'Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Short Story' Series: Thrilling Short-Story Vignettes of Espionage and Intrigue!

                                            

     These quick, 20-30 minute reads are perfect for spy thriller enthusiasts who crave high-stakes missions packed with real-world espionage and gripping spycraft. Read them in any order and get whisked away into Corey Pearson’s daring adventures, all in a single sitting!

 

Corey Pearson’s Short-Story Vignettes:

 

• THE HUNT FOR A RUSSIAN SPY – Corey Pearson races to expose a Russian mole inside a top-secret U.S. defense facility. Packed with cutting-edge spycraft, digital hacking, and high-stakes deception, he must uncover a rogue agent’s deadly plot.

 

• QUANTUM SHADOWS – Corey Pearson and his elite CIA team face a high-stakes mission to protect groundbreaking quantum research from falling into the wrong hands. When academia becomes a battlefield, trust is shattered, and the future of global cybersecurity hangs in the balance.

 

• OPERATION SKYFALL- Corey Pearson and his elite CIA team race against time to stop a domestic militia armed with foreign missiles from bringing down a plane near Miami International. High-stakes espionage, daring infiltrations, and a tense showdown put teamwork and sacrifice to the ultimate test. Can they stop the unthinkable?

• CRIMSON SHADOWS- Corey Pearson and his elite CIA team face a Panamanian general turned rogue, leading a daring raid on his fortified plantation to dismantle a deadly coup in this high-stakes, action-packed short story you can enjoy in one sitting.

  Corey Pearson’s Full-Length Novels:

• MISSION OF VENGEANCE – Corey takes on ruthless Russian operatives and Hezbollah terrorists in a race against time to dismantle a deadly conspiracy.
• 
  
• THE SHADOW WAR (Coming Soon) – Stop a Russian sleeper cell before they unleash a deadly virus in New York.
• 
  
• PENUMBRA DATABASE – Corey’s hunt for a hacker leads to a dangerous alliance between Russian spies and a Colombian drug cartel.

Whether you’re looking for a quick, thrilling read or an immersive spy novel to sink into, Corey Pearson’s world has something for every adventure lover. Buckle up, explore the world of espionage, and join Corey Pearson on his next mission today!

 

Inside the CIA’s Secret War for Informants in the World’s Darkest Corners

CIA recruits spies online—secrets traded in shadows. 🕵️‍♂️💻🌒

      The world of espionage is shifting. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is ramping up efforts to penetrate the inner circles of the globe’s most secretive and authoritarian regimes—China, Iran, and North Korea. These are some of the toughest targets in the world, but the CIA is determined to unlock their secrets.

     In an unusually bold and very public move, the Agency has gone digital. It launched a wave of recruitment messages across social media—messages written in Mandarin, Farsi, and Korean. These weren’t your typical Facebook ads. They were carefully crafted signals, aimed at people living under brutal regimes. Think of them as encrypted lifelines, designed to reach out to potential informants who are ready to speak the truth—despite the risks.

     “We’re open for business,” a CIA spokesman declared, unapologetically. It’s the kind of line that sounds like something out of a spy novel. Except, this is real.

     And if it were a novel, it would read like something from the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series. You know the one—where CIA spymaster Corey Pearson and his elite team of operatives navigate the world’s most dangerous regimes, slipping into cities wrapped in surveillance, building trust with informants, and orchestrating high-stakes extractions. It’s fiction, sure, but just barely. Corey Pearson’s world isn’t far from today’s headlines.

     Here’s the play. This week, the CIA scattered its digital breadcrumbs across the internet—X (that’s Twitter’s new face), Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, LinkedIn… even the dark web. Yes, that dark web. They didn’t miss a beat. It was like watching a spy drop coded messages in plain sight—except the message wasn’t for you or me. It was for the bold, the desperate, the ones trapped behind iron curtains and itching to talk.

     And this wasn’t some half-baked “click here” ad. The instructions were precise, surgical. Use an encrypted VPN. Install the Tor browser and connect to the Agency’s hidden .onion site. It’s the new-age brush pass. Forget trench coats and midnight rendezvous in back alleys—today, it’s all encrypted links, ghost servers, and shadows cast by firewalls instead of flickering lamplight.

In the old days, you had to look someone in the eye and hope they weren’t KGB. Now? You’ve got to trust your browser won’t betray you.

