David McCloskey, from the CIA to the thriller: “I have never met a real spy with moral dilemmas”

David McCloskey He lived in Syria for fifteen years. At that time, he saw how the revolts became a civil war and this in a great bloodbath until almost unbearable will continue there. CIA analyst And field agent, had to leave the agency and return to Texas to continue with his life, get away from meaningless and nausea. But this is not always easy. «I had seen so much blood that my head did not just assume the reality of all that. I started writing just to try to make sense of that stark war, ”he says in statements to ABC.

In principle, I did not write to try to publish, or with the idea of ​​building a novel. In the manner of Kurt vonnegut And Dresden’s bombardment just wanted to shape the tragedy to be able to overcome it in some way and not live trauma. But what in principle was a therapeutic formula of self -defense, soon became a new way of life. “Without knowing how, suddenly I found myself writing six, eight to ten hours in a row giving my hyperactive memories and creativity that I did not know I had inside,” McCloskey recalls.

These first attempts soon became a first novel, ‘Damascus Station’ (Salamandra)an exciting thriller of spies in the contemporary Syria acclaimed by public and criticism that they saw, on the one hand, the verisimilitude of someone who knows what he’s talking about and the intensity of someone who knows how to build an addictive and exciting story. «Sometimes I called old colleagues and asked permission to use their stories. None have complained at the moment. In addition, the real elements with the fiction elements. On the other hand, in the CIA there is a very intense culture of jokes and innocent, ”says the writer, who knows well that it is always better not to bother the wrong person.

Comparisons with Le Carré

After the success of the first novel and comparisons with John Le Carré “What is ridiculous, a great marketing claim, but you can’t pay attention to these things,” now comes to us ‘Moscow X’ (Salamandra)a new approach to contemporary espionage. «I wanted to consider what would happen if the CIA went to all against Putin and perform an operation to destabilize his government. They would have to go against their money, ”says the writer.

In this way, we will travel to this Moscow of corrupt bankers, Dangerous and cunning oligarchs, agents who play two and three bands and spies infiltrated in a closed world, as difficult to escape once inside. «The world is changing at a dizzying speed. There are no longer two clear sides, everything is more liquid. I do not say that Carré had it easier when writing about spies, but today you could propose the craziest and most absurd argument than two years later it could be the most realistic, ”says McCloskey.

The writer is a very tall man, almost two meters, handsome, of strong squeeze, and a childish face that had to serve him many times to lower the defenses of his interlocutors. «Spy novels and movies like to play with the idea that spies are tortured people with moral doubts. However, in all my years in the CIA I never met a spy with moral dilemmas. From the beginning they know that they go to another country to steal information and give it to its potential enemy. And they know the vicissitudes they sometimes have to do to achieve it. The only thing they regret, and this happens to the majority, is to have been bad husbands, wives, fathers or mothers, ”says McCloskey.

The writer is in full European tour of promotion of his new book and from the moment he stepped on the old continent, all ask him the same question: The world of the blocks is over? What side is USAof Russia or of Europe? «It is the great current concern and it is difficult to know. From the United States we are as baffled as you. The spy game is changing and it is not easy to change with it, ”he says.

Speak without stopping ‘Spy game’, The spy game, and how from fiction it is almost impossible to make its new forms interesting. «Before you had to send an operation to another country, which was growing its network of contacts and entering different levels of the territory. This created the conflict. Now everything is mobile, cameras, techno -spite and in reality it is no longer necessary. However, in fiction you need human drama. This is the challenge of realistic novels that show contemporary conflicts, ”says McCloskey.

‘Moscow X’ It is his second novel, where he introduces us to the most interesting character of his universe, Artemis Aphrodite Proctera spy of arms to take, of great determination and some anarchy. «The real person in which he is inspired was much worse, short, curly hair, always with a knife on top. But it was only a field agent, it was not a superheroin, nor was it in large persecutions of cars through the city. His only interest was to collect information and protect his assets, nothing more, ”says McCloskey, who expects the real person to never find out that there is a fictional character based on it.

Procter will star in the following novel, this time a story about the hunt for a Moscow mole within the INC. «The figure of the mole is very common within the lowest intelligence spheres. There are even times that the agent does not even know. What is not usual is when this ‘Topo’ is in the high spheres. This is more product of fiction than anything else. In this case I wanted ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’ (The mole), by John Le Carré, as inspiration. We always return to Le Carré. As we will now return to McCloskey.