The Activity

[Water Bob]

Anybody familiar with The Activity? It's a damn cool book. I just finished the first trade (first five issues), and I really liked it. I bought the other two trades.


The Activity refers to Intelligence Support Activity, ISA. This is what the Army calls spying. The book is about Team Omaha, a Full Black SpecOps team that is charged with cleaning up other people's messes (mopping up after the CIA) and targeting HVT's (High Value Targets).


If the introduction is to be believed, the neat spy and military equipment used in the stories are supposed to be real.


These first five stories really don't have an ongoing, connecting story (which I'm hoping will come). These first five tales serve to introduce the team members and highlight the types of missions that Team Omaha does. Even though it is episodic so far, I can see one story thread starting to emerge. Somebody is watching the Team--some other agency. Indicators are that its the CIA, but who knows at this point.


I've got a question, though, for any of you familiar with the book.


Issue #2 (Chapter Two in the first Volume): Team Omaha is charged with regaining a captured American operative that disappeared six months ago and was presumed dead. Turns out, Al Aqsa (I'm guessing a made-up Muslim Extremist Terror Organization) has him alive and is going to trade the operative for weapons with....we don't know who.


Here's my question. The Team goes in. They tranq the Al Aqsa guards. Find the operative. Then, kill the operative! Spray some acid stuff on him to disfigure his face. And take off.


Nobody in the team seems to care that they just killed a brother American (and operative--Team Omaha knows the guy). Not even the new girl on Team Omaha, code name Fiddler, seems to have a problem with what they just did. In fact, she engages in a prank with a Signals team.


Did I miss something?


I understand why they tranqed the guards. They want to see where the trail leads for the arms deal.


And, I understand why they might kill the operative, if the info on the arms deal was paramount (and it'd better be nukes or chemical/biological weapons, because they just sacrificed an American soldier for the chance of the trail). But no one--NO BODY--seems upset or distraught over doing the deed.


Thoughts?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I can't answer your question, but, in regards to this:

Issue #2 (Chapter Two in the first Volume): Team Omaha is charged with regaining a captured American operative that disappeared six months ago and was presumed dead. Turns out, Al Aqsa (I'm guessing a made-up Muslim Extremist Terror Organization) has him alive and is going to trade the operative for weapons with....we don't know who.

Al Aqsa isn't entirely made up- I think it's safe to assume it's based on these guys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Martyrs'_Brigades

 

[Water Bob]

I can't answer your question, but, in regards to this:

Al Aqsa isn't entirely made up- I think it's safe to assume it's based on these guys:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Aqsa_Martyrs'_Brigades

Ah. Well, there ya go. Never heard of 'em, but there's a bunch of 'em, I guess.

 

[WayneLigon]

Typically (especially in fiction), people in this line of work are (or are trained into being) high-functioning sociopaths. Killing a person is simply another mission objective.

 

[Water Bob]

Typically (especially in fiction), people in this line of work are (or are trained into being) high-functioning sociopaths. Killing a person is simply another mission objective.

It was the way it was done, though, that made me thing that there was more to it. As it turns out, there is. I'm reading the second trade now, and the powers-that-be are trying to figure out what the operative was into--so....he was into something dirty. It's just not that clear that that's the case in that first story about him.