     The CIA’s new cyber-outreach isn’t without precedent. After Russia rolled tanks into Ukraine, the Agency began a targeted campaign to recruit disillusioned Russians. By their own account, it worked. Dissidents, insiders, and even career officers reached out from within Putin’s regime.

     Now, Langley’s setting its sights on the new Big Three—China, Iran, and North Korea. It’s a bold move, no doubt about it. But it’s the kind of high-stakes play that could’ve been ripped straight from the pages of a Corey Pearson novel.

     Picture this: Corey, undercover as a humanitarian worker in Pyongyang, quietly slips a burner phone into the jacket pocket of a North Korean nuclear scientist looking for a way out. Or his team, deep in Tehran, passing a coded message to a cleric’s aide through an innocuous prayer post on Instagram. Sounds like fiction, right?

     It’s not.

     This is the real spy game—subtle, risky, and unfolding right now. The CIA’s not just watching from the sidelines anymore. They're in it, making contact, flipping assets, and playing the long game inside regimes where a wrong move can mean death. It's cloak-and-dagger with a digital twist—and Corey Pearson would feel right at home in the middle of it.

     But here’s the kicker: this isn’t your granddad’s Cold War spycraft. The battlefield has changed. Firefights have become firewalls. Safe houses have morphed into anonymous drop sites online. And CIA operatives? They’re more likely to carry encryption keys than silenced pistols. It’s espionage for the TikTok era—and the CIA knows it.

     Still, the stakes haven’t changed. For those inside North Korea, China, and Iran, reaching out isn’t just risky—it’s potentially lethal. One wrong keystroke, one moment of surveillance sloppiness, and the price is unimaginable. That’s why the CIA’s message is both invitation and warning: we want your secrets, but your safety is on you.

     As the world watches authoritarianism flex its muscles, the CIA is betting that somewhere behind closed borders, truth still burns like a beacon. And with every message, every whisper on the dark web, every story like Corey Pearson’s—they're fanning that flame.

     Because in this spy game, information is power. And someone, somewhere, is about to flip. 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). The Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.

Viruses, Nukes, and Ghosts: How the CIA Stops the Worst

 

Deep cover. Silent chase. One shot to stop the unthinkable… or watch the world change forever.

     When you're chasing the kind of threats that could level a city or turn a population into a morgue—bioweapons, suitcase nukes—you don’t count on just satellites and phone taps. That’s rookie stuff. The CIA plays a deeper game. They embed people. Real operators. Folks who vanish into the noise and don’t come up for air until they’ve got something worth listening to. Most Americans have no idea these missions are happening—and that’s exactly how Langley wants it. Tucked deep inside the Agency is a tight-knit unit that doesn’t just watch for disaster. They sniff it out before it has a name. Before it has a chance to strike.

     This isn’t James Bond. It’s far more complex and far less glamorous. The division tasked with tracking biological and nuclear threats is the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, specifically within its Counterproliferation Division. These officers don’t wear capes. They pose as businesspeople, energy consultants, or NGO workers. Their job is to trace the movements of lethal technologies—whether it’s vials of genetically modified viruses or highly enriched uranium that’s quietly disappeared from a stockpile in a politically unstable country.

     One of the more famous real-life examples is Valerie Plame. She wasn’t some desk jockey. She was deep cover—so far under, even other operatives didn’t know her name. On paper, she was just another suit at BJ and Associates, some boutique energy consulting firm. In reality? That company was a CIA front, and Valerie was hunting nuclear black-market players—the kind of scum who’d trade enriched uranium like it was Bitcoin.

     She worked the rooms, shook the right hands, played the long game. Scientists, diplomats, arms brokers—they all thought they were talking shop with a legit energy consultant. What they didn’t know was she was tracking every move, every whisper, every deal. She built profiles, mapped networks, and fed critical intelligence back to Langley. And when she connected the dots, those dots often led straight to people you really don’t want getting their hands on a bomb.

     This kind of fieldwork, the kind that Valerie did, is at the heart of the spy thriller Shadow War. In the novel, CIA operative Corey Pearson and his team aren’t chasing ghosts—they’re piecing together fragments: intercepted communications, strange meetings in forgotten corners of Europe, and odd patterns in diplomatic chatter. What they uncover is chilling: a Russian sleeper cell on U.S. soil, orchestrating a biological attack. But the true nature of the threat keeps shifting. Is it viral? Is it nuclear? That ambiguity, drawn straight from how real-world intel works, fuels the novel’s tension.

