LOOK LEFT, LOOK RIGHT, STEP FORWARD by The Gent

I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia—a curious, quiet student with a knack for languages and high marks throughout grade school. After completing my 11th year, I passed the Unified State Exams with distinction. My academic performance earned me admission to St. Petersburg State University. But before I could begin my first semester, the course of my life changed forever.

One evening, I was summoned. The man who greeted me didn’t ask questions. He gave orders.

“You will serve Mother Russia,” he said. “You are to become a foreign operative. You no longer have a choice.”

From that moment on, my real education began—not just in literature and international law, but in American government, ideology, psychology, culture, combat, surveillance, encryption, firearms, and seduction. All of it was classified. All of it state-sponsored. I was being transformed into an instrument of infiltration.

At 24, my mission began. I was flown to Mexico City, taken by bus to Juarez, and smuggled into the United States through a tunnel—a fully lit, concrete-reinforced artery beneath the border, funded by foreign powers hostile to American sovereignty. I emerged in El Paso and was driven to Houston. There, a deep-cover SVR operative gave me an American identity: a passport, a social security number, $1,000 in cash, credit cards, and a flight ticket to New York City.

I arrived in Borough Park, Brooklyn, and met my “Control”—a handler embedded in the city for decades. I was given an apartment, a job, and a directive: blend in. And I did. Effortlessly.

I joined political movements. I attended rallies. I volunteered for campaigns. Eventually, I found myself working in a lobbying firm on K Street in Washington D.C., advising policymakers and donors. Over the years, I earned influence and access. No one ever suspected.

I now live in Silver Spring, Maryland. I report to my Control once a month. What I send back are not secrets in the traditional sense—they are sentiments, movements, psychological weaknesses, ideological fractures, institutional vulnerabilities. I watch. I learn. I report.

But I am not alone.

There are thousands of us. Operatives from Russia, China, Iran, North Korea—embedded across the United States. In public office. In university lecture halls. On Wall Street. In defense contracting firms. In law enforcement. Even in the military. Some came by sea, others across land. Some through fake marriages, others as international students. Some even born here—recruited by their homeland before they knew who they were truly serving.

The goal is not chaos. The goal is conquest. Silent, patient, inevitable.

One day—perhaps not today or tomorrow—but one day, orders will come. When America is divided enough. Distracted enough. Tired enough. When its citizens are too busy fighting each other over pronouns, politics, and profits, the real power shift will begin.

And most Americans won’t even see it coming. Because the new enemy doesn’t wear a uniform. They wear scrubs, teach your children, serve in courtrooms, run start-ups, walk their dog past your house every morning.

Epilogue:
Do you really know your neighbor?
Do you really trust your co-worker?
What if they weren’t who they claimed to be?
What if the invasion has already happened… and you slept right through it?