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Delicate indeed, truly delicate. There is no place where espionage is not used.--Sun Tzu
The Blue Ridge Mountains, Maryland, August 21,1997. The anxious memories returned to haunt me that summer night, keeping me from sleep once more...
It is past midnight near the time of the monsoon. I wait tensely on the concrete observation deck of the sweltering airport terminal, peering down at the tarmac through a thickening haze. The TWA flight from Bangkok is already two hours late. I have watches Swissair arrive from Riyadh, Lufthansa from Bangkok. An Aeroflot IL-62 arrives from Tashkent and lumbers up to the gate directly below.
My pulse suddenly surges. The appearance of the Aeroflot is an ominous sign. The operations plan called for the subject and his CIA escort to have left on the continuation of the delayed TWA flight at least an hour ago, for a very good reason. We wanted them out of here before the Aeroflot landed, with its inevitable ground retinue of KGB gumshoes.
The subject is a KGB defector who simply walked into our Station ten days earlier. Now, waiting down in the steamy, crowded departure hall, will he panic and run when he hears the Soviet flight announced?
I glance over the mildewed cement barrier. All the gates are full, but there is no American plane. Then, out of the gloom, the TWA Boeing 707 materializes. It lands, taxis down the runway, and finally stops at the far end of the poorly lit parking apron.
The haze thickens--"smit," the old Asian hands call it, ground-hugging "smoke from shit" from the millions of cow dung cooking fires burning in villagesacross the subcontinent. I squint, but the TWA plane is hard to distinguish. I wait.
The disembarking TWA passengers grope their way through the murk and stumble into the terminal, where the humidity and stench of clogged W.C.s will certainly overpower the smit.
I cannot leave the platform. My task is to confirm that our subject and his escort officer "Jacob," my partner in this operation, safely board the continuation of the TWA flight. But in this miasma, how can I see whether they reach the plane? If I don't catch sight of them coming out of the terminal with the other passengers booked for the same flight, it could mean they have run into trouble at passport control. That is where the alias documents and disguise I've helped create will be tested.
Passengers emerge from the terminal, headed for the TWA plane, but I still don't see the subject and his escort. Is it possible that they have already bolted to the two getaway cars sitting at the dark end of the parking lot with their engines running?
Whatever the outcome of the exfiltration operation, I have to pass a signal from the phone booth at the bottom of the stairway. Tonight, we will use an open code with an ostensible wrong number. Is Suzy there? (They made it.) May I speak to George? (Something went wrong.) The rest of the plan will unfold based on which of these two things happens...
Finally, I sleep, but I have no rest. Even in my dream, my mind cannot let go of the scene at the airport. I find myself descending the stairs with their chipped paint and wedging myself into the oven of the phone booth. I lift the receiver of the clumsy red Bakelite phone, put a brown coin in the slot, strike the cradle bar and release it. No dial tone. No coin drop. Damned colonial phone, a legacy of British rule that probably hasn't been maintained since the Raj folded the Union Jack.
Again I jiggle the cradle. The fat copper disk drops into the coin return slot. I jam the coin back in. A hiss, a click, a weak dial tone. Receiver held between ear and shoulder, I dial quickly, scanning the number scrawled on the hotel matchbook in my other hand. Clicks and pops, finally a coherent double whir. The phone is ringing at the other end. I press the receiver tightly against my ear. Four rings. . . five... Pick it up, Raymond. I slam the phone down after ten rings.
Why doesn't he answer? I look at my watch: 3:07, an hour past my scheduled call time. I know he's still at the safe house. They're expecting me to pass the signal. I suck in a deep breath of humid air and release it slowly to ease the tight band across my shoulders and the drumming in my ears. I have to call. I insert another fat copper coin and dial. A pause. A click.., the coin drops through again. The phone is dead.
The Master Of Disguise. Copyright © by Antonio Mendez. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Anonymous
Posted March 14, 2012
I was disappointed in this book. Based on the topic, I expected an exciting read, but it was actually a chore at times. There were maybe two or three stories that kept me on edge, but the rest were so short and uninteresting that the book actually was boring at times.