     Let’s talk suitcase nukes for a second. Officially, the existence of man-portable nuclear weapons—something the size of a backpack or small trunk—is a murky subject. Some say the Russians built them during the Cold War. Others claim many have gone missing. The terrifying part? Even one such device, smuggled through a port or across a remote border crossing, could flatten part of a city.

     CIA counterproliferation teams have long treated the threat seriously, monitoring rogue states and shady arms dealers who might trade in compact nuclear tech. They run covert ops in unstable regions, track bank transfers that don’t add up, and use human assets to get inside conversations no satellite can hear.

     Biological threats are trickier in some ways. Unlike a nuke, you don’t need heavy metal or fissionable material. You need a lab, some know-how, and a virus that can spread before anyone realizes what's going on. That's why the CIA collaborates heavily with scientists and epidemiologists. Analysts pour over disease patterns, and operatives keep tabs on rogue virologists, shell labs, and biotech purchases in unexpected countries. During the height of bird flu, and later, COVID, the focus on weaponized viruses quietly intensified.

     In Shadow War, the threat feels all too real because it reflects the way these risks bleed into each other—dirty bombs mixed with genetically engineered viruses, misinformation campaigns meant to delay response times, and operatives trained to exploit chaos. Corey Pearson’s race against time isn’t far from what real CIA teams face when clues are scarce and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

     The CIA doesn’t brag. When they score a win, it’s usually buried so deep you’d need a backhoe to find it. The public never hears about it. A shady deal falls apart last minute. A rogue scientist vanishes off the grid. A container flagged for inspection just happens to never leave port. No headlines. No press briefings. Just silence.

     But that silence? That’s where the real work lives. These are the hits that never make the news—but they keep the country standing. A virus tucked inside a crate labeled medical supplies, a nuclear device traded like contraband art—stopping these threats demands a mix of intellect, instinct, and relentless pursuit.

     What Shadow War gets right isn’t just the action—it’s the atmosphere. That pressure-cooker sense of chasing shadows, never knowing whether what you’re hunting is real until it’s nearly too late. It’s fiction, yes, but it mirrors a truth we’d all rather not think about: the threats are real, and somewhere out there, someone is working to keep them from becoming our next headline.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series, which blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.

No Time for a Novel? These CIA Short Stories Deliver Full-Throttle Action Fast!

 

     Let’s be honest—we’re all juggling more than ever. Between work, appointments, texts, family commitments, and the occasional attempt to relax, it feels like there’s never enough time to breathe, let alone dive into a full-length novel. That dusty 500-page thriller on your nightstand? It’s probably been stuck open to the same page for weeks. We want the thrill, the danger, the tension of a good story—we just don’t have the time to sit through chapters of slow burn.

     That’s exactly why the Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Short Story Series exists.

     It’s built for the chaos of modern life. These are high-octane, bite-sized spy thrillers that pack a full story into a 20–30-minute read. Perfect for squeezing in some action while you’re waiting at the DMV, killing time before a Zoom call, or trying to wind down after a long day. They're fast, they're intense, and best of all—you can finish one in a single sitting. No backtracking, no bookmarks, no forgetting who’s who. Just jump in and go.

     Every story follows CIA Spymaster Corey Pearson and his elite crew as they take on the world’s dirtiest threats. From digital espionage to jungle extractions, this team isn’t just fighting enemies—they’re playing chess in a game where the pieces are always moving, and the stakes are always life or death.

     Take The Hunt for a Russian Spy, for example. Corey goes undercover inside Boeing’s defense plant to stop a Russian mole from walking out with plans for America’s most advanced hypersonic spy plane. It’s a tight, pulse-pounding read where tech and tension collide, and no one’s who they seem.   Or Quantum Shadows, where the future of global encryption is at risk, and Corey has to protect a quantum algorithm so powerful it could change warfare as we know it. This one’s a mind-bending race against time and Russian intelligence, and it all unfolds in half an hour or less.

     Operation Skyfall drops you into a web of international arms smuggling and domestic terror networks. It’s raw, relevant, and honestly, a little scary in how real it feels. These aren’t just "spy stories"—they echo what’s happening out there in the real world. That’s part of what makes them so gripping. You’re not just reading for fun; you’re getting a taste of the geopolitical chaos that plays out every day, just out of view.

