The Rookie and the Spy: a true story about meeting a CIA deep cover asset
A 30-year CIA veteran shares a Sea Story
This first-person account of a CIA officer meeting a deep cover source in a foreign country was originally published as “The Gift That Keeps on Giving” on mystery author Debra H. Goldstein’s blog. It is reposted here in its entirety with Debra’s kind permission.
The Gift That Keeps on Giving
By Carmen Amato
“If the police show up, make sure you’re holding the package.”
The fellow CIA officer prepping me to meet a deep cover agent wasn’t trying to scare me, although he sure succeeded.
No, he was simply being practical. I was expendable. The source wasn’t.
Meeting a CIA source in a foreign country involved a head-spinning number of variables, not least of which were avoiding local cops and hostile intelligence services like those from China and Russia.
As my heart hammered, I memorized the details of the upcoming rendezvous. I’d been a CIA officer for 12 years, but meeting agents was never my job.
In the language of modern espionage, the officer who was supposed to meet the agent had been “burned.” Basically, the bad guys knew who he was. With a hostile service on his tail, the compromised officer could not meet the agent, whose situation already simmered with danger.
Part of the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology, I wasn’t the kind of officer you read about in John Le Carré novels, furtively doing brush passes with agents or leaving coded messages in dead drops. I ran a technical collection platform which kept me behind a computer keyboard.
This meant that I was completely unknown to the opposition. Thus, the perfect candidate to replace the compromised officer.
My heartrate was still in the red zone as I drove, stopping multiple times to check for a tail. At a pharmacy. Stationery store. Pet shop where I bought dog food and studied the reflection of cars in the parking lot as I paid.
My inner voice was frantic the entire time. You’re not trained for this!
No one followed me. I got to the meeting site on time. The agent showed up with the package.
Far from the discreet Manila envelope of my dreams, it was a big box covered in bright birthday wrapping paper and topped with a bow.
The thing would have been less eye-catching if it was on fire.
Squelching my panic, I snatched it up and improvised an animated chat about a belated birthday gift for one of my children.
A few minutes later, we parted like the old friends we weren’t. The agent disappeared back into their double life, and I delivered the box into the proper hands.
Did it contain information that allowed the US to take down a terror network? Reveal critical information about nuclear weapons? Solve the mystery of what’s up with North Korea?
Twenty-five years later, I still have no idea.
That experience sowed the seeds of my second career as a mystery and thriller author. Urgency, uncertainty, deception, and risk are the foundation of my books, especially the Detective Emilia Cruz mystery series.
Starting with Cliff Diver, the series combines current events torn from today’s headlines with the highs and lows of my CIA career. Emilia is the first female police detective in Acapulco, confronting Mexico’s drug cartels, official corruption, and social inequality.
With its incredible horse-shaped bay and stunning beaches, Acapulco is a glorious setting marred by violence. It’s Mexico’s homicide capital, where drug gangs fight over territory, smuggling routes, and access to chemicals from China that pass through the port en route to inland drug labs to be made into fentanyl.
The most recent release, Barracuda Bay, is the ninth book in the Detective Emilia Cruz series. Emilia is on the run, alone, and stalked by killers. The reader is shoulder-to-shoulder with Emilia as she struggles with the unpredictability of a meeting, the pressure of a decision, the adrenaline of a breakthrough, and the vulnerability of deception. Raw, real feelings make her perilous situation believable.
To fellow writers, I encourage you to examine your own experiences. Everyone has moments of doubt, danger, and discovery. How did you feel? What physical reaction did you have? Build connections with readers by infusing your scenes and characters with these authentic emotional reactions.
As an author, your experiences are gifts that keep on giving.
Brightly wrapped and topped with a bow.
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Dang, I bet that CIA officer was shaking in her shoes when she was presented with that $%#@&$ package! Thanks for giving the story a second chance! Also, the new bruns-olson website is gorgeous and really showcases the Command and Control series to full effect!