History Main / CloakandDagger

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'', due to [[GambitPileup the nature of this setting]], has a lot of secret and semi-secret organizations ranging from information brokers to assaassin guilds to HeroSecretService groups. The most important ones made it into a {{sourcebook}} quite appropriately named ''[[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=8492 Cloak & Dagger.]]''

** The KGB in real life are often called "Dzherzhinsky Square", after the street where the headquarters are located (which in turn is named after the first head of its predecessor, the Cheka). (Lubyanka is a prison). They are also generally depicted as having the same power and nightmarish disregard for life as the real life NKVD, their predecessor in the Stalin era.

* The Black Organization in ''Manga/CaseClosed'' seemed to have this going on, but subverted by some of its members decided to continue having relationships and friendships. [[spoiler:Akemi and Shiho (because they are sisters), Rena and Shuichi, Vermouth and "Ano Kata."]] Others perceive fellow members as tools (Gin).

* ''ComicBook/{{Checkmate}}'' in the DC Universe is part of the greater Department of Metahuman Affairs and has a chess motif.
** ''Motif'' is perhaps not as apt a phrase as ''weird cheesy obsession''. For example, there are ''two'' heads of the agency, the Black King and the White King (not as racist as it sounds ... the White King was for a while, and may still be, Mr. Terrific, who is black). Depending on the writer/time period, this is explained as either a division into ops/intel, or normal/superpowered. (I guess you need a superpowered team to fight superpowered baddies, and you need a normal team to keep an eye on the supers because you're ''paranoid''.)
** Opposing the good guys in this are H.I.V.E and Kobra.
* ''ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'' is a fictional agency employed by the United Nations (and formerly, the US government) to fight terrorists.
** Also, [[RecycledInSPACE S.W.O.R.D.]] and, briefly, [[Comicbook/DarkReign H.A.M.M.E.R.]], ComicBook/{{Norman Osborn}}'s replacement for S.H.I.E.L.D.
** Britain has [=MI13=], which essentially handles supernatural and superhuman affairs in Great Britain.
** Opposing the good guys in this is Hydra, Leviathan, Department X/the Red Room, the Secret Empire, AIM, the Sons of the Serpent, and the Hand.
* The Global Peace Agency was one of these for ComicBook/{{OMAC}}. Sort of, it's... complicated.

** As of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', the titular agency has reasserted itself as the archnemesis of [=MI6=] as a whole and 007 in particular, with preceding enemies in the Creator/DanielCraig films even being retconned as having been - knowingly or otherwise - operating under SPECTRE control.
** The real-life {{UsefulNotes/MI6}} is not known to have a "00 Section" made up of specially appointed assassins. In the films not only is it a major part of the organization, it's big enough to have its own section in [=MI6=]'s headquarters and its own logo (as per ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'').

* ''Film/TrueLies'' had "The Omega Sector" which seemed to be directly inspired by SHIELD up to the point of having Charlton Heston appear in an eye-patch.

* The titular organization of Creator/TimPowers' ''Literature/{{Declare}}'', in which an agent's catechism includes the question, "Would you fight magic with magic?"

* Literature/TheCulture series novel ''Literature/TheHydrogenSonata'' is a cloak and dagger espionage thriller fought by SufficientlyAdvancedAlien [[DeusEstMachina AI starships]] over a secret left behind by even more [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]].
* ''Literature/TheNexusSeries'': Imagine a cold war based around mind-hacking instead of nukes and you're halfway there.
* The titular ''Literature/RedRoom'' organization is a branch of an AncientConspiracy devoted to covering up the supernatural. Unlike most such groups, they act like a glamorous movie espionage organization with advanced magically-enhanced technology. [[spoiler: This is implied to help divert agents from thinking too hard about the immoral nature of their work.]]

* Control from ''Series/GetSmart'' is an example as is its opponent ''Kaos.''

* In the 2010 ''{{Series/Nikita}}'', the government agency Nikita used to work for is called Division.

