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!

 

  

 

Unmasking the Ghosts: How Russian Spies Used Brazil to Infiltrate the West

 

Russia’s Ghost Agents: How a Global Spy Network Got Caught—and Why It Should Worry You

This article by TVP World, International Counterintelligence Operation Unmasks Russian Spies With Brazilian Passports reveals the dynamics of global espionage.

Turns out, some of those “nice neighbors” living quiet lives abroad were actually Russian spies with fake Brazilian identities. Yep, this isn’t a spy thriller—it really happened. A joint counterintelligence operation involving eight countries, including the U.S., Brazil, Portugal, and Israel, just helped take down a secret Russian spy network that was operating across continents.

Here’s the kicker: Russian intelligence was using Brazilian passports to slip agents into countries under completely fake names. Why Brazil? Their passports are powerful—offering easy travel to dozens of nations. It gave Russian agents a clean slate and global mobility.

Two of the exposed spies, “Vladimir and Yekaterina Danilov,” were living in Portugal, blending into normal life while allegedly carrying out covert missions.

The operation to uncover them ramped up after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, sparking tighter intel-sharing among Western allies.

So why should you care? Because these “illegals” could be anywhere—living next door, collecting sensitive info, or influencing public policy. Their cover stories are slick, their targets wide-ranging. This isn’t just about Europe. It’s about how deeply embedded foreign intelligence can get—right under our noses.

Stay alert. The spy game just got real.

Inside the Hunt: FBI and CIA Battle Russia’s Hidden Operatives on U.S. Soil

      

FBI on the ground, CIA in the shadows—when Russian sleeper cells move, America’s top operatives are already watching.

     They don't wear uniforms. They don't carry Kalashnikovs. They wear jeans, push strollers, run yoga studios, coach Little League. They’re Russian sleeper agents, and they’re already here- living as Americans, blending in seamlessly, and waiting for a signal.

     The FBI’s been chasing shadows for years—ghosts hiding in plain sight. These aren’t your Cold War spooks with trench coats and dead drops. Today’s Russian sleeper agents play a different game. No Russian accents. No bad wigs. Just regular folks living behind fake names, fake lives, and zero ties to the Kremlin—at least on paper.

     They’re smooth, surgical. Trained to blend so well they can fool facial recognition, breeze through polygraphs, even beat the system meant to keep them out. They’re not just here to collect secrets. They’re here to be in the right place when things go sideways—to flip a switch and do real damage when the time comes.

     Take Nomma Zarubina. Nobody knew her name until late 2024, when the FBI finally connected the dots. She looked like just another quiet neighbor somewhere in the Northeast—clean record, low profile, nothing out of place. But behind that calm exterior? She was living a lie.

     Turns out, Nomma was deep in with the FSB—Russia’s version of the FBI, only with a darker playbook. She wasn’t just spying. She was working the long game. Recruiting. Making connections. Cozying up to military folks, journalists, think tanks—anyone who might spill something useful down the line. She wasn’t in the shadows. She was the shadow.

     She wasn’t flying solo. Investigators think she was coached by Elena Branson, a slick operator with dual citizenship who skipped town right before the Feds could slap her with charges. Branson had been running so-called “cultural outreach” programs—on the surface, all smiles and heritage events—but underneath, she was secretly funneling intel straight to Moscow.

When the FBI hauled in Zarubina, the whole thing started to unravel. Pull one thread, and suddenly you're staring at a much bigger web—one that’s been creeping through the heart of American institutions for years.

     This isn't fiction—though if it sounds like a spy thriller, that’s because it could be. In fact, the spy thriller Shadow War runs disturbingly parallel. The story follows CIA operative Corey Pearson as he hunts a sleeper cell leader plotting an attack on American soil. A weapon—possibly nuclear, possibly biological—lies at the center of the mystery, but what gives the story its edge is how eerily plausible it feels. Especially after you look at cases like Zarubina’s.

