Espionage in the world of the Society
Posted on: Sep 11, 2009 at 10:11am
Last Updated on: Jan 20, 2010 at 08:42pm
One of the topics that comes up throughout the Earthfleet saga is the presence of the Intelligence Corps. This group is the Society's equivalent to the CIA, only more flexible and with better playtoys. 
The Society Intelligence Corps is an independent, autonomous civilian organization within the Society tasked with identifying threats to Earth, and neutralizing them.
However, despite this autonomy, the SIC still answers to the Chancellor and the Grand Admiral, and indirectly to the Council, any of which can overrule them at any time if the need arrises. However, like the military, they have the ability, in times of great need, to overrule their superiors and take matters into their own hands. However, like the military, the reasons for this defiance must be clear, and in the best interests of Earth and the Society.
But there's also discussion at several points in the books about the Grand Admiral of the fleet being in charge of the SIC. This isn't a plot hole or a typo. The Grand Admiral actually is in charge of the SIC, but his roll in their leadership is more towards a military nature (long range recon, etc) and less towards "civilian" intelligence, which is more in the interests of the Chancellor and the council.
The easier way to understand how this works is like this. The Chancellor is leader over everything in the Society, and is the Grand Admiral direct superior. The council acts sorta like what congress does in the US, deciding and making laws, etc. They are subordinate to the Chancellor, and yet he's subordinate to them. But they have the ability to hire and fire him. Think of it as an odd way of doing balance of power.
Anyways, the SIC exists in two divisions under one organization: Fleet intelligence, and Society Intelligence. It's the same organization, same spies, but different rolls. Fleet Intelligence tends to involve deep space recon and off system spying. Society Intelligence focuses more on intelligence, spying, and information gathering within Sol. Another good way to think about this is how the CIA and the NSA works. The CIA only handles foreign spying, while the NSA only handles domestic spying.
One example of how some of the sharing of resources works is Mike's request for four SIC agents, namely Lars, Vlad, Landers and Garcia, for a little deep space espionage, since he needed "boots on the ground" so to speak on this particular mission.
The rank structure in the SIC is pretty basic. The organization is headed by a single chief director, currently known as "the old man" (I haven't had a need to give him a name yet, so that's what I've decided to call him), who is somewhat of a grumpy puss, but he's also very good at what he does, and very protective of Earth. He also hates Black Orchid and the Illuminati to no end. You'll read more about them and their running battle with these two evil organizations in book 3.
Below the old man is the directors. They coordinate all intelligence gathering and agent deployment within the SIC. Below them are the agents who gather the intelligence, the office staff, and the "information hounds" who sift through any new intel and decide what's usable and what's not. Agents are broken into five basic levels, with a level one agent being the lowest and least experienced, and a level five being a master spy. Lars is a level five agent, the highest there is, and is tasked with some of the most difficult missions. He is also one of a limited number of level five agents who report directly to the SIC chief director.
Also, as a small aside, the Fleet Recon side of the SIC directly draws ships from the fleet itself for its missions. There are no ships assigned specifically for duty with the SIC, but there are a number who do tours of duty with them, rotating in and out over given periods of time in order to keep the crews as fresh as possible. But if Sol is attacked, all Fleet Recon ships are immediately transfered to combat duty until hostilities, or the danger itself, has passed.
I hope this little tidbit has been informational to you and clarified a few questions you had. 
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