One of the perennial mysteries about the
Agency is what its name, "IX," stands for. It's a frequent debate among newcomers to the agency. In some decryption training sessions, it's offered as an extra credit question.
No particular speculation has ever acknowledged as correct. There is also speculation that the
Numbers don't know. Though they'd never admit that.
One "clue" is that the name is always spelled out:
eye-echs. That's been seen as proof that it's not
something-ics, like robotics or electronics. That such answers don't make any sense, either, is also seen as proof.
But words that start with "X" are few and far between, at least in English. English is the default language of the Agency, so there's at least some presumption that that's what the name has to tie to (though some agents have come up with rather interesting alternatives based on Greek, Russian, and Tagalog).
Other proposed solutions include:
- International Exchange (most common)
- International Transfers
- International Crossroads
- Intercontinental Exchange/Transfer/Crossroads
Nobody's quite sure what those would mean, either, but they sound cool.
More exotic speculations are:
- Idea Exchange
- Imperator Xerxes
- Intentional X-ing Out of Acronym Suggestions
- Ibrahim Xossos (Greek/Lebanese founder of the Agency?)
- "I, X," after the way the illiterate (but wealthy) gold rush founder of the Agency proclaimed himself when signing the original contracts.
Since nobody knows the origin of the Agency, appeals to the founder's name are considered fairly hare-brained.
Another line of speculation is that it refers to the Roman numeral 9, (IX). That begs the issue of nine
what. The most obvious answer would seem to refer to the
Numbers -- but since they (as far as anyone as ever seen) only go from 2 to 8, that would imply that two are missing. Which makes it all, again, very difficult to confirm.
It's all in good fun, of course. Though there's always that niggling feeling that it's all cryptic and secretive for a reason. And if you learned the answer, you'd learn something that someone wanted to keep hidden. Which, for those in the world of espionage, is often too tempting a prize to not go after ...
TMS: TMS/IX
