Pretended she wanted to meet up for lunch and took them to the CIA headquarters instead

Didn't tell her son and daughter until 1997, when they were 17 and 15

She received secret packages from agent TRIGON, a Soviet diplomat recruited in Latin America - and was eventually arrested by the KGB

Trained for the CIA in 1975 and embarked on a two-year mission in Moscow after learning Russian

Martha Peterson worked behind the Iron Curtain in Moscow in the 1970s

A mother of two who became the first female agent station by the CIA in Soviet Russia has revealed how she told her children about her real occupation - after telling them to meet her for lunch at Roy Rogers.

Martha Peterson trained to join the CIA in 1975 and, after becoming proficient Russian and learning surveillance techniques, embarked on a two-year mission in Moscow.

She remained undercover, placing dead drops in the city and receiving secret packages from agent TRIGON, a Soviet diplomat recruited to work for the CIA in Latin America.

Peterson, who was eventually arrested by the KBG, didn't reveal her real identity to her son Tyler and daughter Lora until 1997, when they were 17 and 15 years old and she was working in McLean, Virginia.

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Martha Peterson (pictured) became one of the first women stationed by the CIA in Soviet Russia in the mid-1970s as she embarked on a two-year mission

Peterson (pictured in an archive shot) didn't reveal her true occupation to her children until 1997, when they were 17 and 15 years old

Telling them earlier would have been too risky, Peterson said in her book Widow Spy, in an excerpt published by CNN, as children do not realize how dangerous it could be to expose a CIA agent.

But colleagues warned her that waiting too long could cause her children to resent her for not trusting them.

Peterson, who is featured in the premiere episode of CNN's 'Declassified' series this Sunday, waited until Good Friday, when her children were off from school and didn't have any other plans for the day.

Her daughter Lora called her around 10am and Peterson asked her to come for lunch with her brother.

'I sensed this aroused her curiosity because I never met them for lunch,' Peterson wrote in Widow Spy.

'She agreed to get Tyler up in time to arrive in McLean by noon. I assured her that Tyler knew where the Roy Rogers was.'

By the time Lora and Tyler arrived, Peterson had been sitting in her parked car for 15 minutes.

They climbed inside and, not knowing how to break the news to them, Peterson simply said: 'I work for CIA.'

Her son Tyler was the first to react, saying: 'She's a spy.'

This made them all laugh, as the word itself sounded absurd, Peterson wrote.

John, Peterson's first husband, was an aspiring journalist and a Green Beret in Vietnam. He joined the CIA and died in a helicopter crash in Laos at 27 years old

She feared her daughter was resentful when she asked what else their mother had been keeping from them, but was relieved when both smiled and didn't look offended.

Peterson offered to take them for lunch at the cafeteria inside CIA Headquarters - and proceeded to tell them her story in detail.

Tyler and Lora were impressed, she wrote, when a guard asked for their photo IDs at the security gate - and checked them thoroughly before letting them through.

'To this day, they recall how awed they were at this official attention,' Peterson said in her book.

She took them inside and told them the real story of her past - which involved telling them she had been married once before meeting their father.

Peterson's first husband, John, was a Green Beret in Vietnam. Peterson, born in in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Darien, Connecticut, met him the first week of college at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey.

John decided to join the forces after both graduated in 1967. He wanted to become a journalist and thought that experiencing combat was a requisite for the profession.

Peterson eventually enrolled at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill to study college teaching with a specialty in sociology.

She and John got married in 1969 and he joined the CIA the following year. The couple moved to Laos in 1971.

Peterson told her son Tyler and her daughter Lora to meet her for lunch - and ended up taking them to the CIA headquarters (file picture) to share her true story with them

There, John conducted paramilitary operations as a CIA officer. He died in 1972 at 27 years old in a helicopter crash.

Peterson told her children about her first marriage for the first time 25 years later as they stood in the CIA lobby, next to a wall carved with stars representing deceased CIA officers.

She showed them John's star and they touched it tenderly, she recounted in her book.

Then, she launched into the next part of her story - how she became a CIA agent herself in the mid-1970s after her first husband's death.

Peterson worked undercover for almost two years in Moscow and became one of the first women assigned to Soviet Russia by the agency.

There, she worked with TRIGON, whom she calls her 'second hero' after John - a Soviet diplomat named Aleksandr Dmitryevich Ogorodnik who was recruited in Latin America to work for the CIA.

She recovered secret packages from him and it was during one of these operations that she was discovered by the KGB and arrested.

A Czech double agent had betrayed Ogorodnik, leading to Peterson's arrest after a drop, the Star-News reported previously.

Peterson, who told the newspaper she could never return to Moscow, came back to the United States and continued to work for the CIA.

She met the man who later became her second husband, and Tyler and Lora's father, while stationed in Russia.

Counter-terrorism became her area of focus during her last year at the agency, according to the Star-News.

But Peterson still won't divulge much about her career at the CIA.

'My work ranged from extremely exciting, at times making a difference in our nation's security posture, to the mundane everyday detailed work which makes the system function,' she wrote on the website dedicated to her book, which came out in 2012.