     The CIA and FBI are locked in a war most folks will never see. No headlines. No press briefings. Just quiet ops—surveillance, wiretaps, black-bag jobs, and joint teams working off the grid. It's all happening behind the curtain, in suburban cul-de-sacs, glass towers in D.C., and sometimes deep inside the very government they're trying to protect. This war doesn't make noise. It doesn’t have to. It's fought in whispers—and every move counts.

     That’s what makes sleeper cells so dangerous: the weapon isn’t just the person—it’s the position they manage to get into. Zarubina's handlers in Tomsk had her targeting people with security clearances. Others have gone further. According to officials, some have tried to plant themselves close to elected officials, or worse—inside their inner circles. Just like in Shadow War, where the National Security Advisor is compromised, and a U.S. Senator’s Chief of Staff turns out to be a mole. That kind of infiltration doesn’t just threaten data—it threatens democracy.

     The terrifying part? We don’t know how many are out there. For every Zarubina, there may be five more operating quietly, patiently. Maybe they’ve been here since the ‘90s. Maybe they’ve raised kids here. Maybe they’re waiting for a trigger that hasn’t come yet.

     And so the FBI digs, the CIA watches, and the shadow war goes on—not in novels, but in courtrooms, safehouses, and unmarked offices. The threat is real. The enemy doesn’t need to invade. They’re already inside.

     Just ask Corey Pearson.

 

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.

The Secret Lives of CIA NOCs: Undercover Missions Behind Enemy Lines

 

CIA NOC operatives blend into the crowd—no backup, no badge, just high-risk missions in enemy territory where one wrong move means game over. 

     They don’t wear uniforms. They don’t flash shiny badges. And if they disappear, nobody’s coming. Not the cavalry. Not a lawyer. Not even a whisper.

     These are CIA NOCs—Non-Official Cover operatives. The ghosts. No embassy connections, no diplomatic immunity, and no backup unless they pull it off themselves. They drop into the world's worst places with fake names, false histories, and nerves made of steel. Bluffing warlords, dodging secret police, and walking into meetings where a wrong look could get them killed.

     It's one thing to play spy with a cushy embassy gig with a diplomatic safety net. It's another to go deep into Libya or the mountains of Afghanistan with a burner phone, a cover story held together by duct tape that could crack under the wrong question, and a smile that hides the fear you don’t have time to feel.

     They’re the model for Corey Pearson and his team in the Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Short Story Series—five elite operatives who slip into foreign lands like whispers and vanish like smoke. These aren’t Bond-style fantasies. These are missions grounded in how real NOCs operate: deep cover, zero support, high risk. The kind of missions where getting caught means torture or a bullet to the head—if you’re lucky.

     Think back to Libya in the early 2000s. Gaddafi was making noise about giving up his weapons of mass destruction, but nobody really knew if he meant it. So the CIA did what it does best—they sent in the ghosts.

     NOCs. No flags, no fanfare. Just a bunch of operatives posing as logistics guys and gals, energy consultants, the kind of folks who blend in without raising eyebrows. Their real mission? Find the weapons, figure out if Gaddafi was bluffing, and make damn sure the dismantling was legit.

     They weren’t there for the oil contracts. That was just the window dressing. Behind the scenes, they were chasing whispers through backchannels, reading body language in high-stakes meetings, slipping into sensitive sites without tripping any wires. One wrong step and they’d be face to face with Libya’s secret police. These folks weren’t sipping espresso in some Tripoli café—they were walking a razor’s edge, every single day.

     That kind of mission? That’s exactly what Corey Pearson’s team would take on—except with even fewer safety nets. In Silent Heroes, one of the short stories in the series, Corey and his team infiltrate rebel territory to rescue American captives. No one officially knows they’re there. No one can acknowledge them. It’s the kind of shadow war NOCs fight every day.

     Here’s one that’ll make your pulse tick faster—Afghanistan, before 9/11. Way before the world woke up to the name Osama bin Laden. CIA NOCs were already out there, boots on the ground. Not in Kabul sipping tea with diplomats, they were out in the dirt—posing as aid workers, freelance contractors, whatever cover let them move without drawing heat.

