This podcast, it's a Costerton Touchstone production.

I'm John Kariaku.

Welcome to Dead Drop, What Makes a Spy Tip?

Before we fade in on Athens, I want to thank you for listening to this podcast and for liking,

subscribing to, commenting on, and sharing it. It makes a huge difference when you do that,

and we really do appreciate it. Like spying, podcasting is first and foremost a people business.

Okay then, you ready for Athens? Good. Because if you recall from last time,

when my wife at the time, Joanne and I, two kids in tow, arrived in Athens, Athens wasn't ready for us.

What I mean is the American Embassy in Athens wasn't ready for us. They hadn't found us a place to live.

Now, if it had been just me,

I'd have been happy in a guest house someplace. But as the State Department knew, it wasn't just me.

It was my wife, plus a six-year-old, plus a three-year-old. We required a bit more organization.

After a few nights in a hotel, they found us a small two-bedroom

apartment that was too small for us and certainly couldn't handle our household effects once

they arrived by ship. And so I ended up making an enemy of the embassy housing officer.

Weeks would pass and I wouldn't hear from him. So one Saturday I just went to a real estate office and I said, I need to find a house. It's got to have four bedrooms. And the guy found me a house with five bedrooms. I went into the housing office at the embassy and I said, I found a house, negotiate the contract. I knew what the budget was. This was well within the budget. It had a one car garage, oil heat,

five bedrooms on five levels. Each level was small, but it was a very tall house, very modern.

I had to approach the real estate hunt with a real eye toward my counterterrorism training.

This is something that the Mormon guy, it just would never have occurred to him.

In fact, the first thing he said to me that first day was, well, there's a house that we

have on Diliani Street.

And I said, Diliyani Street, that's not the Nordin House, is it?

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