Welcome to the 'Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Series'- Novels and Short Stories of Espionage and Intrigue!

                 Whether you’re looking for a quick, thrilling short-story 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!   

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COREY PEARSON- CIA SPYMASTER NOVEL SERIES: Enter the deadly world of Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster, where deception is survival and the enemy hides in plain sight in these full-length novels. In Mission of Vengeance, Pearson hunts Russian agents behind a Caribbean massacre. In Shadow War, he uncovers a sleeper cell plot threatening millions on U.S. soil. From covert ops to nuclear threats, these gripping thrillers fuse real spycraft with breakneck action. The line between ally and traitor blurs—and only Pearson’s team can stop the chaos before it’s too late.

COREY PEARSON- CIA SPYMASTER SHORT STORY SERIES: 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!

 

  

 

Inside U.S. Spy Operations: Balancing Safety and Civil Liberties

Protecting America: The Silent War Between Safety and Freedom

     The world’s gone nuts. Cyberattacks hit harder and faster than bullets. Rogue nations are playing with fire. And lone-wolf radicals? They’re walking nightmares. Through it all, one thing’s clear—Americans want to be protected. We want someone watching our backs.

     But here’s the catch: we don’t want Big Brother breathing down our necks while they’re at it.

     The threats are real. They’re smart. And they’re changing by the hour. That means our intelligence agencies have to stay a step ahead—quicker, sharper, more aggressive. But every time they ramp up their game with more surveillance and tech wizardry, it stirs up a question we can’t ignore.

     How much do they really need to know about us to keep us safe?

     And how much is too damn much?

     It's a dilemma as old as the nation itself. Even George Washington, the father of American independence, ran spy rings shielded from oversight by the Continental Congress. He understood the raw truth of war—sometimes, secrecy was the sharpest sword. The founders debated it fiercely: could the new republic trust itself to wield espionage without becoming the very thing it had just fought against?

     Fast forward to today. Intelligence is no longer an improvised wartime necessity—it’s a permanent and powerful arm of the U.S. government. It’s embedded into every layer of national defense. But the same questions linger. What’s the limit? Who watches the watchers? How do we protect lives without dismantling the civil liberties that define our society?

     Spying isn’t some makeshift wartime tool anymore—it’s part of the machine. Permanent. Powerful. Wired into every piece of our national defense like steel in concrete.

     But the old questions? They’re still hanging in the air like smoke after a firefight: Where’s the line? Who’s keeping tabs on the people doing the watching? And how do we keep Americans safe without tearing apart the very freedoms that make us who we are?

     Jeffrey P. Rogg’s The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence tackles this very tension head-on. It doesn’t flinch from the hard truths: our national security infrastructure has grown into a massive bureaucracy with reach and capabilities far beyond anything Washington or Jefferson could have imagined.

     Yet Rogg’s history is balanced—he doesn’t take sides. He lays it out straight. He shows how surveillance has grown, sometimes way too fast and far. But he also digs into how the intelligence game has gotten more professional over the years, and how the government’s tried—sometimes clumsily, sometimes not—to put guardrails in place.

     The book makes one thing clear: we’ve been trying to build a system that keeps us safe and keeps us free. It’s messy. It’s complicated. And we’re still figuring it out.

     That same tug-of-war between safety and freedom pulses at the heart of the Corey Pearson–CIA Spymaster Series. The novels aren’t just high-octane thrill rides through international espionage and covert ops—they grapple with the very real dilemma our intelligence operatives face every day. How do you stop a ticking bomb without shredding the Constitution? Can you draw the line between necessary secrecy and abusive power when lives are on the line?

     Corey Pearson lives on the edge of the line—and sometimes he’s got no choice but to cross it. He’s not just hunting down terrorists. He’s knee-deep in the gray areas, where right and wrong blur, and every decision comes with a price tag.

     The world he operates in? It’s ours, just with the volume cranked up. Satellites tracking your every move. AI sniffing out threats before they explode. Surveillance drones watching from above. But behind all that tech, there’s always a human being calling the shot—and living with it afterward.