     Then there’s Crimson Shadows, which heads down to Central America where a rogue general, backed by Russian operatives and cartel cash, is planning to redraw the map. Corey’s team dives headfirst into political unrest and global backroom deals to keep a region from blowing up. It’s espionage layered with betrayal and big power games—perfect for fans who want more than just bullets and explosions.

     And let’s not forget Silent Heroes, where Corey is on the clock in Colombia. Six American hostages, 72 hours, and a jungle full of traps. This one leans into the grit and courage it takes to save lives when time is running out and the environment itself is working against you. It’s pure tension from the first paragraph.

     The beauty of the Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Short Story Series is that they don’t require a time investment, but they still give you everything you want in a spy thriller. You don’t need to read them in order. Each one is a standalone mission—tight, complete, and addictive. Whether you’re a seasoned fan of the genre or just want to lose yourself in a world of danger and deception for a few minutes, these stories deliver.

     In a world where our calendars are packed and our brains are fried, it’s refreshing to have stories that respect your time but still respect your craving for good storytelling. These aren’t watered-down versions of thrillers—they’re the real deal, just streamlined. Like an espresso shot of espionage: strong, fast, and impossible to forget.

     So if your to-do list is a mile long but you still want to escape into a world of covert ops, international plots, and deadly secrets—step into the shadows. Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster is waiting. And he doesn’t need all day to blow your mind. Just give him thirty minutes.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). The Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Short Story Series blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.

Weaponized Truth: How the GOP’s Loyalty to Trump Undermines U.S. Intelligence

The CIA, the FBI, and the Dangerous Price of Political Loyalty

  

     It’s no secret that America’s trust in its intelligence agencies has taken a serious beating—and not without cause. The FBI and CIA were once viewed as neutral sentinels, keeping threats at bay while staying out of politics. But those days are gone.

     The deeper truth now is that both institutions have been repeatedly dragged into the political arena, weaponized by elected officials on both sides to score points, spin narratives, and undercut opponents. And while that damage hasn’t come from one party alone, the Trump administration took things to a whole new level—openly waging war against the intelligence community and installing loyalists with little experience or credibility to lead these critical agencies. When national security becomes a tool of political revenge, the real danger isn't just corruption—it's collapse.

     Trump never hid his contempt for the CIA or the FBI. He called the intelligence community “Nazis” before taking office, dismissed their assessments about Russian interference in the 2016 election, and repeatedly undermined their work in public. But the bigger problem wasn’t just the tweets. It was who he put in charge. Time and again, Trump prioritized personal loyalty over competence, placing people at the helm who had no business leading institutions as complex and vital as the CIA or FBI.

     In some cases, their only qualification seemed to be their willingness to parrot Trump’s talking points and protect him politically. When the CIA director is more interested in defending the President than assessing global threats, or when the Attorney General uses DOJ resources to settle political scores, the entire intelligence framework tilts off its axis.

     Yes, both parties have played political games with intelligence. That’s not new. Administrations come and go, and with them, agendas shift. But Trump’s approach wasn’t about influencing priorities—it was about domination. He viewed the FBI and CIA not as independent entities with a mandate to protect the country, but as enemies if they didn't serve his personal interests. When FBI Director Christopher Wray didn’t act as a political shield, Trump publicly attacked him. When intelligence assessments didn’t match Trump’s talking points, they were dismissed or buried. This kind of behavior doesn’t just hurt morale inside the agencies—it corrodes the public’s belief in them entirely. Read: How Trump Could Harm U.S. Intelligence: A Dangerous Game with National Security.

     And once that trust is gone, bad actors thrive. Take the FBI’s role in the 2016 election. The investigation into Russian interference and the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion consumed the headlines. Critics on the right accused the FBI of launching a partisan witch hunt, while others said the Bureau didn’t go far enough. The Steele dossier became a lightning rod—dismissed early on as unverified, but in the years since, much of it has held up. The central claim—that Russian operatives sought to infiltrate and influence U.S. politics—has been broadly validated.

     Still, the dossier’s use in securing FISA surveillance on Trump campaign adviser Carter Page raised legitimate questions. It was another instance where intelligence tools meant to safeguard the nation got dragged into a political knife fight. And the fallout hasn’t stopped.

     Then there’s the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story—a textbook case in how truth can be buried under a landslide of narrative warfare. The FBI had the laptop in its possession as early as 2019, after a Delaware computer repair shop owner turned it over. But when the story broke during the election, social media platforms throttled it, citing disinformation concerns.

