Robert Baer was known inside the CIA as perhaps the best
operative working the Middle East. Over several decades he
served everywhere from Iraq to New Delhi and racked up such
an impressive list of accomplishments that he was eventually
awarded the Career Intelligence Medal. But if his career
was everything a spy might aspire to, his personal life was
a brutal illustration of everything a spy is asked to
sacrifice. Bob had few enduring non-work friendships, only
contacts and acquaintances. His prolonged absences destroyed
his marriage, and he felt intense guilt at spending so
little time with his children. Sworn to secrecy and
constantly driven by ulterior motives, he was a man apart
wherever he went.
Dayna Williamson thought of herself as just an ordinary
California girl -- admittedly one born into a comfortable
lifestyle. But she was always looking to get closer to the
edge. When she joined the CIA, she was initially tasked
with Agency background checks, but the attractive Berkeley
graduate quickly distinguished herself as someone who could
thrive in the field, and she was eventually assigned to
“Protective Operations” training where she learned to handle
weapons and explosives and conduct high-speed escape and
evasion. Tapped to serve in some of the world's most
dangerous places, she discovered an inner strength and
resourcefulness she'd never known -- but she also came to
see that the spy life exacts a heavy toll. Her marriage
crumbled, her parents grew distant, and she lost touch with
friends who'd once meant everything to her.
When Bob and Dayna met on a mission in Sarajevo, it wasn't
love at first sight. They were both too jaded for that. But
there was something there, a spark. And as the danger
escalated and their affection for each other grew, they
realized it was time to leave “the Company,” to somehow
rediscover the people they’d once been.
As worldly as both were, the couple didn’t realize at first
that turning in their Agency I.D. cards would not be enough
to put their covert past behind. The fact was, their
clandestine relationships remained. Living as “civilians”
in conflict-ridden Beirut, they fielded assassination
proposals, met with Arab sheiks, wily oil tycoons,
terrorists, and assorted outlaws – and came perilously close
to dying. But even then they couldn’t know that their most
formidable challenge lay ahead.
Simultaneously a trip deep down the intelligence rabbit hole
– one that shows how the “game” actually works, including
the compromises it asks of those who play by its rules --
and a portrait of two people trying to regain a normal life,
The Company We Keep is a masterly depiction of the real
world of shadows.
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