     It’s a wild ride. But it also hits you with a gut-punch of a question: How much freedom are we willing to trade just to feel safe?

     The answer isn’t either/or. It’s balance. We don’t have to sacrifice personal privacy to secure national safety—we just have to demand a smarter, more accountable intelligence community. That means clearer laws, stronger oversight, transparent goals. It means knowing there is a line, and it can be held, even in the face of extreme threats.

     Here’s the bottom line—this fight isn’t a game, and it sure isn’t happening in some far-off place you’ll never see. It’s happening right now, in ways you don’t even notice. U.S. intelligence isn’t just important—it’s critical. It’s what stands between your family and the next headline that makes your stomach drop. It’s what stops a dirty bomb from detonating in a subway or a cyberattack from crippling our grid.

     But intelligence work isn’t clean. It’s messy. Risky. Full of choices no one wants to make. That’s why it matters more than ever that we understand it—really understand it. Read Rogg’s book. Pick up the Corey Pearson series. These stories don’t just entertain—they pull you into the world behind the curtain. The one where decisions are made in shadows to keep the rest of us in the light.

    

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also 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.

 

Dirty Bomb Plot: How the CIA and FBI Are Racing to Stop a Terrorist Strike Inside the U.S.

CIA and FBI confront a looming dirty bomb threat.

Picture this: you're sipping your morning coffee, half-reading the news on your phone, when sirens start screaming and your signal dies. People are running—some crying, some just stunned. No mushroom cloud, no shockwave. Just chaos. Turns out, someone set off a dirty bomb downtown. Not the end of the world, but radioactive dust is now clinging to everything—buildings, streets, skin. Whole blocks are locked down. Hospitals are swamped. And no one knows how bad it really is yet.

     Sounds like a spy novel, right? It’s not. This is the dirty bomb scenario. And it’s real. Dead real. Terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda and ISIS have already tried to pull it off. Others still might. All it takes is a handful of stolen radioactive material and someone desperate enough to use it.

     Take Al-Qaeda. Right after 9/11, intel picked up chatter that they weren’t just dreaming big—they were getting creative. Not with nukes, but with something dirtier. A bomb that wouldn’t flatten a city, but would poison it. In 2002, an American named Jose Padilla, one of their guys, got picked up before he could pull the trigger on a dirty bomb plot inside the U.S. He never built the device—but that wasn’t the point. The plan was real. Spread radiation. Spark panic. Shut down daily life with a single blast of fear.

     Then came ISIS. When they rolled through Iraq and Syria, they didn’t just take towns. They raided hospitals and science labs, looting vials of cesium-137 and cobalt-60—the kind of stuff used to fight cancer or run machines, but deadly if rigged into a bomb. By 2016, Britain’s security chiefs were sounding alarms: ISIS had enough material and know-how to piece together a dirty bomb. One question hung in the air—where would they light it up? Odds were, a Western city would be the bullseye.

     It’s not just the Middle East, either. In 1995, Chechen rebels buried a container of cesium-137 in a Moscow park and called the press. They never set it off, but the message was clear: they knew how to scare the hell out of people using radioactive waste. And that’s what a dirty bomb is all about—not mass casualties, but mass hysteria.

     Even the doomsday cult Aum Shinrikyo—the same group behind the Tokyo subway sarin gas attack—tried to develop radiological weapons back in the ’90s. They had money, scientists, and an obsession with apocalyptic violence. They never succeeded, but they came alarmingly close.

     These weren’t isolated flukes. They were early warning signs. And here's the kicker: there are still tons—literally tons—of radioactive materials floating around the world, poorly guarded or completely unaccounted for. We're talking about medical isotopes, industrial devices, abandoned nuclear facilities. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, there have been hundreds of cases of missing or stolen radioactive material over the past two decades. In many cases, no one ever figured out where it went.

     So how tough would it be for a terrorist—or even some twisted loner—to pull off a dirty bomb attack? It wouldn’t be that tough. This isn’t a high-tech nuclear warhead we’re talking about. No need for uranium refinement or lab coats and centrifuges. A dirty bomb is backyard-level dangerous. Just grab some radioactive scrap, rig it to a basic explosive, and boom—you’ve turned a city block into a panic zone. And guess what? There’s plenty of that radioactive junk floating around, unguarded and forgotten.