     Then came the open letter from more than 50 former intelligence officials, claiming the laptop story bore “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”—despite having no concrete evidence to back that up. The FBI, for its part, didn’t clarify or confirm anything, leaving a cloud of confusion just weeks before voters hit the polls. Months later, major outlets confirmed the laptop was real. But the damage was done. Another round of chaos. Another blow to credibility.

     That’s the heart of what drives the spy thriller Shadow War, where CIA spymaster Corey Pearson and his elite team are racing to stop a former KGB spy operating a Russian sleeper cell network across the U.S. The mission isn’t just to stop an attack—it’s to protect the country from an inside job. In the novel, the Russian network’s goal is to sow enough internal discord to flip an election and install a corrupt senator who falsely claims the current President has weaponized the FBI and CIA to target his enemies. It’s fiction, but it’s disturbingly familiar. The lines between disinformation and domestic politics are blurring in ways we’ve never seen.

     What makes this so dangerous isn’t just the manipulation of facts—it’s the hollowing out of institutions we rely on to tell us the truth. If the FBI says something and half the country assumes it’s political spin, its authority vanishes. If the CIA warns about a national threat and it's dismissed as partisan noise, the threat gets through. That’s the real playbook for America's adversaries—divide us, confuse us, weaken us from within. And that’s exactly what the villain in Shadow War exploits, using America’s fractured information landscape to carry out a devastating plan.

     We’re not just talking about spy games and election meddling. This is about the long-term health of a democratic society. When intelligence agencies are politicized—when their leaders are chosen for loyalty, not expertise—we don’t just lose good governance. We lose our ability to respond to actual threats. Field agents become political scapegoats. National priorities get twisted. And the public, left in a fog of spin and contradiction, tunes out entirely.

     You’d hope Congress would step up and defend the integrity of these agencies. But that hope keeps running into a brick wall—mainly because the Trump administration’s stranglehold on the GOP has turned much of Congress into a loyalty test. Instead of standing up for the CIA and FBI as vital, apolitical institutions, many Republican lawmakers fall in line with Trump’s attacks, fearing backlash or primary challenges if they don’t.

     The result? A Congress too compromised to act. And while both parties have played politics with intelligence in the past, the current silence from GOP lawmakers isn’t just political cowardice—it’s submission to a figure who’s made undermining these agencies part of his brand.

     That’s why stories like Shadow War hit so hard right now. At its core, the book isn’t just about covert missions or foreign plots. It’s about truth—how fragile it is, how easy it is to twist, and how dangerous things become when we can’t tell fact from fiction. Pearson’s real fight isn’t just against foreign agents. It’s against the lies that blind us to what’s really going on.

     Here’s the hard truth: our intelligence agencies are only as strong as our trust in them. And that trust is on life support. If we keep politicizing the truth, spinning every fact to fit a narrative, and letting incompetent loyalists run the show, we won’t need foreign adversaries to take us down. We’ll do it ourselves.

     And if you want a chilling preview of how that collapse could unfold, Shadow War shows you what’s waiting on the other side.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series, which blends his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.

Burton Gerber: The Cold War Spymaster Who Inspired the Corey Pearson Thrillers

Burton Gerber: Cold War spy, quiet American hero.

     When you picture a CIA spymaster, forget the tuxedos, martinis, and smooth talk. Burton Gerber was none of that. No Hollywood flash—just grit, guts, and sharp instincts. A lean, sharp-tongued Midwesterner, he didn’t duck danger—he walked straight into it. At the height of the Cold War, while others played it safe, Gerber ran ops under the KGB’s nose in Moscow, collecting secrets that changed the game.

     He passed away this January at 91, leaving behind a legacy not just buried in classified files, but alive in how real espionage works. If you’ve read Mission of Vengeance or Shadow War, you’ve seen his spirit in action. Corey Pearson, the fictional CIA spymaster in those thrillers, is cut from the same cloth: relentless, no-nonsense, always two steps ahead.

     Gerber didn’t buy into the idea of “denied areas”—CIA lingo for places too risky to operate. Moscow, Sofia, East Berlin? To him, they weren’t off-limits. “Denied to who?” he snapped. Not to him. While others hesitated, Gerber leaned in—slipping agents past surveillance, gathering intel in the most locked-down places on Earth.