     They were meeting tribal chiefs, sniffing out Taliban loyalties, keeping tabs on bin Laden’s growing operation. They knew something big was brewing. They sounded the alarm. But no one listened fast enough.

     Then the towers fell.

     And while America was still reeling, those same NOCs were already back inside. No fanfare. No news cameras. Just them and the Northern Alliance, lasing targets for U.S. airstrikes, laying the groundwork for the war that was coming. No uniforms, no official protection, not even real names to fall back on.

     This is the world Corey Pearson’s stories drop you into. His NOC team, backed occasionally by the CIA’s Special Activities Center and its paramilitary arm, SOG, doesn’t get clean assignments. They get the messy ones. The quiet hostage rescues, the midnight surveillance ops in enemy territory, the infiltration jobs that end with no headlines—just a report, a sigh of relief, and another flight into the fire.

     Being a NOC isn’t about glamour. It’s about pressure. It’s about living a lie so well you forget who you were before. It’s about holding your breath every time your phone rings. And it’s about knowing that if you get caught, the government will deny you ever existed. Corey Pearson – CIA Spymaster Short Story Series doesn’t sugarcoat it. Each 20-30 minute read puts you in the boots of someone with no margin for error and no one to call.

     Real-life NOCs have disrupted nuclear programs, stopped terrorist plots, and built entire human networks behind enemy lines. They’ve died without credit and disappeared without trace. In a world addicted to open warfare and political posturing, they’re the last line of quiet defense—faceless, nameless, and lethal.

     So next time you think of CIA operations, don’t picture the guy behind a desk at an embassy. Picture the one in a dusty market in Kandahar, selling spare parts to militants while memorizing the layout of a safehouse. Or the woman at a Libyan refinery, trading jokes in Arabic while mapping where the missiles used to be.

     That’s the world Corey Pearson operates in—the same shadowy, high-risk arena where real CIA NOCs carry out missions that never make the news. They live in the silence between headlines, where danger is constant and recognition is never part of the deal.

     If they succeed, the world stays safe... and no one ever knows how close it came to disaster.

     Because when a NOC does their job right, their story is never told.

 

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.

Sleeper Cells Next Door: The Hidden Threat of Suitcase Nukes in America

CIA and FBI agents work in the shadows to stop Russian sleeper cells from unleashing a suitcase nuke on American soil before it’s too late. 

      Imagine your next-door neighbor—15 years on your street, grilling burgers on Sundays, coaching soccer, speaking perfect English. Now imagine they’re part of a Russian sleeper cell, waiting for the signal to detonate a suitcase nuclear bomb on American soil.

     Sounds like a spy thriller, right? It is. Shadow War lays it all out—and it might be just one step ahead of the headlines.

     In the novel, CIA operative Corey Pearson uncovers a hidden network of Russian agents living undercover in the U.S., some for decades. The plan? A catastrophic strike—possibly with a nuke, possibly with a bioweapon. Depends on which order comes first. And the scariest part? It’s not a stretch.

     Back in the ’90s, a Russian general named Alexander Lebed claimed the Soviets had built about 100 suitcase-sized nuclear bombs, small enough for special forces to carry behind enemy lines. After the Soviet collapse? Dozens went missing. No paper trail. No oversight. Just gone.

     Then Stanislav Lunev, a high-level GRU defector, came forward and said not only were these nukes real—some might already be hidden inside the U.S., ready to go if Moscow pulled the trigger.

     Russia denied everything, of course. But the CIA and FBI didn’t shrug it off. Not for a second. After 9/11, suitcase nukes kept showing up in national security briefings. Agencies ran drills based on that exact scenario. No concrete proof. But the threat? Too real to ignore.

     Then came 2010. The FBI exposed ten deep-cover Russian agents—part of the so-called “Illegals Program”—living normal lives across the U.S. Suburbs. Day jobs. Families. Fake names. They weren’t collecting parking tickets—they were here to embed, infiltrate, and wait.

     And the hits kept coming.

