Emblem of the CIA as shown in-game
The CIA is the acronym for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. This is the organization Max Remington works for.
In the Game[]
The CIA is the organization that employs Max to foil Criminal Plots. Your direct boss is the CIA Chief, who will brief you before every mission and offer insights when suitable. He will also give you Promotions whenever you deserve them, and may even add information about Masterminds between missions to help you catch them.
As an Organization, the CIA is unique for several other reasons as well:
- Like the Allied Organizations, the location of each CIA office in every city in the current Theatre of Operations is known from the moment the mission starts.
- You cannot break into a CIA office. Instead, it offers you a variety of services including Message Decryption, Local and International Scans, and the assistance of Sam, your personal secretary.
- During Driving Mini-Games, if Max is being pursued by enemy agents, reaching the CIA Office is the main way to escape your pursuers. It might (but not necessarily) be possible to escape to other Allied Organization offices, but the CIA Office is always the safest bet (assuming you can reach it).
- No agent of the CIA will ever appear as a Participant of any Criminal Plot, nor will they appear as Red Herring Agents. However, there may be a Double Agent working in one of the CIA offices (see below).
Double Agents within the CIA[]
- Main article: Double Agent (CIA)
At the start of each Mission, anywhere from 0 to 3 Double Agents are planted by the enemy in random CIA Offices around the current Theatre of Operations. It is possible to locate these agents by various means.
At any CIA office, you can accuse the local agent of being a Double Agent. If you are correct, that agent is replaced and may shed some light on the current investigation. If incorrect, you are thrown out of the CIA office, and that particular office disappears from the list of locations in that city and will not reappear until the end of the mission.
Correctly accusing an agent reduces the maximum score of the mission by 50 points, essentially increasing your overall score.
Historical Background[]
The CIA is the primary foreign intelligence service of the United States, though it also deals with Counter-Intelligence activities inside the country. Created as the successor of the OSS (a World War II era intelligence service), it is famous for basically fighting the majority of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, a period noted for intense espionage and counter-espionage operations by both sides, around the globe.
Among the CIA's list of known operations, it is known to have played a part in virtually every war that took place since its creation, even wars where the U.S. had no official stake or participation. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) for its operatives, the best known CIA operations have been its debacles or failures, some discovered only after-the-fact, including supplying arms and training on more than one occasion to organizations that would later turn around and fight the United States itself. It has also been known to help overthrow entire governments to further U.S. interests in otherwise unfriendly countries.
The CIA is reputed to have access to some of the most cutting-edge technology available anywhere. In cooperation with NASA, as well as other intelligence agencies in the U.S. such as the NSA, it has developed such modern-day marvels as Stealth Planes and Spy Satellites.
During the timeframe of Covert Action, in the year 1990, the CIA's primary enemy was still the Soviet secret service - the KGB.