     Here’s the part no one likes to say out loud: we’re throwing our security dollars at the wrong problems. Billions spent on border walls and chasing down families in the desert, while the real threats—guys with a grudge and a Geiger counter—are slipping through the cracks. Terrorists don’t need to hike over a border with a bomb strapped to their chest. They can drive it in the front door, packed in the back of a rental truck, and no one would know until it’s too late.

     It’s time to stop playing defense with blinders on. We’ve got to shift gears—less obsession with chasing migrants and more focus on the threats that could actually level a city. That means tracking every scrap of radioactive material like it’s gold. It means cutting deals with allies, sharing intel, tightening the net. It means putting more trained eyes and ears inside the agencies that hunt nuclear smugglers before they make it to our doorstep.

     And most of all, it means dropping the dangerous fantasy that just because it hasn’t happened yet, it never will. The material’s already out there. The know-how is too. And trust me—so are the people who’d love nothing more than to see an American skyline glowing for all the wrong reasons.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also 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.

 

 

 

The Dirty Bomb Threat: How Close Are We to America’s Next Invisible Disaster?

 

In Case Radiation Goes Rogue: CIA and FBI Joined Forces to Stop a Dirty Bomb Before It’s Too Late

     You’d never know it walking down Main Street, grabbing a coffee, or taking your kids to school—but somewhere out there, maybe in a crate mislabeled in a foreign port or in the back of a cargo truck that’s already crossed a border, is enough loose nuclear material to turn a major American city into a radioactive wasteland. That’s not paranoia. That’s fact.

     It’s called a dirty bomb—low-tech, high-impact. Not the mushroom-cloud Armageddon of Cold War nightmares, but a terror weapon that uses conventional explosives to scatter radioactive material across a wide area. Panic is the real payload. Fallout can shut down city centers for years, displace millions, and poison everything it touches. Even a failed detonation, with radiation left to simmer in the shadows, could send Wall Street into freefall.

     The scary part? We’ve lost track of the ingredients. Globally, there are around 2,200 cases of missing nuclear and radioactive material reported since the 1990s, according to the IAEA. That includes small amounts of plutonium and uranium—yes, weapons-grade in some cases—that simply vanished from labs, reactors, and research centers. Some were stolen. Some never logged. And some? They were lost in places where corruption is cheap and borders are porous.

     Imagine a rogue nation or terror cell getting their hands on even a few ounces of cesium-137 or cobalt-60, let alone enriched uranium. That’s all it would take to build a suitcase-sized weapon of mass disruption. In fact, the scenario is the beating heart of my spy thriller Shadow War, where CIA spymaster Corey Pearson hunts down a black-market suitcase nuke rumored to be headed straight for U.S. soil. It’s fiction, sure, but built on a foundation of disturbing truth.

     The CIA and FBI aren’t sitting on their hands. Joint task forces, like the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office and the Nuclear Emergency Support Team, operate 24/7. These are the ghost chasers—quiet professionals with radiation sniffers and real-time intel networks. They work with ports, airports, and local law enforcement to scan for even a whisper of nuclear residue. CIA ops have penetrated smuggling rings in Eastern Europe. The FBI monitors the dark web for chatter about radioactive isotopes. But they’ll tell you straight—this isn’t like stopping a bank robbery. It’s a needle-in-a-haystack job, except the needle glows in the dark and the haystack keeps moving.

     We’ve already had dry runs. In 2015, ISIS was caught surveilling a senior nuclear official in Belgium. In 2006, Georgian authorities intercepted smugglers with enriched uranium wrapped in plastic bags. These weren’t “what if” cases—they were “almost happened” cases. And let’s not forget the post-9/11 scare when intel suggested al-Qaeda tried to buy nuclear material on the black market. Whether or not they got it, the attempt was real.

