the Brotherhood were friendly to the US. Luckily, the memo also raised the attention of the NCC Deputy Director Mary Pat Foley. Considering Melanie to be a prime asset for an intelligence agency, Mary persuaded her to be loaned out to the NCC. When Jack Ryan, Jr. visited the NCTC, Mary Pat acts as a match maker, telling Jack that Melanie is "single" and "lives in Alexandria". Melanie and Jack start dating shortly after. In actuality, however, Alden ordered Melanie to start a relationship with Jack in order to find out his affiliation with John Clark and The Campus. She later deduced that a "business trip" Jack had undertaken was actually his participation in the events in Pakistan by pretending that "Khan", the second-in-command of Riaz Rehan would be on the run. Jack confirms her suspicions by forgetting to pretend that he doesn't know Khan.
Threat Vector
Melanie and Jack continued to date into 2009. However, it is revealed that Alden had blackmailed Melanie into spying on Jack because of the fact that her father, a former USAF Colonel, had a relationship with a women he had believed to be Palestinian and unknowingly leaked intelligence to Pakistan. When Melanie was forced to plant a Trojan in Jack's phone, he becomes aware of the fact and suspects her to be a Chinese spy. Likewise, Melanie had become fully aware of him lying to her about his activities. This is made worse by the fact that Jack could not tell her about the Campus despite her high security clearance.
Melanie was later threatened to be killed by Center and his Ghost Ship organization, prompting Jack to ask a retired John Clark to look after her. When John is called out of retirement to the Campus, he takes Melanie with him. They arrived right after the Chinese had assassinated several Campus employees. John was able to overcome the remaining assassins, although Melanie was forced to save his life in one case by shooting down an assassin. Ryan and Kraft later decide to break up due to their trust issues. Melanie then decided to resign from the CIA due to lying to the polygraph about her father being an unwitting asset for Egyptian intelligence.
Template:Characters/Locked On Template:Characters/Threat Vector