     Maria Butina looked like a political rising star—well-dressed, well-connected, and blending in perfectly. Behind the scenes, she was working for Moscow, cozying up to American political organizations, especially the NRA, while pushing Russian interests.

     Then there’s Evgeniy Bogachev. Nerdy name, but serious damage. He wasn’t just another hacker—he ran a massive cybercrime ring, stole over $100 million, and funneled U.S. data straight to Russian intelligence. A digital thief working hand-in-glove with the Kremlin.

     And in 2021, federal prosecutors charged multiple Russian military intelligence officers for hacking into the 2016 U.S. election. This wasn’t cloak-and-dagger—it was cyberwar, plain and simple.

     Point is, Russia’s not improvising. They’ve been playing the long game for decades. And what the CIA and FBI fear most? A Shadow War scenario: sleeper agents already in place, just waiting for the go-ahead to trigger something devastating.

     That exact nightmare plays out in Shadow War. In one gut-punch scene, a captured Russian soldier tells Corey Pearson that Putin almost used a suitcase nuke in Ukraine—but got cold feet after a threat from President Biden on the red phone hotline. But when asked why Putin would risk it on U.S. soil, the soldier doesn’t blink.

     “Because my commanders—Vavilova, Zakharov, and Smirnov—convinced him long ago. It’ll go off far from any major city, and Putin will deny everything.”

     That’s the play: detonate in the shadows, far enough away for plausible deniability, and close enough to send a message. It’s cold. It’s smart. And it’s terrifying.

     That’s why the CIA and FBI are in high gear. They’re pulling files, scanning visas, digging through background checks. Looking for anyone who ever brushed up against Russian intelligence. Every red flag gets chased down. Every whisper gets investigated.

     Because this isn’t just about finding a bomb. It’s about finding the person who’s been babysitting it for 20 years, living like a model citizen, just waiting for the green light.

     But how do you spot someone like that? They speak fluent English. They pay taxes. They drink Starbucks and wave at the neighbors. And one day, they might press a button.

     That’s the nightmare Corey Pearson faces. And that’s the haunting brilliance of Shadow War. It blurs the line between thriller and reality, fiction and fear. Because the truth is, sleeper cells aren’t just Cold War leftovers. They’re still out there. And they’re still a threat, living in plain sight. The Cold War past never really ended. It just went underground.

     So yes, maybe your neighbor’s just another suburban dad. Or maybe he’s been waiting years to flip the switch.

     Sometimes, fiction cuts a little too close to the truth.

 

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.

Americans in Colombia: What You Don’t Know Could Get You Killed

 

Lost in Lost in the crowd, unaware he's already being watched — danger in paradise comes without warning

    There’s a certain mystique about Colombia—colorful streets in Cartagena, the lush green Andes, Medellín’s reinvention story. But for Americans eyeing the country as a travel destination, there’s something they need to understand that doesn’t show up in glossy Instagram posts or influencer travel blogs: Colombia can be deadly.

     No sugarcoating it. Americans have been kidnapped, drugged, robbed, and murdered here—and that’s just in the last few years. If you’re thinking of venturing off the beaten path, you need to know who’s waiting in the shadows.

     Let’s rewind to 2003. A small plane crashes in Colombia’s southern jungle. Three Americans survive the crash- and then vanish. Taken hostage by FARC rebels, they spend over five years in captivity. That wasn’t fiction. That was real. That was Colombia.

     Fast forward to 2025, and the headlines haven’t changed much. More than 80 people killed in Colombia’s northeast. Dozens wounded. Civilians—ordinary people—forced to flee from their homes into the mountains, clutching their kids and pets as they run. The National Liberation Army (ELN) and ex-FARC rebels are in a bloody turf war over coca fields and smuggling routes along the Venezuelan border. Peace talks? They’ve failed five times.  And if you think that’s just Colombia’s problem, think again.

