David Hansen

David Hansen’s stories have appeared in Fence, Conjunctions, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere. He’s a 2024 MacDowell fellow, and he teaches at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. Read more of his work at www.davidddhansennn.com and follow him on X @davidddhansennn.

THE SECRET AGENT by David Hansen

After many years of covert development the CIA perfects a method of creating ghosts. It’s a huge breakthrough. The CIA feels ghosts will be the ultimate spies: invisible, non-physical, and totally disinterested, as in, not vying for personal advantage, the way living spies sometimes do. One day the department heads circulate an internal call for volunteers for “a very important mission.” All the star agents show up. Guys who are at the absolute peaks of their careers. Guys who have done it all. Wet work, PsyOps, dark ops, other stuff no one has even heard of. Company men to the…

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