Ten years ago it seemed as though Valerie Plame's life had imploded. After two decades of working as an undercover officer for the CIA, battling to prevent Iran gaining nuclear weapons from locations in Europe (among other things), her identity as an agent was spectacularly leaked by officials in the Bush White House.

10年前，瓦莱丽•普莱姆(Valerie Plame)的生活似乎突然崩溃了。作为美国中央情报局(CIA)卧底官员，她的任务之一是努力阻止伊朗从欧洲各地获得核武器。然而在20年卧底生涯之后，她的特工身份竟被布什政府的官员泄露了。

A huge scandal erupted, since it appeared that the leak was motivated by the fact that Plame's husband, former diplomat Joe Wilson, had challenged the Bush doctrine over whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Plame wrote an indignant book about the affair, which was heavily redacted but nevertheless formed the basis of a film, Fair Game (2010).

由于这一泄密行为的动机似乎是普莱姆的丈夫、前外交官乔•威尔逊(Joe Wilson)在伊拉克是否拥有大规模杀伤性武器的问题上向布什的教条发起了挑战，这引发了一场巨大丑闻。普莱姆就这一事件写了一本深表不满的书，该书虽经过大量删节，但仍构成电影《叛谍反击》(Fair Game (2010))的基础。

But then, with Plame's career over - and their marriage under pressure - the couple fled. They moved from Washington to a pueblo in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with their two children, hoping to build a quiet, normal life - or as “normal” as you can when you are a famous spy who has inspired a Hollywood movie, and you also happen to be dazzlingly blonde and beautiful. (Having met Plame earlier this year, via the Santa Fe Research Institute, which she is now linked with, I can report that she is not only stunning but charming, bright and has a terrific sense of humour.)

然而在这之后，普莱姆的职业生涯结束了，她的婚姻也面临巨大压力，夫妇俩逃离了华盛顿。他们带着两个孩子，搬到了新墨西哥州圣达菲的一个偏远社区，期望能够开始一段平静而正常的生活。或者换种说法，作为为一部好莱坞电影带来灵感的著名间谍，碰巧又是位顶着迷人金发的美丽女人，普莱姆试图过一种尽可能“正常”的生活。（今年早些时候，我曾通过目前与普莱姆有关系的圣达菲研究所(Santa Fe Research Institute)见过她本人，可以说她不仅非常漂亮，而且迷人、聪明、极富幽默感。）

Now Plame is willingly stepping back into the limelight. Next month she will publish her first fiction book, Blowback, a spy novel written with a co-author, Sarah Lovett. This tells the story of a young female CIA agent who is working undercover on projects to... er... prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb in European locations such as Vienna.

如今，普莱姆主动再次回到聚光灯下。下个月她将出版首部小说《后果》(Blowback)。该书是一部间谍小说，由普莱姆与萨拉•洛维特(Sarah Lovett)共同完成。小说讲述了一位中情局年轻女性卧底特工的故事，这位特工负责的任务正是阻止伊朗从维也纳这类欧洲地点获得核武器。

And, just in case anybody fails to spot the echoes, Blowback's heroine also comes from a patriotic army family (as Plame does) and has the initials VP: she is called Vanessa Pierson when she is not travelling under multiple aliases (which happens to be something Plame also used to do).

如果还有人看不出这里的相似之处，《后果》的女主角也来自爱国军人家庭——这一点和普莱姆一样。女主角也常以多种身份旅行——普莱姆过去也经常这么做。在不出门时，女主角使用的名字叫瓦妮莎•皮尔逊(Vanessa Pierson)，其字头是“VP”——和普莱姆一样。

As a display of chutzpah, entrepreneurship and personal reinvention after a midlife career implosion, it is all rather impressive. Indeed, when I met Plame earlier this year, I felt tempted to cheer “Go girl!” In the past century, numerous other former military or intelligence officers have used their experiences to write spy novels: think of Somerset Maugham, Ian Fleming, John le Carre, Graham Greene, Andy McNab, Barry Eisler, Gene Coyle, Duane Evans and Jason Matthews. But aside from Dame Stella Rimington, they are exclusively male. Indeed, one factor that apparently motivated Plame to write her own novel was her frustration with the lack of strong female characters in spy novels: she wants to show that women can be taken seriously, even when they are blonde and beautiful.

