Spy Tips on the Negotiations, Exploiting Assets, and more
There aren’t many rules in the spy trade. There are a few agreements that most intelligence agencies honor, though. Low-level agents get traded, not prosecuted. You don’t shoot foreign operatives if you can avoid it, and you stay away from embassies and consulates.
Consulates are a great place to renew your visa, pay your taxes back home, or find foreign spies working under diplomatic cover.
Like all bureaucrats, consulate employees live in fear of a pissed-off journalist.
Most of the people who work in a consulate are just municipal drones enjoying an overseas post. But the head of security, that guy’s almost always a spy.
One job of a security chief is babysitting the secrets. If one goes missing, it’s a big deal, even if it’s just transactional data on chemical imports. Steal a few files, no matter how boring, and you’ve got leverage. Play your cards right, and you can trade what you’ve got for what you want.
In any covert operation, your first concern is remaining undetected. Whether you’re infiltrating a military base or getting car parts from your mom’s garage without her knowing, staying invisible is tough. And no matter how good you are, sometimes they’re better.
Exploiting an asset is easier when they have a vice, an addiction you can feed – drugs, money, respect, women.
If you need to get into a secure area, the best approach is to give yourself a good reason to be there. Why sneak past guards when you can just spill a martini?
A hairpin is one of the most versatile tools in a thief’s arsenal. It’s as good as a key most of the time.
The key to hand-to-hand combat is being able to close the distance between you and your opponent without putting them on their guard.
There are two schools of safecracking. Some people like to beat the lock. Some people like to break the lock. But it doesn’t much matter when the safe is sitting wide open.
Good counterfeit money is more expensive than you think. If you’re looking to fake money on the cheap, a real bill bound to a stack of filler will do.
Thirty years ago, the CIA would’ve killed for bugs as small as cellphones. They’re the perfect improvised listening device, but they burn juice like a Humvee. If there’s no charger handy, an unused USB port will do the trick.
To win a negotiation, you have to show you’re willing to walk away. And the best way to show you’re willing to walk away… is to walk away.