     This is the backdrop of Silent Heroes, a short-story spy thriller that feels more like a CNN special report than fiction. In it, six Americans—doctors and aid workers—are kidnapped by FARC in the jungle. Enter CIA operative Corey Pearson and his sleeper cell team, deep-cover agents who live and breathe Colombia’s terrain. They blend in, gather intel, and strike with surgical precision. Think it’s just storytelling? Ask anyone who’s ever worked in Langley or Bogotá—the CIA has had its hand in Colombia for decades.

     The U.S. and Colombia have a long, complicated relationship. Behind the official diplomacy and trade agreements, there’s the real story: covert operations to hunt cartel leaders, support local counterterrorism, and rescue American nationals when things go sideways. And they do go sideways. More often than you’d believe.

     Tourists don’t see this part. They’re thinking coffee tours and salsa nights. But the U.S. State Department sees something else—something darker. As of now, they advise Americans to reconsider travel to Colombia altogether. Not just the remote jungles, but cities too. Medellín, for all its urban charm, has seen tourists drugged and dumped. Bogota isn’t exactly Disneyland after dark. And entire regions like Arauca, Norte de Santander, and the Venezuela border? Off-limits. Crime, terrorism, and the risk of being kidnapped or detained—those are the actual words used in the advisory.

     Let’s talk street smarts. In Colombia, you don’t wear flashy jewelry. You don’t flash cash. You don’t hail random taxis—use an app or risk getting “paseado millonario,” a common scam where drivers work with criminals to drain your bank account. These aren’t cautionary tales. They’re survival tactics.

     But what makes Colombia even more unpredictable is the power vacuum in certain regions. When groups like the ELN step in where the government steps out, the rules change. Community leaders are being gunned down. Peace delegates are kidnapped mid-talks. And the average American tourist, blissfully unaware, becomes an easy target.

     There’s a scene in Silent Heroes where the CIA team, posing as locals in Bogotá, watches hostage videos broadcast by the captors. You feel the urgency, the rage, the helplessness. One of the agents, Kimble, breaks protocol to show footage to an ambassador—because these hostages aren’t just pawns. They’re people with families who didn’t sign up to die in the jungle.

     That's the emotional core of what Americans need to understand. Colombia is beautiful. But beauty doesn’t cancel out danger. You can have breathtaking views and a brutal ambush within the same zip code.

     The jungle doesn't care that you're a tourist. It doesn't care that you're there for the adventure or the culture or the Instagram photos. To guerrilla fighters and cartel thugs, you’re leverage. A bargaining chip. Or worse, an afterthought.

     The story of Silent Heroes mirrors real-life cases where the U.S. has had to scramble elite teams into foreign lands to clean up messy situations. It’s not a fantasy. It’s an echo of what really happens when diplomacy fails and bullets start flying. Corey Pearson might be fiction, but his mission isn’t far off from the actual ones we’ll never hear about on the evening news.

     So if you’re an American thinking about visiting Colombia, don’t just pack sunscreen and a travel guide—pack awareness. Be smart, stay alert, and understand the risks. The beaches and nightlife might be beautiful, but they exist alongside regions where violence and lawlessness still rule.

Because in Colombia, the danger isn’t always where you’re going. It’s who might be watching when you get there.

 

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.

Quantum Shadows: When University Labs Become Battlegrounds for Espionage

 

A Russian spy watches students develop quantum encryption—where campus tech meets covert intelligence. 

     Quantum computers aren’t just lab toys for curious scientists anymore—they’re now a critical part of America’s national defense playbook. And strangely enough, a lot of the work that might one day save the CIA and NSA from catastrophic cyberattacks is happening not in secret bunkers, but in college labs, classrooms, and campus coffee shops.

     Take UC Berkeley. On the surface, it's just another world-class university. But dig a little deeper into its Quantum Nanoelectronics Lab and you’ll find federal money pouring in—quietly, deliberately—from the NSA, CIA, DARPA, and a few other three-letter agencies that don’t like to make headlines. The lab’s pushing the limits of fault-tolerant quantum systems, cracking open new ways to build encryption no one can break.

     MIT’s Research Lab of Electronics is in the same game. So is the Joint Quantum Institute over at the University of Maryland—fast becoming a black hole for quantum funding and federal attention.

