Castenea wrote:alj_sf wrote:
Again, the operational skills shown are not compatible with newbies in command. The first operation they did we know of was the rescue of the wife of the ex-archbishop and they did that without any flaw while said wife was under inquisition surveillance. So the surveillance team (2 mens I think Rayno said) was either compromised or killed too.
In the first case, they have seriously deep claws embeded in the inquisition, and that dont happen in little time.
In the second they are very skilled, as even if the inquisitors were not expecting such attacks, they seem to be well trained from other textev. In both cases it suggest deep experience
They probably have been operational for quite a few years, at least those parts not doing assassinations. It is likely everyone who wants to be a power player has agents in Zion, given the probability that many of those agents are working for multiple people, counter espionage likely has its hands full. Then there are the criminal enterprises smuggling things like hard cider or tea without tax stamps. The smuggling is likely not strenuously persecuted most of the time, only when a smuggler gets too blatant, or a new chief is appointed.
Who says they've been conducting "active operations" for a huge amount of time? And who says they were organized or trained by "newbies"?
I certainly haven't said anything to that effect. Can you point me at any place in textev where I have?
I would point out that there are organization and then there are organizations, and that you are making certain assumptions about any putative organization to which Aivah may or may not belong. Inclluding the assumption that just because they have nmounted no known operations against the Inqusition they must have "newbies" in command. Frankly, I think to some extent that this suggests certain prejudices (in the sense of pre-judgments) in your basic model.
Suppose, for a moment, that there was a secret organization which had been hidden for a couple of hundred years (or more), during which it had erected a defense in depth against revealing its presence while very quietly and clandestinely collecting information on a
known intelligence agency. And suppose, for just a moment, that said secret organization possessed the means to insert its own personnel into the known intelligence agency. And suppose, for just a moment, that
those infiltrated agents spent a hundred years or so
learning the techniques of the known intelligence services without ever carrying out an overt operation
against the known intelligence agency. And suppose that those folks who learned those techniques were available to
teach them to your "newbies," while simultaneously passing along the institutional experience of their enemy
learned while actively in the service of and running operation for that enemy.
Now, I am not saying which, or how much, if any, of the above suppositions are relevant to Safehold, but it does rather suggest how at least some of your concerns could be answered, does it not?
) Since the Inquisition is by far the largest intelligence organization on Safehold, this suggests they have been infiltrated, perhaps substantially given that a large organization should offer more opportunities for infiltration. Given Aivah's firmly expressed desire to kill Clyntahn, it also suggests that either none of "her" Inquisitors are assigned to the Temple, or not in a position to kill Clyntahn without being discovered.