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Can an Inquisitor have an assassin in his retinue.... and the assassin be loyal to him?

yes.

Death-cult assassins, most definitely. In Sandy Mitchell's Scourge the Heretic, the Inquisitor has a DC assassin in his retinue.

Little 'a' assassins? Like, just a regular old hitman? Like Leon? Totally. That would be a VERY valuable tool for an Inquisitor to recruit, I would think.

Officio Assassinorum assassins? I mean, Inquisitors are singular and unique creatures, likewise their warbands, so it's technically POSSIBLE, but I would think that would be rare as all hell, and require a huge song-and-dance to justify.

Officio Assassinorum assassins being a personal servant for an inquisitor long term is going to likely raise some eye brows from their colleagues. Summoning one for a particular mission is one thing but keeping one around would be tricky both from a logistical angle as well as a political angle.

No, apart from the non canon inquisition war an inquisitor would never have an officio assassinorum assassin in its retinue, attached for a short term goal possibly, but otherwise no, deal cult assassins are not part of the officio though so they would be there if needed.

What if an inquisitor and callidus are both independently sent on their own covert investigations/missions on the same target without realising the identity of each other?

They could both potentially accrue a lot of time together and 'loyalty' to each other while in 'stealth mode'...

And then the Callidus guts the inquisitor to borrow his/her face for a while

I lean towards no. The Officio Assassinorum can only be deployed on the say so of the High Lords of Terra. They are "a little worried" about the assassins being used against them.

Think of the Inquisition as the CIA.

Think of Officio Assassinorum assassins as a grenade launcher in a CIA armory.

Sure, you can bring it out and you can use it as long as you've got a damned good reason for it.

No, you can't take it and keep it in your car forever. It's expensive and others need to use it.

But I can totally understand the appeal of wanting a shapeshifter lady in your private quarters.

 Formosa wrote:
No, apart from the non canon inquisition war an inquisitor would never have an officio assassinorum assassin in its retinue, attached for a short term goal possibly, but otherwise no, deal cult assassins are not part of the officio though so they would be there if needed.

Not entirely true. "Anna" is also on long-term secondment to an Inquisitor's retinue in the much more recent Macharian Crusade trilogy by Graham McNeil, in pretty much exactly the same way as Me'Lindi was.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:
Think of the Inquisition as the CIA.

Think of Officio Assassinorum assassins as a grenade launcher in a CIA armory.

Sure, you can bring it out and you can use it as long as you've got a damned good reason for it.

No, you can't take it and keep it in your car forever. It's expensive and others need to use it.

But I can totally understand the appeal of wanting a shapeshifter lady in your private quarters.

More like the Inquisition is the CIA.

And Officio Assassinorum Assassin is an Air Force Predator Drone.

The CIA can call in an air strike from an AF Predator but they’re two different organizations.

Similarly, the Inquisition can use the OA Assassin on a mission to kill stuff but technically the OA Assassin belongs to a different organization.

Yeah. its your warband, if you can think of a cool reason/backstory. go for it.

I think it also depends on which assassin your going for. I could buy a callidus or vindicare hanging around for a while and working towards a common goal as they are the most user friendly and rational of the main four. The callidus in particular has to be able to pass as a normal what ever I'm currently posing as which implies excellent social skills.

The other two have issues with groups of people. An Eversor is a berserker who is likely as much of a threat to its allies as it is to its enemies and can only operate outside of cryo sleep for short bursts. The Culexus makes everyone around them at a minimum sick and uncomfortable and for a psyker is literally a walking death.

 Adeptus Doritos wrote:

But I can totally understand the appeal of wanting a shapeshifter lady in your private quarters.

One of the protagonist guardsmen in Macharius ends up in an "it's complicated" relationship with 'Anna' (she's spying on Macharius for the inquisitor, Macharius knows she is).

He ends up with a quite embarrasing and totally undeserved reputation as a shameless womanizer - since he's rarely seen in public in the company of the same woman twice...

In Charlie Stross' Monastery of Death, an Imperial diplomatic party to a recenty rediscovered medieval world consists of an Administratum adept, an Arbites judge and an Assassin (this was before the four temples were inented in 2nd edition, but basically back then all Assassins were Callidus without the fancy weapons). The Assassin wasn't there to kill anyone; the members of the party were there to send a message; you can deal with the Adept. If you choose not to, here's the example of Imperial military might, or if that fails, the stiletto in the back in the night.

Not quite canon any more, but an assassin may travel with an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor for a similar reason.

It'd be a strange inquisitor that didn't! Such suspicious behavior ought to be flagged for further =][=nquiry

Ahh yes, the ole' xenos inquisitor and an eversor buddy cop movie...

 Grumblewartz wrote:
Ahh yes, the ole' xenos inquisitor and an eversor buddy cop movie...

-Eversor breaks into the enemy compound, slaughters scores of enemies, then puts on a hat and dances a funny jig-

Inquisitor: "Who else but Q'ag-M1re?"

 Grumblewartz wrote:
Ahh yes, the ole' xenos inquisitor and an eversor buddy cop movie...

He's a hard-bitten investigator, scarred by the years of dealing with the scum of the Imperium. She's a killer with a thousand faces, bringing lethal justice from the shadows. Together, they fight heresy!

 AndrewGPaul wrote:

 Grumblewartz wrote:
Ahh yes, the ole' xenos inquisitor and an eversor buddy cop movie...

He's a hard-bitten investigator, scarred by the years of dealing with the scum of the Imperium. She's a killer with a thousand faces, bringing lethal justice from the shadows. Together, they fight heresy!

I'd watch that

I mean, are you going to say not to an inquisitor? Are you going to say no to an assassin temple?

This one comes down entirely to politicking, between general clout(say lord inquisitor) or specific favor(maybe the inquisitor nuked someone trying to steal temple secrets or something) very little isn't possible in 40k for an inquisitor.

Not standard sure, but there isn't really a standard inquisitor either.

As someone explained above;

"Little a" assassins - fill your boots. Take as many as you can squeeze into the cargo hold of a Valkyrie. Death cultists, marksman, spies, go crazy.

"Big A" Assassins - probably not. Not only do they belong to another organisation, but there would probably be some eyebrows raised by an inquisitor having one around all the time. Certainly they can ask to borrow one for short times/missions/excursions, but keeping one in their personal retinue is probably not going to be allowed without other inquisitors looking into why.

This is 40k, so anything is possible.

That said I'd not want an Evasor Assassin hanging around me or anyone else.
Most assassins have their brains pretty melted by their training, they're not good company. They're good at killing stuff. Why does your Inquisitor want one for anything other than assassinating something?