Episode 3 - A Fantastical Vacation
In the end, I accepted the team leader's request. He laid out the operation to apprehend the suspected spy, Geoda Bianchi. To be precise, it was less an operation and more an intrigue—a counterintelligence ploy.
"You know counterintelligence breaks down into two main categories, right?"
"Yes."
"Then this'll be quick."
Episode 3 - A Fantastical Vacation
Counterintelligence. Counter-Intelligence. The term refers to actions taken to counter and neutralize the intelligence activities of spies and foreign agencies.
If you asked someone what counterintelligence means, nine times out of ten they'd say "spy hunting." Not wrong, exactly. But it's only half the story.
Scholars like Kent, Ransom, Gadson, Schulsky, Richelson, and Holt each have their own takes on it. Nations do too—America, Britain, France, China, even the Soviets who bundled it all into one concept. The definitions vary because counterintelligence, alongside overseas operations, is shrouded in mystery, even within intelligence circles. Agents not in the field rarely know more than the basics.
That's why civilians boil it down to "catching spies." But this is the 21st century. The age of information and globalization. An era where a Chinese hacker breaching the Golden Shield could get a virtual tour of Tiananmen Square, and an Eastern troll could pad-rip some Western edgelord on the other side of the planet.
Advanced tech turned the impossible possible, opening the world. Booming transport, global trade, outsourcing jobs, NGOs and multinationals, open forex markets, international cooperation, multilateral diplomacy, fewer all-out wars, exploding culture industries. Citizens reaped the rewards of science—and so did the rats hiding in the shadows.
Enter new threats: evolved new terrorism, networked terror cells, lone-wolf attacks, transnational crime syndicates, tech leaks, massive hacks and data dumps. Layer on politics, diplomacy, military, economics, culture, high-tech industries, energy, resources, geography—problems erupting everywhere.
Intelligence agencies once stole state secrets from rivals; now they face criminals, terrorists, radical NGOs, and multinationals eyeing markets and tech. The CIA brawling KGB had to pivot to 9/11 hijackers in the desert; Russia's FSB chased ex-Soviet terrorists. Even allies turned on each other under shared ideologies. French intel sent economic spies to America; Germany, Japan, Israel—even South Korea—deployed industrial espionage against the US.
The free world didn't suddenly flip anti-American. The world just became that way.
But what are intelligence agencies if not adaptable? They've toppled regimes in Latin America and the Middle East via coups, profited from civil wars, stolen nukes. Decades of Cold War honed their edge.
Adapting to globalization and info-wars, they redefined national security ops. Out with old paradigms; in with refined strategies. Passive counterintelligence like security measures paired with aggressive counterspy ops. It elevated spy games from street fights to something dignified.
Counterintelligence isn't just arrests anymore. It's HUMINT collection, analysis, operations. Spot enemy moves via assets, dissect them, predict via mindset sync, snag spies, flip them with threats or bribes, disrupt networks by feeding them back their own agents. This proactive beast is the modern agency's counterintelligence.
And our Military Intelligence Agency plays the same game.
So, how do you catch an industrial spy posing as a researcher at the Advanced Military Magic Research Institute, backed by the Magic Tower's intel wing?
The team leader held up two fingers.
"Military Intelligence divides counterintelligence into two concepts."
Passive, defensive security. Active, offensive counterspy work.
"Passive and active counterintelligence. You've heard of 'em."
"Prevention versus response, right? Collection, investigations, analysis, operations. The sharp end of the stick."
"Spot on."
He nodded. "The public's fixated on investigations, but ops often kick off during or after internal probes and legal processing."
Active counterintelligence is aggressively invasive. Investigations target white-hat and black-hat agents; ops go for the foreign agency puppeteers.
Methods vary: recruit assets for intel, feed disinformation to mislead, flip spies double, fake defections to infiltrate HQs. "Counterintelligence" ops blur into overseas work.
"Counterintel and covert ops overlap—case officers, agents, budgets, evolving targets."
Same framework, easy to grasp.
I pivoted to practicals. "What's the objective here?"
"Unmask the infiltrating group's structure and prosecute the key players."
Round 'em up for trial. Probably intel-gathering op—most overseas work is.
"Prosecution needs evidence, so we'll collect proof and intel."
"And my exact role?"
"Tail and surveil the suspect. Team handles evidence; you just guide them close."
They'll do the heavy lifting; just play facilitator.
"Cover identities?"
"Two team members from similar regions. Pose as military alumni."
Regional ties cover it—blood, school, hometown bonds work here too.
"Your job's simple: babysit the target. We'll handle the rest."
I double-checked. "Reliable guys?"
"Yes."
Top-shelf.
He rummaged in a steel cabinet, plunking thick files on the desk. "Op plan, personnel dossiers, suspect intel on Geoda. Read thoroughly, return when done."
Green light.
*
Security is ops' lifeblood—beyond success or failure, it's survival for officers and agents.
In the '90s, North Korea ops in China and Japan meant constant DPRK State Security tails. Covers leaked; some got kidnapped or killed. No need to detail ANSP and NIS agents' fates in the North—those in the know get it.
To prevent that, agencies mask identities from the get-go.
My role was critical. As Camilla Lowell's colleague, I had access to suspect Geoda Bianchi, senior bio-analyst overseeing all her tests. Only asset in position.
I'd enable the counterintel team's covers and steer them to her. One slip, and heads roll—mine included.
"Fucking mages pulling spy shit. Why not live normally..."
Crumple, crumple. I vented on innocent files, swallowing my rage.
Not because I couldn't vacation. Probably.
Knock knock!
I stashed the binder under papers and stood.
"Come in."
"Sir! Captain Aaron Gordon reporting." "Sergeant Samuel here, sir. Team leader briefed me."
"Pleased to meet you. Major Frederic Nostrim."
The op was on.