On September 30th, 1986, inside the CIA Headquarters "Bubble" auditorium, I raised my hand and pledged allegiance to the Constitution. In my orientation group, I met a woman my age (20s) who was assigned to the same office. Small office. Small world.
A few weeks later, there was a dedication ceremony for the New Headquarters Building. Many dignitaries, including Vice-President and former Director of Central Intelligence George Bush, were there. As you know, the area is now called the George Bush Center for Intelligence.
Anyway, being young, bug-eyed, and overt (not undercover), my friend and I went and got a spot at the rope line. I was dressed in my brown corduroy graduation suit jacket and tie that I found in the lost/found box of the hotel front desk I worked at in college.
"Keep up the good work," he said.
I said…" errrr, babble, babble"…
I knew cameras were clicking as he went by as I shook his hand. Later, I went to the public relations office and asked if they had any pictures. They said yes. I filed through the photos taken by the CIA team and found nothing. They said maybe it was a White House photographer.
Ah well.
Over a year later, after I had changed offices (undercover), I got a call from the PR office saying they had something. It was this photo.
They could call me because my friend had her ID badge clipped to her jacket, and her photo caught her badge and number. Mine was slightly tucked behind my coat. We shouldn't have had them on, but that is just a minor rookie mistake.
I framed the photo and it has traveled along with me as I moved through my career. Young. Black hair. Engaged to married. Living the life of a CIA officer. A long time ago. Three kids and three grandkids ago. The guy in the photo had no clue.
Fast forward about twenty years. I'm at Motorola in the corporate competitive intelligence group. My friend Dewey Clarridge is visiting my office for reasons left unwritten. Dewey created the CIA's Counter-terrorism Center for those who might not recognize the name. He was also involved in the Iran-Contra affair ending with a pardon from President George Bush.
My character Wes Henslow in The Spy Devils series is based on Dewey.
Luckily, Dewey saw the picture and asked if I wanted the picture signed.
"Sure!" I took it from the frame it had been in for years and handed it to him, worried I might never see it again.
Months later, it came back signed with the inscription.
Now it is on the wall of my office as I write this and everything else. The picture captures my early days at the CIA. We have had an interesting journey together since the late 1980s.
It represents a time when everything I have experienced now was in the future. How being in intelligence would shape my career. Now, I write espionage fiction using those experiences and knowledge—my next future. I don't know how that will end up any more than I did then.
I plan on finding out.