condensed master

Will Bonner
assembled. Will looked at them through a pair of army field glasses he had
procured during the war, trying to fix some of their characteristics in his memory.
Occasionally, someone would walk to the end of the pier and look out across the
Bay, obviously looking for the boat. When it eventually appeared and drew up
alongside the pier the men started to leave the building. Ed reached for the button.
"No not yet, wait until you can count all twenty men."
After a few minutes Ed replied. "They are all at the boat." Will crossed his
fingers and the two men looked anxiously at each other.
"This is the moment of truth Ed," as he watched him press the button. The first
indicator light went out and the second one lit. It was like winning the lottery!
As the pleasure boat pulled away from the pier the figures of the skipper and
his engineer could be seen walking back along the pier. The boat was now fully in
the hands of the Croats and they would now feel secure enough hopefully, to let
go all of their secrets.
They watched and waited until the boat was way out into the bay. Suddenly,
the indicator light on the transmitter went out, Ed nearly had a fit. "Blast, just when
everything was going well." Will laughed. "I can't see what there is to laugh about,
I know you've got a sadistic sense of humour, but we are losing the best part."
Will laughed again. "You silly old bugger, the boats out of range, the recorder
will still be going."
Ed looked sheepish. "Why do I keep putting my foot in my mouth?"
A couple of fishermen had arrived and the odd person was walking along the
pier. The time was ideal to recover the recorder from the building. The one
secreted on the boat would be picked up later at Port Melbourne. The
conversation on the way home was more buoyant, especially after Ed had played
back the recording. Even though they couldn't understand the language the quality
was better than expected.
After arrangements were made for him to collect the tapes Will made his way
home. His mind could not come to terms with the fact that everything had gone
without a hitch, so much so, that he began to feel suspicious. He would only accept
that things were okay when he finally played back the tapes for Bart.
On the following Wednesday Ed was waiting at the bus stop with the tapes.
"How are you going to avoid copies being made?"
"I'll put the tape on and take it off, and I won't leave the room. I can assure
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