It’s Saturday afternoon and you’re meeting a new friend for ice cream This may sound like a relaxing afternoon But you carefully prepare beforehand You pore over your friend’s social media profiles one last time to see if you can learn anything new about her You also review your own backstory in case she asks This includes where you were born where you went to school and your parents names As usual everything you tell your new friend including your name will be a lie You stick a special pen in your pocket It looks like any other pen but it will record your entire conversation You are nervous but you’ve done this many times before You’ve been undercover for more than one year waiting for the opportunity to get close to this person This meeting is the break you need Your government believes your new friend knows top-secret information And your mission is to learn whatever you can from her Then you will share it with your government Your new friend has no clue about who you really are You are a spy 5
1 Who Are Spies Spies are people hired to perform espionage or the secret gathering of information on others Spies often gather this information on behalf of a government This type of information is known as intelligence Spies share intelligence with the government they are working for They may also spread false information to whomever they are spying on This is done to keep the spy’s identity or mission a secret Many spies work undercover They may live for years under a false identity During this time they work to earn the trust of certain people or groups But the entire time spies are secretly sharing information about these people or groups with another group or with the government Certain undercover agents spy on entire countries These spies go to a different country and secretly gather information about its government The spies share what they learn with their home countries Today spies can often gather this type of information without leaving their homes or offices They hack into computer systems to gain intelligence 6 CHAPTER
Often a spy’s mission is to enter a home or office to take or copy information People become spies for many reasons Some do it as a way to earn money Others feel they are serving a greater good by spying They may disagree with decisions or actions certain people groups or governments make So these spies volunteer to gather information to influence or put a stop to these actions Governments or organizations may also recruit spies for this reason 7
