The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Katrina barillova is a real-life Sydney Bristow, the leggy spy of TV's Alias. When she was 10 years old, Katrina was recruited for intelligence training by the government of what was then Czechoslovakia. At first, she thought she'd just been chosen for accelerated science and math classes. "We had no idea we were caught in a system. At the time we didn't know what we'd been chosen for." At the age of 14, it became clear that her classes weren't leading toward a career as Madame Curie. "Some of us, the ones who fit a profile, were chosen for special intelligence training. And that was in addition to regular high school. The idea was, you were being trained as agents. But agents have to pretend they are somebody else their entire lives. So the idea was that we were regular high school kids. I had to figure out ways to get out of school, to get out of my home. I had to make everyone think I was on a fashion shoot or a biology expedition, while I was secretly in training."

Think all the dress-up games in spy movies are just Hollywood? Think again. "I've modeled since I was 14. I did fashion shows. But, back then, most of them were just excuses for me to get out of the house and go to shooting ranges or driving courses or whatever training we had." Katrina says modeling also makes for great cover on operations. "All you have to do is say you're a model and nobody will suspect you of any heavy brain activity. So you're safe. They will have no idea you are thinking or listening or remembering. You can say the silliest things and then laugh at yourself. When you are wired, you know your listening team is falling on the floor laughing. Many times, I'd say things just to make the whole crew in the van laugh. Also, if I didn't want to blow my cover but I needed to get someone's attention, I would use my feminine gifts as a distraction. Shake a little bit, arch my back, show a little leg, smile or send a little air kiss. That always gets more attention than a blow to the groin." Of course, Katrina's alternatives are not limited to a kick in the nads--if the femme fatale act fails, Katrina can inflict femme fatalities. "We learned martial arts, hand-to-hand combat and weaponry. Anything from a Saturday night special to an AK-47, all sorts of automatic weapons. My favorite is a rifle with a scope--I'm best at that. I got a medal. I was best in class. I found it intriguing--you can see your target but your target can't see you. So it's the sneakiest one of all."

Katrina emigrated as soon as the Berlin Wall fell. "At 18, I came to the States, and started working for private security and investigation agencies. I started working in surveillance, undercover sting operations, industrial espionage and executive protection for government officials, billionaires and dignitaries." The timing of the fall of the Iron Curtain was fortuitous. "I was supposed to be in training until I was 18. But when communism fell apart, the old organizations did too and many files were lost. A lot of agents were out of jobs. Fortunately, the government--or ex-government--was much more worried about people who had deep secrets than they were about people who were basically still students and didn't really know anything."

Katrina's route to success in the U.S. started awkwardly. "When I came to America I didn't know anybody. I didn't speak English. All I had was $20 in my pocket. And no work permit. After the government changed, my parents realized that I planned to leave for the States. It freaked them out. They still thought I was an innocent 17-year-old girl with no experience who would get lost in the world. So they found an organization that claimed to be a student-exchange program. They gave up their life savings to bring me over and get me into college. This organization required that I get my own plane ticket and come over to the States--and it turned out it was a scam. So I found myself here with no college, no organization, no work permit, no visa. When I told my story to immigration, they'd had similar complaints about the organization. So they arranged my paper work. I was lucky in a way.

"I immediately started working--I couldn't afford to go to college. But I already had equivalent degrees in physics and math. And of course I had all the skills the government had given me." Katrina quickly noticed differences between eastern European and American culture--particularly when it came to romance. "Europeans are more shy. They will date a girl, and lure her in. It's more like a sexual game. What Europeans find exciting is not knowing. It's the game and the looks and the touch. It's a real art form. In many cases, when it comes to sex, it's anticlimactic. In the U.S., it's more about getting to the point. Forget the game. If I'm going on a date with you, I want to know now whether I'm going to get lucky or whether I am wasting my time. There's more emphasis on the actual sexual part. I would say a lot of American men are more skilled in bed. And they are more open to trying new things and being creative in bed. Europeans--at least eastern Europeans--are more skilled at the game of seduction."

There's more of Katrina at cyber. Playboy.com.