Crossword Genius

He's in the firing line (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

stoker

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'he's in the firing line' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.

'he's in the' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'the' could be 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects) and 't' is present in the answer.
'he' could be 'ker' and 'ker' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'so' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for stoker that I've seen before include "Bram ...... wrote 'Dracula'" , "One feeding furnace" , "Fireman (on steam train)" , "One tends to fire" , "Irish author of Dracula, d. 1912" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail and The Guardian.
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