Howard Silk is an agent with the OI.
Both of them are. With the same/different OI.
One knows about the other, at least as we start to follow him/them, while the other doesn't. And when I say them, I am talking about Howard Silk. Both of them.
The explanation for this confusing matter is explained in very good introduction on Wikipedia. "Howard Silk is a low-level bureaucrat in a Berlin-based UN agency called the Office of Interchange, where he works in the Interface division, exchanging coded call-and-response messages with another agent. Despite his long tenure, Howard has never learned the purpose of Interface or OI. Peter Quayle, OI's Director of Strategy, denies Howard a promotion to his department, citing Howard's age and lackluster career." As if life wasn't already bad enough for this decidedly older individual, his wife, Emily, is in a coma in the hospital after being struck by a car.
And that is when Silk is called into a meeting with two Directors at OI, the aforementioned Quayle and Aldrich, head of Counterintelligence. And one other man besides Howard Silk. The other guy is ... Howard Silk. This one is identified as Howard Silk (Prime).
"During the final years of the Cold War, the East Germans accidentally created a portal to a divergent parallel universe in the basement of what would become the OI building. Two universes, remarkably similar but having gone at some point in different directions, apparently not too far in the past. Both with a considerable amount the same but enough different to make things ... interesting.
One of those interesting matters is that the powers that be in the two universes are at odds with each other. That is going to cause a good deal of trouble for both Silks, not to mention just about everyone else in both worlds.
Throw in the fact that someone in the Prime world wants very much to see Howard Silk Prime dead and if that means the first Silk, Howard Silk (Alpha), might need to be killed as well, too bad for him. This is even more true since the Howard Silk (Alpha) is not a seasoned operative, able to work in the shadows and kill when needed. Howard Silk (Prime), however, is.
Good Lines:
- Said by a very scary Howard Silk (Prime) to a would-be enemy, "The last thing you want is ... me with nothing left to say".