     That’s the backdrop of Shadow War. Pearson and his team follow a whisper trail—from a bombed-out weapons cache in Ukraine to the alleyways of Istanbul, to a secret CIA black site where the suitcase nuke may already be inside U.S. borders. What unfolds is a race against time, not just to stop the detonation, but to deal with the aftermath—because a dirty bomb doesn’t just explode. It lingers. It stains. It reshapes lives and maps.

     What keeps intelligence analysts up at night isn’t the technology—it’s the human element. The idea that someone could be radicalized enough, trained enough, and connected enough to pull it off. Maybe it’s a lone wolf. Maybe it’s a sleeper cell. Maybe it’s someone already inside the wire. The scariest threat is the one we haven’t seen yet.

     There’s a reason Homeland Security has quietly poured billions into radiation detection equipment at ports and along highways. There's a reason the CIA has doubled down on HUMINT—human intelligence—over satellite surveillance. You can’t stop this threat with drones. You need informants. You need old-fashioned spycraft. You need someone like Corey Pearson—because the war in the shadows never ends.

     America’s defenses are better than they’ve ever been. But so are the threats. We’re living in an age where a nuclear device can be carried in a backpack. That’s the world we built. Now we have to protect it.

     And the clock’s ticking.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also 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.

Inside the Silent War: Iran’s Nuclear Threat and the CIA’s Covert Battle for Control

 

Watching Iran's Secrets: Covert Eyes on Hidden Nuclear Sites

     Nine years ago, two Iranian ballistic missiles tore across the sky with Hebrew painted on their sides like a death threat dressed up in nationalism: “Israel must be wiped out.” The timing wasn’t subtle. Vice President Joe Biden had just landed in Jerusalem, selling diplomacy, while Iran sent a flaming message: We don’t do peace — we do warnings.

     Fast forward to now. Biden’s out. Trump’s back behind the Resolute Desk. And just four nights ago, he gave the green light for U.S. warplanes to take out Iran’s nuclear sites — Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan. Precision strikes. No warning. No press rollout. Just destruction. And it wasn’t part of some slow-burn strategy. It was impulsive. Trump bypassed the usual intelligence loop, waved off CIA and DIA assessments saying Iran wasn’t there yet, and went straight to airstrikes.

     Intel insiders were stunned. Most thought Iran was still building, still bluffing. But Trump wanted action. A message. Maybe a distraction. So while Iran’s nuclear program wasn’t an immediate threat, the bunkers still went up in smoke.

     The damage wasn’t just physical. Strategically, it hurt. Because behind the scenes, U.S. intelligence had been playing the long game. They’d spent years alongside Mossad, quietly infiltrating procurement lines, flipping nuclear engineers, laying digital traps inside Iran’s control systems. The plan wasn’t to bomb first — it was to suffocate the program in silence. Now, all that groundwork? Gone. And the clean-up begins.

     That’s where Corey Pearson steps in — a fictional CIA spymaster whose covert missions mirror the real-world intelligence battles unfolding right now. Pearson leads a black-ops team of hackers, linguists, and deep-cover field agents. The ones who work between the cracks, in places the State Department won’t acknowledge. Their stories come alive in the Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Series, where fiction brushes up hard against the edge of truth.

     Let’s back it up. Iran never quit the nuclear game. They just got better at hiding it. After Trump ditched the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran didn’t flinch. They went dark. Inspectors were pushed out. Surveillance cameras went blind. Uranium enrichment crept up — now at 60%. Ninety is weapons-grade. That gap? It’s one bad decision from turning into a global crisis.

     But Iran’s not stupid. They didn’t rush for a bomb. That’s too loud. They went underground. Reinforced bunkers, labs built into mountains, tech smuggled in piece by piece through shadow networks. Out of sight. Out of range. They didn’t sprint — they waited. Coiled. Strategic. Just like a serpent behind the curtain.

     Israel struck first — covert sabotage, blackouts, even assassinations. Mossad took out Iran’s top nuclear scientist using remote-controlled weapons. No witnesses. No footprints. But Langley probably wasn’t far behind. Because that shadow war has been active for years.

