Born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, Karl Koecher learned fluent English at a young age before WWII. As a radio comedy show writer after the war he often mocked the communist government and drew the attention of the security services. After numerous jobs he decided to join the Czech security service and found he was well suited for it. Then one day they asked him to take on an impossible assignment, penetrate the CIA. He and his wife Hana were able to emigrate to the United States via Austria posing as defecting dissidents. They soon gained friends as he worked at Radio Free Europe and studied for a doctorate in philosophy at Columbia University. With his language skills and knowledge of Eastern Europe he was able to get a job at the CIA and work his way up. He spent twenty years leading a double life as a mole.