Silicon Valley is an espionage innovator—it has been since its inception. During the dawn of the high-tech age, an engineer named James Harper begins his industrious climb. But as Silicon Valley blossoms into what it is today, so too does the dark side of all this newfound wealth and ambition—right as the cold war reaches its final crescendo.
As Harper works to build his fortune, his ambition endangers his nation’s safety. He sells nuclear secrets to the Soviet Bloc—intelligence that might still help Moscow in a nuclear exchange today. It would become the chase of a lifetime for San Francisco’s FBI spy hunters.
In this series, we’ll walk you through a maze. One of nuclear spying, technology theft, and double agents, and the too wild-to-be-believed events that placed James Harper at the center of this story.
And you’ll hear that story from James Harper–the Soviet Bloc spy–himself.
Silicon Valley is an espionage innovator—and it has been since its inception. Journalist Zach Dorfman uncovers how Moscow’s spies opened up shop in San Francisco and Silicon Valley at the dawn of the hi-tech age, and how a group of pioneering FBI spy hunters assembled to stop them—and solve the case of a lifetime.
Silicon Valley blossoms, but there’s a dark side to all this newfound wealth and ambition. With his technical savvy and a penchant for scheming, one of America’s most notorious cold war nuclear spies gets his start.
One million dollars, lives on the line, and a spy who keeps a diary. James Harper’s wild ride selling nuclear secrets as the cold war heats up—secrets that might still help Moscow in a nuclear exchange today.
Nuclear tensions between Moscow and Washington are reaching a fever pitch. When a desperate James Harper doubles down on spying for the Soviet Bloc, he gets his big payday. But in a game of double-cross and deception, even your friends start to feel like enemies.
James Harper is in dire need of protection—and money. But the nuclear spy has exhausted his options and left breadcrumbs on his trail. The FBI is watching.
San Francisco’s FBI spy hunters, and federal prosecutors, are closing in on James Harper. They need one last source of information that could help put him away for good. But obtaining it could prove fatal.