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Posted October 9, 2007
The thought of reading autobiographies has never appealed to me. They are books written by people who aren't authors, and they are usually a monotonous and tedious read. Also, Ive always been into James Bond-ish, fantasy spy stories, and I was worried that reading about a real life spy could ruin that for me. Naturally i was hesitant to pick up a copy of 'Master of Disguise' after a friend recommended it to me, but after i got it in my hands, i couldn't put it down. Antonio Mendez was a skilled artist who found his way into a job with the CIA, and ended up becoming one of the most honored members of his trade. The book is written in a way that almost forces you to keep reading. Mendez after goes into a anecdote about parts of the story that you haven't read yet, and it makes it more than easy to get hooked. The books main message seems to be to have a 'never give up' attitude. Mendez proves, in his own special way, that through had work and determination that anything is possible. Mendez seems to be not only a skilled artist, as we learn from the book, but also a great story teller. I enjoy that this book, by the nature of its subject, maintains a natural mystery, and almost seems like a fiction book. You can imagine yourself in the story, from the start to the finish. In no way did this book ruin that fantasy world of James Bond for me. You don't need fantasy when the real thing as just as impressive. Now i just find myself wishing that I was in the CIA, rather than whatever agency Mr. Bond works with. I give 'Master of disguise four stars almost purely for the fact that it is a unique autobiography that is enthralling enough to hold my attention.
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Posted November 26, 2001
Mr. Mendez employs a narrative style that follows his career perfectly. While the reader who is anxious to read about Hollywood style espionage may find the early chapters to be lacking, the later chapters of the book are chock full of intrigue. As Mr. Mendez's recount of his career proceeds, and becomes more interesting, the book accordingly becomes more and more engrossing. In short this is a very real book, that tracks a very real career, and thus has a very real life escalation that culminates in the great services Mr. Mendez and his colleagues performed at the height of the Iran hostage crisis. Readers may wish to familiarize themselves with the CIA before starting this book, in order to obtain a better understanding of the organization and its Directorates. Even without such advance reading, one will find that the author does a very good job of providing the reader with a basic understanding of the CIA and its various tasks, responsibilities, protocols and organizational strcutres. Overall, this is a very good book, and an excellent overwiew of a fascinating life.
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Posted June 8, 2001
This is an excellent book. You really get a feeling for what these people go through.
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Posted August 27, 2000
This is a great book . I wish I had this book as a reference when I was doing my masters degreee in the history of espionage The opening segment reminded me of the time when I interviewed for the cia. action packed could not put the book down. Opens up insight to the Iranian Hostage crisis
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Posted January 6, 2000
This book was without a doubt one of the most interesting and fascinating books I've read in recent years. From the page one to the last word I was clued to Mr. Mendez's every word. It was goes into enough detail to clearly understand the complexity of the subject but not too indepth as to confuse the layman, such as myself. I found myself getting nervous and my stomach twitching as each mission began to unravel. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, my only regret about the book was it's ending, I wish it hadn't. I could read Mr. Mendez's accounts of his career indefinitely.
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Posted January 2, 2000
I received this book for my 30th birthday about a month ago, and it was extremely hard to stop reading. Through reading this book, I not only gained an appreciation for espionage related activities, but also philosophical views related to espionage. Mr. Mendez describes his activities in extreme detail. From his initial hiring at the Agency, through to his retirement, he provides details I imagine have never been told. I found myself actually experiencing a portion of the fear that Mr. Mendez describes almost overcoming him as he attempted to pass phony documentation to foreign immigration officials. In a fictional movie, such activities do not appear as scary. During the reading of this book, I was physically nervous as I pictured Mr. Mendez having unfriendly government officials inspecting bogus documents! The extreme courage of Mr. Mendez becomes quickly apparent in this book. From the far east, to the middle east and to Russia, this book provides fascinating details! Of particular interest to me was how Mr. Mendez related his childhood experiences to his adulthood profession. Most people, I feel, can often see how their childhood activities helped to shape their chosen professions. I think that anyone in any profession would be able to learn valuable life lessons from this book. I only wish the book was longer!
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Posted September 22, 2011
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Overview
Tony Mendez led two lives. To his friends, he was a soft-spoken, nondescript bureaucrat working for the Department of Defense. To the leaders of the CIA, he was their master of disguise--an undisputed genius who could create an entirely new identity for anybody, anywhere, anytime. Combining the cunning tricks of a magician with the analytical insight of a psychologist, Mendez shows us how he helped hundreds of people escape potentially fatal situations. From "Wild West" adventures in East Asia to Cold War intrigue in Moscow, Mendez was there. He earned the CIA's Intelligence Star of Valor for his role in engineering the escape of six Americans from Tehran in 1980. On the fiftieth anniversary of the CIA, he was named one ...