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| From the Culper Ring to CIA black ops — the war in the shadows never ended |
When
most people think of George Washington, they picture powdered wigs, wooden
teeth, and maybe a cherry tree. What they don’t picture is the man
behind one of the most sophisticated spy networks in American history. But
that’s exactly who he was.
Yes — the father of our country was also
the father of American espionage.
Back during the Revolutionary War,
Washington wasn’t just fighting the Redcoats with muskets and bayonets. He was
playing a whole different game: spycraft. He built the Culper Ring, a
civilian-run network that pulled off the kind of covert ops you’d expect from
the CIA today—coded messages, invisible ink, fake identities, secret drop
points. The British never saw it coming.
Washington knew early on that battles are
won with brains just as much as bullets. If he wanted to beat the most powerful
military on earth, he needed intel. So he became America’s first spymaster.
Fast forward 250 years, and the same
dirty, dangerous spy game is still being played—just with better tech, higher
stakes, and fewer rules. That’s what makes the new thriller PAYBACK hit so hard.
In PAYBACK, someone is
targeting the CIA’s best and brightest—young agents handpicked for a top-secret
Mentorship Program. One by one, they’re being hunted down and eliminated with
chilling precision. It’s not just murder; it’s psychological warfare. A
message. Someone’s bleeding fear straight into the heart of Langley.
Enter CIA spymaster Corey Pearson—a man
cut from the same cloth as Washington. Cool under pressure. Ruthless when he
needs to be. And absolutely unwilling to back down. He’s tasked with finding
the killer… and stopping a conspiracy that runs deep inside Western
intelligence. We’re talking NATO, covert ops, and alliances that start to crack
when trust goes out the window.
Just like Washington’s time, the enemy
isn’t always wearing a uniform. They blend in. They hide in plain sight. And
they’re always a step ahead.
That’s what makes the parallels between PAYBACK and the Culper
Ring so wild. Washington had to rely on ordinary citizens—tavern owners,
merchants, farmers—to spy for him. People no one would suspect. That’s the
exact kind of ghost Corey Pearson is chasing: someone who knows the system,
knows how to disappear, and knows exactly where to hurt the most.
The
thriller pulses with the same kind of paranoia and tension Washington lived
with every day. Betrayal? Expected. Misdirection? Required. Trust? Dangerous.
And like Washington, Corey’s fight isn’t
just about duty—it’s personal. It’s payback.
What makes this more than just a clever
connection is the reminder that American intelligence has always walked a
razor’s edge between loyalty and deception. Washington may have written the
playbook, but today’s CIA is still running the same plays—only now, the stakes
are global, and the enemies are harder to spot.
So whether you're a history buff who
thinks spycraft started in 1776, or a thriller junkie who can’t get enough of
black ops and conspiracies, PAYBACK
delivers both barrels. It’s a modern-day echo of America’s original spy
game—deadlier, faster, but still rooted in the same truth:
In the world of espionage, the shadows are
never empty. And the game never ends.
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.
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