Ana Dakkar, the 15-year-old protagonist of Daughter of the Deep, is about to finish her freshman year at Harding-Pencroft Academy, where many of her family before her have attended. She follows in the footsteps of her 18-year-old brother Dev and their parents who are both gone, killed two years prior. Ana is in Dolphin House, which means that she excels at communication skills, is fluent in multiple languages, including sign language, and can crack difficult codes. Ana is a skilled leader and captain of her fellow students, easily evaluating big picture problems and taking the opinions of her fellow students into consideration. When she and the other Dolphins are trying to decode the challenge before entering Lincoln Base, she thinks that codes are “as exhilarating as cliff-diving, and they’re the main reason I love being a Dolphin…I’m the best at putting all the pieces together to make a bigger picture. That’s why I was elected the freshman prefect” (133).

However, Ana initially believes herself not skilled enough for the responsibility of being captain. Once she is acting captain, she can hardly believe it. When the students arrive at Lincoln Base, she thinks, “it hits me that I just gave an order to my classmates, and they took me seriously.