Bøker i Laynie Portland-serien

No one is born a spy. In one way or another, every “righteous” clandestine operative is sought out, enlisted, and trained for the difficult and often terrible work intended to ensure that the principles of freedom triumph over ideologies that seek to dominate and enslave.The year is 1977; the Cold War is intensifying. Helena Portland—Laynie to her family—is set to graduate from the University of Washington, when recruiters from Marstead International invite her to dinner and an informal employment interview. Laynie is flattered: Marstead International is a technology and aeronautics firm with a global presence and reputation.But behind their corporate image? Marstead is a front for joint U.S./NATO covert operations.Not far into the dinner conversation, the recruiters make their pitch: “We have offices around the world, Miss Portland, and we actively seek college graduates with the right mix of aptitude and skills to work and grow within our worldwide market. Actually, we have been observing you for some time. We feel that you have the potential to serve . . . the interests of your country.”Laynie catches their drift and confronts it. “Let me see if I understand you correctly. You are representatives of a U.S. intelligence agency, unnamed so far, and you are trying to recruit me. Do I have it right?”When Laynie accepts Marstead’s offer, she is sent through the Company’s rigorous tradecraft and tactical training program. Laynie soon discovers that the world of clandestine service is dirty business. To succeed, operatives must bend and twist the tenets of liberty. Along the way, noble objectives tarnish and corrode, hearts harden, and methods and means drag virtue into the gutter.Laynie perseveres at the work set before her; she enters into it because she holds a secret—a secret she has never shared with anyone, a view of herself that not only condones the awful choices she is asked to make, but justifies them: I am worthless; my life has no value. I am only useful when the work I do serves a greater purpose.Laynie PortlandBook 1: Laynie Portland, Spy Rising—The PrequelBook 2: Laynie Portland, Retired SpyBook 3: Laynie Portland, Renegade SpyBook 4: Laynie Portland, Spy Resurrected 

“Retirement” means something altogether different to a spy. It means someone in authority over youhas decided that “coming in from the cold” is out of the question. It means you’d better run.LAYNIE PORTLAND has masqueraded as Swedish citizen Linnéa Olander for close to two decades, the last seven years as the companion of Vassili Aleksandrovich Petroff, a reputable Russian scientist, former officer of the KGB and, at present, senior technology advisor to the Secretary of the Russian Federation’s Security Council. What Petroff doesn’t know is that, during her time as his woman, Laynie (Linnéa) has ferreted out and fed her handlers a treasure trove of political and technological intel.Living with Petroff has been difficult, lonely, even brutal: Petroff is a man with a pathological need to control every aspect of Laynie’s life. As Petroff’s jealous rages worsen, Laynie petitions her agency to pull her out. She is told, however, that she is too well-placed to decommission; she is too valuable an asset where she is.But Laynie is desperate: She knows how close to the edge she stands. She has acted the part of Linnéa Olander too long and her ability to maintain the façade she presents to Petroff is fragile at best. A single misstep could blow her cover—yet she soon learns that someone, someone in her chain of command, would rather risk her death under Petroff’s hand than lose the value and prestige her intel engenders.Faced with no viable alternative, Laynie runs.Petroff views Linnéa Olander’s disappearance as a personal affront. In his eyes, Linnéa’s disloyalty is the ultimate act of betrayal, and he swears to find and punish her. Simultaneously, Laynie’s Marstead superiors brand her as a rogue agent, a loose cannon who can no longer be trusted—and, in response, the “retirement package” they order for her includes a short walk off the deck of a ferry into the black, icy rollers of the Baltic Sea.Pursued by both the Russians and her own agency—the very people she once trusted—how will Laynie escape? Will no one help her? Will the God in whom her sister Kari trusts extend his protection over her life?But why would he do that, Laynie asks herself, given the life I have lived?

<b>Once a spy, always a spy. And once a renegade . . .</b><br><br>Director Wolfe brings Laynie “in from the cold” to a place of relative safety. However, she will remain free only if she meets Wolfe’s three conditions. She must accept the new identity he gives her, and she must meet with an agency “shrink” to address the emotional damage caused by her years undercover. This counselor, handpicked by Wolfe, will evaluate Laynie and determine if she is fit to participate in his secret task force. Moreover, Laynie must remain in Wolfe’s witness protection program. The program will hide Laynie from those who are hunting her, but it will also greatly curtail her freedom. <br><br>Nothing goes as Laynie hopes. The rules grind and grate on her. They shackle her choices and constrict her movements. She feels controlled and manipulated. Her clashes with bureaucratic culture only serve to tighten the restrictions and send her spiraling downward, out of control. <br><br>Meanwhile, in the background, dark forces are at work, forces that compel Laynie to disobey directives in order to save a life. Rather than proving her value to Wolfe’s satisfaction, Laynie’s risky exploits mark her as a faithless renegade, a rebel whose insubordination may earn her harsh, ruinous consequences. <br><br>Laynie must fight to earn her place on the task force—even as unfolding events expose a looming danger. Wolfe’s task force has a leak . . . <i>one that threatens them all.</i><br><br><b>Laynie Portland</b><br><b>Book 1: </b> <i>Laynie Portland, Spy Rising—The Prequel</i><br><b>Book 2: </b> <i>Laynie Portland, Retired Spy</i><br><b>Book 3: </b> <i>Laynie Portland, Renegade Spy</i><br><b>Book 4: </b> <i>Laynie Portland, Spy Resurrected</i>, <b>06.02.2020

Task Force Resolute holds a mandate to hunt terrorists online. Director Wolfe provides the funding and agency umbrella under which Resolute operates, while Bella Tobin serves as Resolute's team leader. Bella, however, is not this woman's actual name. It is the current identity of Laynie Portland, spy extraordinaire, a covert asset who operated under deep cover in Sweden and Russia for more than twenty years before "coming in from the cold." Enter Resolute's top intelligence analyst, Jasmine Jessup, or Jaz as she prefers. In front of her teammates, Jaz cuts a touchy, solitary, and peculiar figure. Few individuals alive, including her team, are aware that she, like Laynie, has a shadowed past, a dark history hidden behind a barricade of counterfeit identities-more aliases than even Laynie Portland could boast. At the same time, Wolfe, Bella, and Task Force Resolute guard Jaz's most precious secret: Within the upper echelons of international hacking, Jaz's brilliance and reputation are legend-for behind a keyboard, Jaz reigns as Vyper, the Venom Queen, a computer guru who instills both dread and reverence across the global hacker community. Despite her renown in cyberspace, Jaz is not a trained field agent. So why would Director Wolfe recruit Jaz for a dicey undercover assignment-one he insists has her name written all over it? Turns out, it isn't Jaz but Vyper Director Wolfe desperately needs for this high-risk assignment. As Jaz prepares for her assignment, uppermost in her training is operational security. Her handlers stress the peril that would await her should she be recognized as Vyper by someone in the hacker community, thus blowing her cover. Even so, no one could predict that Jaz will soon face a dangerous figure from her past-an individual who will hold her life in his hands. Laynie PortlandBook 1: Laynie Portland, Spy RisingBook 2: Laynie Portland, Retired SpyBook 3: Laynie Portland, Renegade SpyBook 4: Laynie Portland, Spy ResurrectedBook 5: Vyper, A Laynie Portland Sequel