CHAPTER 31
THE SPY WHO
CAME DOWN WITH A COLD
Y
ou wouldn’t know it from watching James Bond movies, but spies are
vulnerable to coming down with a bug (and not just the electronic
kind). Worse, CIA officers have been poisoned by Russians and recently
subjected to mysterious acoustic attacks in China and Cuba.^1 Much like a
devoted single parent, however, a spy can’t take a sick day. Wars aren’t put
on hold while you recover, and agent meetings planned months in advance
can’t be postponed just because a case officer has the sniffles.
Prior to my first overseas assignment to Latin America, I was required
to get a series of two typhoid shots. After the first shot, I contracted typhoid
fever. I recovered, but I skipped the second shot because I didn’t want to risk
postponing my PCS move to Latin America, where agent turnover meet-
ings had already been scheduled. In Belgrade, I contracted Lyme disease
while skulking around the Balkan woods. Mine was the first recorded case
in Yugoslavia and was detected thanks to the dedication of our regional
American doctor. I hate to think what might have happened had he not
been there to make the very tough diagnosis. During the war in Sarajevo,
I feigned illness to explain a canceled meeting with the Bosnian security
service, in order to avoid being kidnapped and tortured by Iranian agents.
Years later, the night before I set off from Amman for my first overland
journey to Baghdad through Mad Max–like chaos and an unforgettable
sandstorm, I had a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting that took place a
week earlier while I was jogging in the Santa Monica Mountains. Thanks
to the late-night intervention of the Sheraton Amman’s on-call Jordanian
doctor, the swelling and itching subsided enough for me to make the trek
to Iraq the next day.279