Working as a spy --- STORY #1 --- My first meeting with a KGB agent.

Not sure where to do this on ATS but decided to tell you a few short stories about a part of my life. I am thinking of writing a book but then I would be identified and probably by an ATS reader..... so no book....for now anyway... Actually there is a book already out about me. My boss wrote the book and all hell broke out. It went all the way to Congress.....TWICE. What made me mad was his book was about some field work that he was involved with BUT he made it look as if he did those missions when actually it was me and others. This will be another story for another time.

If you think I am making this stuff up well...OK. Then just sit back and enjoy the story.

So here it is.....summer 1985 and still in training with my handler. Spending most of weekends in some hotel in Munich going through a series a polygraphs. Sometimes I thought I spent more time in hotel rooms with strangers than with my family. I receive a phone call from my handler, Carl, and I was instructed to meet him at our favorite place. Our favorite place meant to meet at Wendy's, across the street from the Munich Hauptbahnhof.

Sounds simple? In the movies there is always that theme about protecting the identity of your undercover agents but in reality most know who the others are....We are reused over and over again.....It is not like there is back up or someone ready to step right in and take your place, the governments do not really care if you are identified UNLESS you are politically "tied" or a diplomat, etc.... Normal field agent is just a chess peice and nothing more. You could be sitting in a restaurant eating with your family and then someone walks by and takes your picture, or sends you a drink, winks at you, etc....made me uneasy ...... all the time.

You see you want to use public transportation when traveling. Lets say I want to go from Frankfurt to Munich? Well buying a direct ticket there and you will not be very long in the spy business. Normal travel by ICE ..... maybe three hours, the way a spy does it..... takes all day. Numerous tickets bought in numerous directions getting off at many stops, walking to into commercial stores and use unknown rear entrances etc.... taking taxi's, Ubahn's and trains. Once you spot a tail you break it off, no meeting, now you concentrate on getting rid of your tail. If you could not shake the tail off you called in Jack Rabbit support and met other officers waiting at various locations to assist.

Back in the 80's we had sunglasses and normal glasses where you could see directly behind you and the sides as well without turning your head. Today you can buy these glasses on the internet.... cheap....

anyway back to the story...... I can see Carl sitting at a table alone drinking a beverage. He had a black briefcase next to his chair. I sat down and was told to order myself a meal. I came back and started to eat when a large man sat down at our table and started speaking with Carl. The guy was well dressed and he sounded like he was from the northern part of U.S. Carl introduces me to this man with my mouth full of food and then they go back talking to one another about family and friends. Both Carl and his friend stand up and kiss one another on each cheek and then the guy reaches down and takes Carl's briefcase. Well there I am with a mouth full of food, slobbering at the mouth trying to tell Carl that the guy took his briefcase and Carl told me the briefcase was for him.

When Carl and this man got up and hugged, this guy slipped a key to Carl. A key to a train station locker which had a briefcase inside it for Carl. And what about the briefcase that Carl had? It had one million dollars inside....... cash.

The man that Carl met was a KGB agent, actually a double agent who also worked with us and who was now one of my contacts. This was the enemy, face to face in a relaxed and non threatening attitude. I found out later this guy had been briefed on me by Carl and was able to validate the information provided because there was a police record of my arrest inside East Germany (before the wall came down) but that is another story.... in my next story which I will call......how I made contact with the Stasi by sneaking into East Germany.

a reply to: DeathSlayer

oops wrong thread..

Excellent, look forward to reading more

I presume this is a fictional story, correct?

So the guy Carl met was a KGB double agent from the Northern US?

originally posted by: MysticPearl
So the guy Carl met was a KGB double agent from the Northern US?

The KGB double agent was assigned to Thueringen, Germany (former East Germany)in the city of Suhl. Heavy tank division with tremendous air support (HINDS) and artillery.

Have not seen this guy in decades..... I heard he was gunned down back in Moscow but do not know this to be a fact.

Catching a double agent is very hard and you will need of ton of support otherwise you are wasting your time...... so what does a government do when they can no longer control their field agents..... for some strange reason they are killed in public in robberies, .... my favorite suicide story believe or not..... hands tied behind the back a bullet in the back of the head or in an eye BUT according to U.S. government, POTUS himself has told the people of U.S. "we do not do that kind of thing"....

what was your outfit like

originally posted by: jellyrev
what was your outfit like

So now this is a tricky question..... I had two lives..... my day job that paid the bills and then this.....other thing.

As a soldier I had the "H" identifer (instructor) so I traveled giving platform classes to different units/personnel within Europe which gave me a good alibi with colleagues and command. I was a loner and had no close friends. A few times different CSM or Col would get suspicious of me and would call me and attempt to question me and give me a "direct order" and that they know I am not who I am....... I leave the office call my handler and the next day I get orders coming down to PCS....

Bad Tolz..... was where a lot of hard core training was involved and then training was moved to Vincenza, Italy. I will not release any unit identifiers might not be a good idea...(privacy concerns only). I use to regularly jump with SF out of Bad Tolz (many moons ago) and another unit still active.... Use to make jumps into Hohenfels... stopped walking out of airplanes in the 90's.

Once I got hurt in a night jump and while at the clinic there were a couple of men from my unit and they reported to the command on how I came into the clinic injured from parachuting with the ***rd who also had a few soldiers injured.... That was scary because I left that unit with my injuries and was transferred. It's kinda like a narc (CID) infiltrate into the unit looking for drugs,etc..... and when caught POOF they are gone......

I love this stuff, more stories please. Always intrigued me after as a young kid I found out my grandfather used to crack Nazi safes during the war, then later did the same for the CIA.

I once knew a guy who did stuff in this field, was a "problem solver". Real interesting guy and had spent time in some real foreign and dangerous areas like Somalia. He said most spy movies are complete BS but the Bourne movies are actually closer to the real thing than most.

From what I've heard, much spy work can be boring, not glamorous. How often did people in your line of work feel their life was in danger? How often are people in that line of work caught in a position where it's essentially "he/she or I" will make it out of here?

originally posted by: MysticPearl
He said most spy movies are complete BS but the Bourne movies are actually closer to the real thing than most.

I figured that much after the Raymond Davis brouhaha.