     Both Biden and Trump tried the same economic squeeze — sanctions, isolation, currency collapse. But pressure doesn’t always break something. Sometimes, it just makes it mutate. Iran adapted. And their proxies? They thrived.

     Hezbollah has transformed from a militant wing in Lebanon to a global shadow force. Drones. Cyber cells. Precision missiles. They’re everywhere now — Africa, Latin America, even inside U.S. borders. Cartel deals in Venezuela. Front companies in Africa. And yes, operatives hiding in quiet American neighborhoods, waiting.

     Picture this: a backroom deal in Caracas. A Hezbollah financier trades cash and fake passports with a cartel middleman. Inside that deal? Radioactive material. Not a bomb, not yet — but the stuff one’s made from. That shipment could land in Brussels. Or Paris. Or disappear into a shipping container bound for New York Harbor. That’s how this network moves — slow, smart, invisible.

     But it’s not completely unseen. Because Corey Pearson’s team is watching. Always watching. They intercept communications before they turn into blueprints. Shut down safehouses before they go hot. They ghost targets mid-route. They don’t make press conferences — they make sure there are no press conferences.

     They’re why rogue scientists don’t make it out of Istanbul. Why malware gets into Iran’s enrichment facilities before technicians even realize something’s wrong. Why a Hezbollah cell in Sierra Leone disappeared before anyone even knew it existed. No medals. No headlines. Just the job.

     For everyday Americans, nothing feels different. The lights stay on. The coffee brews. The ballgames go on. But under the calm, the threat is real. Because if Iran strikes back, it might not be a missile from Tehran — it could be a laptop in a Brooklyn apartment. A bomb in a shipping container. A coordinated cyberattack that shuts down half the East Coast.

     That’s the new battleground. Not armies. Not invasions. Networks. Supply chains. Malware. Proxies. And people like Corey Pearson — real or fictional — are what stand between quiet normalcy and the next major catastrophe.

     The public sees airstrikes and summits. But the intelligence world sees signals — a flagged bank transfer, a silent scientist, a sudden shift in routine.   And when the signs line up, they don’t wait for permission. They move.

     Because in this game, survival isn’t about firepower. It’s about timing. It’s about knowing where to look. And most of all, it’s about the people working in silence… saving lives you’ll never know were at risk.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also 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.

CIA Under Pressure: Inside the Collapse of America’s Spy Network and Internal Trust

 

When trust is the only currency, one defector’s fear meets the calm of a CIA operative who knows what’s at stake

Trust is a funny thing. You don’t notice it until it’s gone—and when it breaks, it breaks hard.

     Case in point: Oleg Smolenkov. You might’ve heard his name in passing, maybe in whispers tied to the CIA. Well, it turns out the Kremlin recently admitted he did work inside Russia’s presidential administration. That’s no small thing.

     Now, they’re quick to say he wasn’t close to Putin—just another bureaucrat. But here’s what we know: Smolenkov was no paper-pusher. He was the CIA’s man on the inside. For years, he fed Washington top-shelf secrets—stuff he pulled straight off Putin’s desk. We’re talking classified memos, photos, high-level chatter.

     He was the CIA’s eyes and ears in the heart of enemy territory. And in 2017, when things got too hot—thanks in part to concerns that President Trump might leak something he shouldn’t—Smolenkov vanished. Extracted. Gone. Just like that.

     He was the kind of spy you don’t get twice. And when he disappeared, a big part of America’s window into the Kremlin disappeared with him.

     Oleg Smolenkov’s real-life escape reads like something pulled straight out of Mission of Vengeance, my latest spy thriller. In it, a former KGB officer named Yury Bocharov defects to the U.S. and gets tucked into the CIA’s Witness Protection Program. But there’s a twist—his handler, Corey Pearson, isn’t buying it. Is Bocharov really on our side, or is he a plant, sent by Russian intelligence to play the long con?

     If that sounds familiar, it should. Smolenkov’s extraction set off the same alarm bells. He vanished from Moscow just as foreign interference was ramping up, and his disappearance punched a hole straight through America’s intelligence net. One day we had eyes inside Putin’s inner circle—the next, we were flying blind.

