International Presidential Consulting Agency

The International Presidential Consulting Agency (IPCA) is a fictional secret government organization in the video game series, "Syphon Filter". The series' protagonist, Gabe Logan, is head of the agency.

History

Formerly called The Agency, it is a top-secret U.S. intelligence group in the video game series, "Syphon Filter". At first, it appears the Agency exists in order to safeguard the people of the United States and its interests abroad, but it later became evident in the series that the Agency is little more than an international arms consortium dealing in all kinds of weaponry, including the Syphon Filter virus. Most of the agency operatives were corrupt and were willing to kill U.S. army soldiers and SWAT officers. It is not clear when the Agency was created, but it is clear that it has shaped events in the international community since at least 1979. It came to an end after the events of "Syphon Filter 3", in which it is reorganized as the International Presidential Consulting Agency (IPCA) with series protagonist, Gabe Logan, at the helm. In 2007, it is revealed in Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow that Robert Cordell, Gabe Logan's commander, shuts down the agency in order to get Shen Rei across the border, to obtain the X-Z-2 bomb from Bitar.

Agency files

1984

Lawrence Mujari, soldier for the African National Council in South Africa, discovers that workers in a gold mine had been intentionally exposed to unknown chemical agents. We now know this is the first encounter with the Syphon Filter virus.

1987

Lian Xing, a Chinese MSS agent, is gathering evidence of Soviet troop movement in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is saved from an ambush by Gabe Logan, and an Army Ranger. Lian assists Logan in delivering arms to Afghan rebels.

1993

Teresa Lipan, an ATF agent, encounters NSA operatives posing as FBI agents attempting to recover a downed intelligence satellite in Montana. Gabe Logan assists her.

1994

Gabe Logan, Lian Xing, and Teresa Lipan are recruited by the Agency. Lipan leaves the Agency shortly thereafter to become a freelance intelligence operative.

1999

Special Agent Ellis uncovers a Costa Rican jungle laboratory where a powerful biological weapon is being manufactured. Intelligence connects the lab, and a subsequent biological attack in Nepal, to terrorist Erich Rhoemer.

Agent Gabe Logan, the Agency's best covert operative, was assigned to uncover Rhoemer's plans. Together with Lian Xing and members of the Chemical and Biological Defense Command (CBDC), Logan thwarts an attempted terrorist attack on Washington, D.C. Rhoemer planned to unleash the deadly Syphon Filter virus on the United States.

Agent Logan traces the virus to Pharcom, a biotech firm owned by Jonathan Phagan. The Agency Commander in charge of the Syphon Filter investigation, Edward Benton, turned out to be a mole working for Rhoemer. Benton compromised the investigation by exposing Logan. Markinson, Director of the Agency, takes over the investigation. He orders Agent Logan to infiltrate Rhoemer's base of operations in the Ukraine. Rhoemer and Phagan were testing the virus in these labs using human subjects. Markinson provided Logan with an antidote for these subjects, but it was later revealed that the antidote was in fact a lethal injection. Agent Xing learns that she has been infected with the Syphon Filter virus while being held in Rhoemer's stronghold. Logan escapes the base with Xing.

Mara Aramov, an ex-KGB operative working for Rhoemer, ends up assisting Agent Logan in stopping the launch of a missile carrying the Syphon Filter virus in the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. Logan manages to obtain Phagan's Pharcom data disks containing the virus' genetic code. Aramov is taken into Agency custody after the incident.

Having discovered that the Agency was behind the creation of the Syphon Filter virus, Logan and Xing attempt to expose the conspiracy. Upon returning from Kazakhstan, Logan's C-130 transport was shot out down over the Colorado Rocky Mountains in an attempt by the Agency to recover the Pharcom data disks. Lian Xing, still infected with the Syphon Filter virus, was kidnapped by the Agency at the Pharcom warehouses in Kazakhstan and brought to an airbase in Colorado to be studied. After only a few hours, Xing manages to escape in a Black Hawk helicopter.

After the breakdown in the Agency's chain of command, Lyle Stevens becomes the new Director, and Dillon Morgan is immediate underling. Morgan, now in charge of mopping up the incident, brands Logan and Xing as traitors, making them targets of both law enforcement and the military. On the run, Logan enlists the aid of former Agency operative Teresa Lipan and bio-chemical expert Dr. Lawrence Mujari, to coordinate his efforts to expose the Agency and find a vaccine for the Syphon Filter virus.

Morgan attempted to retrieve Phagan's encrypted disks but was thwarted by Logan, who learns that some critical data files were left behind in Kazakhstan. These files were recovered by Uri Gregorov, head of Russian Foreign Intelligence. Logan and Xing went to Moscow to meet Gregorov, but he turned out to be an imposter planted by the Agency for the purposes of catching Logan and Xing and obtaining the Phagan's files. The real Gregorov was held in a Siberian gulag until Agents Logan and Xing located and liberated him.

Logan agreed to trade Phagan's data files to the Agency in exchange for a vaccine for Lian Xing. Anticipating a trap, Logan was able to infiltrate the Agency's secret biogenetic labs located underneath New York, using their equipment to synthesize a vaccine. A CBDC lieutenant named Jason Chance turned out to be working for the Agency. Logan eliminated Chance, along with the remnants of the Agency, but not before Chance was able to "kill" Teresa Lipan.