--> '''Ed Greenwood''': [[http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fr/20010314b But]] there's another sort of secret society that we ''can't'' spotlight in the rules [...] : We ruin its secrecy by talking about it. These small, local, lowdown [[CorruptCorporateExecutive cabals of crooked merchants]] are a vital, ongoing, many-layered (as in "You shouldn't have just one at a time") part of the "home" TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms campaign, and in many, many lively, long-running D&D campaigns set in any world. They're just the thing for [[{{Frameup}} framing]] or hiring [=PCs=] and [[UnwittingPawn plunging them]] throat-deep into unexpected and usually unwanted adventure.

** The Technocracy is one HUGE example of this.
* The d20 based game ''TabletopGame/{{Spycraft}}'' existed for no other purpose than CloakAndDagger advernturing.
* ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'' has, most notably, the Emperor's Hand and Les Jager -described by [[WordOfGod the author]] as a cross between the RealLife Gestapo and SS-.

* ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' has the Malta Group, a international coalition of intelligence agents formed during the Cold War to [[UsefulNotes/TheKnightsTemplar get around their government's unwillingness to conscript superheroes into the intelligence community]].
* [[VideoGame/MetalGear FOXHOUND]], anyone?

* [[VideoGame/TeamFortress2 Reliable Excavation Demolition, meet Builders League United.]] Possibly a subversion in that neither group has any real idea what they're fighting for or why they would need a small, color-coded briefcase from the opposing company.
** The name is referenced by the Spy class weapon "Cloak and Dagger"

* The agents of ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''[='s=] Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) undertake all sorts of morally shady activities, some of which are kept secret even from UNSC High Command. ONI is also the organization responsible for [[SuperSoldiers creating]] TheHero, Master Chief.

* There are several in ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol''. The titular agency is employed as a deniable asset by the US government, allowing them to conduct operations at their discretion and later say that they had nothing to do with it. [[spoiler: In the case of the game, the US government says "Neutralize Shaheed", but doesn't care how the agency goes about it. Also, it exists as an agency without oversight at all, making the entire operation less a case of plausible deniability and more a case of complete denial...as long it's burned to the ground when they're in danger of being discovered.]] G22 exists as a standalone agency, working for no government and operating only on their own recognizance, and while they specialize in datamining and intelligence-gathering, they also have a robust and effective paramilitary representation. [[spoiler: They're also implied to be an abandoned previous incarnation of Alpha Protocol.]] Deus Vult appears to consist of one man with several direct operatives working in the open as part of the Veteran Combat Initiative, a mercenary group. [[spoiler: And, you guessed it, they're also implied to be an abandoned previous incarnation of Alpha Protocol.]]
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' had UNATCO serves as this at the start of the game. [[spoiler:They're actually puppets of TheConspiracy, leading you to defect halfway in.]]
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell''s and Third Echelon in general serve this role. While technically they're strictly in human intelligence, Fisher nonetheless aggressively pursues information and has, at least once per game, been called on to assassinate a specific person.

** [[UnevenHybrid Bretons]] tend to be extremely talented in pursuits of espionage. Breton [[DoubleAgent double agents]], [[MurderInc assassins]], and [[TheMole spies]] have turned the tide of wars throughout recorded history. It was in fact a Breton assassin who killed the Colovian Petty King Cuchulain leading to the ascension of Cuchulain's General as his replacement. That General's name? ''[[FounderOfTheKingdom Tiber]] [[GodEmperor Septim]]''.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' the Railroad adopts this persona, especially the agent known only as “Deacon”. They use dead drops, safe houses, secret signs to provide information about areas, store weapon and supply caches for operatives all over, like to speak covertly and even use a sign and countersign to identify one another, even have their own equivalent of Q to make weapon and clothing mods and generally know a lot about the goings on in the Commonwealth. Ultimately subverted, as they aren’t an intelligence agency, they are actually a people smuggling operation looking to liberate all enslaved synths. Their adversary, the Institute actually has an even better intelligence gathering apparatus due to a long list of paid informants and synth doppelgänger double agents.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/SecretAgentMen'' spoofs this type of organization, even calling its two separate sections "Cloak" (for overt, glamourous work) and "Dagger" (covert dangerous work, like special ops).

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', the Global Peace Agency was basically SHIELD.