condensed master

The Reluctant Agent
A Compelling Story of Espionage
terrain undulated, reminding him of that time in Chesapeake Bay. It was a hot still
afternoon as he entered the forest and within minutes he observed the bright reds,
blues, greens and purples of the Rosella parrots, accompanied by their chattering
as they flitted in and out amongst the trees. Approaching the meeting place, Will
looked down through the trees to see the roof of Ed's car. He had reversed it off
the dirt track.
Circling around amongst the trees to get a better look Will ascertained that he
was on his own. Walking on pine needles suppressed the sound of every footstep
as Will approached the car from behind. Ed was expecting to see Will's car come
up the track and he was concentrating in that direction.
Rapping sharply on the side window shocked Ed back to reality, a frightened
look on his face. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"To keep you on your toes, I thought two cars would attract more attention
than one," Will replied, as he got into the car. "I'm short on time Ed, so can we get
started?"
Ed nodded. "I'm getting a lot of pressure from my superiors to get more
information about what the Serbs and Croats are up to, and I'm getting nowhere.
The main purpose is to find out if their activities are just local, or maybe state, or
even nationally sponsored. Individual groups are so tightly knit, consisting mainly
of family members and relatives, that it's practically impossible to penetrate and
find out what's going on."
"I sympathize with you Ed, but I was under the impression that you wanted
advice about electronics."
"I'll be coming to that later, but we're desperate for leads. Can you tap into
your Serb contacts and unearth something for us?"
"Look here Ed, you can't talk to me as though I was one of your agents. I'm
not. Yes I have friends in the Serbian community but it would be disastrous for me
to start asking questions, if anything transpired that could connect me, I'd be in the
soup. In any case, I see very little of them now.
Ed looked discouraged, his chin was on the ground. "If only you could come
up with something like the information you got about Stefan."
"That was pure coincidence and I've only experienced one incident since."
Ed perked up, a look of expectancy on his face. "What incident? Are you
holding something back from me?"
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