Explanations for Agent absence

From 1970, Delta Green relied on active professionals to leave their day jobs and ordinary responsibilities in order to carry out necessary operations in secret. Here are some common explanations for such absences. This article is based in part on Operational Accountability Discussion.

With little or no cooperation from higher-ups

• Hardship leave.
• Sick leave.
• Vacation.

See Directives from A-Cell 105 on how these methods became less tenable from 2001 onwards.

With cooperation from higher-ups

• Fictional training cycle.
• Adam handles reports and generates false paper trails, but only within the FBI.
  • Possible equivalents in other organizations.
    • The DNI from Alien Intelligence would work for the ONI. (Graeme Price)

General notes

• Never underestimate the power of just not bothering to file any paperwork. If there's nothing on their desk that they have to process, few government bureaucrats are going to go looking to find out where you've been or what you've been doing. The easy assumption is that somebody else processed it already. Make no waves and the time servers will think you're one of them. (Josh Shaw)