普莱姆在中年职业生涯崩溃后表现出的大胆、进取和自我重塑，都令人印象深刻。事实上，今年早些时候我与普莱姆见面时，曾忍不住想欢呼：“加油！女孩！”在过去这个世纪里，许多前军官或情报官都曾把自己的个人经历写进间谍小说，比如萨默塞特•毛姆(Somerset Maugham)、伊恩•弗莱明(Ian Fleming)、约翰•勒卡雷(John Le Carre)、格雷厄姆•格林(Graham Greene)、安迪•麦克纳布(Andy McNab)、巴里•艾斯勒(Barry Eisler)、吉恩•科伊尔(Gene Coyle)、杜安•埃文斯(Duane Evans)和贾森•马修斯(Jason Matthews)。不过除了斯特拉•里明顿夫人（Dame Stella Rimington，英国反间谍部门军情五处前处长——译者注）外，他们全都是男性。的确，普莱姆自己动手写小说的动机之一，显然是间谍小说里缺乏很强的女性角色令她郁闷：她希望展示女性能够得到认真对待，即便是美丽的金发女郎也是如此。

To my mind, there is just one catch. After reading an early copy of Blowback (which is a fun, easy read), I was left wondering why any rational, young, ambitious woman (or man) would ever want to work for the CIA. As the young Pierson hurtles around Europe facing deadly attack from Russians and Iranians, she is constantly being let down by her senior managers back at CIA headquarters and squabbling with rivals. The book stresses that successful intelligence requires collaboration. But most of the time, Pierson leads a pretty lonely, thankless, dangerous life. She barely has any friends or a real relationship with her boyfriend, who - surprise, surprise - is treated badly by his superiors in the CIA too.

在我看来，这里只有一个问题。在阅读《后果》的早期版本后（这部小说十分有趣，读起来很轻松），我感到纳闷的是，为什么会有理性而雄心勃勃的年轻女士（或男士）甘愿为中情局工作。就在年轻的皮尔逊作为一线特工辗转欧洲各地，时刻面临俄罗斯人和伊朗人的致命暗箭之际，她却总是得不到中情局总部领导的支持，而且还要与同事角力。书中强调成功的情报工作需要协同。但是多数情况下，皮尔逊过的是非常孤独、既无人感谢又危险的生活。她几乎没什么朋友，也几乎没和男友享受过正常的情侣关系；并不令人惊讶的是，她的男友也同样遭到了中情局上司的糟糕对待。

Maybe this is just pure fiction. Or maybe it is a subtle form of revenge on Plame's part. Of course, many CIA agents would stress that that there are other factors that more than compensate for any loneliness and risk.

也许这只是一部纯粹虚构的小说。又或者这是普莱姆一种微妙的报复方式。当然，许多中情局特工会强调，还有其他一些因素足以弥补这一行的孤独和风险。

Pierson (like Plame) takes profound joy from patriotic public service. She (like Plame) also clearly loves adventure, a factor I can understand, since I spent my own twenties chasing thrills in remote places as an anthropologist and journalist. But the joy of being a journalist is that you are a free(ish) agent who can speak your mind, not a silent cog in a bureaucratic and political machine. In the novel, at least, the Washington organisation seems dispiritingly capricious in how it treats its fictional spies (never mind the deplorable way that Plame was handled in her own, real life).

和普莱姆一样，皮尔逊对于为国执行公职感到深度喜悦。另外，她显然和普莱姆一样喜欢冒险，这一点我可以理解，因为我20多岁时曾作为人类学家和记者，在偏远的地方寻找激动人心的经历。不过做记者的快乐之处在于，你是一个可以畅所欲言的基本上自由的个体，而不是官僚和政治机器上一颗沉默的螺丝钉。至少在小说里，那个政府机构在对待虚构的间谍时如此随随便便、令人心寒（且不提普莱姆本人在现实生活中遭遇的令人发指的对待）。

The next time I read a newspaper story about western efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb (or Syria from spreading chemical weapons), I will ponder the twists of that Plame-cum-Pierson tale. If nothing else, it is a timely reminder that behind all the stories about Iran and Syria there is a second tale too: hordes of hidden young intelligence officers toiling away to make sense of events, in tough and (often) thankless jobs. And, for the most part, battling in complete silence.

下次我在报纸上读到有关西方努力阻止伊朗获得核弹（或叙利亚扩散化学武器）的报道时，我会想到普莱姆（皮尔逊）的曲折经历。就算说明不了其他问题，这个故事也及时提醒我们，在有关伊朗和叙利亚的所有报道背后，还有另一段传奇：大量在秘密战线工作的年轻情报官，在艰巨而（往往）无人感谢的岗位上为摸清真相而付出艰辛努力。而且，他们绝大多数时间在完全沉默的状态下战斗着。