(Though I’m still unsure of the final name to call this game, for the time being I’m going to be referring to it both by the nom de plume ‘6’ and the nom de guerre ‘CONTROL’. I hope that suffices to confuse)
AGENT – highly trained civil servants. Because of their skills and experience, they are paid better than their civil service counterparts to the tune of almost £8000 a year.
ASSET – individuals who through their skills, background, contacts or position have
BLACK BAG – covert or clandestine surreptitious entries into structures to obtain information
CELL – a method for organizing a group in such a way that it can more effectively resist penetration by an opposing organization.
CONTROL – closeted senior officers within the Special Executive.
C – chief of the Special Executive. C’s name is often publicly known as is his position as he is selected for the work by politicians. C’s position is always re-evaluated when a new government comes into power. He will almost always be a diplomat or senior ranking civil servant and probably will be holding a knighthood and looking for a Baronet.
D – directors. The Directors of the Special Executive may be recent appointees (selected by the current government), long term appointees (past DCs) or selected from the most senior Agents (who may be too well known to be of operational use).
DC – deputy chief. The two deputy chiefs are appointed by the current government. They usually intend to stay in their current position for a term not more than four years and then move on, hopefully to cushy ambassadorial roles. Their commitment to the job is questionable and they seldom come from an intelligence background.
DAY OUT – The first mission for Agents who have been released from the Field School.
DEAD DROP – a location used to secretly pass items between two people, without requiring them to meet.
ENEMY – the current enemy of the day whether military, political, economic, ideological. In the standard game, the player AGENTS are assumed to be from the Western Bloc and therefore the ideological enemy is the Eastern Bloc, composed of the governments behind the Iron Curtain. The enemy in a specific scene may be a fellow agent from another intelligence agency, an agent of a friendly government, an agent of a hostile government or even the civil law and security forces of any country in the world. In the modern world, the definition of enemy will change several times during the career of an agent and may change even during a single mission.
ESCAPE KIT – usually a passport, some money and other documents that an agent keeps, often circulating in the mail from a dummy address just in case things go badly and he feels the name to escape.
FALSE FLAG – covert operations conducted by governments, corporations, or other organizations, which are designed to appear as if they are being carried out by other entities.
FIRM – The internal name for the Special Executive.
FIELD SCHOOL – the training facility for Agents. They will be taught weaponry, demolitions, languages, tradecraft
GLASS HOUSE – A private section of the civil prison at Shepton Mallet, Somerset used for the containment of domestic traitorous Assets and dishonoured Agents. They are kept separate from the civilian criminals and it is common knowledge that some of the inmates of the Glass House are actively serving loyal Agents, keeping tabs on their imprisoned ex-colleagues.
GOVERNMENT – The current government, whichever party is in power. Governments treat CONTROL as their best friend, AGENTS as useful but expendable tools and ASSETS very poorly.
JIC – the Joint Intelligence Committee consists of the Chairman of the JIC, C, K, the head of the Defense Intelligence Staff, representatives from the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister?s Cabinet. The function of the JIC is to provide a definitive top-level assessment for the Cabinet Office.
K – the enigmatic Director General of the domestic security service.
MICE – Money, Ideology, Coercion, Ego – the basic procedure for creating assets.
Money – the Asset is working solely for financial reasons. He may be being paid directly in cash by the Agent or may have a series of bank accounts and dead drops. He may be involved in financial schemes which would be assisted by the Agent?s government.
Ideology – the Asset is working for ideological reasons. He may not agree with his employer or government. He may hold the Agent?s country or government in high esteem.
Coercion – the Asset is being coerced to work for the Agent through blackmail, threats to himself or his family, fear of exposure or other means.
Ego – the Asset is working to further his own ego and may harbour delusions of grandeur. In truth he may want nothing more than to be caught by his own side so he can reveal his genius to them.
MIX – the British secret services have, since WW1 been known by their department numbers. The MI prefix stands for “Military Intelligence” even though the majority of the secret services have been wholly civilian.
5 – the origins of the Security Service, also known as MI6, are within the domestic security section of the Secret Service Bureau, established by the Committee of Imperial Defence in October 1909.
6 – The origins of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6, are to be found in the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau, established by the Committee of Imperial Defence in October 1909.
NATO – Founded April 4th, 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is founded by Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States in order to resist Communist expansion.
STEGANOGRAPHY – the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message.
TRADECRAFT – a collective word for the techniques used in modern espionage. It can refer to generic topics or specific techniques.
