condensed master

The Reluctant Agent
A Compelling Story of Espionage
then turned into a broad smile. "You need have no fear of that, but if you want to
be certain, I can always make things official."
"You mean for me to become one of your agents?"
"Yes, it could be much easier now that you are over here."
"I've been through this before and my answer will always be the same, so what
will you be threatening me with, Ed?"
"I won't threaten you with anything. Things are different out here, but I do have
my orders, and if we can come to some arrangement, I'll see to it that things are
straightforward."
Will struggled with his thoughts, he had hardly touched his meal so he started
to eat. This was certainly a change from his previous encounters with other agents,
and Ed seemed genuine, but he also knew from past experience that once involved
he couldn't rely on Ed to keep him out of trouble. At least, things seemed more
open, and Ed wasn't acting in a devious manner. Even so, Will knew that if he
refused to go along, the first thing they could do would be to institute veiled threats
against Dorothy, and that would be out of Ed's hands. Will trembled at the thought.
In the past he had always been on the move, a different ship to some other
part of the world, but now he was settling into a new life, putting down new roots.
It wasn't fair and Will felt an anger rising inside. The two men had not spoken for
some minutes, but it was as though Ed had been reading his mind.
"Surely things can't be that bad. Let me explain and you'll see." Will nodded
for him to continue. "We have a brand new listening device, everything plugs in
okay and the batteries are in order, but it doesn't work. It's a tool that we could
find a lot of use for right away. Could you have a look at it for us?"
"Why don't you just phone the manufacturer, they will probably send someone
out to fix it." Will paused, waiting for Ed's reply, but he knew that were they able
to do just that, his services would not be required. I wonder what cock and bull
story he will come up with to explain things away? Will mused. But he was
completely surprised when Ed came straight up front with his reply.
"We've procured the device via illegal channels, mainly to hide the fact that we
have it, and we've gone to a lot of trouble in this regard. It's apparently the most
advanced eavesdropper available today, and the longer we can keep it's presence
a secret, the more work we can do with it before they start to take precautions."
"Who are “they”?
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