     Corey Pearson works the same way in Mission of Vengeance, facing off against ex-KGB operatives threatening chaos in the Caribbean. From the Bahamas to the Florida Keys, Pearson doesn’t let a map define what’s possible. It’s mindset, not location, that decides success. Gerber would’ve respected that kind of fieldcraft.

     As CIA station chief in Moscow during the 1980s, Gerber held one of the agency’s toughest posts. The KGB was everywhere, and one slip could mean death. Still, he ran one of the Cold War’s most successful operations, guiding Soviet engineer Adolf Tolkachev, who fed the CIA military secrets that shaped U.S. strategy for years.

     Gerber avoided flashy tech. When Langley sent him a new gadget called Discus, he tested it in a Moscow vegetable market. But it forced agents to stare into a blinking red light in their shirt pocket—hardly subtle. He tossed it. Face-to-face, reading body language—that’s what worked. That’s how he trained his people.

     Corey Pearson does the same in Shadow War. He leads with tradecraft—brush passes, surveillance runs, human intel. Whether in Nassau or Havana, Pearson trusts people, not gadgets. He knows the human element decides whether you walk away—or don’t.

     Despite his blunt edge, Gerber carried the weight of the job. He lit candles in Catholic churches for fallen agents. When CIA defector Edward Lee Howard exposed Tolkachev, leading to the agent’s arrest and execution, Gerber didn’t flinch—but he didn’t forget either.

     Pearson understands that burden. In Shadow War, after losing two operatives in Havana, he doesn’t shrug it off. He toasts them in private, comforts their families, and keeps his team focused. Both men knew that leadership doesn’t stop at making the call—it means living with what happens next.

     Gerber wasn’t just a master of operations—he rewrote how the CIA handled sources. When most of Langley dismissed Soviet walk-ins as fakes, Gerber went back through years of files and found the opposite. Real volunteers had been ignored. His memo—now called the “Gerber rules”—shifted agency policy. They started listening again. And recruiting.

     That same gut instinct drives Pearson in Mission of Vengeance, when he quietly brings in high-ranking Bahamian police to help root out Russian spies. It’s risky, but right—and Gerber would’ve seen it as a smart move.

     Every email Gerber sent ended with “God Bless America.” It wasn’t political—it was personal. Espionage, to him, wasn’t about thrill or ego. It was about defending something worth believing in. “Is it moral to ask someone to betray their country?” he once asked a class. “Yes,” he said, “when it’s in defense of a democratic system like the United States.”

     Gerber’s compass pointed true. So does Pearson’s. In a world full of gray zones, both men represent something clear: loyalty, integrity, and quiet courage. Pearson may be fictional, but he’s powered by the same fire that lit Gerber’s career. He fights not for glory, but to protect something bigger—people, freedom, and the truth that some things are still worth standing up for.

     Gerber mentored generations of officers. He biked hundreds of miles for charity, kept asking the tough questions, and never once chased the spotlight. He simply led—by example, by instinct, and by heart.

     Corey Pearson could’ve been one of his. In many ways, he already is. Because if you want to know what a real spymaster looks like, don’t look to the movies. Look to Burton Gerber.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster series.

Shadow War: How the CIA and FBI Fight Bioterror in the Real World

CIA tactical team breaches a sleeper cell hideout—seconds before a bioweapon attack is set in motion

     Bioterrorism doesn’t need explosions or bullets to kill—it spreads silently, unleashing panic and death without warning. That’s why U.S. intelligence agencies like the CIA and FBI treat it as a top-tier threat, constantly working behind the scenes to prevent it. The response is intense, coordinated, and often classified. While spy thrillers like Shadow War are fiction, they offer a surprisingly accurate glimpse into this high-stakes world of invisible enemies and covert missions.

     In Shadow War, CIA operative Corey Pearson and his elite team—alongside a CIA special operations unit—launch a midnight raid on a New York City apartment. Inside, they find a Russian sleeper cell just hours away from releasing a deadly virus on Wall Street. That fictional plot hits uncomfortably close to home, because scenarios like this aren’t as far-fetched as they seem.

     Back in 2003, the FBI and CIA got wind of a man right here on U.S. soil who wasn’t just dabbling in extremist rhetoric—he was cooking up something lethal. He had ties to terror groups overseas, the kind of connections that make intel agencies start sweating. What set off alarms was what he had stashed away: ricin. Not just a little, either. Ricin is a poison so deadly that even a few granules can kill. There’s no antidote, no miracle cure—once it’s in your system, you’re in serious trouble.