     Here’s the kicker: Smolenkov didn’t just leak gossip. His intel tied Putin personally to the DNC hack and the 2016 election interference—stuff that shifted history. Some sources called him the CIA’s most valuable asset since Cold War legend Adolf Tolkachev. When they yanked him, they lost their window into the Kremlin—right when Russia was ramping up again.

     Now fast-forward to today, and the U.S. intelligence world is shaking on its foundations. The Trump administration recently scrapped a key task force that was pressuring Russia, then swung the axe on over 1,200 CIA jobs. Other agencies like the NSA and DIA didn’t fare much better—thousands more pink slips handed out like flyers.

     And then came “Signalgate.” A private group chat on the Signal app—meant for top-level national security chatter—accidentally included a reporter. Next thing you know, sensitive war plans were out in the open.

     This isn’t just sloppy. It’s dangerous. These aren’t little cracks in the system—they’re full-on fractures. Trust between intel agencies is crumbling. Coordination is slipping. And our foreign allies? They’re watching it all happen and backing away, wondering if the U.S. can still be counted on.

     Remember, intelligence thrives on trust. Allies pool info all the time—Russia’s meddling in Ukraine and elections, cyber‑attacks, nuclear threats. The U.S. is already freezing intel sharing with Ukraine after Trump suspended aid. Now, NATO partners are watching Washington’s every move—furrowing their brows as doors close and the cold shoulder sets in. Trust, once gone, doesn’t snap back overnight.

     What’s even more unsettling? Trump’s attitude toward intelligence itself.

He’s brushed off critical assessments—like Iran’s nuclear threat—with a shrug and a soundbite. When the Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, testified on the risk, Trump flat-out said, “I don’t care what she said.” Just like that.

     And the appointments? They’ve brought chaos in their wake. John Ratcliffe took over the CIA, Gabbard stepped in as DNI, and almost immediately, basic security protocols got sloppy. The White House received unclassified emails listing new CIA hires—names that should’ve been protected.

     On top of that, they’ve started gutting diversity and inclusion programs across the intel community. Doesn’t sound like much on its own, but stack it all together and you’ve got a slow, steady dismantling of an already-fragile system.

     It’s death by a thousand cuts. And it’s happening in real time.

     This isn’t some academic argument or a Beltway squabble—it’s a real-world threat with real-world consequences. When intel agencies stop trusting each other, stop sharing what they know, bad guys slip through the cracks. And they’re not just watching—they’re striking.

     Russia’s already in the game, using AI to spread lies, sabotage systems, and launch pinpoint cyberattacks. And they’re not alone.

     According to the latest ODNI Threat Assessment, we’re getting poked and prodded by the full lineup: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea. Sometimes they’re acting solo, sometimes as a tag team. But the goal’s the same—disrupt, destabilize, and damage.

     And if our own house stays divided, they won’t need to do much more. We’ll hand them the opening.

     So yes, Oleg Smolenkov was brave. He took the ultimate risk, traded inside secrets to keep us safe, and then vanished into suburban life in witness protection. His sacrifice deserves more than a cameo—it underscores why close-knit intel bonds matter. In the world of cloak-and-dagger and real-world geopolitics, you can’t outsmart what you can’t see.

     And when the White House chips away at the foundations of trust—with dismissals, leaks, disbanding —they’re not just stirring rumors. They’re risking another blind spot. Another Missed sign. Another crisis cooked up in secret labs of authoritarian rivals.

     So if you dive into Mission of Vengeance, remember: it's more than fiction. It's a reminder—what happens in spy stories matters, because the lines between page and reality are thinner than we think. And unless doubts are restored, until trust is rebuilt—between U.S. agencies, with allies, and across intel-sharing platforms—Americans will keep facing threats they can’t even see coming.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also 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.

Lone Wolf Killers in America: The Growing Threat Next Door

 

He Sat in Church on Sunday—Then Killed on Monday

     Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were supposed to be safe in their own home. She was a former Speaker of the Minnesota House—respected, sharp, and not one to back down. Then, in a flash, they were both gone. Shot dead. It wasn’t random. Not even close. It was cold, deliberate, and charged with a purpose no sane person could justify.