     None of this is coincidence. The U.S. intelligence community knows what’s coming. Quantum computing isn’t some abstract, far-off tech dream. It’s real, it’s racing toward the finish line, and if it ever crosses it, the first systems to fall will be the ones holding America’s deepest secrets. That’s why America’s Intelligence Community (IC) is betting big on campus labs- because if (or when) quantum computing gets good enough to shatter today’s encryption, agencies like the CIA and NSA will be the first targets.

     This isn’t some tinfoil-hat theory. Russian intelligence is already sniffing around the edges. Back in 2019, two of their operatives were caught shadowing a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan. The guy was deep into a quantum encryption project funded by the Department of Defense-highly sensitive, not exactly the kind of work you'd want foreign eyes anywhere near.

     The FBI had them on the radar. These guys kept showing up at public lectures and mixers hosted by the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering—acting like curious academics, but their timing was too perfect, their questions a little too sharp. Eventually, the Bureau stepped in. The Russians vanished before anything was stolen, but the message was loud and clear: the game had already started.

     Word spread fast through the research community—quiet, off-the-record briefings, cautionary calls. Watch who’s watching you. Lock up your data. And above all, know that not everyone hanging around your lab is there to learn.

     This isn’t just some low-level noise in the background—it’s the real deal, and it’s already changing how universities operate. You’ve got quantum research projects now wrapped in red tape, flagged under export control laws, and some even need partial security clearance just to work on. That’s not normal in academia.

     And schools like Stanford and Yale? They’ve started looking twice—sometimes three times—at foreign grad students applying to work in quantum labs. Not because they’re being paranoid, but because they’ve seen how fast cutting-edge science can turn into a national security threat.

     In my spy thriller Quantum Shadows, the story kicks off when a quantum encryption breakthrough at UC Berkeley becomes a high-value target for Russian operatives. CIA spymaster Corey Pearson and his field team dive into the academic underworld to uncover who’s leaking information, and why. What they find—a Russian sleeper cell hiding in plain sight—echoes a truth more people in the real world are waking up to: that the front lines of modern espionage don’t always look like warzones. Sometimes they look like faculty lounges and research symposiums.

     What’s crazy is how smooth the intelligence money slides in. You won’t see guys in suits flashing CIA credentials around campus. That’s not how it works. Instead, the funding comes in through front-door programs with harmless-sounding names—like IARPA or the National Quantum Initiative.   They show up offering “research support,” but let’s be real: the projects they back just happen to line up perfectly with top-secret defense objectives.

     Professors think they’re chasing academic breakthroughs. Labs get new gear. Students dive into cutting-edge tech. But somewhere down the line, all that research ends up hardwired into the cybersecurity systems guarding the CIA’s deepest secrets or shielding NSA servers from hostile attacks. It’s smart, it’s quiet, and it’s already happening.

     But it’s not foolproof. What happens when a bright PhD student at MIT, fresh off a post-quantum cryptography project, gets approached by a foreign government with a fat paycheck and zero morals? Or worse- what if one of the trusted research partners is already working both sides, leaking sensitive breakthroughs back to their handlers overseas?

     That’s where this whole thing gets messy. Because once the lines between open science and national security start to blur, trust becomes a dangerous game.

     Those questions sit at the heart of Quantum Shadows. As CIA spymaster Corey Pearson chases the mole embedded in Berkeley’s lab, the story mirrors real-world fears about how easily cutting-edge science can be twisted by geopolitics.

     Just like in the novel, this isn’t only about data or algorithms—it’s personal. In the world of espionage, trust isn’t a virtue. It’s a weapon. And when it’s used wrong, people get burned.

     Sure, quantum computers might still be a few years out from breaking the kind of encryption that protects classified intel. But nobody in the intelligence game is waiting around to find out. The race to build defenses is already in full swing. And behind the scenes, the CIA and NSA are teaming up with low-profile university labs and quiet partnerships to get ahead. Because if quantum’s coming—and it is—they’re damn sure not planning to be caught flat-footed.

 

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.