condensed master

The Reluctant Agent
A Compelling Story of Espionage
another marked "Reception." Will entered the reception and asked for the
Manager. "Have you a complaint that perhaps I could attend to?"
"No, nothing like that. One of your customer's has suggested I see him about
something." A few minutes later he found himself sitting in the cramped Manager's
office with hardly enough room, Will estimated, to fully open the filing cabinet
drawers. Will opened the conversation with some apprehension. "A friend of mine
suggested I see you." He need not have worried.and after a brief introduction Will
wasted no time in getting to the point. "I'm an electronics engineer and he thought
that you might have a discarded hearing-aid I could purchase, to pull to pieces,
and play around with." The manager didn't need to stand, he just reached across
and opened one of the drawers and removing a tray, placed it in front of Will.
"Take your pick, you can have them all if you want. It's a wonder they haven't
been thrown away by now. Some of them are still working okay - they're just
old."
Will couldn't believe his eyes, anyone of them would have been suitable for
what he wanted. "How much are they?"
"Nothing. If you want them all I'll put them in a bag for you." Still reeling from
his good fortune, Will was about to leave the office without asking the most
important question.
"If I need the odd valve or component can I buy them from you?"
"Sure. If you phone ask for the Service Department. They will sort it out for
you."
Will left with his bag of goodies eager to test the units and hopefully select one
that was functioning. He had other things going on at the same time which included
the construction of a radio set that he and Dorothy badly needed. It was not an
uncommon sight therefore, for the dining-room table to be littered with electronic
bits and pieces. This enabled him to go forward with the job without any questions
from Dorothy, who was looking forward to her radio.
With more information gleaned from the telephone workshops technical
library, the unit was ready for testing on the telephone line, which was going to be
awkward but not impossible. He couldn't use any of the lines at the workshops for
fear of detection, and there was only one line supplying a single phone in the main
entrance to the apartments which was very exposed. In any case, he needed the
miniature wire recorder to complete the final testing, so he left a short message for
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