“The behavior he’s alleged to have engaged in would go against everything we ever saw of him,” said Chris Parry, a journalist who met Mr. Ortis while he was a graduate student. “This guy worked 15 years in the service of the country when he could easily have taken well-paid corporate positions at any time.”

But Mr. Parry also noted how private he was and compared him to Superman’s alter ego, an unassuming journalist with a secret life. “Clark Kent is the best way to describe him,” he said. “In looks and physique, but also in terms of secrecy and genuine dedication to work for the public good.”

He appeared to have no social media accounts aside from a LinkedIn profile that says he speaks Mandarin and was an “adviser” to the Canadian government. He said so little about his professional life, Mr. Parry said, that he assumed Mr. Ortis worked for Canada’s version of the C.I.A., the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.

Mr. Ortis joined the government in 2007, when the intelligence division of the Mounties was expanding to confront cybercrime and terrorism. He arrived with a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia — he wrote a dissertation on the misuse of the internet by criminals in Asia, as well as potential ways countries could combat it — and quickly impressed those he met.

Angus Smith, who retired last year as the Mounties’ senior intelligence adviser, said that when Mr. Ortis arrived at the agency, it was immediately clear that he was an exceptional recruit.

“I was always impressed by his intellect,” he said, as well as “by the level of rigor that he would bring to conversations about whatever the issue of the day happened to be.”

Like many, if not most, intelligence analysts with the Mounties, Mr. Smith and Mr. Ortis were classified as civilians. Though they did not carry guns, have badges or wear uniforms, they were active participants in investigations.