I wanted to make it pretty clear that Roka considers himself a smuggler, not an all-out mercenary. He just moves goods from one party to another. He doesn’t rob, steal, or do other violent or confrontational pay-for-hire type work, which seems realistic to me. As a specialist, he isn’t necessarily schooled in those other types of work.

It’s something that always pops into my head when I watch CSI: Miami. As entertaining as that show can be, it’s such a departure from the original Vegas CSI. I think in that show, the characters work in forensics. I don’t think Grissom has ever carried a gun, let alone put some perp down on the street. He works in a lab. On CSI: Miami, those guys do EVERYTHING, including making arrests, interrogating suspects, and even having shootouts or dodging explosions in pretty much every single episode. It kinda reminds me of something on The Simpsons. They’re not just lab technicians. They’re not even just normal cops. They’re POLICE COPS!

Anyway, the ridiculous blurring of job responsibilities and qualifications on CSI: Miami was something I wanted to avoid with RUNNERS. Of course, as Roka gets more desperate, he may take on work he otherwise wouldn’t. And he does have two expert pirates in his crew in Cember and Bennesaud…