It is a small experiment in creativity, you choose a word, search a free resource site for the image or photograph that results in a list, and then write a short narrative about it.
The word chosen was: Spy
I have to admit that I have a great achievement in this life. A success that very few in my field of work manage to achieve.
I have managed to retire.
Perhaps for other professionals or workers in any other field this statement said with such a serious tone is a joke. But, I reiterate, it is a great achievement within my line of work.
First you have to survive all the missions they send you on, then you have to overcome all the intelligence and counterintelligence intrigues. We add to that that you must survive the desire of your superiors to make sure that the secrets that you have handled in your career are sealed, that is, that they die with you. And the surest way to make a secret die is to kill the one who knows it.
If you can survive all that, there are still other things to consider. Among them mental health, believe me, constant pressure and tension is not healthy for the human brain. That is why it is very common for my colleagues to have a high rate of mental problems and illnesses.
Now I am a retired staff, or retired.
Of course, that did not relax me at all, after going into retirement, I was in charge of verifying that the nations and organizations that might hold a grudge against me were monitoring my actions, as well as my superiors. When I was on duty, I wanted to disappear and erase my tracks, I thought that when I retired I would have to pass myself off as dead and change my identity to be able to be a little calm.
But today, work has changed, now I don't know how to hide without being found. In large part because of what they call the fingerprint.
In my time there was electronic surveillance and the data generated by each of the targets, by the "persons of interest" and by the "elimination targets" were studied. But, nothing we did in those years comes close to what I came to see during my last days in service.
It ended up scarying me to discover that even an "invisible" like me, had an electronic data profile and a trace that was traceable, and that the more I tried to avoid it or go unnoticed, then, that would make me stand out much more and shoot all the alarms.
The new spies and intelligence analysts are now guys reading code and discussing their ideas with their AI digital assistants. It's another world to me, it's as if the science fiction movies of my childhood became real to a certain extent.
I am retired, I moved to a quiet place, but I created a profile on social networks, I periodically shared some nonsense that I get by randomly browsing the networks and I certify that I am still alive.
Before, I would have been hiding with total determination, but now I try to stay in sight, because I have learned that today it is more annoying for agencies to take on the task of eliminating a target who has some public exposure.
In addition, I am an old agent, outside of those who may have some personal strength, no agency is going to invest resources in eliminating me. The secrets that I managed in my life are not worth so much that they want me dead and that is having very good luck.
I am walking down a boulevard and I make sure to pass in front of the cameras on the street, I know that those images will go to processing centers and that by doing facial recognition they will know who I am and add it to my data file. It is what ordinary people call "an invasion of my privacy", but for me, that is preferable to being a "Target for removal".
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