     The agencies moved fast. The FBI tracked him down, the CIA dug into his overseas links, and together they pieced together a chilling puzzle. He wasn’t just hoarding ricin for the hell of it. He had a plan—and it didn’t involve peaceful protest. That joint operation shut him down before anyone got hurt, but it was a stark reminder: bioterrorism isn’t just some far-off nightmare. It can start in a suburban kitchen with a guy who blends into the crowd.

     Cases like that show why the FBI and CIA have to operate as a unit when it comes to biological threats. One handles the home front, the other handles foreign connections—but when a bioweapon is in play, the line between “over there” and “right here” disappears fast.

     The CIA’s work starts far from American shores, in places most people wouldn’t want to visit even on a dare. Their analysts and field operatives keep their eyes on the usual suspects—rogue states, terror networks, shady labs tucked away in unstable regions. Sometimes it means embedding someone deep inside a foreign facility. Other times it’s all about intercepting a phone call, tracking a strange shipment, or following a money trail that doesn’t add up. It’s messy, dangerous work, and most of it never sees the light of day.

     In Shadow War, Corey Pearson and his team hopscotch through Eastern Europe and the Middle East chasing whispers and loose ends, trying to trace the origins of a virus headed straight for New York. Sounds like fiction, sure—but it’s not far off the real thing. The difference is, in real life, the operatives doing this kind of work don’t get recognition or headlines. They just get the job done, then disappear into the next mission.

     Now, once that kind of threat starts creeping toward American soil, that’s when the FBI steps in. They’ve got a unit—the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate—that lives and breathes this stuff. These are agents who monitor biotech companies, poke around in university labs, and keep tabs on scientists who might be tempted to turn rogue. They’re not looking for fingerprints or shell casings—they’re chasing DNA strands, shady research grants, and unregistered chemicals.

     Together, the CIA and FBI form a tight net. One handles the outside world, the other handles the home front. But when it comes to bioterrorism, those borders blur fast. And when the stakes are a weaponized virus in the heart of Manhattan, like in Shadow War, they know they can’t afford to miss a single clue.

     In Shadow War, once the CIA gets wind of the sleeper cell’s presence in Manhattan, they alert the FBI. From there, it’s a full-court press—joint task forces are formed, the CDC is looped in, and forensic teams prepare for containment if the worst happens. What makes the novel gripping is that this blend of intelligence and law enforcement mirrors real life. The agencies don’t work in silos. They train together, plan scenarios, and conduct joint exercises on how to handle a bioterror attack, right down to who gets the first call and who locks down the scene.

     Technology is a game-changer in this fight. These days, both the CIA and FBI lean hard on AI to cut through mountains of data—scanning global health reports, tracking shipments, combing through comms. If a virus pops up in a way that doesn’t make sense, or a known bad actor suddenly orders biotech gear they’ve got no business owning, warning bells start ringing.

     And if people start dropping sick in, say, Chicago or L.A. with symptoms nobody can explain, the FBI jumps in fast. They lock down the scene, launch the investigation, while the CIA digs into whether someone overseas pulled the trigger.

     This threat isn’t just some “what if” cooked up in a think tank. After COVID, the whole intel community got a hard wake-up call. Now, they’re watching everything—from backyard labs to legit research facilities—because the line between scientific discovery and bioweapon engineering is razor thin. One smart scientist with bad intentions is all it takes to turn a cure into a kill switch. And the agencies know it.

     That’s the world Corey Pearson walks into in Shadow War. While the novel is fiction, the tactics, agencies, and scenarios are pulled straight from today’s headlines and tomorrow’s war rooms. It captures the urgency, the complexity, and the invisible nature of modern espionage.

     Stopping a virus attack before it happens doesn’t make the news—but it saves lives. And while most Americans go about their day unaware, teams like those in Shadow War—and their real-world counterparts in the CIA and FBI—are out there, working in the shadows to make sure deadly plans stay just that: plans. 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and an accomplished author. He writes the Corey Pearson- CIA Spymaster Short Story series, blending his knowledge of real-life intelligence operations with gripping fictional storytelling. His work offers readers an insider’s glimpse into the world of espionage, inspired by the complexities and high-stakes realities of the intelligence community.