A thrilling first-hand account by the husband-and-wife operatives who rebuilt the CIA's most important network of sources in Asia after its sudden collapse in 2011 - an intelligence disaster that espionage services around the world have transformed into a new, cutting-edge form of spycraft.
Andrew and Jihi Bustamante are a husband-and-wife spy duo whose lives revolved around the CIA. They met as trainees at Langley, Virginia, and built a family together while hunting terrorists across the globe. But in 2010, they were pulled off the anti-terrorism desk for an even bigger assignment: to head to Asia, where the CIA's spy network in the superpower that the Bustamantes code-named JADE KINGDOM - one of America's most formidable rivals - had recently vanished, dismantled practically overnight in a series of brutal murders and quiet disappearances. With the CIA's most important Asian spy network in ashes, the US had been thrust into darkness just as its competition with JADE KINGDOM was entering a new, even more dangerous, phase.
Although not regional experts, the Bustamantes brought to the table a granular understanding of how terrorist cells operate, and how to take them out. Now, along with a rag-tag team of CIA operatives, they set about building a cell of their own - right at the heart of JADE KINGDOM. The pressure on the Bustamantes was intense: it was only a matter of time before America's intelligence blackout led to a wider cataclysm. As they were racing against the clock, a mole deep within the US intelligence community threatened their entire operation, leading to a dramatic cat-and-mouse game on the heavily surveilled streets of JADE KINGDOM's capital city.
The thrilling, untold tale of one of history's greatest intelligence failures and the unlikely band of agents who were sent in to clean up the mess, Red Cell is also the tale of how a couple of outside-the-box thinkers pioneered a bold new way of spying-one that today has been adopted throughout Western intelligence services to meet the national security challenges of the next century. A story so secret it still can't be told in full, Red Cell allows us to peer behind the curtain to see how one of the biggest spy wars in the world is currently being fought - and won.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR SHADOW CELL [please note there are more quotes to come]
"Shadow Cell rips the curtain off the modern spy game with the kind of insider access only two former CIA operatives could provide. It's a rare glimpse into the shadow war of the twenty-first century, where loyalty is tested, trust is weaponized, and victory comes at a personal cost."
-JACK CARR, author of Red Sky Mourning
"The 'Shadow Cell' operation is arguably one of the most esoteric, innovative, and successful by CIA to date. It is also proof of how important fresh blood is to any organization. As you will read, the selection of these two young officers was a gamble that not only paid off but also exceeded everyone's expectations. Reads like a novel, educates like a thesis. I truly enjoyed the read and even learned a trick or two."
-RIC PRADO, author of Black Ops, and former Chief of Operations at CIA's Counterterrorism Center
"A pacy and fascinating read. I suspect the closest an outsider will get to sitting in on CIA training in agent-running."
-PROFESSOR SIR DAVID OMAND, former British Security and Intelligence Coordinator
