Politically, are there actually equivalents to 00 agents, as per James Bond?

That is, not just people who work for an intelligence agency, but people who are sent on missions behind enemy lines with something of a free agency...

That's probably something of an obvious question, I mean, of course there are, but I wondered if anyone has any particular information (non-classified of course) as to what these agents deal with and what they exist to do.

My feeling is they are probably more likely to face character assassination attempts than real assassination attempts these days, except under very particular circumstances, but I'm wondering...

Hmmmmmm...

My intuition says they are usually more likely to be metaphorically parachuted into a group to have "influence" than they are to be jumping around between helicopters and shooting people but I could be wrong. Anyone have any concrete info?