GOING OPERATIONAL 97Working my first official reception, I met a friendly but almost uncomfort-
ably intense young Palmera government official named Luis. His job gave
him phenomenal access to his government’s secrets and policy makers.
Strategic information the CIA required, for reasons I am not at liberty to
reveal. A bachelor, he’d been educated in the United States and England
and spoke flawless English. He was charming, well-dressed, and happy
to talk to the new American official in town. Luis made a positive initial
impression, clearly very sharp and sophisticated, but he also seemed almost
unnaturally attuned to me.
Literally within a minute of exchanging business cards, he said, “H. K.,
I know where you really work, and I’m telling you right now, I won’t ever
spy for you.” In so many words, he claimed he was able to read minds. My
CIA affiliation was not apparent from my business card; on the contrary,
most people with my job title were not secretly working as a CIA officer.
I laughed it off as a joke, but inside I was in turmoil. How can this be? This
was definitely not covered in training! Am I being set up by my colleagues? It was like
jump school all over again, where nothing went the way it was supposed to.
I never got an answer to those questions, but I shook it off because it
made no sense and I do not believe in mind readers. (Stacy, on the other
hand, was convinced he was just that.) I thought maybe he’d been unsuc-
cessfully pitched in the past, but I traced him and there was no record of
him ever having been met or pitched by another CIA officer. Over the
coming months, my wife and I continued to develop a solid friendship
with Luis, and I learned more about him and his access to information of
interest to the US government. We entertained him at home, and he joined
us on road trips to the beach.
Luis was the real deal in terms of his position and access and would
have made a fantastic first recruitment. But anytime I attempted to broach
the idea of him “educating” me about his country’s strategic policies, he
stopped me and reminded me what he had told me the moment we met.
Luis was not offended, and we remained friends, but he somehow knew
what I was up to. He was unwilling to cross that line and spy on his country
for the US government.
It was a very rude introduction to the world of spying, and fortunately,
it was the only time something like that ever happened.