Life Undercover, Amaryllis Fox

The author graduated from National Cathedral School and grad school at Georgetown before being recruited to join CIA’s most elite clandestine unit. What was it like to be undercover? To practice dead drops and source development, right here in our own backyard? Her book tells all. And that’s what I couldn’t get over. She reveals a lot about the methods of the CIA. Terrorism is a psychological game of escalation. It’s not the last attack that scares people. It’s the next one. She saw herself as a converter, metabolizing suffering into action. Field operatives reach out to clandestine sources, moles within terror organizations or foreign govts, and ask them for clarification during late-night car meetings or walks down back lanes. She was married twice for administrative reasons.. cheats on a husband, all in her twenties… overboard on dedication to the job? But that’s the way of the agency. By 35, any operative worth their salt has gone hard enough at their job to erode their cover. A spies best friend.. not the Glock like in the movies, but an index card, lined on one side for meeting notes with informants, blank on the other for hand-sketched diagrams, schematics, and maps. She leaves the agency before turning 30… how is that not surprising.