     The man behind it? Vance Luther Boelter. Fifty-seven years old. Ex-military look. Quiet, the kind of guy you wouldn’t pick out of a crowd unless you knew what to look for. He’d been missing for two days when they finally caught him late Sunday night—ending what’s now the largest manhunt in Minnesota’s history.

     Turns out Boelter had posed as a cop to get into the Hortmans’ place just outside Minneapolis. Once inside, he opened fire. Before that, he’d hit another target—State Senator John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, just a few miles away. They got lucky. Melissa and Mark didn’t.

Governor Tim Walz didn’t bother sugarcoating it. “A politically motivated assassination,” he said. And he was right.

     This wasn’t a robbery. It wasn’t madness. It was a mission—twisted and deadly, carried out by a man who thought he was some kind of holy warrior.

     Boelter wasn’t a ghost. He had a face, a voice, a presence in his community. He was deeply religious, a fixture in evangelical circles, and he had a long history of political conservatism. He attended Trump rallies. He once gave a sermon in Africa warning that America had lost its way, blaming churches for not taking a hard enough stance against abortion. He registered as a Republican in Oklahoma in 2004 and later settled in Minnesota, where party affiliation isn’t recorded. On paper, he looked like a passionate, God-fearing citizen. In reality, he had crossed into something far darker.

     This is the shape of a new threat: not foreign operatives or extremist cells from overseas, but radicalized Americans. Lone actors. Homegrown threats that simmer quietly until they erupt. And they’re becoming harder to stop.

     Boelter’s not some one-off nutjob. He’s part of a bigger, nastier trend. Guys like him are popping up all over—mixing fire-and-brimstone religion with hardcore political rage. They think America’s under attack, and they’re the ones chosen to save it. Guns in hand, Bible in the other.

     And here's the kicker—they’re not in some militia camp out in the sticks. Most of them radicalize online, tucked away in digital rabbit holes packed with conspiracy theories, fake news, and a steady drip of paranoia. No uniforms, no badges, no official club. Just rage, and a target list.

     They’re ghosts until they pull the trigger.

     And by the time anyone notices, the body count’s already started.

     Anti-government militias across the U.S. are no longer isolated backwoods fantasies. They are becoming structured, with recruitment pipelines, funding sources, and ideological cohesion. These groups often merge religious fervor with political extremism, spinning a narrative where violence against elected officials and government institutions becomes not only permissible, but holy. They’re not hiding. They’re on social media. They’re at school board meetings. They’re walking through your neighborhood in tactical gear.

     The murder of a public official by someone who once sat in a church pew and spoke of morality should shatter any illusion that radicalization only happens "elsewhere." It can happen in a suburban cul-de-sac. In a small-town chapel. In someone’s basement as they scroll endlessly through extremist forums masked as news.

     Robert Morton, author of the Corey Pearson—CIA Spymaster Series, has written extensively about this shift, where threats to America now rise not from overseas intelligence plots, but from within—fueled by ideology, grievance, and unchecked rage. His work captures the chilling transformation of ordinary citizens into violent actors convinced they are soldiers in a civil war that hasn’t officially begun, but in their minds, is already underway.

     The hard truth is—America’s biggest threat isn’t coming from across the ocean. It’s already here. It’s not some foreign agent sneaking through a border. It’s the guy grilling in his backyard. The one who shakes your hand at church. Smiles at the PTA meeting. Votes like everyone else. Until one day, he decides a gun speaks louder than a ballot.

     You can build walls, launch airstrikes, pass all the security bills you want—it won’t stop what’s festering inside. Not unless we deal with what’s really fueling this: unchecked radicalization, the nonstop lies pouring out of dark corners of the internet, and this dangerous mix of politics and religion that turns true believers into armed crusaders.

     What happened to Melissa and Mark Hortman? That wasn’t some fluke.   It was a warning.

     And we’d better listen.

 

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) and writes about the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC). He also writes the full-novel 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.