Under the Cover of Darkness

After the killing of Osama Bin Laden, CIA deep cover officer Mitch Vasari assumed there would be a couple months of peace on the foreign front. It turns out he was mistaken. President Obama, on a roll after the successful-and historic-terrorist assassination, has repealed an executive order that bans further political assassinations. This means Vasari is on call and ready for action. The CIA's objective is to go after foreign heads of state who, for reasons unknown to Vasari, represent threats to American freedom and safety. The assassinations seem easy to plan and undertake, especially with Vasari's skillful team at the helm. They even have a new female agent, Gabriela Rivera Torres, who may be as lethal as Vasari himself. What could possibly go wrong? Apparently, more than they bargained for. Vasari gets the feeling the higher-ups haven't told him everything he needs to know. What are the president's reasons for going after these particular foreign heads of state? Is there something about these men that makes them more dangerous than other world leaders? Are they, perhaps, working as a team to destroy the United States? Vasari has to carry out his mission and keep his team safe, all while trying to find out the truth for himself. It's just another day's work for a CIA officer. 


Duane De Mello is a writer, educator and former Central Intelligence Agency senior operations officer. He earned a master's degree at Stanford University and wrote his first book, "The McCarthy Era: 1950- 1954, Was American Society Threatened?" while he was a high school teacher in Cupertino, California.


After serving two tours of duty in Vietnam as a U.S. Army military intelligence adviser during 1968-70, he stayed on in Asia for two decades working as a businessman in  Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan.